Stretch Armstrong!

Anyone remember Stretch Armstrong? Originally made in 1976 by Kenner Toys this character could be stretched up to around 4 times his original size. I remember as a kid being rather envious of my friends who had them, but I think I've gotten that out of my system now!

At the moment I feel a bit like a Stretch Armstrong as I step into a new role of leading our church along with Mike Willis and with the oversight of two local Assemblies of God ministers. It's an exciting time and I am looking forward to seeing how God brings into being the vision that God has given us for the church, but at this moment it's rather stretching and feels like I'm being pulled in several different directions at once.

It's not my first time in leadership, but it is my first time at this level of responsibility and so I am having to learn pretty quickly on the job. Our year in Canada working with Pastor Lyle and Laura and the team at LGF has so given us so much preparation for this though. While we were in Canada we realised that we were being trained for leadership and had a suspicion that it would be in our church in Morpeth and now here we are. It was such a benefit to learn from Pastor Lyle and Laura so many of the ways that they handled the various responsibilities of leading, from making sure that everything got done on a practical level, through knowing how to work with all manner of different people, right onto keeping a strong relationship with each other and with God in the midst of a busy calling. They are great role models for us and I'm sure we'll be drawing a lot on what we learned from them and from others in Canada. I just hope it won't be too long before we are able to visit all our friends in that wonderful country.

Talking of Canadians, we are very much looking forward to having Jenny come and live with us again. She flies into Gatwick today will be arriving with us later this week after spending a few days in Suffolk with Russell's family. It will be great to have her back and although I'm sure there will be a different dynamic in the house as we have all changed over the last year, it will be good to have our mini family back together again.

Well, that's me done, sorry it's been so long in coming, but it's been a bit busy with all the church changes and with us going on holiday to Scotland for a week. Hopefully the next entry won't be so long in coming!

God bless you,

Steve