Travelling

Along with everyone else, we waited on the edge of our seats. The minutes felt like hours. We listened in silence to the outside sounds of doors opening, trucks moving about. But then, with a ding, the seatbelt sign switched off and we leapt to our feet, and funnelled down the narrow aisle.

Nodding to the cabin staff as I passed, I stepped off the plane and into the corridor. I noticed an older women negotiating herself into a wheelchair and then someone brushed passed my right shoulder before I got into my stride. Down the corridor, down the escalator, down the hall and into the que for EU Passports.


I had just arrived from Vancouver into Gatwick. It had been a short trip to see my Dad for his birthday. But now as I stood waiting in the customs area, my thoughts were of getting home.

I handed my passport to the Boarder official and after scrutinizing my photo, he swiped it on some kind of digital reader and stamped it. He then handed it back to me, looked me in the eye and said the words 'welcome home.'

Life is a journey

When you stop to think about it, our whole life is a journey. From birth to death, we each move from one place to another carrying our memories along with us. Some seem to move freely forward, while others struggle with oversized luggage. Some have a certain sense of purpose and direction while others seem to hold back, dreading the uncertainties of what the future might hold. It seems we each have our own way of dealing with twists and turns of the journey.

As a Christian, I find that what keeps me going is the very real sense that I am not alone. God is with me and I enjoy sharing my experiences with him. He always listens. And when I look back at the hard times and the difficult times, I can see that how he looked after me and I am always grateful. When it comes to seeing God at work, it seems that it is only my hindsight that is 20/20.

But it is not just me. Here is part of a letter I received yesterday:

I just wanted to tell you since coming back to church and studying the Bible I no longer feel alone and lost. I am happier, calmer and feel alive. When I am reading the Bible or praying I am sometimes filled with such strong feelings of warmth and love I want to shout about it from the roof tops. I now know God never left me he was always there, all I had to do was ask for help.

None of us has to travel alone. God is with us and provided his own family, the Church, for us too. He brings us together and when we follow him, amazing things happen which we could never have planned or imagined. God enjoys being with us, especially as we gather together weekly in his name to seek him. And when he comes among us, our gathering becomes a place of healing and wholeness, of purpose and direction, which is so much bigger than we could have imagined for ourselves.

The Bible tells us that this is the way God intended for his people. 

You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.

  -  Ephesians 4. 1 – 6 (The Message)

But there is a secret to our Church gatherings which many outsiders may not be aware. It is that we in the all share an understanding that none of us is perfect. None of us have it all together. There are no experts. Quite the opposite really. We each have been deeply humbled by the awareness that God, in his mercy, is the one who has called us and he is the one leading us forward.

Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God.

It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in.

He paid with Christ's sacred blood, you know.

                                           - 1 Peter 1.18f  (The Message)

Why don't you consider travelling with us? You can find out more about when we gather on this website if you look at the menu bar for service times. You would be most welcome.