Christmas 1999
Dear friends,
It's been quite a year. We anticipated that 1999 would be quite exciting, but didn't anticipate just how exciting it would turn out to be.
You know we were planning to move to Bristol for Snowball, the training programme we were setting up there. The initial question was exactly how to move to Bristol how to arrange the details so we would have somewhere to live.
Having explored various possibilities, the only one that seemed feasible was for Paul to get a transfer to the eXchange office in Gloucester, then re-locate the family to Bristol. That way, we could get a mortgage while Paul had a job (at least, a job that paid real money!), and Paul could move to Bristol without needing to commute from there to Woking.
Accordingly, Paul applied for a job in the Gloucester office. There qas quite a lot of internal office negotiations going on, and the job being applied for changed twice, but in the end he was interviewed for one of the vacant posts there, and offered the position of Configuration Management Analyst.
So, in April Paul started working at the Gloucester office, driving up on Monday morning, back to Guildford on Friday night, and staying with Steve in Bristol during the week. The travelling was difficult - Paul was doing about 600 miles a week, minimum, when his previous total had been around 60.
It was also a very disorienting lifestyle, where everything you might need in three places had to be carried around. If anything was needed for a meeting in Bristol after work on a Monday evening, it has to be packed on the previous Thursday evening so it could be taken to Glouster Friday morning, Guildford Friday evening, Gloucester Monday morning, and then to the meeting Monday evening before arriving back 'home' to Steve's place later that night.
This arrangement left Sue with most of the work of sorting out
our house in Guildford while Paul was getting on with preparations
for Snowball in Bristol
We therefore applied to St. Mary Redcliffe and
Temple. They turned us down, but after praying it
still seemed like the right school for Alan, so we appealed
against the decision.
In February, we had looked at a lovely house in Bristol, but
decided we couldn't afford it. Once Paul started
living in Bristol during the week, he started house-hunting in
earnest. People kept saying to us that prices in
Bristol must be much lower than those in Guildford.
This may be so in general terms, but both places have very nice
areas and the not-so-nice ones. While the area of
Bristol we were looking at is far from being the most expensive,
it is certainly not the cheapest, and our house in Guildford was
in one of the cheapest areas. So, for us, Bristol was
not full of cheap housing. Anyway, at the start of
June, we made an offer on a house in the Sea Mills area, which was
accepted.
In August, our appeal for Alan's place at St MR was
held. Very intimidating.
Then we went on holiday with Paul's brother Roger to a gite in
France. The location was perfect, as far as it could
be planned. We were about as close to the centre line
of the eclipse as you can get without a satelite tracking
device. Unfortunately, on the day, solid cloud at the
wrong time covered over the totality. Even so, it
still went quite cold and dark, and you could see the sun hitting
the clouds a long way off all round.
Just to show God has a sense of humour - Mark & Sue Howe had
booked a holiday at the same time, and were on the path of the
eclipse quite by accident, a bit to the East of us.
They had brilliant sunshine and a perfect view of the whole event.
While in France, we learned that the vendors of the house we
thought we were buying had withdrawn from the sale. We
had been gazumped! We could hardly believe
it. We thought maybe the new sale would fall through.
We came back early from France, and started house-hunting
again. It was a dismal experience
The boys and Sue joined Paul on an almost full-time basis early in September,
just in time for them to start school. We continued house-hunting.
We sold our house in Guildford mid-September, but had still not been able to
buy anywhere here
We concluded that we should try to buy a house with Steve, but it was not a
straightforward process
I started job-hunting early in October
Paul asked if he could work part-time in order to both give him more time
for Snowball and enable us to pay for the house we were still attempting to
buy
The MD said no, he didn't want part-timers
Paul resigned
His line manager negotiated for him to work two days pw until Christmas
We completed on the purchase of a house called Abbeywood last Monday (8th)
On Wednesday 10th, Sue's sixth job interview was the most gruelling practical
test and difficult interview I had yet experienced, but I was offered the
job
On Thursday I accepted the job
On Friday (was it only yesterday?) the first half of our furniture was moved
from the storage unit to Abbeywood
and I have been vacuuming ever since! The rest of the furniture is coming
next Friday, as are the few items of Steve's furniture which went to his
parents. We have far too many wardrobes and not enought armchairs and
settees, so I think we will be haunting the second hand furniture shops for
the next few months! After that we have just over a week in which to finish
unpacking, vacuum everything in sight, and move in before I start work. Oh,
and I also have to tie up a few loose ends as Europe Now Administrator and
hand over to Paul, while he spends three days pw teaching in Bristol and two
days pw computing in Gloucester. So I guess if the last two months have been
slightly stressful, the next two probably will be too. But God is good, and
we know we are in the right place, doing the right thing. So we just keep on
doing it, drawing on His strength!
The job is with Knightstone Housing Association, Team Administrator, with a
team of six secretaries to lead. Philip asked "How do you get to be so
important so soon?" How indeed! I start on 29 November. If I had time, I
would be reeling with shock still. It's a good job, shorter hours and better
pay than any of the others I applied for, and flexitime! Which is worth a
lot when there are Christmas assemblies and the like coming up. Also, it's
accessible by the local train, so Paul can have the car once he's returned
his company car. The job itself will be a real challenge, not one I can do
standing on my head, which I think I had hoped for initially. But I guess
God knows best: certainly job-hunting has been very time-consuming, and it's
good to stop!!!
Steve will meet Philip and Ian from school when Paul can't: Alan of course
is thoroughly grown up and travels to and fro by bus. The intention is to
transfer most of the teaching from the room we have been renting at the
local Anglican church to Abbeywood. School holidays will be interesting when
they don't overlap precisely with breaks in the training course, but I think
there are probably more playschemes near where I will be working than there
are in this area - not that that is difficult!
It is an ideal house for our needs: there is a utility room and a kitchen,
so we can give the students drink- and snack-making facilities without them
intruding on the family kitchen. There is a breakfast room off the kitchen,
large enough to be our dining room (especially as we have never had a dining
room before!), a dining room which we will use for teaching and as a
library, and a very large lounge which will be private to the family. We
also have a downstairs toilet, huge entrance hall (our triple width wardrobe
is currently standing along the shortest wall, and does not look out of
place), and large enclosed porch. Upstairs is a family bathroom, and four
large bedrooms, one en-suite. The landing is large enough to accomodate a
desk and doubtless several bookcases, and is certainly where at least one
computer will end up. Upstairs again is a loft conversion, which Steve has
bagged, much to Alan's chagrin. There is also a garage/workshop, and a drive
sufficiently large that we should be able to park the current Europe Now
office there. The neighbours will think it is a bright pink caravan, which
is probably not quaite the thing to park on one's drive in Stoke Bishop, but
there we go. The garden is lovely: we are hoping one of the Austrian
students will tell us how to look after the plants. And we have a view of
the River Trym to the front (stream-sized to me, but we're not far from the
Avon), with lots of horse chestnut trees, and, lest we lose touch with
reality, the local waste disposal transport depot to the side!
After squeezing into the smallish 3-bed semi which Steve was renting, it
will be bliss! The boys have all been in one room, with Ian on a mattress on
the floor, and they have coped far better than any of us expected with this.
Alan especially values his own space and privacy, and there has not been a
lot of either! The staff and students from the course usually have lunch
here during the week, which of course does not affect the boys, but their
presence at other times can be quite intrusive for them.
The students are a good bunch: Stefan and Judith are Austrians, and knew
each other before they arrived, so it has not been too surprising to see
them becoming quite close. Stefan had also worked with Elena and Katka,
sisters from Slovakia, very different to each other, but both charming.
Stefan in particular is already quite an experienced evangelist, and the
hope is that at the end of the year he will return to Austria far better
equipped to train others, perhaps even to replicate Snowball for
German-speakers, while Mark Howe returns to France to run Boule de Neige for
Francophones. Maybe next year we'll have some Italians - do say if you want
more details for anyone you know!
It is interesting to watch the interaction between Austrian efficiency and
Slovakian 'improvisation', and I will not quickly forget the evening I was
asked to drive them all home from a meeting in central Bristol, only to
discover after dropping Katka off that Elena knew neither her own address
nor Katka's phone number. (In her defence, it was only the day after she
arrived, and she had been chauffered everywhere until that point, and if I
could have found the Baptist church she could have directed me from there,
and if I'd had the wit to ask before we left the meeting someone would have
given me all the addresses. But Stefan was not impressed!)
Our church here has been hugely supportive: the last few months in Guildford
were difficult, because we knew we were moving on, and we seemed to be out
of step with the flow of things at Westborough. We had made contact with
Woodlands Christian Fellowship before we arrived, and quickly settled at
Highgrove, the original church which planted Woodlands. Woodlands is now the
larger church and is very popular with students: it's near the centre of
Bristol. Highgrove is small and within walking distance. We were very
quickly offered the chance to join a housegroup, which is very important to
us, and now we're on the coffee rota, so I guess we have 'arrived'! These
people were praying for us even before we arrived, and several of them have
told us that every time they walked past Abbeywood they prayed that it would
become ours! And I am so conscious of their prayers for us as a family:
initially I felt quite lonely, and felt in danger of slipping into
depression, but having been able to share that with a couple of people the
tearfulness quickly receded and has not returned.
Snowball, the training programme for evangelists, is up and running. We
have four students this year: two Austrians and two Slovaks. They are very
enthusiastic about the course so far, with only a few complaints about being
worked too hard.
We are just starting the Evangelism Explosion part of the course - the
launch 'banquet' was held at Highgrove church on Friday 12th November.
Peter Crook, the EE National Director, joined us for the day, taught the
training sessions and spoke at the meal. He is very impressed by the
ability and enthusiasm of the students.
Back in September, when we decided to buy a house with Steve, Paul asked his
employer if he could work part-time in order to both give him more time for
Snowball and enable us to pay for the house. His Director said no, he
didn't want to employ part-timers. After some discussions, Paul was told
the companyy would not change its mind, so he resigned. But just before he
left, his line manager negotiated for him to work two days a week until
mid-January. The Snowball programme has been re-arranged to fit in with
this work pattern for that period. There are a number of aspects of the
course Paul cannot be involved with as a consequence, but it seems like a
working compromise.
On Wednesday 12th, Sue was offered a job with Knightstone Housing
Association. It looks like it will be quite pressurised, but the pay is
reasonable, the hours are quite good, and it is accessible by train. She
starts at the end of this month.
We completed on the purchase of a house called Abbeywood on Monday 8th.
Many thanks to everyone who has been praying for this moment! On Friday
12th the first half of our furniture was moved from the storage unit to
Abbeywood, and we have been moving boxes and furniture, sorting, cleaning
and dusting in every 'spare' moment since.
The rest of the furniture is coming Friday 19th, as are the few items of
Steve's furniture which went to his parents. We have far too many wardrobes
and not enought armchairs and settees, so we will be haunting the second
hand furniture shops for the next few months.
Paul's two days a week for two months will not make a vast difference to our
finances long-term, but at the moment every little helps. We are seriously
broke. We believe that Abbeywood is the place where God wants us, and the
place He has provided for us, but in order to complete the purchase quickly
we did not buy it in equal shares with Steve, and we borrowed the money for
the legal fees from the bank. So we have to repay that loan, and also make
repayments to Steve until we own equal shares of the house. Sue's new job is
a good one, but even so she will be earning less than half Paul's previous
salary, and we still need to spend a fair amount of time and money to make
Abbeywood habitable even if we get everything (including a washing machine)
second-hand.
Praise:
Prayer:
Once we have moved and started to settle in, we will be inviting everyone to
come and visit, so watch out for the invitation.
Much love,
Paul, Sue, Alan, Philip and Ian Hazelden