Leaving the homeland

Its been a busy 5 months since the notion of going away for the year had jumped into my head.
After a few conversations and a lot of God provision, its got to the point where im heading out to Canada, to Redwood Park Church (http://www.redwoodpark.org/) for the year! i'm excited and nervous about the year to come, but cant wait to get stuck in and learn!

I got back from Romania there on the 24th July and been getting so frustrated about waiting around having nothing to do, being unemployed and all that! Romania was probably one of the best teams i've ever been on... they are absolute legends every last one of them.
My time out there was personally pretty challenging with the poverty but also God was working away on changing my heart too. I can only best describe the 2 weeks in 2 words... SIGNIFICANT and LOVE. (thanks mate, you know who you are)

so here we go on the countdown... leaving on Wednesday, only 5 days left in Northern Ireland for at least a year! i wont be home until the end of summer 2010. I don't really like goodbyes.. they are very final and lets face it, its only a year, plus who's gonna miss me really :-D

so maybe its more appropriate to say 'cheers for now' and hope that in the year Trans-Atlantic friendship maintenance is effective in keeping our journeys going!
i will miss hanging out with old friends, and with relatively new friends, i'm gonna miss milk chocolate and the good old Irish sense of humour and wit, i'm gonna miss inappropriate jokes with my bros, the ulster frys and maybe even the random weather, im gonna miss long telephone conversations with new mates who don't realise how funny they are... but here's to the beginning of the next chapter... taking every opportunity to learn and experience all the fullness of life that Jesus talks about.
SIGNIFICANT, LOVE... i hope that this next year is an extension of the last month in terms of significance and love!
So for all of you who can hack it...

i love u!

for the rest... i like u :-)
Paul