Laying Out the Fleece

Debenham (read below to find out why this pic is here)

Part 1 - Position Available
Part 2 - The Year was 1999
Part 3 - Red Dirt or Green Grass
Part 4 - Preparations and Going the UK
Part 5 - But I's Dark and it's only 4.30pm!

As I said in my last post, when we arrived in the UK we didn't really know anyone. We felt God's leading to go to the UK but we didn't really know why. We took a guess and decided it must be because work in the IT industry is so good in the UK and that would be how we would raise the funds to go to Niger and live there for a year. Wrong (insert buzzer noise).

The first thing we needed to do was find a place to live. In order to do that we needed money. In order to get money we needed a job. We also needed a bank account to put money into and we couldn't get a house until we had that. Turns out we couldn't get a bank account until we had an address. What a viscious circle!

We started looking for both jobs and houses, starting in the Ipswich area. After knowing there are IT jobs in London we were surprised to find out that this didn't apply outside of that area so much and Michael just couldn't find a job (or was it the Lord stopping him.....we think so).

We were living in the converted stables at the Manor where SIM UK has their guest house and after two weeks of nothing it was getting a bit expensive for us. We had been praying for work and decided to pray this on our second Tuesday there, 'Lord, if Michael doesn't have a job by Monday we'll go t London' which would be very expensive. This was our fleece laying.

On Friday we got a phonecall from the SIM International computer guy, Steve Jay offering Michael a position within SIM. As SIM is a missionary organisation he told Steve that at the moment we really needed paid work or else we'd never be able to move out of the stables! What he said next was the first big 'WOW' moment in the UK....'oh, it's a paid positon and it comes with a monthly rent allowance'. What! We couldn't believe it.

So, Michael went to work in the SIM International office not too far away in a village called Framlingham and it wasn't long before the Lord provided a house. We had been looking around and as it turns out rentals aren't cheap in the UK, even in the country. We found a little 1 bedroom terraced house in a little village called Debenham, not far from Framlingham in a street called 'Great Back Lane'.

Front of the house, the two dark shadows (fences) show the whole width of the house.

Michael in the backyard, that's it, the whole thing!

Here comes amazing 'WOW' moment number two. In the SIM UK office worked another Aussie called Dorothy (pictured below). We were excited to meet her and while in the office one day that week went and told her our news about the job and house. It went like this...

Us: 'So, we've found a place in Debenham, it's a village not far from here'
D: 'What village did you say....Debenham?'
Us:'Yes, that's right'
D: 'I live in Debenham'
Us: 'Wow, we can visit all the time!, what street do you live on?'
D: 'It's called Great Back Lane'
Us: Jaws drop, momentarily speechless. 'No way!'

Of course it turned out that Dorothy lived two little houses up from us and there was a third Aussie in our tiny row of houses so we nicknamed our little lane as 'Out Back Lane'. Dorothy became a very good friend to us, like a Grandmother. Michael fixed her computer problems and she loaned us the use of her washing machine and dryer and vacuum. Isn't the Lord good, he knew what we needed! We are still great friends with Dorothy and she lives over in Queensland now.

There are of course more adventures in the UK but I really want to get to how we got to Niger so there will probably be only one more post (full of WOW's) after this focussing on the UK. Thanks for reading!