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Well the story
starts over 20 years ago ....
In many ways we
are both very similar and amazingly different - both raised in
Christian homes with a similar emphasis but Dawn's very stable
and predictable Keith's very mobile and changing.
We both came to
trust Jesus as our personal Saviour and by our late teens met at
University in York where we were immersed in an evangelistic
lifestyle. In this context we did a couple of short term
campaigns with Operation Mobilisation which deeply affected our
aspirations of how we wanted to spend our lives. Mediocrity was
never an option but as we started out married life we felt God
prompting us to train and gain skills for a time when we would
become more directly involved in church or missionary life.
So we commenced
a career path in London with Dawn learning teaching and Keith
training as a Chartered Accountant. We were surprised after 3
years to find that God really wanted us to go a lot further with
careers and led us through a series of jobs and experiences that
now spans nearly 20 years.
Every few years
we have taken a "stock take". As kids have arrived and increased
comfort with cars and homely stuff etc we've checked out could
we leave it all behind if necessary or are we too attached to
it all. If God wanted a life shift "could we" was never in
doubt "would we" is the issue.
Well this year,
2006, we found ourselves with space to really consider the
question again. Keith's family all took off for America, some
other close friends emigrated to Australia and there was a great
deal of change around us. Keith felt it appropriate to leave his
corporate style Finance Director role and we started to listen
out for what God wanted us to do.
Several month's
into this phase some dear friends who we have been supporting in
OM ship's ministries passed through and mentioned that they
needed Financial people. This caught our imagination and we felt
it appropriate to push some doors.
The result has
been a call to get involved and lots of green lights.
Accordingly
with great fear and trepidation we are unwinding life in
Sheffield and will resettle in Carlisle to be close to the main
OM team HQ - we are selling the house and downsizing so we can
devote our time to getting involved in mission! |
