After over a decade of living in Bahrain, our family is moving home to the U.K. in July of this year.
A few people have asked us why we have decided to move on now when, on the surface, things seem to be going well for us all. Honestly, it was not an easy decision because yes, things are going reasonably well for all of us and there are many positives to our life here. It was a decision that we arrived at over an extended period of time after much prayer and soul-searching.
We’ve lived in a place that many call home for a year or two since 2013. It has changed a lot since we arrived and continues to be different year on year. But, the changes around us are secondary to the changes within us.
When we arrived Robyn and I were (pretty much) newly married, childless, and beginning to build a life for ourselves. Our parents were working, siblings were unmarried and without families of their own, and we felt a freedom to travel and live away knowing that we would see people as they visited for some winter sunshine. Over time all of that has changed and we have a genuine and strong desire to be part of the life that has developed at home in our absence. Our boys want to spend more time with their grandparents than a summer visit can offer. They now have cousins and uncles and aunts they want to see more than once a year. All of that to say, for all of us our heart for home has grown significantly in recent years and we no longer want to be away from both the people and the place.
We are not leaving due to scandal or shock, incident or investigation, but because we genuinely believe that God would have us, for this next season of our lives, at home.
I’m never sure how many people read these posts as soon as they go out, but, if you do, hopefully this explains the lack of writing in January as we’ve come to a firm decision.
I’ve loved adding more than 1,100 Bible teaching posts here in the last few years that have turned into podcasts, videos, articles on various websites, and books, and hope to keep doing so until July and beyond.
Blessings to you and yours,
James.