Christ Church Moreton Hall

So how was your summer?

Did you get away anywhere? Perhaps you spent a couple of weeks cooking on a Mediterranean beach, getting a tan that is already fading. Or perhaps you braved the English weather and sat on a seafront under an umbrella. Or maybe you didn’t get away at all; holidays can be so expensive can’t they?

Maybe, for 2008, there is an alternative...

You will probably have heard by now that Cathy and Dan are coming to Christ Church on Friday, October 12. For those of you who have not heard them perform I felt brief introductions would be helpful. Both performed at New Wine this year, and here is what the event programme had to say.

Firstly Dan: ‘Dan is a singer-songwriter who has performed at numerous festivals and gigs around the UK. A conviction that music can communicate at the point where belief and experience collide has come to characterize his music……Cross Rhythms editor Tony Cummings commented that “Dan is something of a wonder on today’s scene, making music that can speak to a wide audience yet neatly sidestepping the Bible verse sloganeering or obscure metaphors of many Christian singer-songwriters”’.

Dan is also a wonderful guitarist, and has appeared on recordings by many top Christian artists.

Now Cathy: ‘Cathy combines a disarming knack for personal honesty with a rare gift for tunes that establish an instant rapport. She’s quite simply the real deal: an intimate soul with an unbreakable set of beliefs in life, love, the universe and whatever comes next. She recently played at Glastonbury with her band Hummingbird. Come to hear her amazing voice, which hurts as well as heals’

Sometimes, when life isn’t going the way it should, God puts a speed bump in the road to slow you down and make you think. Then sometimes, if that doesn’t work, he uses a road block.

Back in 2002 I hit a road block. Over many years working in big corporations I had often struggled with stress-related illness but usually managed to cope. On October 1, 2002, that changed and life came, almost, to a complete halt.

Of course the natural thing to do is to ‘get back’ to what you were before, to somehow prove yourself as capable, strong enough. For the next four years I fought that battle, but at the beginning of 2007 more speed bumps were coming. My wife Vanessa and I had to think this through, and work out how to move on supporting my wonderful family and yet not putting my health at more risk.

So I left the corporate life with the regular salary and the pressure, and took up a new life as a taxi driver; different pressures, manageable pressures, but no more regular income. I now have my own car (if you are in the Bury area it’s the blue 307 with the fish label on the back) and we are really trusting in God for His provision that this works out for us, be it in the short or the long term.

Late March through to early April have been quite extraordinary at Christ Church Moreton Hall, with involvement in two big events.

On March 31st we welcomed over 100 guests to CCMH for an evening with Esther McCarthy. As well as an exceptional meal we were treated to a wonderful concert from Esther and her band, featuring songs from her debut album 'New Beginnings' and some fascinating insights into her life so far.