REV ANDREW SHEARD: God sent me a sign on the side of a van!

Oh my goodness, this is all very new to me!

I have just moved to Emsworth with my family after spending all my adult life in West London.

We hardly know anyone in this area, nothing is familiar, and I need Google for even the most basic things such as finding the recycling centre.

To cap it all my Oyster card doesn’t seem to work too well down here.

We have moved with my job. I am to be the new rector of Warblington-with-Emsworth. It has been both strange but very reassuring the way God has guided us to leave Uxbridge and move to Hampshire.

At every step of the journey God has led me.

When I first prayed about the possibility of moving, God sent me a very clear message. At the moment I was praying, a van passed my window.

On the side, in big letters, it said ‘Pack and Go’!

Then later, when I was concerned about uprooting my family, God gave me a promise through a passage in the Bible that if I trusted him and went where he was sending me, He would look after my family.

Throughout this big upheaval God has given me a quiet peace, as well as a sense of excitement about what is coming next.

I have found it especially helpful in this new place to trust that God, my loving heavenly Father, is with me wherever I go, and that Jesus is a faithful friend and guide.

All of us face new experiences in our lives from time to time. Some can be exciting, some daunting.

Some we chose, and some are forced upon us by circumstances. Whoever you are and whatever you face, I hope that you can find the same reassurance that I have found recently – that God who loves me, is with me wherever I go.

When a rector starts a new job, it is marked by a special service called an induction, led by the bishop.

The induction service for me is this Sunday at 4pm in St. James’ Church, Emsworth. Anyone is welcome.

I am looking forward to working with and serving the community of Warblington and Emsworth, and the wider community of Havant in the future.

St James Church is in Church Path, Emsworth. St Thomas a Becket Church is in Warblington.

Go to warblingtonwithemsworth.org.