What a delight to hear from St Mary’s who have asked us to update you all about what our family has been up to since we left Uganda. Firstly, let me say how much we’ve missed St Mary’s as a community who has always taken interest in us as a family and supported us for many faithful years while we were serving Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in Chad and Uganda. If Greg had found a flying job closer to your neck of the woods, we would have jumped at the chance of attending St Mary’s because of our love and admiration for your church community.
When our girls had all finished school and started their lives over in the UK, we decided that we needed to make the painful move out of Uganda and return home to be more accessible for them. It was difficult closing up the employment training school, the projects and being involved in communications for MAF, but also moving away from the close friendships and community we had fostered while in Uganda. It was also difficult for Greg to step away from the vibrant flying job he had been doing for 15 years. Nevertheless, we knew it was the right time to make the leap back to the west, without knowing where jobs would open up or where we would end up living. Greg needed to renew his licence once we’d returned and so wasn’t able to apply for work ahead of our move. I found this quite scary and had asked ahead of time for us to not do the ‘bungy jump’ approach, but to leave with a job in hand. Of course, that kind of talk doesn’t require much faith and, in my experience, isn’t often God’s style.
While visiting my parents in Australia after leaving Uganda, I heard a pastor speak about the way God told Moses to get up and go to a land he would show him, not, ‘Get up, and go to such and such a place.’ This really spoke to me deeply and at the end of the service I mentioned this to a couple I happened to be sitting next to. They offered to pray for me and the man, who happened to be the founder of the church I was visiting, asked me, ‘Where would you like God to provide you both work?’ I replied, ‘If I can’t live near family, I would love to be by the sea.’ I had never thought to specify anything like this before and have always just accepted wherever God has asked us to go. The couple then prayed for this specifically and for the Lord to make the way open for us to settle back in the UK. After this, Greg and I hunted for work for an entire year, but to take the pressure off while looking, I started calling the time a mini-sabbatical after 15 years on the field and this helped me particularly feel less anxious about the transition. We didn’t earn a salary for eight months and somehow, we didn’t lack anything. We stayed in Pembrokeshire, we house-sat in Kingston, rented in Herefordshire and were offered a cottage for three months in the Cotswolds where we revelled in a white winter we had missed for many years, and over Christmas we pet-sat in a house in London that was able to accommodate our girls and some of their friends.
We were still in a time of testing that Christmas. We had been offered a small flat to stay in down in Penzance and heard of a position open for a first officer for a small operator flying from Lands End. Greg applied and went for the interview but much to our disappointment, just before Christmas we found out he wasn’t successful. Greg instead accepted a seasonal ground operations position, and we decided to remain in Penzance where we at least had a roof over our heads and a job of some sort. I found a job at the local hospital at the emergency department on check-in and we continued to wait. We felt like we were looking down an abyss, coming up to yet another Christmas without any hope of a permanent job. Greg’s seasonal job ended and we were hanging on with just my part-time position. Finally, when it was definitely the darkest point before the dawn, Greg received the call we’d been hoping for all year. He was offered a first officer position! So here we are, making a life down in Penzance, involved in the local church, making new friendships, by the sea as the pastor in Australia had prayed for us! Esther is working in Cardiff at the Royal Courts after finishing her degree. Ariela has graduated with a first from Goldsmiths University and is continuing working with a theatre company who have been offered an association with Goldsmiths and is working hard at a pub to help pay the bills. Zoe is in her second year of a teaching degree at Plymouth University which isn’t too far away from us.
I hope this update will be of encouragement to anyone in transition or wondering what their next step in life will be. I know that no matter how hard the waiting period is, God is faithful to complete his purpose and will never fail us. Thank you again for all of your support and interest. We hope that we can come and visit St Mary’s again before too long.
God bless you all and keep you safe
Jill & Greg Vine