Reflection for October 2026
Moving!
Many of you have followed our ‘journey to a new home’ with interest. My one-bed flat in Bitton went on the market in Jan ’25, & took 10 months to sell; Kate’s one-bed flat in WSM also took 10 months to sell. March 23rd was our date to ‘move in’ to a lovely little house in Olveston. A week before that, the house fell through. Kate posted a prayer request on WhatsApp & within minutes Michelle offered us her house in SB, and she moved out! We spent 6 happy months living in the village, marvelling at the convenience of walking to church, and gratefully giving up the 40-minute daily commutes & big fuel bills. Another Olveston house we set our hearts on, also fell through…did God have other plans for us? One Monday we went to look at yet another, this time in Pilning, and I didn’t like anything about it. 9am the following morning we looked at this house, 13 Beach Ave, and LOVED it! Offered on it, negotiated, & by Friday had it accepted.
Three months later, we moved in… gathering belongings that had been in storage for 20 months and across 3 counties. Ten happy and tiring days, unpacking vans, then boxes, fixing & nailing, building & lifting – transforming a house that tenants had left empty for months, seeing it become our new home. And many have dropped in and had a coffee! Kate’s mum, Gail has spent nights here after unpacking our kitchen.
The house already feels like home – the sun streams into our living room every morning making Kate’s yellow sofa positively glow – that’s where we read the Bible after breakfast, and commit our day to the Son. The large kitchen easily absorbs our new oak table with room to spare – meals are devoured here. God, through His people, has quite miraculously provided furniture for us. Dave Hunt arrived with a large dining room table which feels made to measure for our ‘dining room’. Chaise longue, garden furniture, a giant BBQ, an organ bench and a pew, all donated as though God knew what we needed before we did. The house is virtually twice the size of houses we were expecting to settle in. I now have a garage whose walls proudly display the many tools that I am excited to use – no longer functioning out of my car boot!
So, we are blessed! And we’re praying that all who visit or stay with us (we had 13 on Saturday for a Hill House feedback day, we had our Leadership meeting here last Monday night) – we’re praying that all who enter this house will come under God’s blessing – that all will feel a welcome like Jesus offered, despite having ‘no place to rest His head’.
Being given a home that we so enjoy, feels like a foreshadowing of the One that has gone ahead to prepare a place for us. That One, too, will come at just at the right time, and we will also feel it was well worth the wait.
John-Mark Molyneux