I haven’t blogged my reflections on life in the last two months. Not that I haven’t been thinking, far from it, but we have been living a busy and interesting journey in the city and as a family.

Last month our city churches hosted a national conference on ‘Transformation – it’s our time’. Great connections with Christian here and oversees who have a similar heart to see Gods kingdom breaking out more in society. Also a significant prayer journey leading up to the conference for various people locally. There was a focussing of attention on how to nurture a spiritual environment here in our city where God can move – to believe and act on a vision for community transformation. We are growing up in faith.

Yet this talk of transformation is in a society not without its challenges. A nation in which civil rights and God established principles on sexuality clash and where brokenness and moral meandering measure our path. Transformation is much desired but not necessarily with God in the midst of it. In surveying these things, we are wising up.

This month our daughter finished junior school. Good grades, large scale shows, special parties, prize giving, group hugs and photos – it was all a fantastic way of finishing a year and ending that season of her life. It’s not all easy of course, the thought of ‘big school’, an unfamiliar taster day, the reality of missing her friends, the end of the familiar and comfortable routines. But we were proud of her and her friends as they took their bows and said their farewells. They are stepping up into a new phase of life.

That’s where I find myself at the moment, in my city and with my loved ones, and how often that is how God leads us. He holds our hand through the turn of chapters, calls us to grow up and take responsibility for ourselves and our society and embody the faith we believe in. Much challenge, much grace, much reward… If we wise up, step up and grow up in our faith.