LAUNCHPAD!

So here we are. One week away from a dream God gave us nearly ten years ago. What started as a whisper from the Holy Spirit into my wife's ears during a prayer meeting in 2004, is now a ferocious roar from the Father saying IT'S TIME TO GO! In exactly five days from now, we'll be heading to Heathrow Airport to start our journey to Melbourne and to step into what God called us into back then, before we were married.

In 2004 my wife Catharine was at a lady's prayer morning. Just a normal morning praying and waiting on God and out of nowhere she heard the words: SYDNEY SYDNEY SYDNEY, over and over again. Although it didn't make much sense, my wife knew it was from God and knew He had placed a seed of faith inside her. She then shared it with me and I said I'd go away and pray about it.

One morning on the way to work I asked Jesus to prove to me in a simple way that this was His vision for us. I actually remember saying, 'Lord, you know my sense of humour, show me in a simple way that I know it's from You.' Twenty minutes later I arrived at work and my dad asked me to make a cup of tea. I went to the draining board to fetch a mug and I remember looking at the draining board and thinking, 'mate, there are so many cups here. I'll just pick one from the middle.' As I picked up the cup I noticed a picture of a young girl with a backpack on and to me she looked like Daisy, my daughter. I smiled and turned the cup around and the word SYDNEY was written on it. Tingles went from head to toe and I knew Jesus had answered me.

This simple gesture then started off a whole journey of prayer for us as a couple. Praying into something we didn't really know about or what God wanted us to do about it. For me at the time I had just laid down my journalism career to support my new wife and daughter by stepping into the family trade of carpentry. This was a move I didn't want at the time and one day was praying with my church leader about it and asking God why on earth He was taking me away from my love of writing. He simply said: "Well Adam, My Son was a carpenter." Talk about humble pie. I knew in a moment that I had to change.

So that was faith step number one. You're going to read many more of these in this blog. For us as a couple, one of the first things we did after being given this vision from God was to hand it back to Him and said; 'if you want us there, Jesus, you have to move us'. Ha, be careful what you ask God for, you may just get it!

From this moment things started to take shape and we felt more and more that this was totally God's plan for us. Just in our everyday lives we were stumbling into conversations about Sydney, adverts about Australia, Wanted Down Under, walking past random people in the street only to overhear their conversations at the split second they said the word 'Australia' or 'Sydney'. This went on for years and is still happening now.

So after a couple of months I had to look into the visa process to see if we'd qualify. In my initial visa questionnaire to see what points I'd get (pass mark of 120 points is needed) I put down that I was a journalist. I don't actually know why but the points came back as 110. Not enough. On my second attempt I put carpentry. 135 points. Ah, I see. God changed my career path to suit His plans... LIGHT BULB!

So how was this going to work? We didn't have much money and I later found out the in order to qualify for Australia as a carpenter I would need an Australian Assessment via a company called Vetassess but their requirements were that I needed four years worth of carpentry and I only had a few months. Plus there was the small matter of paying £1500 for the privilege. From what I was finding out, the Australian visa process was going to be nearly impossible. To make it more impossible we had to consider our daughter, Daisy, and her needs.

Faith step number two. You see, our beautiful girl Daisy has an intellectual learning disability which affects her ability to understand many things and along with a speech and language delay and hypermobility, she is quite a complex character. Her persona and smile is very infectious and she has brightened up my world in so many ways. But at this moment in time I was thinking, 'how on earth is this going to work for Daisy? Will our visa be refused right at the last moment?' You see, the Australian government does not grant permanent visas to those who would cost them money long term and so we needed to be assured that if we went through with this we would get through. We prayed. A lot.

So after four years I took my (I know this is all about my part, this is only because the visa can only go through one person - my wife was backing me the whole time in this through solid faith and prayer) Vetassess theory test to see if I would qualify for a practical. I did, but only just. The response from the assessor was very frank and not very nice to read. It said: "You may proceed to the practical but please be advised that we don't think, with your limited experience, you will pass. Proceed with caution." Nice.

The thing is, because this was a faith mission for us we didn't want to take matters into our own hands and pay for the practical on a credit card as we wanted God to demonstrate His favour on us by providing the money but we didn't know how He would do this. We just prayed and believed. Around this time, my brother-in-law Jim and his wife Dominique were wanting us to find out whether this Australian thing was ever going to work and suggested looking after our kids so we could go to Sydney and see it for ourselves. We agreed and prayed in the money.

If you are reading this and are not a Christian, praying in money might sound strange to you. You see, my God is a very rich God and loves to bless His kids with the desires of our hearts if we are faithful to Him. When we put our trust in Him for money it's one of life's biggest challenges and He loves us for it. We prayed for our flight money and it all came in within a week as cash gifts from those who love us but didn't know what we needed it for.

So in April 2008 we travelled to Sydney for a ten-day jaunt to see if this was the promised land. My wife, being a keen surfer was expecting big things from the mecca of surfing, and I was just expectant that God would say in a loud voice "THIS IS IT!"

When we arrived it was not what we were expecting. It was cloudy, raining and cold. We drove through Sydney absolutely shattered (although we'd somehow been upgraded to Business Class thanks to a very kind friend) and spend the next few days wandering around in a bit of a jet-lagged daze. Catharine didn't like it at all and I was struggling because I wasn't relaxing in the way I thought I would. We met up with friends on the last few days which took the pressure off a bit but still didn't really 'get it'.

On the final full day we took a drive to the coast and ended up in a place called Dee Why. As we rounded the corner we saw the beach, a parade of surfing shops and restaurants, and people walking along without a care in the world. At that moment we both looked at each other with tears in our eyes and said "this is it". We knew that at long last God had confirmed in us what we had been seeking Him for. It was an amazing feeling.

However, when we got back we slipped back into the norm and busyness of life and although we were getting regular reminders there was still a carpentry practical to take and all the rest of the visa process. More prayer was needed, but we were more hungry for stronger prophetic words from those who didn't know our situation to confirm it even more.

In June 2011 my wife went up to the King's Arms Church in Bedford for a conference called Heaven Touches Earth. She'd travelled up with a friend and on their way they gave each other a little faith test. My wife said; "if anyone mentions the word crocodile in their talks then I'm going to Australia." Sure enough during a seminar taken by Wendy Mann the word Crocodile was used and my wife knew that God had answered her little faith game. Afterwards she sought out Wendy and mentioned this to her. Wendy then said, "hang on, I wrote something at the top of my notes." On the top of her notes it said simply 'Family - Sydney'. WOW.

My wife then heard of a course called TSM which stands for Training For Supernatural Ministries and asked me if she could take two days a week away from home to do this. I had no hesitation as I knew God was in it and agreed. But in order for her to do this course it was going to cost £1000. It was a lot of money and we still had to pay for my carpentry practical which was about £1000 on top of this unexpected new financial hurdle. We prayed about it and left it to God. Cats then confirmed her place on the course as a step of faith.

But two weeks later we were involved in a car accident. This really shook up our kids and Cats and I ended up with whiplash injuries. We thought nothing of them but were asked by our insurance company to get the injuries treated. We did out of duty and then were involved in an insurance compensation battle which we really didn't want. However, when a cheque landed though our door for the amount we needed for Cats course and my carpentry application, we knew God (even through a strange experience) had provided for us.

So for a year Cats life was radically transformed and she began to journey into knowing more about her identity in Christ and also seeing heaven on earth. It was during the first part of the year on TSM another confirmation was going to come.

During one morning Cats was taking part in a game called Postcard Prophecies. This is where postcards are laid out on the floor face-down and you pick one up and others use the picture to speak into your life and what God is saying through the picture. Cats' postcard was full of road signs. She laughed because she felt it represented her busy life. Later on, she was walking across the room when one of the team members stopped her and said; "are you called to another country?" Cats, quite taken aback, said; "I don't know, am I?" At which point the guy said; "When I saw you all I had in my head was that song by Men at Work, 'I Come From The Land Downunder'. I think you're called to Australia!"

Well that was it for my wife. She knew in an instant that God had confirmed it for her. At the same time I had paid for my carpentry practical which was going to take place in January 2012. This was a big moment for me.

I am confident in my skills but when I received the information on what I was going to have to construct for my test I felt the pressure in an immense way. Everything was hanging on whether I'd pass this test because without a trade qualification we could not proceed with the visa. But what had God said? Faith goal number three. He said we were called to Australia. During this time my dad had been asked to build a small roof for someone and needed my help. I agreed to help as I thought it might give me what I needed to pass my test.

When the day of the test came I was extremely nervous and prayed in the car on the way to London. I said a bit of a strange prayer which went something like; "Yeah Jesus, I just pray that you are somehow in the room with me today. I don't know how you are going to do that but I just need you to show me what to do." My nerves went and I arrived at the college.

After being shown to our classroom and workshops, two men who were going to be our examiners walked in. One was short and fat with a bald head and the other was tall, skinny with a beard and long hair. Just as I began to realise that this bloke looked like the typical Jesus of Nazareth in those terrible old films, a guy in front of me whispered to his mate, 'blimey, Jesus is here!' I nearly laughed out loud. At this moment, the tall skinny guy said; "Hello. I'm here to help you pass your exam today." Ha. My God has a very good sense of humour.

The practical went really well. We were asked to build a mono-pitch roof which is what I'd built only a week before my exam so I knew what to do. However there was a shock. At this moment I was asked to go into another room and answer a 47-page exam paper on all aspects of building and construction. THIS WAS NOT IN THE SCRIPT. I couldn't believe it. My heart sank because I failed nearly every exam at school because I am terrible in an exam environment. We were then told we'd be expected to answer maths questions. I failed maths GCSE at school. This had all gone wrong.

When I turned to the first page and saw the first two questions I could have cried. But then this very gentle Australian man walked in and said; "What question are you on? Do you need a calculator? Here, use my phone." WHAT?

I finished the exam and answered every question as best as I could but then had the agonising wait of 14 days for my result. It came in at 12:30am on Monday February 13th, 2012. I had passed! Not only had I passed but I had passed 100 percent of the modules! For me, this was the moment when I knew God REALLY wanted us in Australia.

However, in our hearts we still knew there were huge mountains we'd not yet climbed over. The first was how were we going to get Daisy into Australia and the second was what kind of education is on offer in Sydney? As a family we felt that the best thing for us would be to find out by means of me travelling to Sydney on my own to do a bit of a reccy and find out what. I had been in contact with a couple of schools and it all seemed like Daisy would fit in. We weren't worried about things too much but still needed some confirmation that this was the right thing to do as Daisy was very settled in her school.

So we booked up the flights and on the Thursday before I travelled to Sydney I went with Cats to her TSM course in Bedford and bumped into an old friend whom I hadn't seen in about 20 years. He was going to be taking the seminar on the attributes of God but right at the start of the meeting said: "I'm going to prophecy over Adam James!" And this is what he said:

"I could see you in like a red pick-up truck, like a van, but you're getting out of the van and getting into an amber truck. I feel like God has got you in a season where He's preparing you for some big change. I feel like you feel like you've been in a red truck that represents a kind of stop light, you almost feel like you've hit a ceiling and you've been praying for breakthrough, you've even been praying about whether you should change profession or change companies, or change direction. And it's like you've been driving in a red truck that's at this stop light.

"I think you're in a season now where God is preparing you for big change, He's actually been preparing both of your hearts for change. I feel like even the last two years or so God has been stirring the pot in your hearts and rekindling some dreams of old, rekindling some passions of old and it's almost like things that used to be fresh have become stale for you in the recent past and actually God says He didn't design you to live that way. And that's why you have felt discontent because He's actually designed you to be firestarters, He's designed you to be Pioneers and that's how He made you and that's why you've felt a bit bored.

"I feel like in regard to your church connection you've just lost a bit of passion for the church. But I feel like God says He's going to reconnect you with a strong passion for the people of God but also for the outbreak of the Kingdom around you. I feel like God's going to begin to give you some Kingdom ideas, even in terms of moneymaking opportunities. It seems like He's going to open doors actually you you two to be who God has really made you to be. I feel like there's a mould you are yet to find that really fits you but God says this amber season in one of you finding the mould that fits you.

"I feel like God's instruction to you is you need to shape your life around His prophetic promises. And this is a time to do that. I feel like you have a window of opportunity to shape your life according to prophecy and prophetic promises and not according to circumstances.

"I feel like God says His provision is going to follow you as you follow His prophetic promises. And that's His provocation to you. There's a step of faith for you to take in which you'll see God provide. And so He wants to almost assure you of that today. That as you take a step forward His provision will follow.

"And I feel like in terms of, I don't know if you have children, but I feel like God almost wants to reasure you about your children and give you a tremendous sense of peace about them. You are to see actually that their health is connected to your ability to radically obey God and actually they are going to be healthier when they see you radically obeying Jesus in this season. And that actually is going to be the best medicine for them, seeing their parents take radical steps of obedience.

"So I feel like the Father says stop worrying about your children, you don't need to be in any anxiety about them. I feel like, I don't know if any of them have any special learning issues, but again, I feel like the Father says you are not to worry about that either. God is going to put specialists in your life and put those who have the ability to teach in particularly areas where it's going to connect to your kids learning styles, that He's going to provide for you perfectly.

"And so I feel like the Father wants you to know He is on you in this season. He loves you so much and He designed you for such a season as this."

WOW! To say that I went to Sydney with high expectations after that would be a gross understatement! We knew that taking a giant step of faith was exactly what God wanted us to do. So I flew to Australia.

My time there was pretty frantic and in the space of a few days I had the promise of a full time job along with a sponsored 457 visa and had visited two schools which were fantastic. It was like God had laid out the red carpet for me and all the doom and gloom of the last trip to Sydney had vanished. However, during my visit to the last school i was told this; 'there has never been a case that we've heard or where a child with a disability has EVER been granted a permanent visa'.

Flying home with that ringing in my ears was a sober thought. What if we do go through this process and can't get in? What did God say? Breathe in and carry on, was my conclusion because God never goes back on His words.

As soon as I was home I looked into the visa process. Firstly I would have to wait for the employer to get back to me with the visa application and and in the meantime I found out that I'd have to take and ENGLISH exam. What? To get into an English speaking country, I'd have to take an English exam - even though I was English... and spoke English. The cost? £120. What a joke.

But I did it and passed with flying colours and we then thought we were ready to go. Nope. For five months we heard nothing from my 'new employer'. September was looming and we were thinking; 'do we take the kids out of school? There must be something I can do to speed up the process?

However there wasn't much we could do. On July 1st, 2012 all rules on immigration were changed and I found out we'd have to go through something called Skills Select. This is a lottery based scheme were only the 'select few' get chosen to apply for a visa and it would also mean that I'd have to fill out a very long application and wait to find out if I had enough points. Not only that, I still had not heard back from Sydney and noticed that the state of New South Wales had closed ALL doors on sponsorship.

What did all this mean? Well, I would soon find out. In August I filled out my Skills Select application and submitted it to the Australian Government to wait for the result. I then found out that my 'new employer' had decided NOT to sponsor me any more. He said the risk was too great and if things didn't work out we'd have to fly home at HIS expense. Plus we would not qualify for any benefits or funding for schools.

This was an absolute disaster. It was such a big pill to swallow after everything had looked so good for us. On top of this my Skills Select Application came back to say I had NOT got enough points and asked me to read through and make sure I had answered all the questions correctly. AAGGHHH!

When I read back though, feeling extremely low, I noticed that under the question; 'Have you any Higher Education diplomas etc?' I had put nothing. This was a carpentry application and the only diploma I had was in media when I was a journalist. So I added it anyway, just in case. Sure enough a day later it said YOU QUALIFY!

What? So I have enough points but what about Sydney? If we can't get into New South Wales, how do we do this?

Well, literally the next day I was searching on Google (what would we do without it?) for sponsored visas for Australia and the very first entry which came up read; 'Skilled Carpenters Required for Victoria - Apply here for a Permanent Sponsored Visa.' Eh? So I clicked on the link and sure enough it was true. The government of Victoria was doing a trade drive to sponsor carpenters on a permanent basis through SKILLS SELECT. The information had a small link on it asking people who'd been successful through Skills Select to apply. Only those with exceptional circumstances would be accepted.

I applied.

Three weeks later on my up to Bedford to start my TSM course (I applied in August 2012 after finding out we weren't going to Sydney - and why not?) I received an email. 'Congratulations your application to receive a permanent sponsored visa for the state of Victoria has been successful!'

WHAT ON EARTH WAS GOING ON? Why was God now moving us to Melbourne? What was there? Is there a church? What about Daisy? So many questions amid the delight of being accepted.

I feel at this point in this long story I should say that this was by no means over and a done deal. We still had a visa application to submit which is a very lengthy and painful process and a medical to get through which would highlight ALL of Daisy's health issues. This was going to take EVERY ounce of faith we had. All we could think of was to keep going back to all the promises that God had made to us. We felt we should keep praying a believing God would in fact do the impossible. Remember; no-one with a disability had ever been granted a permanent visa.

So on September 22nd, 2012, we submitted our visa application and in October we had our medical. The medical was horrendous. Such a horrible experience because we were so conscious of Daisy's needs and this was picked up very quickly. They wanted us to provide pages and pages of information to say what was wrong and how it affects her life and ours. We sent everything they asked for and then started the anxious wait.

After four months of waiting without any news, we finally received an email from the Medical Officer of the Commonwealth (MOC) in Sydney to say that they wanted more information on Daisy. What they were asking for in NHS terms would take months but they wanted it ALL in 28 days.

There was no apology for taking so long to get to that result. Just a very cold shoulder and no other communication.

Fourteen days then went by and we had not had any appointments booked for Daisy as no one really knew how to answer what the MOC was asking. But finally we had a breakthrough and ALL of the information we needed came through on the very last day of the deadline. It was such a relief to hand it all in but had highlighted even more our gravest concerns that we might not actually get the visa, due to the information we'd received. The reason for this is because in the Australian visa process if one person does not meet the health requirements, everybody fails.

With all of this going on it was a relief to get away to Bedford for a couple of days and attend the Prophetic Forum conference which is put on once a year. On the way up, we'd prayed that this would just be a time for soaking and receiving as we were both worn out from everything that was happening around us. We actually prayed that we didn't want to focus on Australia but on Jesus.

In the morning of the second day we were having a coffee break and I'd sat down next to an old friend, who asked me how things were going. Cats was in another room and I really wasn't up for having a conversation but I mentioned that things were a bit crazy. It was at this moment that a lady who I've never met in my life then interrupted the conversation and said; "Are you called to another country?"

A bit taken aback I thought about it for a moment and then had a check from the Holy Spirit that this lady knew in her heart where we were called to. So I said; "Yes we are. And you know where we are called to, don't you?" She laughed and said that she did so I then suggested that if I told her which country, she'd have to tell me which city. When I said the country was Australia, she jumped up in the air from her seat (in quite spectacular fashion) and shouted "I knew it!" I said; "Which city do you have?" And at this moment she paused and clenched her fists. It was like she was worried that she was going to get it wrong. I reassured her and said that it didn't matter if it was wrong because this was already all a bit strange anyway.

Finally, after a few moments she stood up and said; "It's Melbourne!" What? Did I hear her correctly? Yes I did. Then she said this, which is the part of the story I won't ever forget; "I saw two city names. The first was Melbourne in huge letters and then behind it Sydney in smaller letters. Like God had them in some sort of priority. I think He's switched cities!"

WOW, wow and wow!

At this moment I ran back to Cats and told her about what had happened. She was so excited but said she wanted to see if this lady was actually a real person by talking to her and asking if she had any prophetic words for her. Cats said that she was NOT going to reveal that she was my wife, just to see if the words lined up.

A bit later on Cats grabbed this lady (we still to this day have no idea who she is) and asked her to prophecy over her. Pausing for a while, she then said this; "I see you are going to be a prophet to the nations and I see you will be getting on a plane very soon!" It was at this point my wife told this lady that she was married to me. Everyone then went a bit nuts.

As if this wasn't enough, on the same day I head received a prophetic word from a friend to say God was going to put 'dog tags' in my hand and on them He had engraved the words Honour, Love and Worship. I hadn't seen dog tags for years and it was a funny word as it was so unusual. But I was looking forward to seeing what God was going to do with it and received it into my heart.

Coming back home we slipped back into the real world and got back into our 'when are we going to hear?' mindset. It was at this point I'd began to work for my brother again on a loft (attic) conversion and was just trying to process all that had happened the weekend before. I'd even looked up 'dog tags' on Amazon but found a bunch of novelty ones and nothing nice to look at.

A couple of days went past and my work colleague and I were carrying out of the house sheets of chipboard flooring to be thrown away. This is a normal process of clearing out a loft in order to start the construction. It was about 3pm on a Tuesday when this very strange thing happened. My colleague said; "Hang on Ad, there's something hanging from your sheet of flooring, it looks like DOG TAGS." What? How can anything 'hang' off a sheet of chipboard that's smooth on both sides. Sure enough, my colleague then handed me a set of dog tags and written on them was the word LAUNCHPAD. I laughed and laughed and laughed. This was God speaking in a very clear way - again.

Calming down after the hilarity of the dog tags we then entered another month of painfully waiting for a decision. To be honest, despite all the words and encouragements this whole process was now doing our heads in a bit as it's hard to remain in faith when you don't hear a thing for months on end. But after a few more weeks it was then time for another conference in Bedford and this time it was the Spiritual Leadership conference. Cats felt it would be good for me to go on my own.

Although I don't like going to things like this on my own, somehow we felt as a couple it would be pivotal for us and that whatever I received it would benefit us as a couple. It was now June. There was now only four months to go until our deadline for entering Australia (if we were granted the visa) would run out. We hadn't put the house on the market and time was rushing past.

So on Friday 14th June, I travelled up to Bedford (again) and settled into what was an amazing time. My first task was to sit in what is called a Prophetic Booth. It's a small room where two people pray and prophesy over you for about half an hour. The thing is, because of my wife and myself's involvement with the King's Arms church over the last two years, I was worried that I'd know the people who were going to be speaking and prophesying over me. I was hungry for God to speak clearly about what it was He had for us.

When I got into the booth I was relieved to see that the couple who were going to pray were not those whom I knew. So I just sat there and waited to hear what they had to say. This is a short excerpt from what they said:

"The first thing I see, well, the first thing I felt God say was that you were called to something of a new generation, a new movement – there is a new generation and a new movement emerging and you are called to be on the forefront of that. God's giving you a gift, I see a speaking gift and a teaching gift and there's a theological kind of gift, I don't know if any of this resonates with you, but there's something of explaining biblical concepts to a new generation, teaching to a new generation, and you being sort of hip, that might not be the right word, but you are just being very cool and very relevant and very rooted in God. There's just something of a real gift on you to be able to do that.

"I see roads, I feel like there's going to be some travel for you, I see you not having bags, I see you just travelling and the things that you carry with you are things of the heart – yeah, like in the Bible, the disciples were told not to take anything with them and they just went out and spoke to people and were given everything they needed. I just felt that you were going to be travelling and speaking and not needing to take anything with you. Please hear me I don't know if God means the spiritual or the practical, but I felt that God was going to bring things into your path, provision into your path and bring people into your path and fill the gaps that you need."

WOW again! It's probably at this point I should mention that when the prophetic voice gets louder and more frequent, that's normally a sign the God's about to do something big. I left the room feeling somewhat dazed and happy, but there was something nagging me. I knew my brother and sister-in-law were both at the conference with me but they are also my church leaders. They were clearly wanting God to break into our situation but still not wanting us to leave as moving to the other side of the world means massive separation for everyone.

During the next worship time I felt that God was wanting me to approach Jim, my brother-in-law and say that it was time to let us go in there hearts. God was speaking clearly and saying that they needed to release us from their spirits as this was what was helping to keep us home. We prayed about it together and it felt good to know that even in the pain of separation, God is in control.

On Monday June 17th I woke up to this email:

We are pleased to advise you that your application for a permanent sponsored visa for Australia and New Zealand HAS BEEN GRANTED!

I read this sentence over and over again. It was about 5:30am and my wife was fast asleep. I carried on reading down the page, my heart pumping so head I thought I was going to burst. I then got to the part where it mentions each person individually and what conditions have been placed on the visa. I looked at Daisy's bit: CONDITIONS - ZERO.

I cried a lot in this moment.

God had somehow managed to allow us a condition free, permanent visa for Australia. This is not only an impossibility in terms of legislation laid down by the Australian government themselves but it was a complete green light by our Father in heaven that this WAS the right thing for us to be doing. Even to this day (with five days to go until we fly) I cannot understand what went on in the immigration department to make that decision but it will live with us forever. Nothing short of the biggest victory in prayer we've had.

Since this moment we have been brought closer and closer as a family. We know that the heartbreaking reality of leaving friends and family has arrived but we also know that this is our time to seize all the God has for us. This is an opportunity to live in the vey palm of God's hand as He will provide everything we need. We still don't have a house to live in when we get to Melbourne but have this overwhelming sense of peace that God knows exactly where we're going to live.

This whole journey from 2004 until now has only really ever been about one thing: God spoke and we trusted Him. It has not been easy. We have not had everything go our way and we have had times of tears and anguish. But through it all we trusted God that He is always faithful and will always keep His word.

This last weekend we feel as a family we've received the applause of heaven as we take a new step into the unknown. We had the mother of all send-offs last Saturday and it was a truly humbling experience to know that there were so many people behind us. We have been blown away my people's financial generosity as well as emotional support - it truly is the most incredible feeling.

So lastly, before I write my next blog from the other side of the globe, I just wanted to express out heartfelt thanks to all those at The King's Church Mid Sussex and The King's Arms in Bedford. Without your close support in these last two years we would have felt completely isolated in this huge decision. You have all played a part, whether it be in intercession without us knowing or by giving time and finances. We are blown away by the family of God and want to say a big thank you.

I also want to express my undying love to my two amazing kids, Daisy and Dexter, for being so brave in all of this crazy thing. They have NEVER said that they don't want to go and they are doing this with such joy.

There's also my soul mate and wife Catharine to thank. She inspires me every day to press into God more and more and I know that it is because of her radical obedience to pursue God in complete sacrifice that I am able to do this with her. She is an amazing woman and I love her with every fibre of my being.

But ultimately this all comes down to one thing. His name is Jesus and this whole story is about Him. Without Him, we wouldn't be on this adventure. Without Him and the hope that He brings, we would be very confused and frustrated. But we are at complete peace. This is going to be one heck of an amazing time. So with that, myself and my family are just about to make our way to Heathrow and step on the Launchpad.

See you Downunder!