I grew up in Sydney—a vast city with an ever-growing population and a never-ending list of things to do and see. In Sydney, you can find just about anything or anyone if you travel far enough. It’s a world of opportunity, with very few limitations. What an exciting place to grow up!
But in our first year of marriage, we moved to the regional area where my husband grew up. Our ultimate plan was to head to Europe as missionaries (how exciting!), but out of the blue, we were offered the chance to gain some ministry experience by serving in an Anglican church outside of Sydney. After four years, with one toddler in tow, we ended up moving a few postcodes over to serve in another church in a regional town.
Thirteen years and three more sons later, we’ve had one church change and a few job changes for my husband, but we are still living in the same town. Part of the reason we have stayed put is that my parents generously helped us to buy a house here a number of years ago.
Since then, a strange thing has happened—our whole world has now shrunk down to this one small regional town. Our older kids have moved to a Christian school here, our youngest was offered a preschool place in the town, I have taken up part-time work a few blocks away from that, I now teach SRE in the local primary school … and even our sons’ Cadets unit moved to a new HQ—at the end of our street! I never have to travel more than six minutes in my normal weekly routine.
The life we have now is quite a contrast from the way I grew up. So what are the things I’ve noticed about the value of living a ‘small’ Christian life?
