Looking Forward... ...to change

 It's always a sad day to dismantle a layout, particularly one that was the first one you displayed publicly, and the layout that inspired this blog was packed up and put into storage several months ago once I had been interviewed for the job at Williamsburg UMC in Virginia. That though, was only the beginning of my next layout...

What it will look like when built I'm not at all sure, in the same way as I take this step of faith to move to the US, I'm not sure how it will evolve, but God has a plan, just as I do for the next layout.

It's similar to the last one, but with an extra two sections added on the left as you look at the plans here to extend the track on the lower deck to give space for a countryside section with possible a river/lake/something flowing through it. From the top the images show the lower track level, the upper track level and the two combined. As always I'll be running 12v and 9v systems.

One of the joys of building for me is the evolution of the idea into the plan into the actual layout with numerous changes along the way, it will change is something I have in mind all the way through a build. I have ideas and thoughts for my move to the US and for the youth group I'll be working with, but ultimately I want to seek God's plan first and fit my ideas around his not the other way round, and when you do that, you can be sure there will be change. Whatever it may bring, I'm looking forward to it!

Life-landmark Sets

As well as my train layouts, I have a fondness for the larger Lego Technic sets, and spent 9 hours yesterday building my latest addition, the crane on the left. (Image courtesy Brickset.com/lego.com) It's another of my "lifemark" sets - a set bought to mark an occasion in my life (in this case leaving the Toton Churches, thank you for the gift which enabled the purchase!) or that just have particular memories attached to them.

Among others I still have a train my grandparents bought me for my 13th birthday, the large Technic car that prompted my Mum (when I was 14) to suggest I had enough Lego, maybe I should stop buying it? and a 4x4 friends gave me for my 30th birthday. They didn't listen to my Mum!

All of those sets are kept intact, only dismantled when travelling/moving house and haven't been mixed into the rest of my collection of parts. It's not just that they are impressive models, but they do remind me each time I see them of a particular time/place/season in my life and I look forward to remembering my time in Toton with much fondness. God has been active throughout my time here, using a broken and fragile me to grow his Kingdom. I'm truly thankful for all my experiences here, even the challenging and difficult times for I've seen how God moves in all of them and how he has grown me through those experiences.

To everyone in Toton, particularly the children and teenagers whose lives I've been privileged to share in, thank you. Thank you for the times we have laughed and cried together, for the memories you've created for me,the cards, the gifts of tea pots, t-shirts, chocolates and now Lego that will travel with me to America, but thank you most of all to "the God who spoke my heart into existence" who was with me through it all, leading and guiding and whom I trust entirely as I make my move to the US. I know as I follow where he leads I will soar on eagles wings.