Every month we submit an article to Great Shelford's monthly magazine. Here is our latest contribution for the August 2025 edition.

Changes
 
Looking back at records on my laptop, I see that over the years since I retired and took up voluntary work, I have written 52 articles on behalf of the Free Church for GSVN and 15 as a school governor. Fortunately, I love writing and have never been at a loss for what to put, as ideas have arrived in my head in time for each deadline. However, some things come for a season and then it is time to give thanks for what has been, and move on. The saying that no one is indispensable is true, and often it is only when we let something go that someone else comes to take it on. So this will be my last article as I prepare to step down from my various voluntary leadership roles, changing direction to do whatever God wants me to do next.
 
In this I have good examples to follow; I was recently reading about the bible character Abraham who at the age of seventy five ‘went out, not knowing where he was going’. Caleb, another courageous individual, at the age of eighty asked God for a new assignment, so he could bless and be a blessing. Many thousands of years later, God is still interrupting people’s lives and inviting them into his purposes and plans. It is also the case that God doesn’t necessarily choose people who seem equipped for a task to take up a role; to paraphrase Moses, “Here I am Lord – send someone else!” Yet it is not our ability that God wants, but our availability. Neither does he want us to be a clone of whoever has gone before. He chooses individuals who are willing to let him shape them into the people he would have them be, regardless of any past failures or inferiority complexes.
 
I do however have a strong conviction of what my ‘new life’ will entail – let’s just say that I will still be very much out and about in Shelford, but accompanied by a furry golden companion on a lead! I look forward to seeing where God wants us to walk…
 
And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21
 
Liz Jenkin
Elder