Letter from Jon, November 2022 

  
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm 23:6
 
Dear Friends
 
Many of you will know that my Dad passed away six months ago, and last week we finally put my parents' house on the market.  It has been a long and sometimes emotional journey as we, with my brother and sister, have prepared the house for selling.  There have been LOTS of trips to the tip and to charity shops.  We each have taken items which were precious to us or which reminded us of Mum and Dad.  There have been discoveries of hidden jewellery, of surprisingly romantic letters and cards, of our certificates from cycling proficiency and school when we were young. 
 
In the final stages of getting the house ready for estate agent photos and for viewings we took down the family photos from the walls.  I wouldn’t say these were the last reminders of Mum and Dad because Dad’s slightly dodgy DIY and wiring still remain but for me there was the realisation that bit by bit, over the last months we were removing the things that make a house into a home.  We were taking out the personal items and turning a home back into a house that someone else will (hopefully) buy and make into their home.
 
It struck me that our own Liberty Centre is more and more becoming the home of the Liberty Family.  With each passing week and month we are stamping our own identity upon this building, built almost 50yrs ago for the Dunfermline Press, and now very definitely a home for Liberty Church.  Again I am so grateful for the team of guys who week after week have stripped out and built up our home, making a place where we can worship together and serve our community - even the new bin store outside is a thing of beauty!  Rowland reminded us a couple of weeks ago that Tim’s fingerprints are all over the building, much of it unseen in wires and cables that make it possible for us to worship and stream our worship.
 
Of course it’s not just the physical building or even the furnishings that make it our home, it is the experiences and memories that we build into it.  It is the times of joy and laughter, of pain and tears, of which we have had many even in the last weeks.  It is the times of encounter with God in prayer and worship.  It is the times where we come together and share food.  It is the opportunities we have to open our doors to the community around us, inviting and welcoming the many groups who love to use our home. 
 
I want to say again how much I value this community of believers, sharing life’s joys and sorrows together, supporting and being supported.  We have celebrated and mourned together in the last weeks but through it all there is an over-riding atmosphere of hope that fills Liberty Centre when we come together.  I look forward to continuing to build our home together in the years to come, both physically and spiritually, creating memories and stamping not only our identity but the identity of our God into these walls that we would see his kingdom come as lives are healed and transformed.
 
Love you all
 
Jon