But Why?

Background to the move - the short version! (By Scott)

It took less than 4 months between having no inkling of moving to Sydney to being completely relocated 1000 km's away from Melbourne.
When faced with the opportunity of helping the entire South Pacific Division's Adventist community get online and networked together (only about 1000 sites!), it was only the prospect of leaving behind family and friends that would have stopped the move - by far the hardest part in the decision.

After umming and arring for a few weeks, it became apparent the writing was on the wall. Not only was this job a considerably tempting prospect for me, but other circumstances also hinted that this was going to be the right thing to do. For example:

- Following 6 years in Pathfinders, we were planning on having "the 7th year" off. Having Rachel directing for 4 of the years in a club that grew from 15 to nearly 50, really took a strain on life for us both.
Silly as it sounds, we thought this might be a chance for us to leave a busy church lifestyle behind and de-stress, in Sydney, if that were possible - in Sydney. A chance to regroup mentaly.

- After Camporee finished in January 2007, we had nothing on our calendars at all. It was as if there was a void of activity for us in 2007. Not something we ever remember encountering.

- When Rachel tried to leave her job, which she wasn't really loving that much anyway, she declared she had to move to Sydney to her boss, who replied "you can still work for us, in our Sydney office". And this came with a change in role that was more interesting too. If anything, it would be a chance to relocate to Sydney and Rach could look for work while up there.

- We were planning on selling up our house and palming off the 45 stairs up to our front door for a flatter, more family, orientated block. Leaving behind our house didn't cause too much grief, even though we loved it so much.

- While looking for jobs in Sydney while in Melbourne wasn't sounding like fun, housing was also a daunting thought. Finding somewhere in Sydney from Melbourne was also a daunthing thought, but that worked out too!
A "church" owned house became available just as my job came to be, right over the creek, 10 minutes walk from work. Apparently they don't come up very often at all, but right on time.

- Though the rent was to be more than the mortgage of our house in Melbourne, (even though the rent was already $100 less than market value !) Living so close meant we could sell a car (our Vienta) saving us on services, registration, repayments and fuel bills, helping to offset the rent.

- A rent assistance option in Scott's salary also came in handy, meaning the Melbourne home would not have to be sold and we could stay 'in the market'. We decided to sell the house and get something more rental friendly as an investment.

- My replacement at Signs could arive 1 week before I had to leave, meaning I could hand over and train the new guy (Jarrod) just in time.

- When we bought our "Basin" house 5 or so years ago it had a sign hanging on the front deck. It said "Wahroonga" - right where we were considering moving to. I figured it was a 3 way sign. 1. it was literally a sign, 2. I worked at Signs, and 3. it was potentially a sign from God.
(NOTE: when checking out the Wahroonga house, I made sure there was no sign that said PNG on that house - though, I have used that joke so often now that I'm is sure God will send me there as a joke, sometime!

After all the above started to fit in nicely, and more, to stay behind I thought might cause me to end up somewhere dark and smelly for 3 days, before having to being mysteriously flown to the Sydney Adventist hospital to be cured. Yup, a Jonah tale.
And so the decision became financially feasible, mentally resting and with apparent promptings from God.

That's the short story of how this came about. Later on, hopefully I can share the steppinng stones that have lead me to this point. At the time not apparent but now looking back - since Year 12, everything seems to have had a purpose on a road to . . .