Bye Bye 2008

Well it's good bye 2008 and I'm quite glad it's over.

After a optimistic start things generally got worse. Order books at the factory were looking promising and a bumper year was forcast. I had an Assistant Technical Manager start in January with good knowledge of the business and experience to go with it. This was a long awaited appointment after many many months searching for the right candidate. But soon the orders were cancelled due to the credit crunch and optimism gave way to pessimism.

Church life was not what it was either, after 7 years as a Deacon at Grace I resigned, as I was not happy with the way the leadership was going - by August I had stopped attending altogether and was going elsewhere. This was one of the most difficult times I had experienced as a Christian.

The employment situation was also getting worse. As the year progessed so the orders began to dwindle. In august after reurning from 2 weeks holiday I had to make staff cuts in my department. I was able to keep them to a minimum as we had a large block of flats that needed designing. I resisted pressure from my Director to let my Assistant Technical Manager go and so only lost one Designer. This was mainly due to the fact that one Designer had left in the spring and one in the summer, neither of which I had replaced. Four other office staff and about 6 - 8 in the factory where also made redundant.

By the 2nd half of the year church life was beginning to move forward. The church I was attending on Sunday mornings was providing excellent ministry and fellowship. While every other Tuesday evening we have been meeting for Bible Study & prayer with a number of other people who have also felt it necessery to leave Grace. As the autumn came we began to feel that the Lord was beginning to call us to start another work in Southport. The Lord confirmed this to us at a meeting we had one Friday night in November. The Lord then opened a door for us to meet in a little chapel on Kew estate on a Sunday afternoon. Our first meeting was on 7th Dec, the preacher was David Back and we had a congreation of 37 including young & old, familes & singles. The Lord truly blessed us that day and has continued to do so.

Early in December I advised my Director at work that I should reduce the staff in my department as I was now struggling to keep them all fully employed and the prospect of enough work coming in was looking bleak. On Tuesday 16th December all the staff were called to a meeting to be told that our factory was being closed. We were all sent home on 7 days notice of redundancy. The factory would not reopen after the Christmas shutdown. I am now looking for new employment.