What a 5 weeks we’ve had!

Pure 24/7 Radio turned 4 weeks old this time last week and we’ve seen huge changes to our family life – all good stuff, but it hit me last night that I’m no longer simply reactive to caring for my family, because, I’m no longer a full-time stay-at-home dad. That was, essentially, the last 19 ½ years of my life – since Steven was just a few weeks old.

That stay-at-home dad thing began in February 2003. And it was just Steven and I with cup feeding – using Jo’s breast milk to keep him alive! Oh, and no one to really call…just me and my first son and two dogs to look encouragingly on.

We’ve seen so many highs and lows; we’ve had to adapt to massive changes; we entered full-time ministry, eventually left during COVID, and Jo returned to an old job so she could support the family to enable me to continue to do Ministry. That was the beginning of BerryBunch.org, which ultimately was the launching pad for Pure247Radio.org.

I never thought that my time caring for my family would lead to what we now do – broadcasting a radio station around the world and being responsible for a Global Media Organisation (something I’m slowly accepting as a reality due to recent conversations with other Ministries who are excited to partner with us).

God is good. And I am reflective because more changes are imminent.

Since my days as a trucker I’ve never been really away from my family. And yet, next month, I’m away for a night or two in central London, to meet one of our new presenters and a new regular guest for my Drive Time show. And then, a week or so later, I’ll be in Staffordshire at a conference representing our Radio Station – for the first time publicly – and I will be away from my family for a few days (returning on our 27^th wedding anniversary).

We’ve pretty aggressively protected that date over the years and, yet, we all had peace that that approach has changed now too.

Life is always changing but we resist that change at our peril!

Change is good and I love change! But it can be hard even if you welcome and embrace it. Me? I’m just chuffed I got to be there for my boys for nearly 2 decades.

I’m still there for them but, for the first time in so very long, I’m essentially unavailable for 3 hours every weekday…albeit from a room in our home.

Just feeling a little reflective as I mourn the passing of the greatest (and most rewarding/challenging/terrifying/exciting chunk of my life) and transition to a new ‘normal’ around the Radio Station we hand built and launched some 5 weeks ago, and which now has 6 presenters, broadcasts to listeners in 4 countries so far, and has more than a dozen distinct shows every week with more scheduled than I can yet talk about openly!

Andy B