Aidan’s Journey

School days left their shadows.
I was never top of the class.
And at sixteen I stepped out, let the classroom door swing past.
In Durham, among the timber, the bright pipes and the sound, I learned the patient craft of making music fill a room.

From the workshop to the water, from the road to the sea, every turn along the journey brought me closer to the man I'd be.
Through the hard years and the changing, through the miles that came and went, I kept finding hands to serve with and a reason to be sent.
I’m Aidan, still travelling, with a welcome to give.
There's a song in every chapter and a life still being lived.

Three years on, I found my faith.
I laid my old plans down, left the factory floor behind and went to train with Church Army.
There I met the woman who would walk beside my life, and learned that roads grow brighter when you share them with your wife.
At St Botolph's, Aldgate, where the city meets the street, for four years I stood alongside those with nowhere else to sleep.

Then twelve years on the highways, raising funds from place to place, carrying Church Army's message mile by mile and face to face.
From the workshop to the water, from the road to the sea, every turn along the journey brought me closer to the man I'd be.
Through the hard years and the changing, through the miles that came and went, I kept finding hands to serve with and a reason to be sent.
I’m Aidan, still travelling, with a welcome to give.

There's a song in every chapter and a life still being lived.
When redundancy changed the road, the Dales came into view.
A small holiday haven where families could start anew.
Five years of open doors for those in crisis, worn and tired, and Christian workers needing rest before their strength expired.

Now for seventeen years I've helped to harbour, welcome home, the seafarers who crossed the world so far from all they know.
A lad who left at sixteen has found his place to stand, still building something worth the making, with a welcome close at hand.
From the workshop to the water, from the road to the sea, every turn along the journey brought me closer to the man I'd be.
Through the hard years and the changing, through the miles that came and went, I kept finding hands to serve with and a reason to be sent.

I’m Aidan, still travelling, with a welcome to give.
There's a song in every chapter and a life still being lived.