Saturday, August 11, 2007
London Day 8
Well, we've only got 2 and a half more days here in England and then we head back home. We're now in full-blown tourist mode and have been checking stuff out. Today we went to the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Tate Modern, Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, Wimbledon (it was closed), and Chelsea Football Club stadium (the store there was supposed to close at 6 and was closed at 5:55....we're trying to get Nicole's brother a jersey.....back tomorrow). Tomorrow we move to our hotel in Covent Garden and will be doing some shopping. We're also hoping to attend services at Holy Trinity Brompton tomorrow night. On Monday we head to Oxford and then Tuesday is back home. We may not blog until we're back in California. Keep praying for us even though the "official" ministry is done. Also, pray that we don't get any more sick. I'm almost at 3 weeks now of having this cold and Nicole seems to have caught it too.
London Day 7
We finished up our ministry projects in the morning. It felt like we had just started them. Had a great time with the kids. Then, we had a picnic with the ladies who had been learning English and their kids. It was pretty cool. We had this fried chicken which tasted like Pioneer Chicken - a place I used to go to when I was a kid. There were also some different foods that the ladies had prepared and shared with us.
After the picnic, we headed to one of our hosts' house for a final debrief and dinner. It was a really good time of closure for the trip as we discussed what God had shown us. We also were able to hear from two newer believers who are from a country that would severely persecute them if the wrong people found out about their faith. I told Nicole that I was impressed with how much this believer had grown in the last year. She's more mature than most American Christians who've been believers for 20+ years.
It was a great time of ministry. I was also able to talk with one of our partners about a potential high school ministry trip back to London. I'm excited to begin to think and pray through the possibilities. London '08 may be coming.....
After the picnic, we headed to one of our hosts' house for a final debrief and dinner. It was a really good time of closure for the trip as we discussed what God had shown us. We also were able to hear from two newer believers who are from a country that would severely persecute them if the wrong people found out about their faith. I told Nicole that I was impressed with how much this believer had grown in the last year. She's more mature than most American Christians who've been believers for 20+ years.
It was a great time of ministry. I was also able to talk with one of our partners about a potential high school ministry trip back to London. I'm excited to begin to think and pray through the possibilities. London '08 may be coming.....
London Day 6
We had Thursday off for a day of touring London. It was great because we were pretty wiped out at this point. Ron went off golfing with a friend while most of the rest of us took off in a big group. Nicole and I split off after an hour or so. Here's everything we saw that day: Picadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Westminster Abbey, St. James Park, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, London Eye, Buckingham Palace, the British Museum, Kensington Palace, and a Starbucks. Don't be too impressed with the amount of stuff, we didn't go in to too many places. We were able to go into the British Museum where we saw the Rosetta Stone, some sweet stuff from Egypt, Greece, and Rome along with some actual mummies. We tried to see Abbey Road but had a hard time following a certain person's directions. We spent a long time that night trying to find just the right place to eat and ended up at an Italian place in Ealing at around 9pm.
London Day 5
We spent the morning doing our ESL project and kids club at St. John's. We had A TON of kids that morning, but it went well. After lunch, we met up with a couple missionaries who had spent some time in Riverside a year or so ago. We prayer-walked a neighborhood in East London where they are doing ministry among the Vietnamese and Chinese population there. We also handed out some more prayer experiment cards there. Following that project we spent some time at the missionaries' home with some great snacks and time to hang out. Nicole had a chance to call home from there and talk to her mom (who didn't know who it was at first). One cool thing that happened there was we realized we had helped furnish a missionary house for this family while they were in Riverside. We had no idea who they were at the time, but they were able to use some of our furniture for a few months. Also, the Beechens had given them some plates that they'd had since Katie was small and we actually ate off those plates. Pretty cool.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Day Three & Four
Monday - We began our ministry project today. We didn't know what to expect as we arrived. How many children we would have and what they would be like. Our first day was pretty rough. We had about 14 children and there were about three older boys who were very defiant when you told them to stop doing things. We began outside with a game and they all seemed to be pretty responsive and enjoying the game. As soon as we stepped inside and they sat down on this inflatable furniture that was there they went crazy! They wouldn't listen, I had to raise my voice a lot and Mike had this look of defeat and frustration on his face. They finally seemed to settle down after we took the inflatable stuff away and we bribed a few with stickers. We all seemed to be tired at the end after only two hours with them. We decided to tweak our plans for teh next day and try to focus on that.
Afterwards we all hopped on a bus (which we take everywhere, multiple times) and road to a place called Ealing Broadway to exchange money. This took quite a while as this was a place that had the best exchange rate. Some of us ate Subway (others ate some other sandwiches) while we sat in a park.
When we were finished eating we took the Tube to South Kensington and walked over to Kensington Gardens. In case you are wondering this is the park where Kensington Palace is, former home of Princess Diana. There is a large Iranian population in this area and we took about an hour and a half ans prayered walked and passed out some cards to people. We were able to mwalk bym the Iranian Cosulate and pray for the people of Iran. The people of Iran are a very open people right now to hearing about Christianity. When we were finished we met back up in the park and walked over to Harrods. Now I'm not a shopper, so I wasn't very excited to go there, but it was very interesting. One, I felt extremely underdressed. Two, there were more Mercedes parked in the front than I've ever seen in my life. And three, the Saudi women were dressed extremely expensive while weqaring the scarves over their heads and black dresses to the floor. We're talking diamonds and gold on their scarves. It was amazing to see!!
We didn't get back to our hotle until about 9:30 or 9:45 and then we ate dinner. It was a long, tiring day, but fun all the same!
Tuesday - Today we had a great day at our ministry project. It was much more mellow and we made sock puppets which the kids loved. They were also much more engaged in the story and singing time. They all love to play with playdough and color and paint, so that makes it easy when we do those activities.
After our ministry project we took a bus to the other side of Southall and ate lunch at McDonald's. It was not the best, but I'm also not a fan of American McDonald's so that's not saying much. Across the street from the McDonalds was a Islamic Mosque. We were able to sit down in the room they pray in and speak with the Imam (he is the pastor-like guy who leads the church) and ask him any questions we would like. He is very intelligent and he is also a very young Imam at only 27 years old. He explained many things to us and was very open to our questions.
This afternoon we will be prayer walking again in another part of Ealing. I believe we will be praying mostly for the Somalians that live in this one Estate (this is what we would call the "projects"). It should be a good time!
Continue to pray that God would move the hearts of the people in London, especially in Ealing. Also, especially for the groups that are more closed off to hearing about God, such as the Somali and Afghani people. We thank you so much for you prayers already and know that they have been a HUGE blessing on us while we've been hear in London.
Sorry the post is so long, I'll go now!
-Nicole
Afterwards we all hopped on a bus (which we take everywhere, multiple times) and road to a place called Ealing Broadway to exchange money. This took quite a while as this was a place that had the best exchange rate. Some of us ate Subway (others ate some other sandwiches) while we sat in a park.
When we were finished eating we took the Tube to South Kensington and walked over to Kensington Gardens. In case you are wondering this is the park where Kensington Palace is, former home of Princess Diana. There is a large Iranian population in this area and we took about an hour and a half ans prayered walked and passed out some cards to people. We were able to mwalk bym the Iranian Cosulate and pray for the people of Iran. The people of Iran are a very open people right now to hearing about Christianity. When we were finished we met back up in the park and walked over to Harrods. Now I'm not a shopper, so I wasn't very excited to go there, but it was very interesting. One, I felt extremely underdressed. Two, there were more Mercedes parked in the front than I've ever seen in my life. And three, the Saudi women were dressed extremely expensive while weqaring the scarves over their heads and black dresses to the floor. We're talking diamonds and gold on their scarves. It was amazing to see!!
We didn't get back to our hotle until about 9:30 or 9:45 and then we ate dinner. It was a long, tiring day, but fun all the same!
Tuesday - Today we had a great day at our ministry project. It was much more mellow and we made sock puppets which the kids loved. They were also much more engaged in the story and singing time. They all love to play with playdough and color and paint, so that makes it easy when we do those activities.
After our ministry project we took a bus to the other side of Southall and ate lunch at McDonald's. It was not the best, but I'm also not a fan of American McDonald's so that's not saying much. Across the street from the McDonalds was a Islamic Mosque. We were able to sit down in the room they pray in and speak with the Imam (he is the pastor-like guy who leads the church) and ask him any questions we would like. He is very intelligent and he is also a very young Imam at only 27 years old. He explained many things to us and was very open to our questions.
This afternoon we will be prayer walking again in another part of Ealing. I believe we will be praying mostly for the Somalians that live in this one Estate (this is what we would call the "projects"). It should be a good time!
Continue to pray that God would move the hearts of the people in London, especially in Ealing. Also, especially for the groups that are more closed off to hearing about God, such as the Somali and Afghani people. We thank you so much for you prayers already and know that they have been a HUGE blessing on us while we've been hear in London.
Sorry the post is so long, I'll go now!
-Nicole
London Day One/Two
Ok, so if you've been checking this blog, yes we did make it here and sorry we haven't posted. This is pretty much the first chance we've had to get to some internet access. The trip has been pretty cool so far. Let me walk you through Day One (FYI - I hate this keyboard, evidently British keyboards are spaced differently and I keep hitting the wrong keys).
Friday Night - we got to the airport and got on the plane with no problems. For some reason I thought it would be easier than it was to sleep for about 5 hours on the plane. So we kinda slept off and on for a few hours. That's about all I have to say about the plane ride.
Saturday - We got to London around 2:30pm, Local time. It took awhile to get through immigration and get all the stuff loaded in our hosts' vans. A couple hours after landing we'd ridden the Tube and made it to our hotel in Ealing, London. Had a nice dinner and then attempted to sleep for the night.
Sunday - We went to church in the morning at an Anglican church called St. John's in Southall. That's also the location of our ministry projects this week. Enjoyed the service. The regular vicar wasn't there, but the guy filling in was very funny, down to earth, and did a great job making things clear for visitors.
After church, we grabbed lunch at an Afghani restauraunt. It was my first time having Afghani food....nothing too weird, pretty good stuff. Then we headed out to a Hindu temple for a tour/observation. There was actually some sort of worship service in progress which hasn't usually happened to our hosts. It was interesting, but also a bit strange to observe. There are so many different gods that the Hindus are counting on to pull through for them. It was weird being in the back of the room observing all this.
Next, we cruised over to a Sikh Gurdwara for a tour. I wasn't too familiar with Sikhism before this trip, but it's in some ways a blend between Hinduism and Islam. There is a book that they believe is the Living Guru and everyone faces towards it during times of worship. You have to be sure the bottoms of your feet don't face it while you're sitting there. Both men and women cover their heads and remove their shoes while in the Gurdwara.
Following the Gurdwara tour we headed to one of our hosts' home for sandwiches and dessert. It was a good time to relax after a long day.
- Mike
Friday Night - we got to the airport and got on the plane with no problems. For some reason I thought it would be easier than it was to sleep for about 5 hours on the plane. So we kinda slept off and on for a few hours. That's about all I have to say about the plane ride.
Saturday - We got to London around 2:30pm, Local time. It took awhile to get through immigration and get all the stuff loaded in our hosts' vans. A couple hours after landing we'd ridden the Tube and made it to our hotel in Ealing, London. Had a nice dinner and then attempted to sleep for the night.
Sunday - We went to church in the morning at an Anglican church called St. John's in Southall. That's also the location of our ministry projects this week. Enjoyed the service. The regular vicar wasn't there, but the guy filling in was very funny, down to earth, and did a great job making things clear for visitors.
After church, we grabbed lunch at an Afghani restauraunt. It was my first time having Afghani food....nothing too weird, pretty good stuff. Then we headed out to a Hindu temple for a tour/observation. There was actually some sort of worship service in progress which hasn't usually happened to our hosts. It was interesting, but also a bit strange to observe. There are so many different gods that the Hindus are counting on to pull through for them. It was weird being in the back of the room observing all this.
Next, we cruised over to a Sikh Gurdwara for a tour. I wasn't too familiar with Sikhism before this trip, but it's in some ways a blend between Hinduism and Islam. There is a book that they believe is the Living Guru and everyone faces towards it during times of worship. You have to be sure the bottoms of your feet don't face it while you're sitting there. Both men and women cover their heads and remove their shoes while in the Gurdwara.
Following the Gurdwara tour we headed to one of our hosts' home for sandwiches and dessert. It was a good time to relax after a long day.
- Mike
Friday, August 3, 2007
Today is the Day...
We're off to jolly old England in just a few hours. We will try to post pictures and thoughts as often as possible while we are gone, so keep checking the blog! Cheerio!!
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