Fri/Sat

Well, we have arrived, and safely. Our flight left and landed in good time – about a 6.5 hour flight. However, we had a good bit of turbulence. Eddie, a seat in front of me, and across the aisle) kept clutching the arms of his seat, holding on for dear life. I don’t mean to be faux-blasé, but I really didn’t think it was that bad. But then, turbulence has never really bothered me much. I felt like they fed us a lot on the flight: snack crackers, beverage, dinner (beef lasagna or chicken-and-rice-stir-fry; tabbouleh; tiramisu; and a dinner roll), beverage, (lights out), breakfast (Dannon peach yogurt, orange juice, coffee-cake muffin), and then tea. All of it was pretty tasty.

However, most people didn’t get enough sleep, due to all the turbulence. I always seem to be able to sleep, so I did catch some Z’s here and there. But still, I was tired, and many more were even more tired than I. so we collected our luggage, walked right through customs and out.

We were met by an older American couple, R and S, who lived here for about 5 years, several years ago. They had traveled out to London a day ahead of us, so as to be ready to meet and take care of us. They work stateside with the organization with which we are going, WT. We took the shuttle from Heathrow to a bus, and that bus took us near to our hotel. We then walked over, checked in, and then walked to the home of some of WT’s London Team (P and L). By this point, my classmate, Jayne, had several times described all the walking as, “I feel like we’re on Survivor!” It was quite a bit more walking than pretty much all of us are used to. It’s also been unseasonably warm here this past week, even according to the locals. I don’t think that we were prepared for that. Most of us were dressed too warmly, and I easily broke a sweat on the way to their house. We all heartily agreed that the walking would be much better if it were cooler. But never mind that.

P and L had come from the US about 20 years ago to begin church plants and ministry to Muslims in London. They have a lovely home in S., with a yet lovelier garden in the back. I don’t know if it was/is a proper English garden, but lovely nonetheless. They fed us hamburgers and chicken, and then filled us in on some/most of their team, and most of what we will be doing day to day. I have to say that there was much apprehension amongst my classmates about whether we would just be in classes/lectures or out doing things. I am pleased to announce that it seems like we will be doing a fair amount of things from day-to-day, and I’m pretty excited about that.

However, many of us were still so exhausted that we nodded off during their presentation. I was one of them. We were just too tired to sit in the warm sun with full bellies and remain awake. And I had gotten some sleep!

Ok, back to the warm. I thought I could leave it, but no. We were out in the sun enough that first day that many got sunburned. You will be proud to note that I was too paranoid, per usual, to forego the sunscreen from the moment we left the hotel for P&L’s, and at least got my face. So, while most of my group are sporting bright pink pates, only my left upper arm is slightly pink. And, cloudy or nor, I refuse to return from England with a sunburn! (so slather it I will.)

Sunday

We met for breakfast, provided by the WT people here, and prepared for our day. We are divided into 4 groups: A, B, C, and D. A is my group, with John and Lisa Hanner, Kevin, Bill, Robert, and Dean.

So groups A and B went to S. Baptist Church, while C and D went to St. Paul’s in S. (we’ll switch next Sunday). It was a nice little service. There were about 150 people, with LOTS of kids. P said that it is one of the largest churches in S. (usually they get 300, he said.)

Then all 4 groups headed off to London to see Hyde Park, and specifically Speaker’s Corner (or is it Speakers’ Corner?), where anyone can climb a box or, in today’s case, little step ladders, and speak about whatever you want. Evidently, the rules are: no amplification, no touching, and no speaking against the Queen. For the no touching, it’s more that you can’t physically assault the speaker, or hecklers, I believe. Because, boy do they heckle and argue and yell! There were several Muslim speakers and lots of people in the crowd who were well-versed in pro-Islamic/anti-Christian rhetoric. Just as there was a group we joined in a pro-Christian training at a nearby church prior to our actually going into the park.

We were all very surprised at how vehement the Islamic hecklers were, and how their logic was/is completely different from our logic and how we view Scripture, how we interpret scripture and what things are important to them versus us, as Christians. For them, every little detail is so crucial, whereas, our view of scripture is to take it as a whole, and we in the LEAD MDiv have been encouraged and allowed to hold so many things in tension.

It’s a very different approach.

It was crowded and packed right around each of the speakers, but then the park was wide open and very lovely.

After that, about 16 of us headed to St. Mary’s, not far from Hyde Park, to catch a “younger” service (that’s one of the adjectives that church used to describe the service, not our word). We happened upon it just perfectly, since that night, the Bishop of London was speaking at the service. Evidently St. Mary’s is Anglican, but also Charismatic. There were lots of songs that we knew. :) It was praise and worship style, and I talked to the guy sitting next to me. He said that some nights they just move all the chairs and go full out ministry time. YES! Haha! We might return on Wednesday to check out an “open Jam Session” they hold. We’ll see.

We headed back after that, to an early night. But we all know me, right? I can’t go to bed early! So me and 3 other classmates headed over to a pub for coffee and dessert (most everything else closes by 6pm!!!). We were able to drag it out to at least 11-11:30pm, and then I got back to the room to stay up till 2am. I am back in my groove, people!!!

I always sleep well. Always. London does not disappoint thus far, either. Even though the sun is up much earlier here (I never realized that it was so far further up north), I’m still sleeping well. Praise God!

Monday

So today, we split up again, and my group stayed in S.. We got a tour by P around the little city, just showing us the diversity that has moved in here. There are lots of Muslims, Hindi and Sikhs there, from all over, and the neighborhood reflects that: in their stores, in their advertisements and everything. Even some of their graffiti is Islamic propaganda. After our little tour, we headed back to their house, where we were joined for lunch by a moderate Muslim, well-known in the community, a friend of P&L. He has lived in England for over 20-30 years and is glad to be at least friendly with people of many different faiths. We asked him all sorts of questions, and he answered them, both sides as open as both could be, I guess. We noted lots of things, like how he was very diplomatic and moderate until we touched the realm of politics, namely the Middle East. Touchy touchy! But it was a good and interesting time for all of us.

Afterward, P&L shared their testimony and I have to say, it was very moving. Man, I kept tearing up, but it was so evident of God’s faithfulness!

After even that, I braved it out to London, solo (don’t worry mom!) to meet up with Kristin!! Woohoo! We met at Covent Gardens, had dinner and now she’s showed me her apartment and is letting me use her internet! (Thanks, Kristin!).

I’ll write more on that later, but I gotta go post it before it gets too late! I’m fine, Mom!

Please pray for the people we've met, and the city of S.
Pray for our team, that we would still get along!