Fairs, Crumpets, Meetings, Oh My!

Over the past few days we have plunged ourselves into the life and activities of St. George's, Holborn.  We've attended a local festival, helped with the children and youth, watched the Wimbledon Championship, attended church services, and been to numerous meetings with groups and individuals.  So far everyone has been so incredibly warm and welcoming, and our experiences are teaching us exactly what we hoped they would.

After two days of getting used to life in London (though with still much more to learn) we finally attended our first ministry events on Saturday.  First up was a Worship Central Course held at St. George's Church.  Worship Central is a ministry out of Holy Trinity, Brompton designed to train and equip music leaders and teams.  This week, their final meeting, was hosted by St. George's music team. Our role was to make and serve coffee and tea to all who attended (a group of about 30 from various churches in the area).  Who knew that our time in the Trinity kitchen would be so integral to our future ministry?  One interesting coffee note is that a common way of serving coffee here (other than instant coffee, which is the most common) is with caffetieres, or what we call the French Press.  The idea of a percolator is a new trend, and seen as quite posh.  In America it seems that it is the other way around.

Next up for the day was the 39th Annual Queen Square Fair, the local Holborn fete (pronounced 'fate'), or festival.  St. George's had a stall (booth) selling cakes (cupcakes and cookies).  It was a great taste of British life for both of us.  Pictured here is Mary, a pillar of the church, who is very sweet and volunteers for almost everything.  The fair itself was like a swap meet, with different people and organizations selling items both new and used.  There were also activities for children and local groups performed with song and dance.  It reminded us a lot of Ambridge's Light Up Night combined with Nationality Days.

At the Queen's Square Fair, Brian was recruited to serve as a steward: someone who answers questions, looks out for lost children, and directs traffic in the case of a terrorist attack or natural disaster.  Needless to say, they were desperate. He did a wonderful job milling around, and was able to answer the one question which was inquired of him during his hour long shift.

The evening after the Queen Square Fair, we went out to dinner with this lovely lady, called Fiona.  Fiona runs the community outreach of the church and is also a teacher of 3 and 4 year olds in a nursery (as in the children kind, not the plant kind).  We went to a yummy vegetarian restaurant called Food for Thought in Covent Garden.  The area is known for theaters, hippies, and posh stores, among other things.  Supposedly, celebrities are known to be seen walking the streets, along with many tourists, as you can imagine.  Fiona is pictured here sporting her DIY mustache which she made in the children's area at the fair. 

In the morning, we attended St. George's ten o'clock service, which started with a lovely breakfast (which we, thankfully were warned beforehand was not a full breakfast, but only pastries, coffee and tea).  It was at this momentous occasion that we both had our first ever very English crumpet.  They can basically be described as under-cooked English muffins with holes on top, which we were assured really make the crumpet taste better.  Brian tried his with strawberry jam and Mandy had hers with butter and honey.  
During the service, Brian helped with the youth Sunday School while Mandy helped run the children's portion.  We were both part of teams which are led by Janet, the children and youth worker of the church.  The Sunday School ran for the entirety of the service, although Mandy made it back in time for the very end.  After church, we came back to the Valentine's for lunch with a few other people of the church for an interview of an intern for the fall. We were served Dijon mustard bangers (sausages) on rolls, with carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes.  After lunch, we settled down to watch the Wimbledon men's singles tennis championship.  There was much excitement because, for the first time in 74 years, a British man had made it to this championship.  Unfortunately, Andy Murray (the Brit) lost the match.  However, we did learn a lot about tennis, including scoring, terminology, and fashion.  

Later on, we went to the evening service at St. Georges and were able to worship in the congregation (which was pretty sparsely attended due to the end of the tennis match).  At the beginning of the service we were interviewed and introduced.  Throughout the services and all of our interactions with the congregation, we have been very warmly received and have had many invitations to meals and conversations.  For example, we received about 10 invitations to join a group that was heading to the pub next door after the evening service.  We accepted the invitation and had a great time getting to know more of the members of the congregation, mostly the young singles or married without children crowd, but also in attendance was the vicar himself, as well as the church treasurer.  The picture to the right shows the church (you can just see the sign on the left with the orange cross) and the pub to which we went, which is behind Cagney's Restaurant.

Monday was a day chock full of meetings.  In the morning we met with the vicar, John Valentine, along with the new curate at the church, and the new operations manager.  During our time we learned about the history of the area and of the church, along with the vision and the duties of staff members.  We also walked around the parish, which in England is the geographical area for which the church is responsible.  It was a very informative meeting that gave us a good sense of the context in which we were serving.  It's great to see a church so committed to reaching out to their immediate area in several different contexts, which include students, professionals, transients, hospital patients, immigrants, and the extremely wealthy.


After that meeting, we met with Janet, who is the children and youth worker at the church.  She took us to lunch at a local cafe and we had our first taste of fish & chips.  A little on the greasy side, and a bit crumbly, but oh so delicious! We also found out that ketchup is called 'red sauce'. We thought that was marinara sauce...strange. Janet is an amazing woman who is compassionate and wants to see children who are outside of the church loved and welcomed in.  One of her key strategies is visiting the homes of each of the children and youth who attend at St. George's.  We talked with her about her own history, and how the ministry has grown at the church.  It was an inspiring conversation and we learned so much.


Next in our day of meetings, we met with Hannah Bowring, who works with a ministry called Fusion. Fusion connects those who are going off to university (college) with a local church and also provides resources to churches who want to do student ministry (college ministry).  Again, like the other meetings of the day, it was very informative and inspiring.  She is passionate about ministry to this age group, and the Lord has used her in many ways to grow student ministry in England.  We learned that when Fusion started 15 years ago, there were 5 employed student workers in churches in England.  Now there are over 500, and Fusion is connected with 650 churches.  Praise God!  One highlight of the meeting was the delicious tea, and the awesome combination milk container and sugar bowl.  We are continually amazed by the English...

Our final meeting of the day (which came after a quick run to get some more groceries at Waitrose [the posh grocer]) was the PCC meeting in the evening.  The PCC is what we call the Vestry.  The meeting began with worship music and a quick Bible thought, and then they discussed business.  After the business they broke up into groups and prayed over each of the agenda items.  The group then concluded with the Lord's Prayer.  We were especially impressed with the group's unity, committed vision and concern for evangelism, and the fact that prayer was frequently given as the first thing to do in relation to an issue or concern.  They were clearly dependent on the Holy Spirit and convinced that God answers the prayers of his people.

Yesterday was full of meetings and quite tiring, and today was only slightly less busy.  The day started with the staff meeting, which began at 9am.  As a consequence of our long day yesterday, we did not wake up until 8:31am, which made for an interesting morning, and lots of coffee.  The staff meeting began in the same way as the PCC meeting had, with singing a few songs and a Bible thought.  Then business items were handled, followed by prayer, and lastly came 'box time'.  Each week, a different person on the staff has box time, which basically gives them a soap box and they have a few minutes to share with the whole group something about which they are passionate or excited.  This not only grows the staff's relationship, but also means that they have new information and ideas coming in all the time.  Brilliant!

After the staff meeting we ran home for a quick PB&J sandwich (we literally did not take our coats off), and then went back to church for their Celebrate service.  The service is designed for those who work or study in the area of Holborn.  There was a set of songs, then a message from John, and then a few more songs, and an offer to pray for people.  It was attended by about 10-15 people, and was very well received.  It was also very refreshing to us after having worked so hard for the past few days.

This evening we had dinner again with our friend Fiona (pictured above with the mustache), which included a bus ride out to the east end of London.  It was a great time.  She cooked us yummy butternut squash curry with rice, and we got to meet her chickens.  We learned a lot from talking to her, and were blessed by her interest in the community of Holborn (as well as her own community).

Thinking back over the past few days, we have realized how incredibly blessed we are by God to be able to have this opportunity.  We have met so many of his people in this city, in whom he is working so powerfully to spread the message of Jesus.  We've had so many good meetings so far, and learned so much already, that it is hard to think what we will encounter during the rest of our time.  However, we're sure that God has some amazing things in store for us.  Please keep us in your prayers, especially as we take a few days to rest and recuperate from our sprint this weekend.  And, do pray that the rain lets up a little bit. Cheers!