A few BIG days

Since our last post we have continued to experience different parts of life at St. George's, as well as taken the opportunity to see more of London.  We've chatted, visited, prayed, played, waited, walked, eaten, sat, ridden a few buses, and attended more church.

On Wednesday of this past week, we met a new friend, Dan, for lunch at a local Turkish restaurant.  Dan is a very active member of the church and serves on the PCC (vestry).  We had a great time talking with him about his own Christian walk and about his time at St. George's.  We quickly bonded over a shared love of liturgy and old hymns.  After lunch, we took a short tour through the British Museum to see the mummies.  It was a good three hours together.

Right when we got back to church we met with Janet, the Pastor for Children.  Janet regularly walks around the parish and visits the children who attend St. George's.  We accompanied her on a 'short' round of visiting, which lasted for a couple hours.  It was great to see her in action, and easy to see why the vicar calls her The Pied-Piper of Holborn.  Janet's M.O. is based on Metro City Ministries in the Bronx, NY.  When she sees a child she recognizes, she asks how their day has been and also asks about family members (it's amazing how much she remembers about the families).  She also gives them a leaflet, which invites them to upcoming events at the church.  It's cool to see how she is open to the prompting of the Spirit, and the Lord has used her to bless the community.

After walking around with Janet, we had a few minutes at home before heading out again to attend a home group in Arsenal, a neighborhood just north of Holborn.  The apartment in which the home group was held was in a complex that is built atop the old Arsenal football pitch (soccer field).  Arsenal is a professional football club (soccer team) here.  You can still tell where the pitch was, and the different apartment towers are where the stands used to be.  The home group had been studying Micah, but that night they held a prayer night.  We first prayed through Micah, and offered any reflections which the Lord had brought to mind.  We then prayed for an upcoming outreach ministry which the church is starting, as well as a member of St. George's who is currently on the mission field in Mozambique.  It was great to see how small groups are run at St. George's, and we were privileged to be invited into one.

Thursday we had been scheduled to attend a local gathering of Anglican clergy, but half-way through the morning we were informed that the meeting was cancelled.  So instead, we decided to plan and book our European holiday (vacation) for after our time with St. George's is through.  We have train tickets and hotel reservations for Paris, France and Antwerp, Belgium.  Praise God!

In the afternoon, we took a quick walk up to the British Library, where they have an exhibit on old sacred manuscripts.  Brian was very excited to see such ancient texts as Codex Sinaiticus, which is a Greek Bible dating from A.D. 330-360, as well as two fragments from John's Gospel which date from the 2nd century. Other exhibits there included Jane Austin's writing desk, and pages from Leonardo Da Vinci's notebook.

Later in the evening we went back to St. George's to help out with the youth group, called Fusion.  The youth group is from 5:30pm to 7:00pm, and is largely a time and space for youth to come and relax in a safe environment.  Foosball, ping-pong, air hockey, and a pool table are all set out where the chairs normally are in the sanctuary.  There are also snacks and drinks available.  This past week there was low attendance, as most of the youth were away on school trips. However, the week prior, there had been 37 youth!  We spent most of our time hanging out with Samuel, a boy in year 7 (7th grade).  We played ping-pong with him and ate way too many crisps (chips).  There was also a group of about 5 older boys who showed up a bit later.  They mainly kept to themselves and talked together. At one point during the evening, Brian helped them set up one of their tents in preparation for the upcoming Focus holiday.  After all the youth had gone, we helped clean up and re-set up all of the chairs.  We came home exhausted and ready for some sleep.

Friday was a big tourist day.  We woke up and set out to see Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Lambeth Palace, the Imperial War Museum, Leicester Square, and Piccadilly Circus.  The weather was unusually dry that day, which was a tremendous blessing, as we did so much walking.

We began at Buckingham Palace.  We arrived in plenty of time to watch the changing of the guard.  Unfortunately, the spot at which we ended up had a large pillar in the way, which meant that we could not see the center of the parade grounds.  However, we were able to see the different groups of musicians and guards arrive, and a bit of their marching around, and we had an excellent view of them when they left the palace after changing the guard (only after 45 minutes of being smushed and wondering what was going on).  We're glad that we did it, but not sure that we would do it again, as it was rather a long time to stand to not see very much.

We then walked around St. James Park on our way to Trafalgar Square.  There is a lot of construction going on in London in order to get ready for the Olympics, which means that the path from Buckingham to Trafalgar was full of detours, but we eventually made it to the square.  We grabbed some sandwiches and ate lunch under the shadow of Lord Nelson's Column.  Then we headed into the National Gallery to view the large collection of artwork exhibited there. It was neat to see what a large percentage of artwork has been inspired by Biblical scenes, and each artists' unique perspective of those scenes.

Next, we traveled from Trafalgar across the Thames River down past Lambeth Palace and then to the Imperial War Museum.  Our walk took us along the river shore, which afforded many great views of Big Ben, the House of Parliament, and the London Eye.  When we arrived at Lambeth Palace, which is where the Archbishop of Canterbury resides, there was not much to see, so we snapped a few pictures and then continued on to the war museum.  At the Imperial War Museum we briefly walked through an exhibit on spies, and then we sat and rested in the cafe area, and warmed up with a cup of filtered coffee.  One of the nice things about museums being free in London is that you don't have to feel guilty about only spending a few moments there, and only seeing what you really wanted to see in the first place.

Once we had rested long enough, we walked from the Imperial War Museum, back across the Thames, up to Westminster Abbey, where we attended a service of Choral Evensong.  The service was beautiful, and it was amazing to be worshiping in such an ancient place.  Many famous people are buried in the Abbey, and there are monuments and plaques everywhere, on the walls and on the floor.  Unfortunately, we did not get much time to look around, but it was still great to be able to visit and worship in this historic church.

We walked from Westminster Abbey back up to Trafalgar Square to again visit the National Gallery, as it is open late on Friday nights during the summer.  After seeing more beautiful paintings, went just around the corner to Leicester Square and on to Piccadilly Circus.  This is a very entertainment driven, touristy part of London, with great shops and a lot of restaurants.  We wandered into Chinatown, which is right next door, for dinner.  Then we walked into the circus (which is a term used for when a bunch of major roads come together...no lions, lion-tamers, or clowns involved).  We walked down a few of the streets exploring the shops, and then ended the day with a McFlurry filled with Cadburry chocolate (the only choice, of course).  Our other dessert option was a sundae from a specialty ice cream parlor, but that would have cost us $20 per sundae! After dessert, we came home on the bus, tired, feet aching, soggy, and exhausted.


Saturday was another tourist day, although we did take the chance to sleep in just a little bit.  It rained all morning, but we were very thankful that as soon as we were ready to head out, the rain stopped and it held off for the rest of the day (for the most part).  We walked down to the Temple Church, which Brian was excited to see because a famous Anglican theologian, Richard Hooker, had once held the post (job/position) of Master of the Temple (Pastor of the Church) there.  Unfortunately, the church was closed, but we were able to wander in the courtyards for a bit.

We then hopped on a bus down to the Tower of London (we are putting our Oyster cards to much use!).  There, we had a nice view of the Tower as well as Tower Bridge.  The Tower of London was used for many years as a prison to hold high-profile criminals.  Now it houses the crown jewels. We didn't go inside, but it was impressive just from the outside. Tower Bridge is famous because it splits in the middle to allow tall ships to pass underneath.  We walked across the bridge and got plenty of good pictures of the Tower and the Bridge (newly decorated with the Olympic Rings).

We then wandered into the Borough Market, upon recommendation from one of our new friends and housemate, Zhen.  This is a market known as one of the best food markets around.  There was food everywhere, both ready-to-eat cuisine, and also grocery-type produce, cheese, and fresh baked bread.  We got a late lunch there (Brian went German with bratwurst and sauerkraut; Mandy went French with a baguette sandwich), and we also had Turkish Delight for the first time (yummy!).  We then wandered around the other stalls, admiring the expensive cheese, fresh spices, and farm-fresh vegetables.  Definitely a place we would get hooked on if we lived here!

After exploring the market for about an hour, we walked across London Bridge (which, despite the propaganda, is not falling down).  We walked a short while to St. Paul's Cathedral and attended the choral evensong service.  The church is beautiful (build by Sir Christopher Wren), and all of the artwork inside is intricate.  There are monuments and mosaics of Biblical scenes and fathers of the church throughout the cathedral.  It's an exercise of Bible trivia just to identify each one.  Mandy identified the pictures on the dome of the cathedral as depicting Paul's missionary journeys (how appropriate for St. Paul's).  We read that there has been a cathedral on this site since 604 AD. The service itself was nice.  One unique bit about the choir was that it was only men and boys.  They sang very well, although we are hardly the best critics.

After the service we sat down at a French cafe just opposite the church, imaginatively named Paul, and had a cappuccino and a latte.  We reflected on the day and all that we had seen, and gave thanks to God for the wonderful opportunity that he has given us to be here and to experience so much.  Our time with the people of St. George's has already been such a blessing, we feel like we've learned so much, and our time seeing so much history (especially of God's people in the city) is amazing.


More to come as we prepare for the Focus holiday this week, and discover more about the wonderful people of St. George's Church. Oh, and do continue to pray that the rain will cease dampening the soggy streets of London. Cheerio!