London Sights Part 4

 St. Paul's Cathedral. We went to Evensong here. It was absolutely gorgeous!

 Mallory and I on the steps. Mary Poppins anyone?

 We didn't eat here because it was crowded, but walked through this cool pub. Outside they had a list of all the monarchs that have been on the throne since it opened. Incredible! We don't know the meaning of old in the US.

 Some tea to take home from the classic teashop in central London!

 Walking past the Royal Courts of Justice. Stunning, as with everything else.

Stereotypical London telephone booth pic. The end to a beautiful day!

London Sights Part 3

 We got on one of the old road master double decker buses!

 The Tower of London! This was possibly my favorite thing to see. I love Tudor English History, so I could imagine what happened here a little better than other places. This is where Lady Jane Grey was imprisoned and executed. She is actually my 22nd great grandmother, or something like that. 

The Traitor's Gate and the moat! How cool. 

 The Olympic rings are on Tower Bridge. 

 We walked out to the middle of the bridge.

The Hung Drawn and Quartered. What a lovely name for a pub.

Sensitive Area

Noticed that I haven't said anything specific about the missionaries I'm staying with or what exactly they do? That isn't an accident. They are what MTW calls missionaries to a sensitive area. They aren't allowed to put their picture or last name on anything they publish. Is this because London is so hostile to Christianity? No. But their ministry is to Muslims. If any sort of evidence ever got out that any of these people are associating with Christians in London, it could cause serious problems for their families back home in Iran or Pakistan. At Bible study the other night one of the prayer requests was something like this: "Pray for my friend. He has been coming to church and showing interest in Christianity. He lived with his uncle who has cut him off. He really wants to go back to Iran to see his mom, but she lives with his uncle. He feels a little safer because he thinks his uncle will just beat him and not kill him. He hasn't professed Christ, but he is sacrificing a lot just to come to church, so pray that he comes to know the Lord." This is real life my friends. I have a new appreciation for the faith of the US's founding fathers and the freedom we have to worship without fear of punishment. Pray that as Americans we would value the Gospel the way those persecuted for believing it must. Pray also for those Christians. 
"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:11

London Sights Part 2

 The Queen's entrance to the House of Parliament. 

 A pretty building near Parliament. 

 Big Ben, Parliament, and Oliver Cromwell.

 Big Ben

View from the Thames

 St. Martin in the Fields, where we ate lunch in the crypt. It was my first time to eat British fish and chips! I'll leave the mushy peas next time though. 

 Tralfalgar Square

 We opted not to climb the lions, just pretended.

 Countdown to the Olympics.

London Sights Part 1

Whew. We have conquered central London. We saw as much as possible in as short as possible of a time. I'll split it up into several posts so it won't be overwhelming. 

We started off at Buckingham Palace.

Westminster Abbey. This was at the top of my must see list. 

The Westminster Confession of Faith was written here. How incredible!

Where are the Days Going?

I seriously can't believe my time in London is close to up. Each day has been a whirlwind of activities. More transcribing, lunch at the pastor's house, tea, pick up pinecones in the church yard, kid's club, youth group, odd jobs, meals. It has been great, and I am tired! We went to the Indian section of London and it was incredible. I felt like I was in Slumdog Millionaire. (I mean that in the best possible way of course.) Mallory and I each bought a shalwar kameez. I hope we have another Around the World social this year!

I've absolutely loved getting to meet so many people and see so much! Staying with a family is really fun because it has allowed me to imagine what it would really be like to live in this city. 

London Take 4

My fourth day in the big city has been lovely. We started off the morning by going to Ealing town hall and handing out flyers about the lunchtime talks that the church does. They have tea and coffee (no surprise, they have it every time you turn around) and a short talk from the Bible as an outreach to people who work downtown. Then we headed back to IPC for more transcription work. There is a light at the end of that tunnel! But I've really enjoyed it. Then back to town hall to set up for and listen to the talk. Our missionary mom met us there and we went to Shepherd's Bush, a big international market. 

I had a Palestinian falafel wrap for the first time. This picture is obviously googled, but it was actually really good! The falafel itself is sort of like a hush puppy and the wrap had hummus and chile sauce and lots of unidentified goodies. We walked around for a while. I bought a skirt from a sweet lady and a scarf from a Sikh man. It is amazing how much of a melting pot this city is. 

We then walked over to a huge mall with all the posh stores like Rolex, Prada, Burberry. Mallory took this picture of part of the list because it included Searcys Champagne Bar!
After we got back we went to a house group Bible study. It was on Esther and it was soooo good. The US, UK, Canada, India, Iran, and Bulgaria were represented. I have been so encouraged by the people in this church. Everyone I've met so far is so incredibly Gospel-driven, kingdom-minded and prayerful. What a blessing! 

Hymn of the Week

Oh Praise the One who paid my debt. How could I not devote my life to him who has given all for me? Oh that I would reflect the most awe-inducing grace of the Gospel in every thought, attitude, word and interaction. 

Scots and Tennis

Well the title of this post pretty much sums up my day. This morning we went to the church and I transcribed from an old cassette tape a sermon from 1986. The pastor says it is one of the best ever given on Presbyterianism, but there is no digital copy. They are going to put it on their website. It was challenging, because the man giving the sermon is very Scottish, and at times I had to listen to a phrase a few times before I could get it perfect, but I really enjoyed it. I sat in the chapel while working, which is an old convent bought by the church. It was really neat to think about the Reformed Heritage in this nation! And I learned a lot. After that Mallory and I conquered London public transportation by ourselves. We took the bus and the tube! It was a great success! We just better not get too over confident. Then we met our new friends from church Jono and Marta and went to WIMBLEDON. Yes, that's right. Check that one off my bucket list. It was a blast! We hadn't planned this at all, they just asked yesterday if we wanted to go, and tickets are cheap after 5 pm!

The queue is a big deal apparently. We only had to wait in line about an hour or so, but some people camp out!

There is a huge TV with the main match for people who don't have tickets to get in there. You can have a picnic and overlook London! 

 I had no idea there were so many courts! I lost track of how many matches we saw part of. 

 It's incredible how close you are to the courts! 

We had so much fun watching the ball boys, who are in high school and take their job very seriously. This was such a great surprise and something I'll remember forever!

Oh Day of Rest and Gladness

We went to church at International Presbyterian Church, where the missionaries we are staying with attend. I love to listen to people talk with a British accent, so the visiting was very fun! This church follows expository preaching, which is going straight through a book of the Bible in sermons without skipping things. This can seem like an inconvenience when you get stuck on passages like Genesis 38. But the pastor did a wonderful job of teaching a story of prostitution, old customs, and elementary birth control in a way that highlighted God's incredible mercy! Go read about the story and see if you aren't amazed that Christ would be called the Lion of Judah. The man of that name certainly wasn't one of character.  He also pointed out the doctrine of election in the birth of Perez and Zerah, which I'd never thought of before. The evening service was on Romans 9, which fit in perfectly! But that's another tangent. In the afternoon, Mallory and I went for a walk and I played with my new camera. Here are some shots from our borough! 

I Made It!

I'm successfully on United Kingdom soil! I have had more cups of tea in the past 24 hours than I can even imagine. I am also conquering jet lag! Well... mostly. 

 The view from my window in the suburb of London!

Rooftops as far as you can see! 

Goodnight on one of the longest days ever!

It's Almost Time!

I leave tomorrow for my summer adventure. The suitcase is mostly packed.

I have a collection of travel books loaned to me by various friends and family. 

I also have a few books that will be beneficial to my time in London. I'll be staying with MTW missionaries who do ministry to Muslims. This is something I'm not very familiar with, so I can't wait to learn! 

One huge prayer request is that my sweet Big Daddy has been taken to the hospital. He is having a rough time, but one of the first things he said when he got here was that he wanted me to get these books. He has been just as excited as I am about this trip. You can pray for healing for him, and peace for me as I hate that I'm about to be halfway across the world! 

Here are the dates for all my excursions: 

June 22 - Fly from Atlanta to London

June 23-July 1 - London

July 1 - Fly London to Madrid, bus to Salamanca

July 1-28 - Taking classes at the University of Salamanca

(we'll have weekend trips to different parts of Spain)

July 28 - Fly from Madrid to Rome

July 28 - August 2 - see Rome

August 2 - Fly from Rome to Atlanta

August 3 - Start Pre-Rush (yikes!)

I know I'll have internet at some points, so follow the blog or check back periodically for more pictures and stories!