Thursday, August 30, 2007
Pics of England Mission Trip
sorry that it took me awhile but i FINALLY posted some pics of the England mission trip. a variety of pics. just a little snapshot of our time. Enjoy!
Thursday, August 9, 2007
England Mission Trip
Hi all! sorry it's been awhile since i last posted. thought i'd share with you a little about my recent mission trip to England. the trip was from July 27th- August 6th. was nice to finally take a trip that didn't take two days of flying to get there. (usually flying to India!) the plane ride was only about 7 hrs. we left from dulles and direct to London.
we worked with two pastors, Jon Stannard and Phil Andrews. They are brother-in-laws (married to twin sisters) and bot hare great pastors and great friends. they visited my church back in 2004 and then some folks from my church went with them and some of their church members to Israel last year. so that's the connection.
our first stop was Newbury, England. Newbury Baptist Church. Jon Stannard is the pastor. it is a small, quaint, old english town. 4 of the 6 of us participated in the sunday service. i sang and gave my testimony in both the morning services. the kinds of ministry we did in Newbury was prayerwalking, surveying, delivering a suitcase full of toiliteries to a homeless shelter and spending time with the some of the local church members either in their homes for a meal or for tea at an open house at the pastor's house.
we visited Oxford, Enlgand on tuesday and that was so cool. did you know that Oxford University is spread out in the city and not in one location? visited Regents Park College too. this is the college that William Carey (first missionary to India) attended. we got to see some of his things like his personal bible, his journal, the lounge chaise that we he died on. oh and for your Harry Potter fans, we saw the cafeteria of Hogwarts (see picture below). after our day in Oxford than Phil Andrews the pastor of the 2nd church met us at our hotel in Newbury and took us to London for the day. so we did the touristy thing in London. saw Big Ben (did you know that Big Ben is actually the bell in St. Stephens tower!) did not know this. um, saw westminster abbey, Buckingham palace (see picture below), ate a hot-dog and soda lunch in st. james park near Buckinham palace (ah, queen wasn't home.), did the London eye (picture below) and a touristy thing called the Duck tour. ever saw the movie "Saving Private Ryan" ? remember those amphibian looking machines in the movie? well, we rode on one of those along the westminster side of London (drove by the same places we had walked and visited like Buckhingham palace, westminster abbey and so forth...) then it turned into a boat and we saw sights from the Thames river. SO COOL! (yep, picture below.) finisthed up the day by doing our souviner shopping in this one shop before heading to South-end-on the Sea, England. our next city of ministry.
Types of ministry we did in South end was some of the same as in Newbury like prayerwalking, surverying and delievering a suitcase full of toiletries to a homeless shelter. other types of ministry included visiting a mosque and meeting the imam, rubbish (trash) pickup (near same community near mosque) oh, must tell you that this mosque used to be an old methodist church but converted into a mosque. see alot of the old churches in england are closing down and being converted into pubs, banks, libraries and even mosques. we participated in a really cool ministry with Street Pastors and the SOS bus. every friday and saturday night layfolk from local churches who have been trained to minister and counsel those out clubbing or doing drugs. the SOS bus is a converted double-decker bus that is a sort of hospital room on the bottom and a couseling room at the top. these are also volunteers who man the bus and the SOS van. the bus stays stationary on a street near all the clubs and the SOS van drives its route several times a night to see if there are any who need picking up and taken to the bus for their wounds to be mended and maybe some counseling. the local police and bouncers of the clubs often times contact the SOS bus volunteers for assitance. they do this every friday and saturday night from 10pm to 3am. 4 of the 6 of us stayed out with the Street Pastors and SOS bus till the wee hrs of the morning then went back to our hotel and slept in. on sunday, we all participated in the sunday service one way or another. i sang two songs and shared my testimony, one person read scripture, one answered questions from Phil, the pastor, about Mt. Vernon (our church), one prayed and two worked with the kids during childrens church. after the service, we were split two by two and had a sunday lunch with some of the local church members.
we returned to the US on monday the 6th of August. all 6 of us were blessed and encouraged and were told we did the same with both churches, blessed and encouraged them. quess many are feeling weary and wondering if they are making progress in a seemingly godless society/ country. sound familiar doesn't it! :0( the weather was absolutely gorgeous the whole time we were in country. it was like we packed the sun-shine in our luggage and when we opened our bags, the sun poured out. see, the week before we came, there was much rain and flooding accross the country. someone mentioned that they received more rain in 48 hrs then they had in nearly 3 yrs.
for those of you reading this and new that i was on this trip and were my prayer warriors. thanks from my heart for your prayers. particulary on the 3rd of August. praying for my mom and i as this day marked the 1yr anniversary that my dad died suddenly. your prayers gave us strength to make it through the sweet memories we had. i know the grief we both feel isn't as difficult knowing that dad is in heaven with his Savior. sometimes i'm jealous that he gets to see Jesus face very day. and i bet they had a big party for dad on August 6th- our return home and his birthday.
well, guess that sums up the trip to england. enjoy the pics!
we worked with two pastors, Jon Stannard and Phil Andrews. They are brother-in-laws (married to twin sisters) and bot hare great pastors and great friends. they visited my church back in 2004 and then some folks from my church went with them and some of their church members to Israel last year. so that's the connection.
our first stop was Newbury, England. Newbury Baptist Church. Jon Stannard is the pastor. it is a small, quaint, old english town. 4 of the 6 of us participated in the sunday service. i sang and gave my testimony in both the morning services. the kinds of ministry we did in Newbury was prayerwalking, surveying, delivering a suitcase full of toiliteries to a homeless shelter and spending time with the some of the local church members either in their homes for a meal or for tea at an open house at the pastor's house.
we visited Oxford, Enlgand on tuesday and that was so cool. did you know that Oxford University is spread out in the city and not in one location? visited Regents Park College too. this is the college that William Carey (first missionary to India) attended. we got to see some of his things like his personal bible, his journal, the lounge chaise that we he died on. oh and for your Harry Potter fans, we saw the cafeteria of Hogwarts (see picture below). after our day in Oxford than Phil Andrews the pastor of the 2nd church met us at our hotel in Newbury and took us to London for the day. so we did the touristy thing in London. saw Big Ben (did you know that Big Ben is actually the bell in St. Stephens tower!) did not know this. um, saw westminster abbey, Buckingham palace (see picture below), ate a hot-dog and soda lunch in st. james park near Buckinham palace (ah, queen wasn't home.), did the London eye (picture below) and a touristy thing called the Duck tour. ever saw the movie "Saving Private Ryan" ? remember those amphibian looking machines in the movie? well, we rode on one of those along the westminster side of London (drove by the same places we had walked and visited like Buckhingham palace, westminster abbey and so forth...) then it turned into a boat and we saw sights from the Thames river. SO COOL! (yep, picture below.) finisthed up the day by doing our souviner shopping in this one shop before heading to South-end-on the Sea, England. our next city of ministry.
Types of ministry we did in South end was some of the same as in Newbury like prayerwalking, surverying and delievering a suitcase full of toiletries to a homeless shelter. other types of ministry included visiting a mosque and meeting the imam, rubbish (trash) pickup (near same community near mosque) oh, must tell you that this mosque used to be an old methodist church but converted into a mosque. see alot of the old churches in england are closing down and being converted into pubs, banks, libraries and even mosques. we participated in a really cool ministry with Street Pastors and the SOS bus. every friday and saturday night layfolk from local churches who have been trained to minister and counsel those out clubbing or doing drugs. the SOS bus is a converted double-decker bus that is a sort of hospital room on the bottom and a couseling room at the top. these are also volunteers who man the bus and the SOS van. the bus stays stationary on a street near all the clubs and the SOS van drives its route several times a night to see if there are any who need picking up and taken to the bus for their wounds to be mended and maybe some counseling. the local police and bouncers of the clubs often times contact the SOS bus volunteers for assitance. they do this every friday and saturday night from 10pm to 3am. 4 of the 6 of us stayed out with the Street Pastors and SOS bus till the wee hrs of the morning then went back to our hotel and slept in. on sunday, we all participated in the sunday service one way or another. i sang two songs and shared my testimony, one person read scripture, one answered questions from Phil, the pastor, about Mt. Vernon (our church), one prayed and two worked with the kids during childrens church. after the service, we were split two by two and had a sunday lunch with some of the local church members.
we returned to the US on monday the 6th of August. all 6 of us were blessed and encouraged and were told we did the same with both churches, blessed and encouraged them. quess many are feeling weary and wondering if they are making progress in a seemingly godless society/ country. sound familiar doesn't it! :0( the weather was absolutely gorgeous the whole time we were in country. it was like we packed the sun-shine in our luggage and when we opened our bags, the sun poured out. see, the week before we came, there was much rain and flooding accross the country. someone mentioned that they received more rain in 48 hrs then they had in nearly 3 yrs.
for those of you reading this and new that i was on this trip and were my prayer warriors. thanks from my heart for your prayers. particulary on the 3rd of August. praying for my mom and i as this day marked the 1yr anniversary that my dad died suddenly. your prayers gave us strength to make it through the sweet memories we had. i know the grief we both feel isn't as difficult knowing that dad is in heaven with his Savior. sometimes i'm jealous that he gets to see Jesus face very day. and i bet they had a big party for dad on August 6th- our return home and his birthday.
well, guess that sums up the trip to england. enjoy the pics!
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