June 30 - Monday Messages and Testimonies

I have always thought of my testimony to be somewhat boring because I was raised in a Christian home and church - but WOW what a blessing that is!  So many people have lived lives that were not centered around Christ for so long - I am one of the fortunate ones to have know the love of Christ at an early age! Thank you mom and dad for loving me and showing me who Christ is and teaching me to love Him - I am so blessed to have you as my parents!!!

Monday morning we did some evangelism training with Garreth and Abi.  Street evangelism is a common way to preach the gospel to the people of London.  There are four things to remember when sharing the Gospel with unbelievers:  The Law, Eternity, The Cross, and Repentance and Faith.  Some of us wrote out and practiced saying our testimonies in ways that it would relate to people and ask them about their lives.  Others in the group learned how to create an illustrative message - this is using some object and relating it to Christ and a relationship with him - things like tape measures, cameras, footballs, etc.

After lunch we went back to Ealing Broadway (which is a Tube and Bus stop) and put into practice what we had learned that morning.  A few people stood on the red box (this is significant to another ministry started in Spain http://www.ontheredbox.com/en/) to tell testimonies and illustrative messages! Daniel got up and told his testimony!  There were a few people that would stop and listen to the stories, Daniel and I talked to one lady who said she was a believer and went to a local church!  How awesome is that? She was stopping to hear and said she was glad we were out telling people about Jesus.

We had a free evening because we originally thought that the USA was playing in the World Cup on Monday night but later found out it was Tuesday night - so we headed back into Central London.  It was raining when we got off the Tube, but we headed over to the London Eye!  It is a giant Ferris wheel with bubbles that you can stand in and ride around to see parts of London.  (If you have ever watched "The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" the London Eye is in the movie!)  Since it was raining the lines were short, but we were still able to see A LOT and the sun wasn't in the way :).  Here are a few pictures from that adventure!
 

 The Huge London Eye

 

Big Ben and Westminster Abbey - View from the London Eye

I am not sure what building this is :) but it was pretty from up high! 

 This is Buckingham Palace from the London Eye - you can see it far off in the second picture and in the first I zoomed in to see it better! 

A few pictures looking straight down! We were REALLY high up! 

Daniel and I in the bulb of the London Eye you can see Big Ben to the left of me!

As kids we always joked when we asked mom where we or she was going the response would be Tim-Buck-Two or Chinatown.  Well people I have been to Chinatown - Chinatown, London that is :)!  It is very close to Piccadilly Circus in Central London.  We went and had supper at one of the authentic restaurants!  I am scared to try new foods so I had their sweet and sour chicken - it was YUMMY!

Sunday Worship at South Hanwell - June 29

Our morning started off with worship at South Hanwell Baptist.  It is a blessing to be able to worship my Savior even while in another country! There were many countries represented in church, yet we were all praising the One true God!  The message was on having a quiet time with God each day, something many of us struggle with to "fit it all in", I know that this is an area I need to focus on in my life.  We also sang the song "I'll Stand", the lyrics are:

"I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned in awe of the One who made it all, and I'll stand my soul Lord to you surrendered, all I am is Yours!"

My God is amazing, He died so that I can live with Him forever in eternity! 

After worship, we had tea (the British love to have tea :) and I am enjoying it as well!) and socialized before heading out to lunch.  We ate at a local place called the "Horseshoe."  The food was delicious.  We then went to Speaker's Corner.

Speaker's Corner is a place designated on Sunday afternoons only to basically let anyone stand and speak their minds - as long as they do not say anything against the Queen.  There are debates between Christianity and Muslims, people discussing politics, or Atheists disputing God, etc.  It is intriguing to listen to everyone around you.  I did not like it very much - it is too chaotic.  If you know me, you know how much I hate going to lunch in the cafeteria at school - it is way to loud!  I do not like to yell at someone to have a conversation :).  This is what it was like at Speaker's Corner - everyone trying to be louder than the person next to them so their voice would be heard.  Daniel loves it!!  I will say that I am impressed and excited for the ones who were standing up and telling about God!  It is awesome that they are able to do this and not be persecuted for telling others.  No one ever got violent in there defenses - which also amazed me.  If you are ever in London on a Sunday afternoon you should go for a little while!

After Speaker's Corner we traveled back to Westminster Abbey, where we were able to attend one of the evening services! This church is an Anglican church and the service was only about 30 minutes long.  The inside of the building is absolutely incredible.  Unfortunately we were not able to take any pictures.  You can Google images of Westminster Abbey and there are some from the inside!  I did take a picture of the program that was passed out.

A little bit of irony: Charles Darwin is buried in the floor of the Anglican Church.

Afterwards we headed back to Ealing where we ate at McDonalds :)  Then Daniel and I road the Tube and walked back to where we were staying for an early night!

June 28 - Celebrating 6 Years of Marriage in London

Thankfully we slept very well and all night!!! We celebrated our sixth anniversary in London!  We worked with South Hanwell passing out flyers about the church to the new people in the community (A LOT more walking!).  We visited about 12 homes and only three of them opened the door (most were not home).  Two of these three were not interested at all - one claiming to be an Atheist. The other was very nice and welcomed the flyer about South Hanwell.  We had several groups that went out and others were able to make contacts which is great!

We then had lunch at another friends home before going out to site see!  There is so much to see in London, I was grateful that we were able to do ministry and site seeing by splitting it up over several days!

I have been on the subway in New York, but this was the first time on the Tube - which they call the Underground - in London.  It is very similar with the exception that London's map was much easier to follow than New York's map!
For your comparison:
New York   http://web.mta.info/nyct/maps/subwaymap.pdf
London   https://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/standard-tube-map.pdf

Boston Manor is the Tube stop close to where we were staying!

We took the Tube to Central London - Piccadilly Circus, it is very much like Times Square.  The buildings however are very old and beautiful!

We did a little souvenir shopping in this area, then we walked....walked...walked :) along the way we got to see many things!!!

Buckingham Palace

We walked through St. James Park to get to Westminster Abbey!

We continued our walk to see Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and where the Prime Minister lives.

Big Ben

     

Prime Ministers Home: 

 Gate Guards at Price William's Home: 

It was a really great day ministering and seeing parts of London!  Happy 6 years to me and Daniel :) Love him more each day!

Longest Day Ever - June 26-27 - Atlanta to Miami to London

12 p.m. Central Time - Leave Lakeview
5:30 p.m. Eastern Time - Flight Atlanta to Miami
We landed and had enough time to get to our gate and swallow some food quickly :)
8:40 p.m Eastern Time - Flight Miami to London

As crazy as it seemed, we landed in London on Friday at 10:30 a.m.  After an 8 hour flight on which we did not sleep much, we dropped off our luggage at homes and headed to eat lunch!
The idea is to stay awake and busy so that you can sleep that night on "London time".  After lunch we did some prayer walking - we prayed at a recently reopened "Spirituals" building, an abortion clinic, a couple of night clubs and a Jehovah's Witness building.  It was a lot of walking, but we managed - I might have put my head down on the supper table and dozed for a few minutes :).  We had dinner at our friend Abi's house.  Her family cooked for us and served us - it was wonderful.  (See the recipe attachment from our supper below).

Friday night, the guys did some street ministry at Ealing Broadway (right out side an Underground Tube Station).  The girls helped with a children's night at South Hanwell Baptist Church.
London is not a country that needs us to help build them homes, administer medicine, or other work projects; they need loving, Christian relationships.  Street ministry gives us an opportunity to stand on a red box and tell testimonies, short illustrative messages, and start conversations with the people who stop to listen.  We usually ask something like "what do you think about what they are saying?"  Some people welcome this and will talk to you, while others are either in a hurry, or do not want to talk at all.

The children's night at the church was fun! We went to the local park that was about 3 blocks away and played some games.  The first thing we played was a version of tag, if you got caught you had to go to "jail", the adults chased the kids first (I was the jailer so I had to protect our captured kids so they wouldn't get free), then we played again where the kids chased the adults.  Needless to say they were much quicker at catching than we were!  I mean three of the six adults were jet lagged ;) After the game, we had a testimony and a snack.  Then the kids wanted to play Futball Shootout - this is our soccer ball shooting into the goal!  We had a lot of fun despite our being tired - the kids were very well behaved!!

As you can see it was a long day - by Friday night when we went to bed it felt like it had been two days since we had landed in London, but it was only 12 hours before!  Daniel and I both fell asleep very quickly around 10:30 (that is only 4:30 p.m. back in Auburn!)  I did not take any pictures on the first day :( but believe me there are plenty more on the other days!



Supper Recipe:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/simple-baked-lasagne
The addition of butternut squash in this is awesome!!!

Quilting - My Newest Hobby

August 2012 - almost two years ago - I learned how to piece together a quilt!  It doesn't seem like it should be my "newest" hobby, but every time I make a quilt, I attempt a new pattern, so I feel like I am learning with each one!  I have pieced together 8 during the two years, so I guess that is pretty good :). 

I think I enjoy the designing and picking out of the fabrics the most!  I have used a few patterns that I liked, and then I have found pictures of quilts and made my own patterns.  It is very mathematical, which is why I love it so much :), and I can see the pictures of what I want it to look like in my head.  I have been drawing them out on graph paper so I can also figure measures - this is the harder part just to make sure it is correct!

Once I have decided on design and colors, I take pictures of the fabrics and create my design on the computer so I can make sure I like what it will turn out to look like!

Here is an example of the computer generated quilt pattern I did for my nephew's , Levi, nursery!

After the computer, I then start to cut!  This always makes me nervous, because I do not want to run out of fabric, and everything needs to be precise (I do mess up A LOT!).  I like to cut EVERYTHING but the outside boarders before I begin sewing.  These are all of the squares for Levi's quilt:

These are from Lily Jayne's quilt:

I try to remember to take lots of pictures along the way, but that does not always happen!!  Once things are cut out I like to lay out the pieces again to make sure I like what I have in my head :)

I then start sewing parts together.  Some quilts I have two sew the squares together, some I can start sewing rows together, just depends on the pattern. Did I mention how much ironing there is in quilting - and I HATE ironing :)  I have burned up two irons in the last two years :(

Here are a few different pictures of parts I sewed together:

 

Then I sew the squares or strips in to rows and sew the rows together.  As you can see in the pink and grey quilt, I had to label everything so I knew where it all went :) This came after I sewed Levi's quilt in the wrong order and had to rip it out and start over - I was not happy :)

After rows are created and then the rows are sewn together, I can add the boarder :)  This requires more measuring (because I usually have something a little off) and more cutting!

 Finally the back has to be made - I usually used whatever I have left over, but sometimes I have to buy more fabric for the back :)

I then take this to a lady that has an industrial quilting machine and she does the pretty designing and binding for me (my next goal is to learn how to bind the quilts I make!).  Final products you ask??? I have 7 that I am ready to show you!  The 8th quilt is ready to take to the quilter and it has not been shown to the sweet baby that is getting it, so no final picture of it yet!  Here are the other 7:

  

  

 I absolutely LOVE quilting, some people run for stress relief, I sew!  It is very therapeutic - until I mess up :), then I just walk away for a little while and come back! I hope to make Daniel and I a quilt for our living room soon!
Hope you enjoyed seeing what I do in my spare time!