Hi. A tidbit about the Americans I met in London. As much as they are worldwide savy, they are still quite American. Allow me to unpack that statement a bit.
The family that Liz lives with, the Davis'...Ernie, the dad, has such a strong Alabama accent, you would think he had just moved overseas the day before. Nope. They have lived abroad 20 plus years. He can speak Chinese fluently among other languages. I found that out later, or I would most definitely asked him to say something in Chinese with his drawl. His wife, Joyce, is from Florida and is the most hospitable lady ever. Her accent has a definite twang.
Ernie sat in his recliner watching the baseball on NASN (North American Sports Network) on tv, as well as, keeping track of Nascar on his computer. So as different as things are from the States, you retain who you are...fun. Susan, the mom we had Starbucks with and went to ASL with, told us that there is a very large American population around the city.

So...Friday, Tate and I went into the city to do some sightseeing and to meet up with some kids who go to ASL. Brooke stayed behind due to some under the weather feelings. (Julie, a mom, set this meet up for us with her son and some other kids.) Fresh off the train, we left Waterloo station and entered the city. Now begins our touristy portion of our time. Did you know The London Eye looks like a huge ferris wheel? I didn't. I thought it was a solo venue...meaning only one group could go up at a time. This is not the case. We did not go in it, but I will post a picture of it. (It is here that I will interject that pictures will most likely not be posted until Friday due to limited resources until I get back into Little Rock. I am truly apologetic about lack of visuals. Thank you for your patience.) And on we go, in no particular order...past Big Ben, many red telepone booths, Trafalgar Square, Harrod's, Covent Garden, Wagamama's...
We rode the tube, rode a double decker bus, took a taxi...ran the gammet really on London transportation options. But, hey, with an all day travel pass having been purchased, why not maximize it, yeah? Most of that transport happened as we were doing our own version of The Amazing Race trying to make it from one side of the city to the other to meet the afore mentioned kids at a pub near the St. John's Wood tube stop. We made it there only about 2 hours late. : ) The parents had gone when we arrived, but we did get to meet Daniel, Julie's son, and Kelly, who are both very excited about YL coming to ASL. They are eager...yes, eager is the right word to describe them. They asked for direction and structure to start things. Hello? How amazing!!! Tate said later describing the events to Brooke, that he felt a Holy Spirit moment while we were sitting with them. I would agree. When we left them, we were practically skipping. It's awesome to see the doors that appear to be open for us to love on kids at ASL!
Saturday was a down day, which was nice. I slept in, read a bit, and took some time to write. In the evening we went into Staines, a few miles away to eat and do a bit of shopping. I ate a great Chiken Pitta (No, that is not a typo. They add a "t" for some reason. I like it, and I liked it.) at a cute local restaurant with a Diet Coke with no ice. I had a funny conversation with a guy about the ice machine being slow to make enough ice on the weekends. I went "easy on the ice" and thought of my pal, Laura, who would have felt right at home as her personal preference @ Sonic was the only option.

Sunday we drove into the city to go to church at Hillsong. Some of you might be familiar with this church. Matt Redman leads worship there quite a bit, I understand. The church meets in a theatre, which is a cool environment. I will try to sum up the service in a few words...jumpy, passionate, jumpy, revival, jumpy. I mean jumpy in the sense of enthusiam not paranoia. I felt the need to disclaim, so we were on the same page. Seriously, it was amazing to see that Spirit-filled environment in the middle of the city. Sunday just happened to be B& T's anniversary, so they drove me to Hillingdon to visit Liz and Mark again to see their club.
Later that night, B, T, and I debriefed a bit...
No red flags, friends. The doors still appear to be open. Meaning, I'm going. : )
Soon...
kb