I was UBER excited that we had gotten a 5 hour layover in Atlanta because mine and Mark's families were able to come to the airport to see us! We were
greeted in the terminal by my mom, dad, brother, and grandmother, and Mark's dad, stepmom, and brother, also our niece and my best friend!!!
Our time together was precious. We were finally able to talk to each other face to face. We got to spend about 3 hours together. As we left them we boarded the plane for England. The flight was long but good. Each person controlled a small tv screen on the headrest of the chair in front of them. You could pick your own movies, games, or watch the progress of the flight. It was incredible to fly over the southern tip of Ireland at night and see
the lights below glowing.
Early Tuesday morning we landed at Gatwick Airport in Englan
d. We were greeted by two memebers of the YWAM Holmsted staff. After loading all the luggage we were off to the base....on the wrong side of the road!
YWAM Holmsted is AMAZING!! The house is beautiful and has SO much history.
This is the entrance hall of the main house.
This is where we would have all our meals.
We settled into our rooms and then had a meeting with the staff to discuss what we would be doing during the week.
The next hour was the most encouraging orientation that we've had. They explained to us that they haven't had a team on outreach in over a year. They ha
d several ministries that are on their heart to pioneer, but the just didn't have the man power to get them ready. They had begun praying for the Lord to send people to help, and then they received our e mail about wanting to come.
We were an answer to their prayers.
THe first project they had for us was to help with the harvest of some of the fruit that they grow there on the grounds. It was apple picking time!
Their current project is preparing a building to house a preschool. They were getting it ready so that when the inspector came by it would pass inspection with flying colors and they would be able to move forward in getting more room for the current preschool.
When we arrived the building looked like this:
That open door off to the right was actually FILLED with stuff as well. So after a few hours of "cleaning" it looked like this:
But after about a billion trips to the trash pile and one trip from the scrap yard to pick stuff up we were done and it looked like this:
We also helped get the road to the preschool cleaned up and ready for parents to view. There were some giant hedges that they allowed L.T. to cut back.
The rest of us did a lot of raking, bagging, and moving to the trash pile.
THEY EVEN LET ME DRIVE THE TRACTOR!!!!!!!
In addition to serving the base in whatever way we could we were also given the chance to go to the nearest town to pray and talk to people. We traveled about 15 minutes away to a town called Crawley and were able to walk through the square there and pray. While we weren't able to really speak to anyone I was encouraged through the fact that we have been told all this time that "the battle is won on our knees."
Our schedules are REALLY full, but we're enjoying the time together getting to actually DO what we've been learning about all this time.
It's not all hard work though, we do make plenty of time to play too. Mark was REALLY excited that he found someone who was willing to let him drive their right hand drive car! Our "host" for the week Jarod allowed Mark to get behind the wheel. (He's a little nuts because he's Canadian!)
On Monday of the next week we went had a free day. Several of us went into London.
It was a really exciting and exhausting day!
We rode the train into London.
Right there in the train station I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm not sure why there's not one of these on every corner in the states!!!
Coming up out of the train station was the most incredible feeling I've ever had.....WE WERE IN LONDON!!!!!!
Things that I've only seen in pictures were suddenly alive before my eyes
We walked about 8 blocks to Buckingham Palace. The kids thought that the best part was the guards with funny hats.
About 6 blocks away from there was Westminster Abbey.
I was breathless!! I was even more encouraged when we read on the sign that every day at a specific time the chapel closes to "tourists" (people who want to take pictures) and is only open for worship! It was so good to know that the reason behind the church hasn't been completely lost!
Right behind Westminster Abbey are the Houses of Parliament. (This is the building that Big Ben is attached to.) They sit right on the River Thames.
After seeing most of old London we decided to hop on the subway and ride to the other side of town and check out the Natural History Museum. Cooper was VERY excited as they had a HUGE dinosaur exhibit!
Out of the WHOLE trip Cooper is still talking about the "guards with the funny hats and that dinosaur."
It has been amazing and we can't wait to see what else God wants to show us!
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