Keeping it Local - Aug 13

This weekend I decided to stay in town... and yet, I wanted some type of adventure or to see something new. I'd been meaning for some time to catch up with Kathy Baxter (Fred Marsh's sister) so we decided to visit Hampton Court, one of the royal palaces, for the day. http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/

The day was gorgeous and Kathy and I had a delightful time. I arrived a bit before her so sat at a small cafe to have breakfast while I waited. We then set out for the palace and took a delightful tour full of history. We heard all about Henry the VIII and learned more about his first few wives and the succession of his thrown. Interesting. After the tour we continued to explore, visiting the chapel, the massive kitchen, and some other bits.

Being as beautiful as it was outside though, we spent the majority of our time in the gardens. Wonderful gardens, including the world's oldest and largest grapvine, still producing vibrant grapes each year. You can't even believe this creature until you see it. Anywho... Kathy and I just walked and walked around all the various gardens and shared stories of what's going on in each of our lives. It was very encouraging to me to get time with Kathy, as she knows better than most what its like to try to live on two continents and start to wonder where home is. Kathy's originally from California. Several years ago she set out to Bosnia to be an missionary (spent five years there), then spent a year in Wales, before getting married and moving to London just under a year ago.

Its seems like we talked about everything under the sun, so much so that we got lost and trapped! We went to check out this other area and got ourselves locked off the grounds, outside a gate, in the middle of a field. It took us about an hour to work our way back to civilization! Ha, ha.

We concluded the day with a maze. Not too tough, but good fun. We joked that the day helped us both get over some odd fears, mine of mazes and her's of geese (longer story - had to do with getting lost in the field, ha, ha). In all seriousness though, it was the perfect day, an absolute gift, to help me relax after a very stressful week.

The day was not through though! I left Kathy to head back into town. Joined Milann and Alyssa for dinner at a Mexican place. It was actually pretty amusing. It was one of only two places to which my entire set of flatmates from London 14 years ago went togehter(we all worked in restaurants so it was hard to get us all out at the same time). I laughed at this realization (and the scarey memories attached).

We got back to the flats pretty early, so Milann went up and Brian came down to join us out at Smiths of Smithfield, a delightful relaxing pub. We just sat on this great leather couch sipping wine, chatting and listening to music until midnight before heading home to get some shut eye... and yet... turned out it wasn't time for bed!

For the sake of confidentiality, I'll keep this next part short... but I have to share. As I mentioned, the latter half of the week had been completely exasperating and anxiety ridden as I delt with visa issues. Earlier in the week I had some nice experiences (went to a very good bible study and much to my surprise ran into a friend of a friend). But late in the week was no good at all. I kept hearing God in my heart remind me to hang on and not get discouraged. He had something for me. I reached out to many friends for prayer... and it was delivered.

Getting to the story - I had a relative of a coworker stay with me for the weekend. She was a lot of fun, but the good part was when she noticed the card of the gentlemen I'd run into earlier in the week on the coffee table. He works for the church and she began to ask questions. Turns out she's a Christian but has really been wrestling the last couple of years with faith. She hasn't really had anyone to talk to about it. All this to say we ended up having an amazing conversation for two hours. It was most certainly God ordained. I certainly wish I would tell you more b/c the whole conversation was such a blessing and encouragement to both us... but I'm sure you can appreciate, why I can't. Just know that I'm smiling and God is very, very good... and very, very attentive.

Well... that's that for now!