England Day 6- Church, church and church

Trey Bledsoe May 13th, 2008

Our team was split up today. Four attended an Anglican church and the rest Tabernacle Baptist, fondly known as “The Tab”. The first group was able to celebrate Pentecost with their church, but spent a majority of their time at church working with a small group of kids/youth. It was an interesting experience for them. The Tab group spent the entire worship service time working with the youth, something new their youth leaders are attempting. One of our girls, Jena Coulson, taught about Esther. A story many of them had never heard. She did a great job! We closed that time with a discussion dealing with had they ever been in a situation that seemed small/insignificant at the time but later God showed them that it was actually something big as a part of His plan. It was a very good discussion. We then filled them full of sugar and sent them on their way.

We split up to go to lunch with different families. Ken and Fiona, my host home, took us to lunch at the Beefeater…need I say more. The restaurant was by the Tees River and directly in front of the restaurant was an Olympic style competitive kayaking course. It was impressive, but even more impressive were those in it…the water had to be freezing. The girls went in pairs to join families for lunch. Jena and Michelle were taken to sight see as well…including an ancient monastery. After lunch, Ken, Jason, and I went to find Jason some new shoes. He blew out the toe kicking the soccer ball on Saturday. Its not easy finding size 13 shoes here.

We rested in the afternoon and then returned to The Tab for evening worship. It reminded me of our church..except I didn’t recognize a lot of the hymns. Kasia was interviewed by the pastor during the service. It was very David Lettermanesque. She did a great job on short notice.

Later that night we joined a group of believers from the Stockton area lead by Jon Burns, the Youth For Christ leader in the North East and Fiona’s boss, for a worship service called Vintage. It took place in an old church meeting hall. It was very sensory and focused on the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, tied to Pentecost. It was a great time of worship and fellowship. The five minutes of silence was much needed to stop and converse with God. When we finished we met Hope and Amy from Arkansas and Louisiana. There were great.

It was a great day of worship!

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