On Friday, my day was much like I explained in the last post. However, on Friday evenings the campus ministry has what we call a devotional – basically a time where all of the campus students come together to hang out, chat, socialize, hear the Word of God, and meet each other's friends. They're always really fun and a perfect way to start the weekend. This devotional was especially fun though, and let me tell you why. So, as I'm sure most of you probably already know, I play the drums – I've been playing for about seven years now. When I moved to NYC for university, I began to play this instrument called the cajon for our church worship every Sunday – a cajon is that box that people sit on and play like a drum, it's a really cool instrument, I love it! And if you're still not entirely sure what a cajon is, you can check out this song that our church did a couple months ago (skip about 2 minutes into the video, I'm on the left playing the mahogany drum): http://vimeo.com/94020845! Anywho, I've been dying to play my cajon since I left NYC for the summer, but I didn't bring my cajon home with me to California. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get my hands on one in London either. However, this didn't stop me, I was determined to play some type of drum for the portion of devotional when we sing songs. As we were searching for a makeshift drum around the room that we were renting for devotional, we came across a first-aid kit. Still determined to get some sort of drum sound into the worship, we emptied out the first-aid kid to give it a more hollow/drum-y sound. Low and behold, it sounded really good, almost like a real drum. Thus, Friday night was the night I played a first-aid kit as a drum. It'll probably be the only time I'll ever do that, but it's definitely an experience I'll never forget. I mean, how many people get to say that they played a first-aid kit as a drum? The worship (song) part of the devotional that night was infinitely more fun and amusing for everyone.
Saturday was HOPE Day of Service! Every year, the London International Church of Christ sets aside a day when each region is able to serve the community as part of the HOPE worldwide UK effort. I'm currently living in South London, so I helped the South Side region on this day. We went to Sutton Community Farms and helped pick weeds out of the tomato plants. Although this might sound boring or bland or unappealing to some of you, I actually found it quite fun! The time went by so quickly, and I found the weed-picking quite therapeutic actually. The only downside was that there were a ton of spiders among the tomato plants, and I absolutely hate spiders. But other than that, I quite enjoyed serving – it almost made me want to work on a vegetable farm during the summer holiday. I also loved the beauty of the surrounding land – Sutton Community Farms was quite cut off from anywhere urban, so there were loads of fields filled with vegetables, fruits, flowers, etcetera. It was so amazing and beautiful, it reminded me a lot of the time my family and I spent in the English countryside several years back. I would love to experience more of the English countryside.
Nonetheless, my service shift was only from 9:30am until 1pm, so I still had about half a day ahead of me. This is when my friend (Jessica) and I (who is a fellow North American) decided that it's okay to be a tourist sometimes. Luckily, Jess is staying with a British family during this internship, and there is a girl our age among the family (Becca). We decided that Becca would be our tour guide for the evening. We met up around 6pm at the London Bridge Tube Station, and this is where our tourism began. We took the Tube to Waterloo Station, and from there we walked to the London Eye (about a half-mile walk) along the Thames, stopping at markets and stopping to take pictures along the way. Then we walked across Westminster Bridge while fawning over the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. We then walked past Houses of Parliament/Big Ben, still taking even more pictures, and walked over to Westminster Abbey. Of course, we took more pictures, and then walked from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace. After fawning over Buckingham Palace for a while (taking still more pictures), we walked from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square. There, we rested for a bit before heading home. Yes, this was an incredibly long walk (my feet hurt so bad and my legs were sore the next day), but we did all of this in less than 3 hours! However, we did make sure to take the time and really appreciate everything that London has to offer. It was such a wonderful evening, filled with great conversations, great sights, great pictures, and even greater friends. I'll post some picture from the evening down below this post. And like I said, it's okay to be a tourist sometimes!
On Sunday, we had a London-wide church service, so it included every church region in London (over 1,000 people)! It was amazing seeing all of the London's disciples together in one place. After church, a couple interns and I headed over to Camden Town to explore the markets. To be quite honest, I wasn't exactly a fan of Camden Town – I found it too overcrowded and too touristy, but I did have fun with the interns. After that, we all headed to one of the interns' flat, and we all had dinner together. Then we headed home for a good night of sleep before another busy week started. Toady (Monday) was about the same schedule that we've had the other days. Except this time after Bible discussion, instead of going to a park, we all went to the British Museum (which is really close to UCL). It was so amazing, and it was kind of déjà vu since I went with my family about six years ago – as soon as I walked in, all of these memories swarmed back. At the time, little did I know that I would be back in London in six years doing an amazing internship. God is so good – He's constantly blessing me with incredible opportunities.
Well, now that I'm all caught up, enjoy some pictures from my touristy Saturday! Have a wonderful week everyone, and I'll try to post again when I can!
No comments:
Post a Comment