Bluebells and Such

A glance at the Italian Gardens in Stanley Park, Blackpool.
"Duck Bridge" in Stanley Park. Hold onto your children, ice cream, and dogs, they're not shy!
Spring starting to bud in Blackpool.
Spring in full bloom in Harpenden.
The woods on the Oval and the carpet of Bluebells.
Docked boats in Molden.
A beautiful English house in Chelmsford.
A beautiful walking trail in Chelmsford.
One of thousands of community gardens in England.

A little pond home to a duck family in Chelmsford.
Bluebells in Gallywood (near Chelmsford)
A view of Molden from the docks.
The awesome black house on the way to the docks in Molden.

More Outreach Photos

Some great times were had these past few weeks and here a few more photos to prove it.At the top of Blackpool Tower on the "walk of faith," which was a little disappointing because it was only about a 5-foot square of thick, scratched up Plexiglas, but it was still a trip if you thought about just how high you really were.
Bowling Greens! Oh, how fun it is to watch people bowl. It is a fun sport and I'll definitely have to play before I leave.
Our shopping at Tesco, which is even more massive that Wal-Mart. Feel free to click on the photo and take a look at how different the English nutrition facts are from American nutrition facts.
This was my meal at the carvery (a buffet at which one only goes up once) at the Squirrel Pub. Yes, the Squirrel Sub. At any rate, you'll see 2 Yorkshire puddings, cranberry sauce, carrots, peas, onions, gravy, and turkey somewhere on that plate. All for only £3.50!

Here's most of our team posing with Tea Tree Oil impregnated toothpicks. Spicy and refreshing!
Did I mention that my friend Ester and I tried black pudding? Ester finished hers; I couldn't even eat what I took. Apparently there is white pudding being served out there somewhere.
That is North Pier in Blackpool on the Irish Sea. Strangest carnival I've ever been to, although the chips and curry were splendid.
Ah, the Salt & Light Cafe. That's my bedroom right about "Light." A great place in Blackpool and in my heart! The local sandwich is called a barm, but pronounced "bomb." It is pretty much just a sandwich served on giant hamburger bun. I need to give a word of caution: never mistake yellow horseradish sauce for yellow mustard.
The English are serious about letting you know if the loo you want to use is, er, occupied or not.

If you're eager for spring to come, I'll be posting a lot of nature, architecture, bits and bobs photos next so make room on your desktop and screen savers for some excellent English garden photos.

Whirlwind Tour of the UK

Whew! We're all catching our breath as we're unpacking and enjoying our 3 days on the Oval before taking off for Tanzania on Tuesday. I'm so excited to get my Yellow Fever jab right before I leave, but such is life.

The days have been moving so fast that I can't believe it is the end of...April! I'll be home in 2 months and 1 day, which is so hard to believe. I'm really looking forward to coming home, sharing the stories that go along with these photos and more:
Cats are everywhere in England. Some friendly, some not so friendly, but all are curious.
Wow. I tried so hard to eat black pudding, but I just wasn't able to get it past my teeth. Agh!
Whoo-hoo, I took the lift and climbed a few stairs to make it to the top of the Blackpool Tower. Very fun!
Most people on my outreach team have become obsessed with Muller yogurt. The Americans and German take note of the umlauts and say "mew-lur," whereas the English ignore them and say "miller." On a related note, the Americans also say "Zee-brah" while the English say "Zeh-brah."

Our host family in Blackpool, Jules and Maria--good times!This was a hilarious living rendition of the resurrection in the back of a small church in Malden, England. I have to say, it was quite the find and I'm glad I could take a picture of it.
Malden is famous for the tide and the mud flat races on Boxing Day. The day we were there the tide was in and it was gorgeous!
Allyson, Brittani, and I having our hand at making an elegant dinner atmosphere for our team in Chelmsford. There are cats on my apron.
My friend Roz and I were having fun hamming it up for the camera while out on one of our MANY prayer walks in Chelmsford.
And this here is the results of the MANY prayer walks we did in Chelmsford.

Oh, there is so much more. Check back soon for more photos and details of our England outreach, which was fantastic, by the way!

10 Hours

Yes, tomorrow our group is leaving for Blackpool, a trip that typically takes 3 hours by car. But, since we're taking the National Express motorcoach, we've got a 10-hour trip tomorrow with two layovers in London and Dorset (or some other out-of-the-way town).

In sum, it is going to be great. 10 hours of reading newspapers, old magazines, listening to music, munching on crisps and snacks, talking to friends and strangers, and napping all to my heart's content. We'll be spending time with the Reoboth Christian Center in Blackpool and it sounds like we'll be doing everything under the sun, including web design and serving coffee at their cafe. Rockin'!

In other news, I have plenty of people to thank for helping me reach my fundraising goal for the bicycle for TZ! Stay tuned for more information about that as it develops!

Enjoy your day!

Chelmsford, England

Wow, what a trip these past few days have been! I've been in Chelmsford, Essex working with Meadgate Church on our first leg of our outreach and it has been a blast. Here are a few highlights:

• Last week we were involved with the holiday kid's club where about 30 kids came for Bible stories, games, snacks and of course our now-famous DTS acting troupe. It was exhausting, but oh, so fun to get to know some great kids!
  
• We planned, organized, and led a kid's club for 11 to 13 year olds, featuring Silly Olympics. The best part was getting the kids to spray whipping cream on some of our leaders' faces and trying to toss What's-Its (Cheetos) onto their faces. I believe the Brazilian team won by just a few What's-Its
  
• Driking 16 cups of tea with my host family over 8 days and enjoying our conversations about the U.S., the U.K., politics, the NHS, education, Christianity, theology...
• Driving around the countryside with my host family, seeing a rat scurrying down the road and then driving through a 20-foot long, 1-foot deep ford. Good times!
• Eating Indian food by candelight and a dozen roses with DTS students and church leaders. It's fun to turn passing jokes and comments into reality!
  
• Having coffee with some older folks and talking about their childhood memories of WWII (turns out Chelmsford was bombed frequently because there were factories the Germans wanted to destroy)
• Hanging out at the pub with the youth group and discovering that they--the English-- have 8 different sauces in packets (french mustard, english mustard, ketchup, barbeque sauce, brown sauce, salad cream, tartar sauce, and vinegar) compared to our, uh, ketchup and mustard packets
• Reading English newspapers and enjoying the quirkiness of British journalism
• Stopping into Starbuks and getting a strange, errie sense of just how globalized our world has become (on a similar note, they did accept my gift card from the U.S. and I got to enjoy some filted coffee for once)

We're here for just a few more days and the we're on our way to Blackpool, apparently the Wisconsin Dells or Branson, MO of northern England. I'm expecting more of the great things that we've already experienced so stay tuned for more highlights!

Cheers!