Jesus is Risen

This time last year, our 'team' in Camden consisted of Somer, Me, and the girls. We were sitting on the floor, eating meals off our suitcases, and feeling very much alone.

Tonight, one year on, eight of us gathered in our home to worship God. Two more couples - one English, one American - and a young Englishman joined us. We have been in the middle of planning the course of our ministry here in Camden, and making time to worship Jesus was a natural extension of that. We were asked to prepare for the meetings by reading through the book of Acts, and I noticed just how many times the message of the early church focussed on the resurrection of Jesus. "Jesus is Risen" is the main cry of his people - one that still shapes all of life for us.

Love's Object

Saw a really great film given to me by one of my friends who lives in Romania. I don't even know what it's called - it was a documentary of Jacques Derrida. This American film crew basically followed Derrida around for a bit, filming lectures, a visit to Mandela's prison cell, and a surprisingly large number of meals (Derrida eats toast with butter and jam, microwaved eggplant, prawn crisps with champaign, and some other random things).
Anyway, the great bit was when the director asks him to talk about love. First he rants about how that's not a question, he can't possibly say anything about love, and that they should think of a question to ask him. But then he says this (I'm paraphrasing):
The question, when you love someone, is 'Do you love them as a person, or do you love something about them?' Because if you love them as a person, as a singular entity, then that love is permanent, whereas when you love them for something - this is much more temporary. The question is, do you love someone or something? And then he says that the reason most people stop loving someone is because they have loved something about that person, and that thing has changed.
I shared these thoughts today with some guys at a breakfast down in Waterloo, and then told the story of Hosea from the Bible. God asks Hosea to marry a prostitute, and after she runs off, God tells Hosea to buy her back again. Then God says "This is how I love my people".

Surprise Party

Somer's birthday was yesterday. Last year, we spent her birthday moving to London from the States, so I wanted to give her a better day this year. We did the usual family stuff - girls and I made breakfast, we opened presents in the afternoon after the girls got home from school (oh yeah, it was also the first day of school yesterday), and we went to dinner at a BBQ restaurant. But what Somer didn't know was that I had also arranged to have our friends waiting in our flat when we got home! The good old surprise party.
It went really well - I only had to lie to her once all day (I got a phone call from the bakery that made her gourmet cupcakes, asking when I was coming to pick them up). The last person left at quarter past midnight - quite a party for someone who doesn't like to stay up late.

Fleet Street

Last Thursday one of my journalist friends invited me on a guided tour of the pubs of Fleet Street. Her boss, the editor of a popular weekly magazine, was taking a group from pub to pub, telling stories of journalistic feats from days gone by. Fleet Street, if you don't know, was home to many British newspapers until very recently.
We stopped at one pub in the shadow of St. Bride's church, the location of the first printing press in Britain back in 1500. It's known as the journalists' church, and interestingly enough, is also the church where the parents of America's first European-born child were wed, in 1587.
Some of our discussion centered around the fact that Fleet Street grew up where it did (just outside the western gates of the old city of London) because of the concentration of religious establishments in that location. When mass printing first came to England, the main users of the printing press were monks, printing material for priests and other religious scholars. Over the years, newspapers sprang up around the same location, making use of the monks' technology and the proximity of the king's revenue service, which had to stamp each piece of printed material.

Family Visit

My folks have been visiting for the past week from the States (hence the relative silence on my end). We had a really fun time - went to Brighton for a day, visited the London zoo, did a canal boat ride, and played Spades and Settlers of Catan every evening. My brothers joined our regular Saturday football crowd for a game in Regents Park, and I took them to the gym for a bit of rock climbing. A really good week, quite relaxing for me, and good to reconnect.

India v England

So I attended my first cricket match today - the last day of the 5-day Test Match between India and England. Competition-wise it wasn't the greatest day. India had managed a record 665 runs in their first innings, and England started the day needing 440 runs to win. They never really looked like they were going to get close. After losing their first two batsmen in the morning session, they looked certain to be playing for a draw (for non-cricket fans, if England can manage to not get all of their batsmen out during the day, they will draw the match, even though they have fewer runs than India).
Enjoyment-wise, though, it was a fantastic day. I took my dad who is visiting from the States, and we went with Stu and Ben from the bar across the street. The weather was gorgeous, intermittent clouds and sun, with a light breeze. We sat back with our snacks and had a great time. Now if only England can put on a better showing for the Twenty20 International series in South Africa next month.

Facebook and other ways to distance ourselves from people we're close to

So, I recently joined Facebook, mostly because all my friends are doing it. It's funny how, even after almost 30 years of life, the phrase "Everone else is doing it" still carries a lot of weight.

Anyway, I noticed upon joining that there are over 800,000 people in the "London" network. That's 10% of the population of the entire city on Facebook. Now I'll grant that some of those people probably don't live in London, but it's still an impressive number of people connecting in a virtual network that is centered around geographic proximity. Kind of strange, huh? I communicated today with a friend who lives above me (he appointed me 'Chief Spiritual Advisor' to the 55 group on Facebook). You can 'poke' people, give them gifts, everything.

Now I'll also admit that I have taken to e-mailing my wife at times, even when she's sitting right next to me. And I am known to wake up in the morning, grunt 'check your e-mail' and then roll over.

Harry Potter

Somer and I went to get the last installment of the Harry Potter series last night. The local Waterstones opened at 12:01 AM, and we arrived at 11:45 to find a line of about 200 people. By the time midnight rolled around, there were 400 people in line. We waited about an hour, and finally we were ushered into the store by a wand toting clerk. In the meantime, we had witnessed a fight between rival youth gangs, chatted with the people in line around us, kept a band that had just played a show in a local venue from cutting in line in front of us, and endured countless claims of "Harry Potter dies" from drunken young adults. Interesting night, but by the time we got home, only Somer had it in her to read the first chapter, I ended up waiting until the next morning to crack open the book.

Independence Day...revisited

Friday night we got together with two other American couples who are working with churches here in London. The pastor of the American Church in London hosted, and as he's already posted on his blog about the evening (more eloquently than I could), I'll send you over there to read about it: Psalm 68:6

Concert to end slavery

Last night, as part of our ongoing work to highlight the problems of slavery and human trafficking, we helped film some footage for Concert To End Slavery. Clicking on the link will take you to their site, where you can view the trailer. We organized a mock pub-crawl, simulating our experiences last month distributing the posters and beer mats.

Movie

Somer and I took the girls to a movie yesterday. A friend of ours had tickets to an advance screening, but it was a kids movie, so she asked if we wanted to go. The girls had a really good time and enjoyed the movie. They had face painting and balloon art in the lobby before the movie started.

Greenbelt

My co-worker and good friend Jeremy is presenting at this year's Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham. He's leading a time of worshiping Jesus with Indian music and forms. It should be really good. We're hoping to go this year, at least for part of the time. Trying to get Somer to go camping...that'll be interesting.

300

Hey, so I logged in to make my next post, and discovered that I've posted 299 times...so this is 300! Do a little happy dance with me.....c'mon, you know you want to.

There, didn't that feel good? You're smiling now, aren't you?

The cost of gold

Ever wonder what it takes to make a gold ring? Last night I discovered that the process of extracting 10 grams of gold from the earth produces on average 3 tons of toxic waste, including chemicals like mercury and cyanide. To give you an idea, my wedding band weighs 8 grams...so that's 4,800 pounds of toxic waste to make my ring.
I was at a gathering of entrepreneurs at a small pub on the Thames. One of the presenters at the evening was Greg Valerio from Cred Jewellery. They have managed to produce one of the world's only ethical lines of gold and platinum jewellery. They are able to trace the gold they sell directly back to the mine that produced it, and can demonstrate that all parties involved - miners, the environment, and the craftsmen - have been treated in a just and equitable way. They are working to implement practices that would allow them to sell fairly traded diamonds as well (currently they sell conflict-free diamonds, mostly from Canada, but these are still not fairly traded).
Just to give one example of the inequity in the diamond trade, Greg told of a diamond miner in Africa who mined an 8-carat red diamond. He was paid $2000 for the diamond. When that diamond was sold in New York later that year, it fetched a price of $200,000,000. Now, $2000 may be more than enough to live on for an entire year in his country, but is it really equitable that the miner only received .001% of the final sales value of his product?
So what am I, a church-planter, doing at an entrepreneurial gather, and why am I going on and on about fine jewelery? Well, I was at the gathering for the sake of meeting people who are starting new initiatives, hoping to get ideas, make connections...all in an effort to clarify the vision for new churches here. And as for ethical jewelery, I care about it because God cares. God hates it when people destroy his planet. He hates it when the poor are exploited and patronized by the rich. And he hates it when global economic structures that maintain poverty go unchallenged. We shouldn't merely sit back and wish children weren't forced to work in mines, we should do something about it. Cred is doing something about it.

The cost of living...

While it might cost you an arm and a leg to live in New York City, you'll have to throw in your nose and a pair of ears if you want to survive in London. That's according to the most recent cost of living report from Mercer Human Resources. Well, not really - they simply say that London is the second most expensive city in the world for expats, behind Moscow. Glad to know that, though it still doesn't help me afford that $7 cup of iced coffee.
I've got to get back to helping my daughter learn to add using counting stones, mostly so that when she grows up she'll be able to know how much she can't afford to live in London!!

Waffles

It's waffle morning at our house! One of our friends said she had never had a waffle before, so we decided to rectify the situation. Somer made a huge batch, and we were expecting several friends. A couple texted to say they weren't feeling well, but the one who had never had one before still came. We had multiple toppings: strawberries, powdered sugar, maple syrup. Awesome.

Camden Green Festival

The Camden Green Fair was today at Regents Park. We took the girls after church and met up with our teammates. The girls rode the planet-friendly go carts (i.e. carts that were pulled by humans) and we watched a sheep get sheered at the local city farm exhibit. The weather's been really nice the last few days, and it's amazing to see how many people turn out to sit in the park and soak in a few rays.

Jesus is Lord

I spoke today at the afternoon service at Bethel in Dagenham. When we were here two years ago we helped out at Bethel; it was a nice return for us. Everyone was excited to see the girls and how much they had grown. We arrived in time for the usual pre-service lunch: fish 'n' chips.
I shared about our life and ministry, and spoke from Romans 10:9 about the centrality of the claim 'Jesus is Lord' to the Christian faith.
I'm workin' on a sore throat, so I'm going to cut this post short and go to bed.

Mind Body Spirit Festival

The Mind Body Spirit Festival opened today in Victoria. Some friends had a booth, so I went to see what they were up to, and to check out the rest of the festival.
They were giving "Life Readings" - small quotes from the Bible in a big bowl. People would come and pick out one of the cards, and then they'd have someone read the quote to them and talk about what it might mean for their life.
There was another group of Jesus followers there, called Dekhomai. They had lots of interesting things, including giving free foot massages (yeck...and yet also pretty cool). There was a stack of cards called The Jesus Deck, from which visitors could pick a card. Each card displays a picture of an event in the life/ministry of Jesus, and visitors were encouraged to think about how that particular story might impact their life.
When I told the rest of my team about it, they suggested that we think about using the Jesus Deck. It's surprisingly well-done: think artist on an acid trip reading the gospels and you'd be pretty close to the artwork for each card (Satan tempting Jesus is bright pink and has well-cut pecs, for example) Seems like a really cool way to get people thinking about Jesus in the context of their own life life.
I also wandered around to other stalls - picked up some info on Reiki healing, as I have a friend who does it - and watched as someone sat two inches from a massive gong while having it struck repeatedly (gong therapy, apparently).

Day Off?

Today I had the day off, since I worked the weekend. I had it all planned out. I was going to visit the garden center for a few things, do a little trimming on my bonsai, maybe read or blog a bit.
But instead of all that, I washed the windows.

All day.

Washing windows.

I managed to get hold of a squeegee from the bar across the street, which helped. The insides weren't so bad, but to do the outsides I had to open the windows all the way and lean out with one hand. Somer preferred to not be around while I hung out the window.

Not the 'day off' I had in mind.

Weekend Roundup

The distribution on Saturday went really well. Most places were more than happy to take the materials. I was really surprised...I expected to get more 'no's than we got.
The service at Church on the Corner went really well on Sunday. We didn't have musicians, so we did more of a meditative worship time. We included "minute of silence", which the girls love, before the children left for their class. The sermon was about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and it just so happened that the two-year lectionary we use as a team had Matthew 10:24-33 as one of the readings for Sunday. The passage begins by saying that a disciple is not above his master, which fit really well with the theme. So we read the passage a few times and allowed it to lead us as we went through times of confession and prayer for the persecuted church. Good stuff.
Sunday ended with a few hours at "Ain't Nothin' But" jazz cafe to watch a friend play in a jam session. It was incredible. My friend is an awesome guitarist, and they had the craziest drummer - he reminded us of 'scat-cat' from the Aristocats.

Day of Prayer

One Wednesday a month our team spends the day in prayer. We also fast to make room in our lives for prayer (you'd be surprised how much of your day is consumed by preparing, eating, and cleaning up food), and to connect our bodies to the sense of urgent need we feel for God.

We spent the morning yesterday at our house, and had a really great time. One of the specific things we prayed about is how to be involved in working for justice in Camden. To guide our praying, we read through several passages of the Bible where God demonstrates his love for justice and declares freedom to the oppressed. Isaiah 61, Luke 4, James 1. Awesome stuff.

Then in the afternoon we headed over to the team leader's house. Using the Lord's Prayer as a guide, we prayed for everyone we know in Camden, for our supporters back in the States, and for the other workers with our mission.

London Churches Football Tournament

The tournament today was amazing. I left our building at 8:30 with four others for the walk up to Regents' park. It was cloudy and cold, with occasional drizzle...perfect football weather. We started well, stealing a goal in our first match to win 1-0. From there, it started to go downhill. We were soundly beaten in the second game 2-0, and lost the next one 2-1, losing in the last minute on a mental lapse after playing a hard draw for most of the game. We pulled it back in the last one, though, dominating play and winning 1-0.
We finished 'league play' with six points, which was good enough for third place in our league and a spot in the runners-up knock-out phase.
We won our first knock-out match 1-0, again dominating play for most of the game. We continued to control play, and spent almost the entire length of our quarterfinal match in the opponents' half. We could not, however, manage to get the ball into the net. So it went to penalties, and we lost 3-2 on penalties.
Everyone had a great time...some of us (including the guy who missed the last penalty) were relieved to be finished. We were worn out and ready to head home. Thanks to Church on the Corner to putting this on. Well done, guys! And thanks to the gang from 55 for being such an awesome team.

The Greatest Gift

Yes, we know the greatest gift is the one you give, not the one you get...but this one that I received ranks right up there.
My parents got me a subscription to Jeroboam's Cheese Club for my birthday back in January. The latest installment of God's gift to our taste buds arrived on Thursday. A Blue, a Gruyere, and two soft goats cheeses. Two of them are made from unpasteurized milk, a delight that you my American readers may not have tasted, since all cheese sold in the US must be made with pasteurized milk.
My neighbor Paul is a big wine buff with a large cellar of Reds, so we'll be getting together sometime this weekend to share the delights of vineyard and dairy.

Network "Issues"

Yes, for those of you who check here regularly, I haven't posted much. We've been having 'network issues'. Which means there's a problem with the internet signal coming into our building. Councils have to be contacted, planning permission given, roads dug up, etc. etc. So I'm borrowing a friend's signal to update things. Sorry for the long silence.

Prayer Walking with Jodie

Today Jodie and I went for a prayer walk on the streets around our apartment. Our team has set aside one day a month for focussed prayer and fasting, and today is it. We met here in the morning for prayer together. Andi and Jodie helped lead the opening of our day, as we sang "Here I Am To Worship" and prayed for people we know, including their teachers and friends from school.
Then we split up for the afternoon, and Jodie and I were together. We ran into a friend who has recently given his life to Jesus, so we prayed for him as we walked. Also prayed for our friends in the market as we walked by their various stalls. Also asked Jesus to bring his reigning light in the midst of the darkness of the spiritualists and fortune tellers.
It was really fun doing it with Jodie, and I'm encouraged by the fact that today was the first prayer walk I've been on in a while that I've been able to focus and haven't felt light-headed (and that in spite of the heat and fasting). I'm thinking I'd like to include the girls in our prayer-walking in the future.
I asked Jodie what she liked most about the prayer walk: Seeing the Hello Kitty store, was her response.

London Sun

It has been amazingly warm here. We've had temperatures above 70 F and no clouds to speak of. Saturday football at Regents park was a bit hot as a result. I was beat after about 10 minutes of play. It probably didn't help that we only had 6 guys, so 3-on-3 was all we could muster.
The tone of Camden really changes when the weather is nice - lots of people out on the streets, no matter what time of day. Tons of people at Regents park - we took a walk there yesterday with the girls and it was hard to even find an empty bench or space under a tree to sit and rest.
We have been encouraged by a number of different people to make sure that we don't attempt too much in our first year, but to really take our first year as one of learning/listening. The change in season has reinforced that for me. The way the seasons affect the feel of the city is amazing - you'd assume that a city would carry on as usual, no matter what the weather, but it definitely changes things.

Home to Camden

We're back from our trip to Valencia, Spain. Actually, we've been back for a while, but our internet access has been non-existent since our return. It's back now, but I'm not sure for how long. Something about problems with the under-street network cables.
Anyway, thanks to all of you who were praying for our time outside of London. It was VERY refreshing. We stayed in a friend's apartment, which meant that the area was more Spanish than tourist, and that was nice. I did far less talking during that week than I ever do in even one day here. The girls and I played football and dug big holes on the beach. We visited an old monastery and a church/castle on a mountaintop overlooking the Mediterranean. It had a walk with the stations of the cross, which I did alone on Saturday of Easter week.
Our last few days there were colder and wetter than the weather here in London (we returned to 70+ degrees and bright sun) but it was still really good for us to be away and together as a family.

Silence

I won't be posting for the next two weeks. Check back after that to see what we've been up to.

Heard on the streets of Camden:

"I gave my life over. Did it about thirty minutes ago."

"To Jesus?"

"Yeah, to Jesus."

I just got home from buying a couple books (see the sidebar for my new reads). On the walk home, I ran into a guy who I haven't seen in quite a while. Last time I saw him was when I preached at Freedom House. He said he had just come from a friend's house, and about thirty minutes ago had decided to take the plunge and follow Jesus!
We chatted for a bit about how hard it's going to be to tell his friends. I prayed for him, and he asked me how it was going with keeping the house clean (I had shared in my sermon that one of the things I need forgiveness for is telling Somer I'll clean up and then not doing it).

And I thought nothing interesting was going to happen today.

Last week of shelter

One more week to go for the cold weather shelter. We've had close to 50 people staying at the shelter for various lengths of time. Some of them only stay for a few days, others for almost a month. Last month, we were able to find housing for almost half of those who stayed with us longer than three nights. Which is pretty exciting.
The response to the appeal for starter-pack items was overwhelming. We should have a good number of things left over to provide seed for packs for next year. Even though the shelter itself is about to finish, the advocacy work of helping find homes for people will continue for another month. So in theory we could use up everything that's been donated. Next year we're going to work on getting some companies and local civic organizations on board at the beginning to provide some of the items we need to buy new, like alarm clocks and electric kettles (for my American friends, an electric kettle is a basic household necessity, used to boil water for tea...people here can't imagine how we cope with having to boil water on the stove-top!!)

Pigeon on the Tube

There's this great scene in You've Got Mail where Kathleen Kelly describes a butterfly who got on the subway at 53rd St. and off again at 59th, "presumably to buy a hat from Bloomingdale's."
Last night I was on my way home from an appointment in North London when I saw a pigeon on the platform for the Northern Line at Euston station. I started thinking how cool it would be if the pigeon got on the train. Well, wouldn't you know it? When my train arrived and the doors opened, the little guy hopped right in front of me and got on the train. I just stood there staring at it with the woman next to me...neither of us were sure what to do. She decided to get on a different carriage; I didn't want to miss any of the action. What would the bird do next? I wondered.
When I got on, it scared the pigeon, who flew franticaly down the length of the carriage. People were scared and held up their arms to fend off the panicked bird. It got to the end of the car, fluttered around for a bit, and then flew out the other door before the driver closed the doors and drove off to the next station.

Football

The past two Saturdays I've been at football training. Yes, after a nearly ten-year absence from the football pitch, I am again breaking out the skills. I'm not sure my body is all that happy about it - it's a lot different playing as a soft 28-year-old than as an 18-year-old. You kind of have to pace yourself a bit more. But it does help that the guys I'm playing with have been even less active than me.
Basically, we've put together a team from guys I know over at 55, and entered into a tournament at the beginning of May. It's a one-day tournament sponsored by my friend Mark's church over in Islington. It should be really interesting. So far, our team looks decent. Plus, it's loads of fun.

Starter Pack Update

We've been overwhelmed with the response to our appeal for items for the starter packs. The Texas group brought lots of bedding items (things we were very low on) and we've had donations from a number of different sources. We've only given away 3 packs so far, but today I'm meeting the project coordinator to get him two more packs, and it looks like the rate of placement into housing from the shelter is on the rise. Also, there are a few people who have resettled into housing who didn't get packs, so it's looking like this week will see a number of packs delivered.

Texas Team

Last week we had a group of Texans come to Camden to pray over our city. We had a fun, encouraging, busy week (hence the silence over the past week). They prayed over the neighborhoods, schools, and shops in Camden Town. A few shopkeepers were eager to have their businesses prayed for and had members of the group pray with them.
We also had them help us with some of the neighborhood research we've been doing. When they weren't busy prayer-walking, they were talking to people on the streets, finding out what they like and dislike about Camden, what kinds of things they think the church ought to be doing here, etc.
For us, it was really nice to have people who were so encouraging and who could understand some of the things we've been experiencing over the past six months. It was also really helpful to have fresh sets of eyes and ears to help us understand Camden in a new way. Thanks for coming!

Waterloo

Yesterday I dropped into the Waterloo homeless center, run by one of my friends with London City Mission. I gave the morning talk and then had breakfast with the men. The talk was based on a conversation I had with one of the guys at 55. We had talked about civil war, and how people are so quick to find reasons to fight with each other. Even when we're really young, we try to pull other people down so that we can look better or feal better about ourselves. But Jesus introduces a different way of living, a way that isn't based on how good we are, how strong we are, who we can beat up, or even how bad we are. It's based on how much we're loved. This frees us from the daily burden of climbing the human ladder, dragging other people down so we can get closer to the top. That's why he could say "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yolk upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yolk is easy and my burden is light."

Jet Powered Beetle

This is totally random, but I stumbled onto Ron Patrick's site today. My engineer friends ought to enjoy this one, plus anyone who's ever dreamed of sticking a jet engine out the back of their vehicle. Come to think of it, my London teammate Dan B might want to see if this guy can do anything for Lucille.

The People of the Abyss

Russell, one of the regulars down at Fifty-Five, dropped off a couple books for me to read yesterday. He's really into historical sociologies of London. One book he's currently reading is a history of crime in the city. Anyway, he lent me two books: The People of the Abyss by Jack London, and East End, which is a 400 year history of London.
I'm especially intersted in the Jack London book - Russell says it'll be a good intro for me, since it's coming from the perspective of an American investigating London. I'll have to add them to the "reading list" on the sidebar, since it's already out of date, but I'm lazy and that takes more work.

Start of Lent

With the start of Lent comes the beginning of our fast from alcohol (not really much of a "fast" I'll admit). Thursday I went down to Fifty-Five and hung out with regulars Russ and Tina. Ben and Dom were there (two of the bartenders who are doing the Thirst for Life). I had a fruit smoothie and a grapefruit juice. Kinda wish there'd be a campaign to give us cigarettes for lent, as that's the most unpleasant part of going to any bar...but only for another 4 months, as smoking will be banned in all bars and restaurants starting in July.

Pancake Day

Shrove Tuesday (or Pancake day) came and went and I forgot to post about it. Lots of people do pancakes here - though they're a bit different from the American version. Usually they are thinner, more like crepes. The most popular topping seems to be sugar and lemon juice. Sainsbury's sells ready-made pancake batter in a bottle.
Somer made ours the old-fashioned way. You can see the receipe and a picture here.

Starter Packs

As some of you have probably heard, I'm helping coordinate starter packs for a local night shelter. The packs help people who move out of the shelter and into permanent housing by giving them the basic household items they need to make a good start in their new home.
So far we have items for about 3 packs, and I'm picking up more items in the next few days: a guy who's leaving the country and clearing out his house, a reject kitchen store is giving us two shelves of plates and mugs, and the Salvation Army recently closed a charity shop and has a few things to donate.

Thirst for Life

So I've decided to give up alcohol for Lent. Ben, one of the Bartenders at 55, asked me if I'd be willing to do it with him. It's part of this campaign called Thirst for Life, which aims to raise awareness of the problems of binge drinking in the UK. Because it's so unusual for a bartender to give up drinking (and ask one of his customers to do it too!), Ben has been asked to do a weekly update for the BBC about the experience. So starting next week, it'll be fruit smoothies and milkshakes for me at 55 until Easter.

England 1-0 Australia

Just finished watching the first of the three match CB One Day International series final between England and Australia. It was incredibly close...England won in the final over with three balls to spare. Very exciting play. Paul Collingwood was clearly the man of the match, scoring 120 not out, and hitting the winning run. Final tally was England 253-6 to Australia 252.

For those of you who wonder how in the world you can have a close game when teams score upwards of 250 runs, well, you'll just have to watch. But I will say this: Cricket is much more exciting than Baseball. Though the games take longer to play, there's no standing around, waiting for the guy to hit the ball, waiting for a team to score runs. Very rarely do you get an over without any runs scored (an over consists of six balls - how many times in baseball do you get a run scored every couple of pitches?).

And yes, I know my Aussie friend Doug will say that he's not very interested in ODI matches...it's Test Matches that really matter. Fair enough. His boys did destroy England in the Ashes test series. But still, it's nice to see England on top for a change.

Starter Packs Start

We're finally getting off the ground with our starter pack initiative. Last week I met with a board member for the Camden & City Churches Cold Weather Shelter, who gave us the go-ahead to work on the starter packs. We arranged over the weekend to use a basement room that's standing empty in the local Methodist church as our base of operations. We'll be picking up the keys and then collecting the first of our donated items early next week.
What are 'starter packs' you ask? Here's an excerpt from the literature:
Starter packs help people establish a route out of homelessness. Many new tenancies fail in the initial stages because of a lack of financial resources to provide the basic household items that turn a house into a home. By providing these essentials, starter packs can help eliminate the ‘revolving door’ experience of many homeless people.
We are starting with the bare minimums - kitchen items, cleaning supplies, and a few other things. In the future, we hope to follow the model of other groups who provide bedding, small kitchen appliances, drapes, etc.
I'm really excited about all this, but also feeling a bit overwhelmed with it all. If any of you have any experience or ideas for who I should talk to about getting used or donated new items, let me know.

Reading Changes

Thought I'd update you on the changes to my reading list. First, apologies for the lack of update in recent months...I've read many things, forgotten most of them...anyway, here's what's on the horizon for my eyes:
Watership Down was recommended by Jeff, an artist who is all over Camden. In addition to his own stall, Jeff's work is displayed at As Yet Unknown Gallery and helps set the tone for the newly opened RB Cafe. The book played a part in his latest series of works exploring Killer Bunnies.
Mayflower was recommended by one of my readers in response to my lack of knowledge of Thanksgiving. He actually sent me a copy - thanks!
Celtic Way of Evangelism is a combination of historical analysis of the movement of Celtic monks combined with present-day application. Our team is reading it as part of our ongoing exploration of appropriate models for the life of the church in Camden

55 for dinner tomorrow

Update: Dinner with 55 was really fun. The girls were a little shy, but came out of their shells by the end. It was great to spend some time with Shannon as well. She's helping organize a Saturday workshop in March around the concept of missional entrepreneurs (or something like that - sorry if I've totally missed the point, Shannon) - anyway, it sounds really interesting. She's in the process of looking for an apartment, so we had Somer pray for her since she has a special gift of prayer when it comes to those kinds of things.

Original post:
The guys of 55 will be over for dinner before they open the bar tomorrow. They should be over around 4:30. Can't wait.
Then, in what is probably a first for us, we'll be having a second dinner seating at a more normal time. Shannon is coming over. Shannon's been helping to connect various people in London who are exploring new ways of doing church. I'll fill you in on our meal later, if there's anything to report.

Birthday Party

We had my birthday party yesterday. The girls were very excited about the party, probably more than I was. They couldn't believe that we were thinking of having a party without playing "Pass the Parcel". We explained that this was a grown-up party, to which Jodie responded that it sounded like a very boring party, and she wondered how people would have fun if we didn't play games.We decided to do Pass the Parcel, and it ended up being lots of fun. We had a few friends over; and Somer and Kathy made sushi and little toasts. Instead of a cake, Somer made cupcakes. When it was all over, we took some extras across the street to the bartenders at Fifty-Five.

I'm On TV

I was having lunch with my team leader and a friend at a local Indian restaurant. The place had undergone major rennovations and just recently re-opened. While we were waiting for our food, I saw throught the kitchen door that a camera crew was filming the restaurant. The manager asked us if we'd be willing to let them film us while we ate. Always hungry for attention, we agreed.
It felt a little strange to have people filming our discussion about research in Camden and what a future church will look like. But then came the real fun: They asked to interview me. I have absolutely no idea what they were filming for...the questions surrounded my experience with the restaurant, the service and food, that type of thing. They told me to call back and they'd tell me when it was going to air. Doubtful anyone outside the UK will be able to see it, and even if you do live here, it could be showing on some tiny public-access cable station for all I know. But I'll let you know if I find out.

Finder of Cool

How'd you like that for a job title? I'm a "Cool Finder", thank you very much. "Stand back everyone, I've found some cool." "No officer, I do not know how fast I was going, I was too busy finding the cool in this Porche." Sounds like the best job ever.
Well, I met a real live cool finder yesterday. At least, that's what he said he was. Then he explained that he works in fashion. He finds the latest "cool" here in London, and takes it to Spain, where he's from. So not quite as 'cool' as it sounded at first...but maybe.
Anyway, I met the cool finder at the climbing wall at my gym. It's been a great place to meet new people in Camden. It's very interesting how in certain circumstances I'm willing to put my life in the hands of a complete stranger. I climbed to the top of the wall on my first go yesterday, and all I knew was the cool finder's name. That's it. Didn't even know he mined London for the latest and greatest fashions until after he lowered me down. I'm sure there's some profound truth to be gleaned from that...
And on the flip-side, today I took the person I trust most in life for a taster session at the wall while the girls were in school. Somer did really well...she climbed to the top on her first two attempts, and didn't fall at all. She also did a great job belaying me, though I think that wore her arms out more than the climbing did.

Climbing Kiwis

Just returned from a great climbing session at Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre. Tuesday and Thursday evenings are open club nights...anyone can come, get paired up with someone, and climb away. Tonight I climbed with a New Zealander and a couple of his buddies - great guys. They invited me to climb with them tomorrow night somewhere else in London...I've gotta chat with Somer and see if it'll work.

London Wind

Wind gusts of 77 mph have been reported this afternoon at Heathrow airport in London. The BBC reports that Lords Cricket Ground, which is not too far from us, has lost its roof.
I had lunch this afternoon with my friend David from the market. On the way back I was planning to walk through the market and visit a few friends. However, due to the wind, most of the market was closed off to prevent people being injured by falling debris. Most of the market is a make-shift structure, with corrugated plastic roofing and recycled timbers.
On my way home, I saw the roof of another building being blown off, and realized that I stood in the path of the debris if I didn't move. So I moved to the top of the bridge over the canal and felt the wind as it wipped up spray from the canal 15 feet below.

Sad Update: A toddler was killed during the storm when the wind blew a brick wall over. I rode past the spot this morning on the bus on my way to a prayer meeting - a large section of wall had fallen, and police had roped off the area. It happened just a mile or two from our house...very sad.

Colts are goin' down!

That's right, it's time for Baltimore to exact a little revenge for the sneaky departure of the Colts to Indianapolis nearly two decades ago. Now, the fact that I was very young and have no recollection of that even is irrelevent. I heard my parents talk about it enough over the years that I remember it (even though I don't).
So anyway, Saturday night Baltimore plays Indianapolis, and I can't wait. I'm heading down to a sports bar in central London to watch the game. If any of my London-based readers (and I know there are two or three of you) want to join me, drop me a line and I'll give you the details.

Back to normal

Life is finally returning back to normal after the holidays. Some of it's good, but not all of it. Tuesday we said good-bye to Somer's sister, who had been here with us since Christmas day. We really enjoyed having her here, and we miss her now. We both got into Lost while she was here, though I missed an evening of viewing and fell helplessly behind...she was most of the way through season 2 when she left, and I was only wrapping up season 1.
Other marks of normality are the return of people we know. Things really empty out at Christmas, and so we're in the process of getting reconnected with friends. One of the guys I know at the market was in Turkey for a week, another went up to Wales, and a third was out in the country near Oxford. I'm hoping to see that last guy tonight...he's been holed up working on a new album with one of his bands, and is taking a few days off to come up for air.
Oh, and the other normal thing? After a couple days of sunshine, we're back to low-hanging cloud.

Updates

Thanks for the comments, Matt & Tim. The sermon at Freedom House went well. I spoke on John the Baptist, which is what they are focusing on this month. My favorite part was that John's message of baptism of repentance lays everyone low. He prepared the way for the coming of Jesus the king by putting everyone on the same level - religious, non-religious - everyone had to acknowledge their failings. And that repentance is made possible because forgiveness is freely offered. Jesus' came to make God's forgiveness a reality for all people, and John prepares the way by getting people ready to receive that forgiveness. So that was the heart of the message.

On another front, I've told the cold weather shelter guys that I'd be willing to help (along with the rest of my team) with coordinating starter packs for people who move off the streets into housing. I'm waiting for them to get back to me with details...but it looks like we could start working on it sometime next week. Will keep you posted.

Freedom House

I've been asked to preach on Sunday at Freedom House, a new church in Camden. The guy who normally preaches has just had a new addition to his family, so he's up to his elbows in diapers and night-feedings and all that other stuff that makes early parenting so great. A couple of my friends who don't normally go to church have said they'd like to come along (they promised to sit in the back and heckle me, which is always welcome). I'll try to post sermon content here before Sunday...I'm finding out what he wants me to preach on later today.

Cold Weather Shelter

I just returned from the breakfast shift at the Camden cold weather shelter. The shelter rotates between seven different sites in the borough, one each day of the week, and runs through March. We had a nice breakfast together with the shelter guests and chatted with them for about an hour.
One of the things I like about this shelter is that there is a person dedicated to helping guests sort out housing/job/healthcare needs. The idea is that guests will not use the shelter for more that 28 straight days, but will have found accomodation either in a council flat or in private accomodation shared with friends. It looks like I might be helping to coordinate welcome packs for people moving into more permanent accomodation. Once people move into their new home off the streets, they need things like a pot, a couple of plates, some forks, etc. I think I'll enjoy helping pull that together.

It's true...

I'm the father of a fairy princess.

The Sun rears its head

For a few hours at least...this was the sight out our window at 3:15 yesterday afternoon; and what a glorious sight it was! It's been almost two weeks since we last saw the sun. Low clouds and fog have been our companions this Christmas season. But not yesterday! We even went to the park to celebrate.

Cold Weather Shelter

Looks like I'll be helping out this winter at a rolling cold weather shelter for homeless people in Camden. It runs from January through March, and is "rolling" in that it is hosted at seven different sites throughout the borough - one each night of the week. I think I'm helping at one of the morning sessions, helping to make and serve breakfast to the guests who have spent the night. More details later...I went to a training day yesterday, but still don't really know what my involvement will look like.

Drum Lessons

Andi and Jodie loved the African drum lesson. It wasn't really a lesson, so much as a jam session with one of the women in the shop. She started trying to teach the girls how to hit the drum properly, but they were shy and didn't want to do anything she was telling them. Then she said "I'm going to play, and you improvise when you feel comfortable." That did it. The girls had a really good time playing the instruments and then dancing to the beat while other people drummed. It really fascinates them that the drums are made with animal skins. They keep asking if different kinds of skin would work..."what about Lions, Daddy, do you think they use Lions skin? Or maybe dogs? Or Zebras, what about Zebras Daddy?" Since I have absolutely no idea what kind of skins are actually used, I make it up and say in my authoritative voice "Goats, they use goat skins. And maybe Antelope."

Party Update

Our housewarming party went really well last night. We had a few people from our building who we hadn't met before. Someone brought us flowers, and a guy stopped by to say that he couldn't come to the party, but he wanted to introduce himself. Pretty cool.We all forgot to take pictures during the party (lame, I know) but here's a shot before people got into all the cheese.
After the party, Oli and I went and checked out this new place that has finally opened up across the street. It's a bar called 55. We've been watching them renovate for the past two months, and were interested to see what it's like. It's a really nice cocktail bar owned by a guy about my age. I'll post a few pictures if he lets me. Tomorrow Somer and I are going over to see some of the old tables he's getting rid of to see if anything will work for us as a TV table.

Housewarming Party

Tomorrow night we're having a housewarming party. Somer and Kathy are cooking up a few things , but they left me in charge of the most exciting part: the wine and the cheese! The wine's already taken care of, as we had to buy a whole case for Thanksgiving and only used two bottles, but the cheese required a special trip to Neil's Yard Dairy in Covent Garden. Selections for tomorrow night include Montgomery's Cheddar ('the best cheddar in England'), Childwickbury - a fresh goat's cheese especially for John, Colston Bassett Stilton ('the best stilton in England'), and my favorite: Gorwydd Caerphilly - a traditional cheese that tastes a lot like Camembert, but with a texture more like a smooth cheddar.

In fairness to Somer, the things she's making will be far more interesting to most of you than my cheese obsession...check them out on her blog.

Tomorrow before the party I'm taking the girls to open drum lessons for kids at a stall in the market that sells drums from Ghana. They are VERY excited about it...woke up talking about it this morning. More tomorrow, I hope.

Volunteer, anyone?

So I'm not really a big fan of the advertising that is ubiquitous in the city. Billboards, shop signs, and people handing out leaflets vie for your attention as you walk down the street. The view out our window is dominated by the sign for Viacom Outdoor (which is, ironically, a billboard company) and for Holiday Inn, the lights of which light up our bedroom in the middle of the night.
So it's with some amazement that I tell you that a sign on a bus had the desired effect on me yesterday. I saw an advertisement for the Camden Volunteer Day on the side of the number 134 bus. So yesterday afternoon, I went along with teammate Kathy to see what opportunities for volunteering were available in Camden. There were fewer groups than I expected...mostly smaller, less-well-known groups that probably have a harder time recruiting volunteers than the big-boys like Oxfam and RSPCA do. Still, there was a good variety, including a group called The Gorilla Organization that needs volunteers to put on a Gorilla suit and ask for donations at tube stations. There's also a group that works with HIV/AIDS patients that may be looking for someone to do computer training.
I went hoping there'd be opportunities to volunteer in our neighborhood, and while most of the groups were based in Camden burrough, it's a large burrough and none of them were very close to us.

Spotted in Team Leader's kitchen...

Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree! Friday we were walking back from Camden market when we passed some trees at the Morrison's. Ten minutes later we had picked out the "tallest tree ever" according to Jodie and were walking home with it. Ray is a friend from the States who was visiting and kindly agreed to help carry it. The best part of the tree is that it came with it's own stand...it's been nailed into a slice from a larger tree trunk that serves as the base. It works great, and there were no issues of getting it straight or stable once we got it in the house. I'll admit, it's not quite the same as Ryan, who cut his own tree from a forest, but it still makes it feel like Christmas around here. Which is good, since we're having a housewarming/Christmas party this weekend.

Teacher leaving

We just got a letter from Andi's school, saying that her teacher is leaving at the end of this term. We're really sad about this. I'm sure the new teacher will be great, but we really like her current teacher. Somer has started to get to know her a little, and has been going into the class to help by reading individually with the kids. So a little uncertainty right now for Andi and her class, and a little sadness too.

Glass

I've been here for nearly three months now, and have yet to find any glassblowers working in this area. Now I'll admit, it's a pretty small pool of people - not everyone has a hot shop in their basement. But I've been surprised at how hard it is to find people working in glass here in Camden.
So yesterday I went to the market determined to find someone. I went to a stall that sells small jewelry - rings, necklaces, etc - that are made from fused glass. The attendant was not himself the artist (he said the artists only come on weekends), but he sent me to a little place called Lead and Light.
Lead and Light is off the beaten path, tucked back in an alley behind a row of houses. A cool place with more sheets of glass than I've ever seen in one place. But sadly, only a very small kiln in which to do fusing (layering pieces of glass and melting them together in the furnace). No glassblowing.
There is a glassblower who has a stall in the market, but he does most of his work in Italy because the gas for the furnaces is much cheaper there.

So...I'm still looking. If anyone happens to know anyone doing glassblowing in the Camden area, or know of a school that has a hot shop, let me know.

Oil On Canvas

My friend John plays in like 4 different bands. I recently took my other friend John along to one of his gigs. He was playing with Oil on Canvas at the Purple Turtle in Camden. When we got there it was pretty dead, and the first band to play was some pirate/sailor themed band that drew about 6 people total to watch. But, we got to hang out with John for a good part of the evening and talk about life.

One of the things we talked about was how the church used to be a big supporter/patron of music (and other forms of art as well). I would like to see that practice revived, and we talked a little about how to make that happen. Even though John isn't big on "church" or "religion" himself, he said he'd be very open to having a local church as a sort of patron, as long as they didn't try to control his music.

Any of my readers have any experience or ideas for how to pull off something like church-sponsored patronage for local bands/artists? I'm not just talking like "open band night" for the youth - am I totally ignorant of history, or did musicians used to make their living producing music for the church?

Thanksgiving

Yes, thank you Jeremy. We all know I haven't posted much lately. Let me try to catch you up on our lives.

We celebrated Thanksgiving on the appropriate day last week. John and Kathy hosted the dinner, and we had a number of our British friends over, plus a couple of other Americans. The English/Welsh contingent wanted to know why we celebrate Thanksgiving, and to our shame, non of the Americans knew why, we just knew that we all eat turkey and watch Americann football.

Now I don't know who won the real Thanskgiving day games (and I don't want to...at least not yet). But I can tell you that our Thanksgiving game was won by the Baltimore Ravens, who blocked a Titans field goal at the end of the game to hang on and win by 1.

Anyway, we had a great time. Kathy's turkey was incredible, as was Somer's pumpkin pie. There were 13 of us all crammed around the table, and it was a sweet time of being with friends. Somer's got some good pictures over on Daily Offerings.

More to update about, but that'll come in another post.

Arsenal

60,000: number of supporters chanting the name of Thierry Henry or Robin Van Persie, or screaming insults at Liverpool, or singing the praises of Arsene Wenger.
14: number of rows between us and the field.
3: number of goals Arsenal scored, compared to Liverpool's 0
2: number of hotdogs we ate
1: number of times I've been to see a football match here in England

Thanks to John for taking me, and for the pre- and post-match tea at his apartment. What a way to begin immersing myself in English culture.

Quick Roundup

It's been a full week here. You already know about Monday (see previous post). Yesterday I helped a buddy from the market deliver some furniture. Then Mark and I went rock climbing at The Castle last night. My hands are raw.
I had coffee this morning with a musician from Finsbury park. And by "coffee" I mean fresh squeezed OJ. John and Kathy's stuff has arrived already and was being unpacked (and even put together!) this afternoon when Somer and I stopped in to say 'hi'.
Tomorrow I'm heading out to Ilford to meet up with Stephen, one of the guys I worked with last year, and I'll be going to the youth club and seeing all the kids from last year.
Oh, and Sunday I'm supposed to be going to a certain football match (I'll keep it quiet so I don't jinx it...more to come...)

Monday

UPDATE: It's here! The guys brought a small van that was able to pull into the covered parking under our building. They were done in half an hour. Then about 20 minutes after they left, John and Kathy showed up to help unpack. What a treat. They worked all afternoon, and by the time Somer brought the girls home the boxes were all unpacked and the trash was in the dumpster. Thank you God. Thank you for friends and teammates in London, thank you for small vans and high ceilings in the parking garage. Thank you for whoever cancelled their shipment so we could get ours.

I got a call from our shipping company yesterday, and...Our belongings are supposed to be delivered on Monday!! Yay! There was a cancellation and a slot opened up in the delivery schedule. The only hitch could be that the water company started tearing up the road in front of our house on Friday. Today they broke up the section just opposite where the delivery truck would park, leaving just one lane to get by. Not sure how it's going to work. We were technically supposed to get a permit from the council for the truck to park, but with such short notice we didn't have time. So any parking fine the truck gets, I'll have to pay...but it's worth it.

Teammates Arrive

Our team leaders have arrived today. Jodie and I went to the airport to meet them. They were really tired, but we were so excited to see them. They joined us for pizza/movie night last night before going home to crash. SOOO glad they're here.

Stephen's Baptism

It's 11:11 PM and I have just returned from a house in one of the wealthiest parts of London. Imagine, if you will, the following scenes:
A group of young people in their 20s are loitering outside a train station. They have come from all over the city - Camden Town, Enfield, the Isle of Dogs. A guy in a ski hat with multicolored spikes pulls out a bag and starts to hand out food - wraps and fruit he's salvaged from a store that was throwing them away because they had reached their sell-by date.

At the appointed time, we march 500 yds down the road to a massive house. Inside, they are met with more food - more wraps, in fact - lovingly prepared by the occupant, a young doctor-to-be. More people arrive.

The crowd moves upstairs, cramming into a surprisingly small bathroom. A warm bath has been drawn, and Stephen steps in. After some interesting body contortions and one uncomfortable incident involving the water tap, he manages to lay down. His head is gently pushed under water. The ancient words are spoken: Stephen, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

When I met Stephen, he was living in Camden Town and had already started following Jesus. I had nothing to do with him finding Jesus, or Jesus finding him. But this is why we are here in Camden. We want to see many more like Stephen, welcomed into God's family. We want to see people joining Jesus in his death and resurrection, so that they might leave behind slavery to the elemental spiritual forces, and enter into their inheritance as dearly loved children of God.

Tonight, I was given a gift. The gift of participating in a baptism, of laying my hand on a new brother and praying God's blessing on him. Of helping to welcome him into God's family. God is at work here in Camden Town. Tonight he let me see a glimpse of the road ahead.

Stephen, if you happen to find your way here, thank you so much for inviting me.

Galatians 4

Preached Sunday on the first part of Galatians 4 at Church on the Corner in Islington. Thanks for the warm welcome from everyone at the evening service - it was my first visit (we've been attending the morning service since we came to London in September). I felt like the evening went better than the morning. It's one of those funny things...I can't really explain why. I did make a rather desperate request for prayer after the morning because I was feeling a bit lifeless. I guess the Holy Spirit showed up in response, and I experienced his power at the evening meeting.
One of the most exciting parts of the passage for me was that when Paul says God has made us "heirs" - he means that in Jesus we are heirs of all of God's creation. I connected that to our view of the city, and challenged us to see the church as the rightful inheritor of the city.

Our stuff is here...sort of

It's in the country, at least. We heard from the shipping company that our stuff arrived in port on Tuesday. However, we also found out that it'll be another 3-5 weeks before it clears customs and gets delivered to us. Aaaarrgghh!

Drawing Studio

On Saturday afternoon, Andi and I walked next door to Arlington House. They were hosting an open drawing studio. Professional artists joined homeless residents of Arlington house and members of the community in creating a room full of drawings. Tables, walls, and even the floor were covered in paper. Markers, pencils, charcoal, and paints were scattered around the room. Andi had a great time doing butterflies (where you fold a sheet of paper in half to creat mirror images of the paint). We learned from one of the guys that you can then use the 'butterfly' to create multiple prints on the wall if you use enough paint. Really cool. Andi had no problem getting right in there and drawing. But I found it very difficult. I couldn't think of what to do, and I kind of froze up. It was like I wanted to put something down, but every idea I had just seemed stupid. I like the freedom children have to express themselves.

MySpace

So I finally did it. I didn't really want to. Maybe it's 'cuz I'm getting older and stuck in my ways, and I feel overwhelmed every time I go to it. But I have resisted joining MySpace. But now I have friends in the states as well as friends here who use it to keep in touch.
So today I joined MySpace. I promptly discovered that although Tim and I have known each other for 20 years, I am not his friend. At least not according to MySpace. I also learned that I only have one friend, and his name is Tom. I visited Tom's page to learn about my only friend. My only friend Tom has 122 million other friends. Now I'm really jealous of my only friend Tom. I think I don't want to be Tom's friend anymore as he makes me feel inadequate with his 122 million friends. So even though I've known him for 20 years, I'm going to invite Tim to be my friend. If he wants to be my friend, maybe he'll replace Tom as my only friend. Tim only has 46 friends...I'm not too jealous of him.

Meditation

Last Thursday I went to a "Silent Meditation" at a church in the area. I don't know why, but I expected the meditation would somehow revolve around a piece of scripture or some Christian theme, or something. To my surprise, it was more of a Zen Buddhist mediation, complete with brass gong on the altar and instructions to empty our minds. I stayed on even though it wasn't what I had expected because I had already made a scene once when I came in (I was...ahem...late). So I focused my thoughts on Jesus and sat silently for 20 minutes while all the muscles in my back tightened up and I got a searing pain in my right shoulder. At one point, I opened my eyes because I wanted to look at a cross...but I couldn't even find one in the church building. I should mention that it was a really good exercise for me, I haven't sat that still or been that silent, focussing only on Jesus, for quite a while. The experience highlited for me the hunger for spiritual experience in Camden, along with the void of Christ-centered spirituality.

Finished Table

Some of you had asked about the table now that it has glass on it, so here it is. I thought about clearing it off, but the glory of the glass is that it allows us to USE the table, so I thought I'd show it in use. The wooden chairs are the old pub chairs we were given last weekend.

Gallery

As yet Unknown art gallery in Camden's Stables Market is a great little place, tucked away in the catacombs of the market. I met the owner Ryan last week while helping a friend unload new furniture stock for his shop. Today I stuck my head in to check out the gallery. He's got an impressive collection of pieces on display at the moment, mostly paintings and photographs - some from artists I've seen before, but most from people I'd never heard of. The thing I love the most is Ryan's desire to help new artists get established. When I stopped in, he was working on a painting representing the takeover of religion by pop-culture. Hopefully he'll put it up on his site when it's finished.

Weekend Update

This has been a lazy weekend. After family movie night on friday evening, I met up with some friends again at the Spread Eagle. Saturday Andi and I walked up to the park to meet a friend, and while there we also saw a family from her weekly football training. Saturday afternoon Johnny and Becky had us over for ribeye on the grill! OH BABY.
Today was laying back and watching a really tight Ravens game - week three against the Browns. Thanks Andrew for recording it for us. You don't know how much we look forward to getting your packages.
Oh, and we now have a dinning room table and CHAIRS! The glass top arrived for the table on Friday so we could start using the table, and today my friend Mark dropped off some old chairs that were left over from when his church used to be a pub. Thanks bud!

Arlington House

On Friday I stopped by Arlington House, the men's hostel right next door to our building. They have a room set up for the public to come in and learn about the history of the building...and it's fascinating. At one time it was the largest hostel for men in the UK, providing housing for over 1000 people. Over time the number of beds have been reduced and the rooms enlarged. Read about the history of Arlington House and its connection to Irish immigrants here. Novas Group currently runs the hostel, and you can read about their plans to redevelop the building and reconnect to the community here.

Ravens Game

Oli stopped by today on his way home from Camden Market. He was buying this:
Hope you're ok with me posting this bro, it's too cool a pic to leave it to rot on my hard drive. The girls convinced him to stay for dinner (and play Go Fish).
Tomorrow we're watching the Ravens game (week 2 - no spoilers, please) and I'm inviting a guy from our building to join us. It's nice to have this little Sunday afternoon American ritual to make us feel a little bit like we're at home.

Bring Back the Bomb

Went to see a new friend of mine play at a pub last night. The show was called Bring Back the Bomb, and you can read more about it here. It was basically a memorial concert in honor of several members of a band who were killed in a car crash a few years ago. The bands that played were all somehow connected to the band that died. My friend Jon plays bass in two of the bands that played last night. They were both really good - a little heavier and more frantic than I normally like - but quality stuff. I don't know the right musical terms (help me out here, Tim) but I liked the way the bass drove the rythm of their songs, and was at times a stronger element than the lead guitar.
And I'm not just saying that so Jon won't be mad at me for this next statement: My favorite band of the evening (Jon, if you read this: sorry mate) was The Bicycle Thieves. I met them before they played and discovered two members of the band are Americans (or at least decended from Americans) and we chatted for a while about life in London. Their style was a little more chilled out than the other bands, which is why I liked it so much. Had a hint of Arcade Fire, if you know those guys. Their myspace is here.

Tour of Camden

Last week I met a Canadian actor who's been living in Camden for the past couple of years. He knows lots of people in the area, and has a good sense of what's happening. Today we met up for a couple hours and he took me around and showed me some of his favorite places. He introduced me to a friend of his who runs an internet cafe with a gaming room. Not only can you rent a computer for internet use, for £1/hr you can also rent time on an Xbox! How great is that? He said it hasn't really taken off yet...hmmm...maybe I'll have to give him some business.
Yesterday, my friend was an extra in a scene for the sequal to 28 Days Later - and they liked him so much they gave him a minor speaking part. Click here for Google's satelite hybrid map of Camden Town. Mostly we walked south down Camden High Street, which was great, because I've spent most of my time exploring the area north of there.

Mouse

So last year at our house in Ilford (affectionately termed "The Rock House" by the girls) we caught a total of 8 mice. Today we caught our first mouse in our new home. Thanks to Adam for showing me how to remove the floor board under the cabinets and for setting the trap - I couldn't get it positioned without setting it off. I thought about posting a picture, but then realized that it's just gross, so I thought I'd spare you.

The Spread Eagle

Met some really cool people at the Spread Eagle last night. There was a debate about whether Manchester United or Arsenal are a better footbal club (since I haven't decided which Premiership team to support, I listened with interest), and I was asked to explain why American football teams change cities and names so frequently. Hoping to go see one of the guys from there in concert next week. There was a camera there (not mine), I'll see if I can track down a picture or two.

Door

Met a guy in the Camden Market who sells old doors from Mumbai, India. He said they're about 200 years old, and they literally yank them out of the plaster walls that surround them. Then they age them in the desert before selling them off. The doors are beautiful, but they were selling for something like £1,000. Then I saw that he had some pieces of the doors just kind of lying around. One of the doors had broken during shipment, and he wanted to get rid of the remaining pieces cheap. We agreed to a price, and a few days later he brought the door pieces to our apartment. Now, you might be thinking, "What does Dan need with a door?"
Well, after several hours and a good bit of aggrevation, we now have a dining table. I still need to get a sheet of glass to cover the top, but my friend in the market has someone that can get me one.

Welcome to the Jungle, Baby

We received a note in our mailbox on Friday from one of our neighbors. It had a cryptic message about rock stars and a party on Saturday night. From what I gathered, the building was invited to a "fancy dress" party (that's a costume party) with a "dress like a rock star" theme.

Well, in one of those moments that we look back on and wonder what we were thinking, I decided to go as Slash from Guns-n-Roses. [update: my friend Oli said I had to put this second image up...thanks man]

I'm not saying I pulled it off well, but it was fun just the same. There were several Ozzy Osbournes and a Gene Simmons. I had a great time, especially when people asked me what I do and I told them I am helping start Jesus-centered communities. I guess I don't look like a typical vicar. I wonder what kind of church Slash would feel welcome in.

First week highlights

The people who helped us: Jeremy, who picked us up at the airport and drove us around the next day to get all our luggage and boxes we had left in storage here in London; and David, who heard we didn't have anything to sit on in the apartment, and brought us a few chairs to borrow.

The new experiences: The girls starting school and loving it so much, they were disappointed on Saturday that they had to wait until Monday to go again. Watching three different European football matches simultaneously in a jam-packed pub down the street from our place. Going shopping each day for food for meals, because our refrigerator (believe it or not) is smaller than the one we had last year when we were here.

The hard stuff: missing family and friends, eating cereal with a fork (spoons are coming, but it'll be a while), and sleeping through the noise of traffic and late night revellers.

Update: Somer's Birthday

Thanks for the ideas on making Somer's birthday special. In the end, I couldn't do much elaborate. I liked the idea of getting her lots of little presents or writing notes or things, but I had about 15 minutes of spare time in which to plan and execute her gift, so in the end, we only got her one present. But we did keep it as a surprise and gave it to her mid-flight. It was a sort of memoir written by a food critic. She loved it, and was left wanting more when she finished it. The book was Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise

Welcome to the real world

It feels like we've been living a disconnected life these last two weeks. We finally got broadband internet on Friday (only to have it go down Friday night and all day Saturday). But we're connected now. Feels good - like I can breathe again.

Saying Goodbye

We left Philadelphia for Baltimore on Wednesday - it was sad to say goodbye to our friends we've been living with since we returned to the States in January. Monday we leave for the UK, so this weekend we're seeing family and saying goodbye. I don't think I'm very good at saying goodbye. It's kind of how I feel about saying "thank you" - I want what I say to be genuine, and not the sappy cliches you get in movies. Problem is that in the moment, I can only think of the cliches, you know? I guess there's more to leaving well than words, though.
Monday is also Somer's birthday, and since we'll be spending the day traveling I'm working on a creative way to make her birthday special. Well, I'm actually not working on it yet, 'cuz I don't have any ideas. Any help out there?

Prayed Into a Home

We've been in London for the past week, hanging with a group of young people from Texas and Philly. They came to pray for Camden Town. We came to be with them, and to look for a house while they prayed.
And did they pray! Or more accurately: Did God respond!
Both Somer and I and our team leaders John and Kathy signed leases on apartments this week. We found places that are about 4 blocks from each other (a mere 8 min, 15 sec walk at a leisurely pace - thanks Jason for timing that!). Our flat has an interesting layout - only one 'normal' bedroom with a door - the other bedroom is a studio style - with a dividing wall separating it from the rest of the living area. But it has tons of windows that face southwest for that all-important winter sunshine, and a decent kitchen. Plus, as soon as I saw the living space, I envisioned it filled with friends having a good time and experiencing the welcome of Jesus. It's very close to the Camden markets, and on the same street as a primary school (don't know yet, but it's possible that it could be Andi's school - we'll find out in September). May manage to get up a few pics when we return home.

Prayer for Dummies

I'm preaching at River's Edge Community Church on Sunday morning. Looking at Jesus' words to his disciples about prayer in Luke 11. I'm working from some notes for a sermon I gave last year at City of Peace in London, though I think I have a slightly different perspective this time around. In the middle of support raising, I'm finding it very difficult to pray, even as I have a great need to be connecting to God in prayer. I'm also feeling a bit like the shameless guy who bangs on his neighbor's door in the middle of the night...I've become rather shameless in my requests to God these days. Also feeling like I need to hear the truth that God is not in the business of giving his children scorpions and rocks; he gives good things like his Spirit to be with us.
So yeah, Prayer for Dummies...that's where I'm at.

The Empire Strikes Back

I promise, this will be the last post about Settlers for a while. But I felt compelled to share that the setback suffered at Mark's hands last week was merely temorary. I returned to top conquering form on Thursday evening, soundly defeating our friends Dave and Erika, who are both seasoned players. That's it, I promise...on to something else.

A setback in the empire

Yes, it's true, last night I was defeated by my brother Mark at Settlers. The string of 6 consecutive wins has been broken.

Settlement

I just won Settlers of Catan for the fifth time in a row. Settlers is our favorite game, by far. You normally need 3-6 people to play, but in London we played with our imaginary friend Joe (that shows how much we love the game, not how insane we are). Sometimes Joe won.
But for the past two weeks, I've been on a role. My friend Tim can't touch me...Somer just sits and knits between turns, and my brother Mark had a bad case of malaria strike his settlements.

Crabbing on the Wye

Visited some long-time family friends who live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland on Saturday. The crabbing exploits of Wye River Web are legendary, so my brothers and I thought we'd try our hand at it and see if his skills would rub off on us.

Here I am on the dock, helping the Legend himself load the boat for our final run of the day. As we pulled in the last traps, we were caught in a heavy downpour. As the rain splashed on the surface of the river, the sun came out and caused a rainbow to appear on top of the water. It was beautiful, and almost the perfect ending to the day.


The perfect ending came a few minutes later, once we had arrived back on shore, put some dry clothes on, and started to steam the crabs. They were huge! Somer bravely holds this example - unfortunately the camera angle fails to show how close the crab is to me! The Legend had indeed come through for us.


The girls also got in on the boating action. Here we are flying back to shore. My brother Andrew is piloting the boat.





Somer also has a couple good pictures, including a nice close-up of a crab, over on dailyofferings .