Gratefulness

Hello all from overcast-but-so-far-not-as-rainy-as-people-led-us-to-expect London!

Biggest news: Alyssa's working tomorrow! She's got a spot at a school in central London for the next three weeks sitting in the back of a room supervising a practice teacher. Not a bad warm-up gig, eh?

Right now we're sitting in our neighbourhood pub, the Kennedy, listening to horse races on the telly and sweating by the open fire, our stomachs full of reasonably-priced ale and our Macbooks humming with free wireless internet. The place looks a little dodgy from the outside, but it's really nice in here. Clean booths, friendly barkeep, nice high open ceilings.

It's a good thing we like it, because we'll probably be coming here for all our internet needs for the next month. Getting the net in our flat is proving to be difficult and after some phone wrangling today, we found out there really is no fast way to get connected. So this afternoon we did what normal people do; check out the different companies, compare rates, and make a decision. but the engineer won't be around to hook us up until November 29th, so the blog posts won't be spilling out in a flood until we're live at home. Until that day, we'll function largely by phone, text and briefly-spaced internet access. Which means that, regrettably, there are not a lot of ways to get in instant contact with us if you need it.

Better news, though, is that we got Alyssa's mobile phone yesterday which has a really good international calling rate, so we'll be able to make brief phone calls across the pond to parents and other worthy recipients.

The title of today's entry, however, is in reference to yesterday. We got down to church yesterday morning to find a surprise: the great crowd that had been outside the Dominion Theatre (where the church meets) on our first week was gone. We were a bit early so we went for a walk a bit, and then moseyed our way back into the theatre. As we entered, we discovered that the service was full. We had a very confused conversation with the usher, who then seated us as the speaker began to preach on gratefulness. It wasn't until ten minutes into the sermon that I figured it out; we'd missed daylight savings time. We hadn't fallen an hour back, and were now crashing the 9:30 service rather than the 11:30 we'd been planning on getting in early for. And an hour, conveniently, was about how much church we'd missed. The music part at the beginning. We stuck around for the second service's music.

The pastor, a preacher from North Carolina on tour here, reminded me of something. Gratefulness isn't a suggestion. It should be the foundation of our relating to God. We ought to "enter his gates with thanksgiving in our heart". The beginning of our conversation of God is thanks and gratefulness. And Alyssa and I have so much to be grateful for. Not just our flat, jobs, and groceries, although those are a real blessing. But we remember grace, and life, and breath, and it's all someone can do not to break down under the weight of His underserved mercy. So even though stuff is still busy and we're still living pretty spartan, we can rest confidently and gratefully in His provision. He's good. All the time.

On a bit of a side note, it's Halloween. From what I can tell, it's not so big a deal here, although one little costumed witch just came into the pub with her granddad to solicit cash from the patrons. I assume it's for charity, like the unicef boxes the kids carry back home, but I don't really know. It's certainly not as commercially overblow here, from the look of the stores.

'Til next time, Cheers!