London Calling

It's hard to imagine that we're only two days here in London. Today, since everything we needed (banks, housing rental companies, our teaching agency) is closed on Sundays, we opted to go to church and then relax. We were feeling pretty tired in the morning after a long and fitful night filled with loud noises. The hotel is a lot more full than our honeymoon resort was, and they all decided to raise a great cacophony of slamming doors and crying children at about midnight. Anyway, it was about all we could do to wrench ourselves out of bed and onto the tube to get to an 11:30 service downtown.

So, we had a thought about church-hunting. It goes like this: We should try big honking mega-churches with young-ish congregations first, because they promise a cool Sunday experience and we can get plugged in right away to whatever young adult or small group ministry they have going on. We've heard of 2 in London: a Hillsong church and the Alpha church. We thought to try Hillsong first. Hillsong's church meets in a large theatre near-ish the West End, which is the London theatre district. Not so West End as to be seedy and disreputable, but just West End-y enough to be flashy and impressive. This is the theatre, which apparently showcases the Queen musical when it's not being used for worship:

 Church was great. Not only did the music sound like Hillsong (just like all the CDs: cool!) But the place was packed with young people. That kind of thing, with smoke and lights, sometimes irks me a bit and makes us worry about being too showy. But it was paired with some really solid and biblical teaching and a really enthusiastic and charismatic atmosphere. Definitely worth a second visit, especially since it's really centrally located, too. After church we felt like exploring so we walked about. We were feeling a little homesick after pub food on night one and the traditional english breakfast (which did not agree with one of us), and we found a subway. We make no apologies. We wanted to taste something homey.

And then, because the weather was so good and we were feeling so much better after worship and we couldn't do anything yet about being homeless and unemployed, we decided to be tourists. We hopped on the tube to Westminster to hit some of the big sites off our list. 

First up is Big Ben, which we've been told is not the name of the tower or the clock, but the bell inside. Big Ben is attached to the Houses of Parliament, which are equally striking and beautiful.











 My favourite part, though, was Westminster Abbey. We weren't allowed into the Nave or the main part of the abbey because services were going on (the kind of services where men in red robe-things tell people to leave, apparently) but we did get to poke around the cloisters. We found some really cool memorials, including Halley (as in Halley's Comet) and Cpt James Cook (as in the famous explorer, not Peter Pan's nemesis).














  We strolled about and saw the London Eye and the Thames, although our feet were getting a bit sore for walking across the bridge to pay too much money to ride a very slow Ferris wheel. After a coffee at the feet of Big Ben and a poke around some really gorgeous back-streets, we tubed again to Piccadilly Circus, where we briefly passed by Ripley's to gaze at the wildlife, as well as a much more colourful corner of the West End. We ate dinner at McDonalds (which was half budget decision, half exploring how different it isn't, and half continued homesickness). While we ate, we noticed just outside a runway-type thing being set up for a British film festival. We stuck around for as long as we could stand (allegedly Madonna may have been coming there) and then left through the crowds and made our way slowly back to the hotel. After an eventful and picture-happy day (many more pics were taken than those posted), we're both feeling better about the whole adventure than we did this morning. We miss home, and waves of Canadian fever will probably ebb and flow. But we see the provision, comfort and opportunities that God is laying out left, right and centre for us. We thank Him for being so faithful to us and helping us to feel more confident with our decision to follow His promptings here.