Back to this time zone.

Greetings from Lafayette, Indiana!

Debbie here, ready with my reflection of my time spent in London. First things first though, let me recap about the last few days.

The closing program went well, despite being two hours long. I think the parents really enjoyed seeing that their kids really benefited from being a part of "The prayer safari." After the program concluded, a few of us from the TRI-S group were asked to help lead worship on Sunday. they had a mini rehearsal Friday evening and we tried to catch on to some of the songs before we had to leave. Basically we would be winging it come Sunday morning. However, we did experience a 3-year-old playing the drum set quite brilliantly. NO JOKE! We secretly wanted to record him and put him on youtube. He was amazing!

The amazing 3 year old drummer!!!!

Saturday was spent exploring Windsor Castle: The official residence of the Queen. It has been the royal residence for 900 years. It was a great visit. Personally, I was struck by the amount of history contained within the walls of Windsor. There was so much tradition and "drama." The town of Windsor itself was charming and we did do some touristy shopping there. It was fun! Around 6pm we caught the train to London and decided to ride a double decker bus! We even got to sit in the very front of the top section of the bus. That was an experience that people who are easily affected by motion sickness should not attempt. It was quite the ride! Drivers in London are kind of crazy anyway but looking down from a double decker bus makes one think they are suicidal!

The center tower of Windsor Castle.

We road the bus to Kings Cross Station where we quickly found Platform 9 3/4. For all you Harry Potter fans out there---it was awesome! Nerdy, I know, but I had just finished reading the first book again so seeing this place made the book come alive! I love when that happens!

I am going to Hogwarts!

Sunday was a full day of worship and relaxation. Church lasted about 3 hours and then we spent the rest of the day in our host home and around that area. We packed and re-packed in preparation for our flight the next day. Monday we left at 8 am to arrive at the airport around 10:30. We checked in and boarded our flight at 12:30pm. Our leader was insisting that we would catch a tail wind going back and our flight would only be about 5 hours. NOT TRUE! It was actually the full eight hours, and I was trying not to sleep! Definitely long but smooth. We also got to sit in the front of our cabin so we had the nice kooshy leg room! (Thanks God!) We arrived to Chicago about 3:30 central time and had about a four hour layover until our flight to Indy. At this point I was not exercising patience very well and I was ready to go home. I made it through the wait and we finally arrived to Indianapolis around 9:30 pm. Mom got food poisoning so she was not able to meet us but there was a nice surprise as we walked out of the terminal. Not only was Daddy there but Poppa and Donna were as well! That was great! They got to hear all the stories right away, even though they were slightly scatterbrained with a hint of exhaustion. Jennie fell asleep in the car but I was determined to make it home without sleeping! I did it! I was going on almost 24 hours without sleep! This is my way of trying to avoid jet lag. However, my mom and I both agree that even though I am going to bed at the "normal" time, my body still thinks its five hours ahead. I don't sleep for very long. haha! Oh well! I guess it is preparing me for when I have to be grown-up and get up and go to my observations at school!

The last day or so I have spent time reflecting on my overall experience in London. As I said earlier today in a survey about my trip, " My expectations of the trip were high, but they were very open." These expectations were met in so many ways. I even had experiences that I was not expecting.

First of all I am going to have to get a book about the history of England because it is completely fascinating and compelling to me. Secondly, football (soccer), is the greatest sport in the world. Thirdly, spending this time with my sister was so wonderful. I was so thankful to have her there to keep me sane. She actually helped me come to the conclusion that I do not want to go to grad school right now and I don't want to study opera. I love learning and I love opera but I don't want to pursue it as a career. Sisters are such a blessing!

I was also challenged, through some of my experiences with the kids, to learn how to be more patient with students older than 10 years of age. That was the most challenging for me! I need to be more informed about that stage in the adolescent mind and what is the most effective way to communicate with someone that age.

I learned that kids are the most creative beings on this planet. Their God given creativity reminds us to keep an open mind and remember how creative God is and how He uniquely created each and everyone of us. Kids are also great at loving people. Until they reach the age of 8 or so kids naturally will love everyone no matter what. Isn't that what we are supposed to do as Christians anyway? Isn't that what Christ taught and demonstrated through His death and resurrection?

That leads me to the challenge that God laid on my heart ,while I was riding on the bus, for this upcoming year. I have been reading and re-reading the book of Colassians lately because it is a book that I think speaks to some of the circumstances I have encountered this past year. One phrase that struck me was when Paul says that "he is a slave to the gospel." I thought "Wow! What does that even look like--to truly become a slave to the gospel?" Then a song from my current favorite lyricist and song writer popped into my head--"The gospel, the gospel, she's good and she's true. She cost quite a fortune to make all things new! So breath in with peace and out with His love." (Jimmy Needham) Therefore, I am resolved to go forth into this year practicing that concept of breathing in with peace and out with His love in order to become a slave to the gospel.

Overall this experience was life changing, not in a overly dramatic way but in the way that I learned a lot about myself as a teacher, sister, citizen, tourist, student and believer. I am so thankful for everything I was able to do. Thanks again to everyone who prayed and supported me (us) in this experience. It means the world!

I will be sure to blog about any other adventures life may bring me but until then God bless all of you!

Love,

Debbie

This is a song that these girls wrote. It touched my heart!

We are coming home!

Hello everyone!

The last few days have been spent filling up our time with last minute things. We had our VBS program, went to Windsor all day Saturday, saw platform 9 3/4 (yes!!!), rode a double decker bus, went to church, and packed everything! We are getting ready to leave for the airport so this will be a short entry with a promise of a few more blogs to sum up our experience. We are glad to go home but sad to leave this place. We have loved every minute. Thank you to everyone who has supported us financially and through prayer. It is wonderful to have so much love in our lives. We will talk to you on the flip side!

Lots of Love!

Debbie and Jennie

Hello!

Sorry we haven't written in a while. The internet has been down for a bit at our host home for a while so we have been reading, playing games, and getting a little more sleep instead of updating the blog. We are currently sitting at Community Church of God. The last day of VBS ended about 2 hours ago. Now we are waiting for 6pm tonight when the closing program will occur. The students will be showing their parents what they learned this week. By focusing on and memorizing the Lord's prayer the students have learned: God listens, God Provides, God forgives, God protects, and God rules. It has been a wonderful week. The teens took on the closing program with lots of enthusiasm and we are looking forward to seeing their final product tonight. The other students have learned a lot and have really embraced everything that has been thrown at them. We are so excited for them to sing their songs tonight! They are just so cute when they are excited and committed to what they are doing. That is a nice rundown of our Friday.

Wednesday and Thursday were filled to the brim with VBS, a free walking tour of London-which we would recommend to anyone traveling abroad. They have tours in almost every European country-its very entertaining. We were also able to go the National Gallery and see some of the works of Rembrandt, Van Gough, Monet and many more artists. We concluded Thursday evening with Wicked the Musical. It was fabulous. We have seen it before but it was rather interesting hearing it with british accents. We both decided that the character of Fiero is much better with a british accent:) It poured last night with is typical of London. We have actually been blessed to have rather nice and arm whether this trip. The locals are loving it!

We are hoping to make it to Windsor Castle tomorrow. We are hoping to see some of the beautiful english country side.

Below are some pictures. Enjoy!

This is for you mom:)

This is a statue of Florence Nightengale. Our tour guide spoke quite highly of her. The brits are pretty proud:)

This is Debbie with a few of the kids. The two boys, Joseph and Shabaaz have pretty much stolen her heart. She will probably cry tonight at the closing program.

These two boys randomly decided that they wanted to sing Jesus loves me at closing assembly today. It was absolutely beautiful.
Jennie and Micah. He is quite the heartbreaker:)
We hope to blog again soon! Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. We love you all so much!

Love,

Debbie and Jennie

Jambo!

That is swahili for hello! This is how we start everyday of VBS. There is even a song- it is a favorite:) The last two days have been really crazy. The first day was pretty disorganized but our team tried to pull it together. Tuesday was almost worse because the sign below fell down and a lot of the members of the church spent the morning putting that up so we got started pretty late. The kids don't seem to mind though. This blog is mostly pictures with short descriptions because we are short on time. We are going non-stop here, between VBS and discovering the city. We would ask one quick prayer request though, and that would be for the teens in VBS. That's right- teens! The way the church set up there VBS is age 5 to 16. The older kids are having trouble being enthusiastic and who could blame them? The curriculum is not for them. After a lot of brain storming we decided to hand over the closing program on Friday evening to the teens. They will still have their Bible time but other than that they will be working on skits and songs. Please pray that their enthusiasm would grow and that they would be a good tool for the younger kids!

This is Kristi-she is the AU person working on crafts.
Abbey Road---people are not smart! Meaning: there are stories and more pictures.
Jacob helping with crafts. He is an artist so the kids always want him to draw things f or them. He takes requests!
They made Lions on Tuesday!
This is Brittany the snacks mistress! She is awesome!
The children love the tall stranger Zach. He can usually be seen with one of them on his back!
This is Simona and her friend that she brought with her on the second day. She is so smart!
Jennie teaching and demonstrating.
The girls at the semi-top of St. Paul's Cathedral.
We love you all!

Thanks for the prayers!

Debbie and Jennie

The Preparation

Hello from Essex in London!

We are now at our host home in a part of London known as Essex. Our host is named Hillary. She is originally from Surinam, in South America by way of Holland, and has been living in England for the past five years. She has hosted the past three Tri-S groups that have come from Anderson. She has opened her lovely home to us and has found enough room for 9 people! It is quite the task but we all have a bed to sleep on. You may be wondering why 9 people when there were 7 to start out the trip. Debbie has a friend from school, Zach, who has been biking around Europe for the past two months with his cousin Jacob, who also attends AU and will be a sophomore. Zach's mom works for Mr. Leak, our trip leader, so they connected and decided to spend their last few days on the continent helping us with VBS and sightseeing. We met up with Zach and Jacob this morning at the church. Zach looked pretty excited to see some familiar faces.

We discovered yesterday that trying to manage our luggage on the underground, in our church clothes would be a disaster so the church graciously offered to pick us up from our hotel this morning. It took two vans but we did it. Driving through London is quite the experience. It would probably take months of practice and short drives for one to be comfortable and aggressive enough to drive in this city. We didn't feel unsafe with our drivers, we just weren't sure about the drivers of the other cars. We made it to the church in one piece and spent the remainder of the day there worshiping, eating, and preparing for VBS.

The people of Community Church of God are so warm and welcoming. They had a hug for us right away. And WOW can they cook! It was great to share a meal with them and get to know them and some of there backgrounds. Many of the members are from Jamaica or Barbados. This makes for interesting conversation and some GREAT music.

We spent a lot of time with Sister Theresa yesterday and today. She is leading the opening and closing assemblies and is a wonderful woman with a huge heart for service. We visited her "flat" and helped her bring back some props to use during the week. We are glad to be working with someone so enthusiastic and committed.

Tomorrow at 9:30 the kids begin arriving for registration. Please pray that it will be a calm day and that everything will be very exciting but that it will run smoothly.

We can't wait to share more experiences with all of you!

Love you all!

Debbie and Jennie

Some of the prep work. Jennie is making power point slides of the song lyrics.

More History than we could handle..well sort of...

This is the underground station we travel to every morning.

Hello Again!

Today was a great day in London town! We started off the day with breakfast and tea. In case any one was wondering a traditional English breakfast consists of this: baked beans, a fried egg over-easy, a sausage, a stewed tomato and Canadian bacon. Not the most appetizing, but its food and its free.

We set off for The Tower of London around 9:15 this morning.

A warning to all as you enter and exit the train.

Again, this place was overflowing with the rich history that is Great Britain. We saw the royal chapel onsite where 3 of Henry VIII executed wives are buried. The crown jewels were a sight to see. The tradition and importance of the crown jewels was really interesting to see. The coronation of a monarch is considered to be almost a holy event. There is great reverence to God by both the people of England and the monarch that is crowned. It is understood that they are a servant of God to the people.

We had a great tour guide while at the Tower. He actually lived on the premises. There are about 100 people who live on the Tower grounds today. It is quite fascinating.

Re-enactment of some of the sporting that would have been done on the grounds.

After our tour of the Tower, we caught the “Tube” and went to find the church that we would be serving in for the next week. Community Church of God is located in Central London, known as Tottenham. It is kind of rough there but the people are very sweet and willing to serve. It is all a bit unorganized so we spent the majority of the afternoon trying to make some sense of what would be happening when and who would be doing what. We will be helping with the Opening and Closing Assemblies, teaching songs and motions. We are also responsible for the closing program. We will be staging and acting in this closing program. We are excited for what will happen in the next week. We would ask for prayer in that everything would be pieced together in time for the kids to arrive at 10 am Monday morning. There are supposed to be 70-80 kids which is great, but is also going to be a huge task to reach them in the ways that they will need to be reached. Thanks to all of you who have joined us in prayer! We love you and can’t wait to share with you all our amazing stories.

Lots of Love,

Debbie and Jennie

Friday, July 31, 2009--The Last Day for the Changing of the Guard

Hello from London!

Friday was a day full of pageantry and tradition. We set off around 9:30 to secure the perfect spot to watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. It was quite the spectacle.

There were TWO marching bands and two sets of guards and a group of mounted guards. The horses were enormous. (Mom you would have loved them!) We secured the perfect spot on the Queen Victoria monument. We had a great view of almost everything that happened. It was great to see all of the tradition that went into this ceremony.

This man was kind enough to warn the crowd that the even usually attracted "pick-pockets and bag thieves." He then recounted the events of the past 15 minutes in which a woman had 20 pounds, 15 euros, and 18,000 Japanese yen stolen from her bag. He educated the crowd about the proper way to hold your bag and how to take a picture while holding on to your valuables. The police are quite nice in London.

Queen Victoria Monument-we were right behind the big statue on the right.

Next we set off to the Winston Churchill/War Cabinets museum. This was an old subway/bunker under the British treasury. The top-secret headquarters was stationed here during WWII. Many of the rooms were just as they were left so many years ago. After that we went to Westminster Abbey. The Abbey was a great example of gothic architecture and included many historic figures that were either memorialized there or buried there. Many influential people in both literature and music were represented at the abbey. That was especially interesting for us to see. Debbie likes this quote: “The first condition of human goodness is something to love; the second something to reverence”-George Elliot, who is memorialized in Poet’s Corner. We are only beginning to understand the richness and the vastness of Great Britain’s history. It is a lot to take in but it is amazing to be in a place that is older than anything we can see in America (besides some of the trees of course).

This is the 3rd Church built on this sight. It has been there since the 1300's.

We think it is important to discuss the snack we had after Westminster Abbey. We had the most wonderful ice cream in the world. It was called super soft ice cream. It looked like whipped cream and kind of tasted like it too, but it was ice cream! (Poppa- you would have loved it!!) After Westminster, we came back to hotel for a quick nap and then went off to find the mysterious Hyde Park that we had yet to see! It was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel. Once there we found the infamous Peter Pan statue. It is said that this is the place that Peter landed after he had gone sailing in the book. He appeared “as if by magic!” Hyde park was beautiful! The British know how to do parks, that is for sure! We then ventured to Piccadilly Circus for dinner. This place is comparable to Times Square in New York City! As Jennie says, “It was hoppin’!” After a late dinner we returned to the Hyde Park Randor Hotel and got some much needed rest.

All the signs for the Underground or "Tube" look like this.

Much Love,

Debbie and Jennie

Hello Everyone!

We are writing to you from our Hyde Park Randor Hotel room located in the city of Westminster, London. We are 3 blocks from the Paddington Station...yes it is ok to think of Paddington bear, there was lots of Paddington merchandise for sale at the exit of the station.

Everything around our street looks like it is straight out of the movie "My Fair Lady" minus the cars of course.

After we checked into our hotel we went to get some lunch. We decided on a cute little sandwich shop but they were cash only so we settled for the oh so exotic Burger King. After lunch we navigated to tube to the Tower Hill station. We were hoping to tour the Tower of London but the guy at the ticket booth said we would have more time if we came back tomorrow. So instead we went on a "City Cruise" down the Thames River. It was very informative and entertaining-our Captain/Tour Guide was a regular comedian. We set sail from the Tower of London and went all the way down to Westminster Abbey. There was so much scenery to take in. We are hoping to get some actual touring in tomorrow.

We got some great photos of Big Ben though. Big Ben is actually the name of the bell, not the tower. The Captain/Tour Guide said that this is perhaps because the maker of the bell, Ben ...somebody, was a rather bell shaped individual.

It was a great day but we are exhausted and ready to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a great day filled with seeing historic London.

One More Day!!!

Hello Again!

     Today I write with tons of excitement because tomorrow we leave! There's lots of packing and organizing to do today but its nothing we can't handle. 

My mom thought it would be a good idea if we posted a better description of the VBS curriculum so here it goes:)

This VBS is entitled "Kingdom of the Son: A Prayer Safari."  As the title might imply, the emphasis is on prayer and the important role it plays in our relationship with Christ. It focuses on the importance of talking to God daily. The Lord's Prayer is used in many of the songs and lessons. Jennie and I are pretty excited about teaching the music to the kids. It is fun and full of many opportunities to share concepts in a simple but truthful way. The music has a ton of African influence so it is full of driving rhythms. It will be very fun for the kids and give them opportunities to move and make beautiful music. (which is so very important to us future music teachers.)  

There is so much joy encompassed in teaching kids music with great truth in it. Again, please pray that we will be an encouragement to those around us and that we would be also be encouraged. Hopefully the next time you hear from us we will be on the other side of the pond!!!!!

Lots of Love,

   Debbie (and Jennie)

T minus 5 days and counting

Dear friends and family,

In a few short days Jennie and I will be in another country, across the atlantic, getting ready to start our day. It is my hope that both Jennie and I will be able to keep everyone updated during our time in London. Naturally we would love to call each and everyone of you and let you know what is happening at every moment, but being human and only semi-employed college students with out super fantastic cell phones; we will opt to enter the world of blogging in hopes that it will provide a brief glimpse of the experiences that we hope to have. 

For those of you who may not know the whole story, Jennie and I leave for London on Wednesday the 29th for a fantastic VBS and cultural adventure! We will be returning August 10th with what we hope will be a lifetime of memories and encouraging stories to share.  Thanks to everyone who has been supporting us financially and through prayer. We are so encouraged by your love.  

We would welcome prayer in the next few days as we finalize details, pack, learn ALL the VBS songs, and try not to worry mom too much. (love you mom!) Please pray for the ministry that we will be bringing to the kids and the church community in London. We want to be both an encouragement and blessing to the people we are serving. It is also my hope that Jennie and I will be encouraged and blessed by everyone we encounter. 

 

Keep looking for updates and photos. We are SO excited! 

With Excitement,

  Debbie