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So long, London

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Pastor Clint (we started calling him dad) made us take a 3 hour walking tour of church history before we got to explore London, but we did actually learn a lot…  St. Paul’s Cathedral, initially constructed during Roman occupation in the 700s, and for years the center of the Roman Catholic Church in England.  St. Paul’s “cross” or the outdoor pulpit - scriptures hadn’t been translated into English from Latin, and priests only knew enough Latin to mumble through the liturgy. There was little education or accountability, and the Roman Catholic Church controlled daily life because they commanded spiritual training and the hope of heaven. Christians who advocated for the translation of the Bible into English were persecuted and in some cases executed, because it threatened church control. However, by the end of King Henry VIII’s life, he had broken from the Roman Catholic Church (so he could divorce and remarry his 6 wives) and English translation Bibles were allowed in all churches.  After
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Connections of the heart

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Today was our last day of ministry in Birmingham/ Erdington, and it was a sweet finale to this portion of our trip.  Several of our ladies joined the weekly Mums group that meets at Oikos, which as it turned out was sweet LOUD chaos. There were about 20 babies and toddlers mainly below school age, and 20 moms looking for the opportunity to socialize. Claudia, Emily and I prepared a craft which was a step beyond what they typically do, and it was a great way to engage the little ones. Braelyn and Emma Grace joined us in engaging the kiddos, and we were also encouraged to chat with the moms and make them feel welcome. We had heard previously that one of the things that has impacted visitors to the church was that everyone was loved and welcomed, which was different than other experiences with religion they’d had. And one of the sweetest experiences  I  had was in approaching a mom sitting on her own with her little boy, in Islamic attire and wearing her hijab. It turns out she is from A
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Goooooooooal! (The best day ever)

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Today’s post will be a little short, but our day was big! This morning several of us did an activity at the Oikos Cafe and prayer walked the Erdington High Street, and 3 of our ladies assisted in a baking class for women. The fellowship among the ladies and among the group was sweet, and then they got to enjoy the sweet fruit of their labor!   But by far the best part of our day was helping host a soccer tournament for the men at the “refugee hotel”. We had a group of over 20 show up to play, and made 4 teams to play 5 a side , tournament style.  Our Concord team divided into 4 groups too, and we each adopted a team to follow and cheer for. As luck would have it, my team took the ultimate prize! Each of the men on the winning team got a really nice soccer ball, and when you don’t have many possessions, that can mean a lot! Our guys were Jimmy, Osama, Bruk, Ihab, and Goran, and at one point out of the 10 guys on the pitch, 7 different countries were represented! We met numerous more Kur
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If you could ask God one question…

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Today was our first day of more significant ministry, and it was intense.  White-board street evangelism:  We started the day back at Oikos for a little training in white-board street evangelism. The premise is that the team writes a compelling question on a white board easel, and invites passersby to answer the question. Many folks avoid eye contact, some are curious but ultimately in a hurry or unengaged, and for some, the opportunity to write on a white board is temptation enough! The process continues that once a person writes their question, we can ask a follow up question just to open a conversation and begin to get to know and gage the person, and if appropriate, to go deeper.  Many people are anxious or even fearful to approach a stranger and initiate a spiritual conversation, and the whiteboard question  gives the team a way to initiate, and  is a very easy way for passersby to choose their level of interaction. The guidance we received was captured in three words: hospitality
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OIKOS

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We have had another beautiful day. Not weather-wise, though we did give numerous hosts the opportunity to comment on lousy English weather, so that seemed to be something. An occasional slight drizzle certainly didn’t get us down.  A quick overview, and then some stories. After a full English breakfast 😝, and devotional at the hotel (thank you Mark and Claudia!), we split our group for church so as not to overwhelm any one gathering. Our family along with Andrew, Paul and Emily attended a service at Oikos Church in the city of Erdington combining 3 churches within their collective, and we ended up spending the better part of the day at their cafe before dinner at one of the pastor’s homes. We are all safe and happy and exhausted and tucked in, so all is well.  The Oikos service was intended as a celebration for what all God has been doing among their 3 churches, and the international populations that make it up. The theme of the service was “ kingdom culture”—not mainstream or major
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Arriving

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Today was tremendous… we left Atlanta last night a little after midnight (after a snafoo over Paul’s bag getting picked up by someone else at the security checkpoint!), but I don’t think either Adria or I got more than 4 hours sleep on the overnight flight, and I would be surprised if either of us had gotten as much as 2! Joe and Braelyn of course slept the whole way! But except for no sleep, the flight over went very well. From Heathrow it was the Underground tube to King’s Cross for a train to Birmingham… or at least that’s what we thought! After becoming thoroughly turned around by a case of “how do we get there from here,” we backtracked another tube station and ended up catching our train (all 12 of us running to the VERY LAST CAR Home Alone style) with literally :33 seconds to spare. So you can see it was perfect. Clint told us at our second team meeting the word of the trip is FLEXIBLE, and I think he kept his word with how the travel went! There were hitches along the way (one
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Up up and away!

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The adventure begins…. The gang is at our airport gate, QUITE early, waiting to board.  We’ve already had our first adventure; one of our teammate’s carry on was snagged by someone not paying attention at the security checkpoint! When TSA got permission to pop open the other person’s bag that had been left behind, they were able to find a name and called through the airport intercom. The unintentional bandit brought the bag back, and was so apologetic, but the irony was that the bag that was taken was black canvas; the one he left behind was blue vinyl!  It shouldn’t go without saying—please pray for us as we start the journey, and I hope to keep y’all up to date! 
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