Well last weekend our tiny little church put on a conference. Rolland and Heidi Baker (With Iris Ministries, whom I worked with in Africa) are old friends of my Pastors so they came in with a lil team to be the speakers. It went really great. So Eleos style, as it had free admission and the first three rows were reserved for the homeless. Laura and I ended up running most of it as Kurt and Asha caught up with the Bakers. We joke that the pictures below best represent the practical part of the weekend “Eleos-Iris Style”.
Things here are still going amazing. New little development, I’m now the keyboard player for my church. Haha. I guess they’ve been praying for a keyboard player for quite some time and even though I haven’t played in a worship band or even really practiced for about two years for some reason I agreed to do it. It was funny as I arrived at church about a half hour before the service the Sunday I was suppose to play and even though everything was set up, nobody had any intention of practicing. I noticed the piano was well, a tad tiny and missing a pedal so I asked if I could quickly have a go at it. I sat down only to discover, they don’t have sheet music. They sort of laughed and asked if I could play by ear. We started practicing and turns out they only have one monitor for two vocals, one guitar and now a keyboard. I don’t know which was more difficult, trying to learn a new song by ear or simply trying to hear myself over the bongos and guitar. One guy was sent on a mission to find music to a song that I didn’t know and came back claiming he was successful. Only one small problem. “Can you transpose music?” “Can I what?” Turns out it was the right song, wrong key. So they gave me a pen and about 5 minutes to try and transpose this song. In the end I did figure it out (proof alone that God is in love with me) and they find music to another song. Except with this song the cords are right but in the wrong spot. “Well you just sort of make it up” The drummer tells me. And the lead vocalist/guitar player agrees, “Yeah just make it up”… Not reassuring. So we play around a bit, made a total new song list and then just waited for people to show up.
Lol Was funnier at the time I think.
It was really good though, I loved every minute. God totally showed up and did his thing and we worshiped for the next two hours, completely skipping the sermon.
A couple weeks ago I also got a chance to leave London and see some country side as Laura and I took a train to visit her parents in Oxfordshire. It was great, her parents are moving to a new little village that we visited that is all thatched cottages! No joke. The whole thing looked straight out of a movie, topped off with a 16th century pub next door and a castle up the way. Below are some pics.
Work is going better. I’m working part time now while secretly looking for a way to love on babies and annihilate poverty in London. No luck as of yet but I’ll keep updates.
Laura and I went with Kurt and the team to “Church without Walls” last Saturday. In short it’s breakfast, a short talk and prayer with about 40ish homeless guys under a tree at about 7 in the morning. Kind of similar to what I did in S’toon.
The shear quantity of homeless people in London though, has been quite the issue lately. There is a solution, I know there is, I just don’t know what it is yet. Giving up my futon isn’t it and neither is throwing a pound or two at their feet. Lol I’m not going into that now but man, I refuse to sit on the fence for this one.
Anyway there’s some of life’s basics, below are some pictures. Cheers
-The location of the conference was moved across the street so to avoid confusion we posted a sign, we feel this picture sums up the practical aspect of the weekend.
-The place that it was held in was an old anglo-catholic church probably older then my country. The bathrooms were ancient and a joy not only to use but also to clean.
-Just got off the train and still a little tired and cold. (laura’s parents new cottage)
-16th Century Pub
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