I have not had a lot of internet access this week, so I haven't been able to post yet. But I hope there will be more to come (with pictures) in the next few days!
I arrived safely, and early (!) in England on the morning of January 1, local time. Immigration, customs, and getting a coach (long distance bus) were all easy.
I took the coach to Poole, which is in southern England, about a two and a half hour coach ride from London My friend, J, lives in Poole. J is an American, and we were teammates in China. She is getting married on Friday to a British man, so I will be able to attend her wedding. But it is also great because this time gives me an opportunity to get to know some ordinary British Christians. I am staying with one of J's friends, who is very hospitable, and I am able to experience a British home.
Tuesday evening (the day I arrived), she and J's sister hosted a wedding shower for J. Wedding showers are an American custom so there was lots of explaining and 'interpreting' going on between the two cultures. Even the rather ridiculous toilet-paper-wedding-dress-game (where you divide into teams and each team creates a wedding dress for a member of their team out of toilet paper, and then the bride judges which is best), somehow seemed less ridiculous as a cultural exchange.
As easy as it is to travel around, Great Britain is still very different. The architecture has a very different look. Driving on the other side of the road means all of my innate traffic sense is gone. And those are just some obvious things I noticed in my first few hours here.
The shower was a good example of the differences between the two cultures. But it was also a good example of how what holds us together, especially as Christians, is much greater than what separates us. As we gave J her gifts, each person was also asked to hare a verse, quote, or other word of wisdom. Most people shared Bible verses or other Christian wisdom. At the end, we made a circle around J and had a time of prayer. In prayer for our sister, we were one--British accent or American. God is so much bigger than the cultural differences that divide us.
'In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all' (Col. 3:11)!
Christ is all and in all. I expect that will be a theme of this trip. Despite all the differences n language and culture and ways we do church, Christ is bigger than all of it and brings us together as brothers and sisters in Christ.
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