6/28 – This is it. This is it? This is it!

What I did:

I woke up early to grab a train to take me from Sheffield into London. I had planned to meet with a couple of people today. It went very well, and I made it into town in plenty of time. I got to my destination a little early, so I saw a park across the street and went to sit in it for a while to kill some time.

Finally, Shannon called me and we met up and walked several minutes over to a park where we would meet two of her friends for lunch. But first we went a grabbed a coffee from a friend of hers. The area we were at was right by a street market that was mainly a flower market, but had lots of other stores open just on Sundays. We did not really look around, but went back to the park – Jesus Green – and grabbed a spot to wait for her friends. She told me a lot about the history of the area and about her life up to that point. This also involved the current ‘ministry’ things she does now. It actually took me by surprise, because I was expecting her to be another church planter, but she was not at all. She has done some really cool things though involved in the arts and justice issues in the country. Oh yeah, and she is originally from Texas.

After a while her friends showed up and we had a nice picnic. One of her friends and I went to have a more extensive look at the market and there was one cool shop that sold stuff from some artist who cuts designs out of paper that were really cool. Soon it started to rain, so we headed back and all left to go to Shannon’s place for a little while (which I later found out was right by the Tower Bridge). We talked a little more and she showed some pictures from one of her projects (I don’t really know what else to call it). It is a really cool thing they do in repurposing old items like jewelry and letting the customer set the price. Kind of flies in the face of markets and consumer culture but shows that everything has value. She also showed me some prints that a friend of hers did in an art project called Doxology, where he would go into 15th or so century churches and study a picture then close his eyes and meditate while he draws what comes to him. Then he goes back through and highlights a certain part in gold. Seeing the prints was really cool and I did not like them all, but there were some really cool ones.

Soon, one of her friends had to leave, so I left with her to go check into my hotel and figure out how to get to my next stop. There was a lot of work on the Tube lines today, so it took a little ingenuity to get where I needed. But I figured it out and made my way to St. Mary’s church to go to the legendary and popular Grace’s small service. I knew there would not be many people there, but I walked into a small room in the back of the church to find 8 people gathered on couches. One guy had to leave at the beginning, but the remaining eight of us had some time of focusing on life journeys. We listened to a couple of songs, read some Bible passages, discussed some questions in two groups, and prayed. Very straightforward and really nothing alternative about it. But like I said it is not their main service. I really enjoyed it though and I got to know almost all of the people that were there pretty well, especially after some time at the pub immediately afterward.

I got to talk to one of the guys even longer as we both walked back to the tube station. Then I was back off to my hotel, exhausted from a very intense and busy day.

What I learned:

Some people are 12ft tall green lizards and are trying to control the world. Google David Icke for the full explanation.

A lot about Shannon’s life (but it was actually all very helpful).

The churches in east London (and probably lots of other places across the country, but especially here) have gone through some of the greatest amount of transitions from Catholic to Anglican to Synagogues and now to Mosques. The same buildings are often used for so many different religious purposes.

There is a tube station in west London called White City, and it is not very aptly named. I saw 3x as many black people there as any other race.