7/10 - Catching up with myself

What I did:

I woke up pretty early at Jim’s so that I would not hold him up in getting to work. We had a nice cup of tea then set off. He walked with me most of the way and we had some interesting conversations about gardening and growing vegetables and stuff like that. Eventually he split off on his bike and I walked back into town. I did not do much in Oxford this morning, because I needed to get back, pick up some stuff from Fleet and then head back out the Birmingham this evening. So, I went straight for the rail station.

Before I knew it I was back in Fleet walking back to the house. I got there and realized I had a little time to relax and dozed off a little while getting things together. Then, back to the train station. I knew the end of this week would be crazy, but all this train time is definitely a change of pace. Then on to Birmingham to visit a church this evening.

Well, sort of a church, but I’ll get to that in a minute. I got to Birmingham a little early, so I went to the shopping center to grab a bite to eat. I was working solely off of a card I was given about 6 weeks ago when I visited Sanctuary, and it said that there would be food and worship, but I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be much food, so I ate a little anyway. It soon became time to walk on over, so I did. I had been in the area before when I had some free time in the city, so I was not too lost. I found it fine and right at 7:30. I rang to get in, but no one answered. Finally, I called the number on the card I got and luckily someone answered. She told me that they were meeting, but not until 9 and at a different place – the Red Bar.

So, I killed and hour and a half by walking around to find the Red bar (which took about 10 minutes) and then chilling outside of Birmingham Cathedral to read. I read for over an hour while a bunch of teenagers talked and gathered and skateboarded around me. If I was the youth pastor of any church in the city, this would definitely be the place I would be. It made me want to just talk to the kids anyway, but for some reason I refrained.

Finally, it was 9, so I headed to the bar. Pretty much no one was there when I got there and the DJ, who was the one leading the service, was setting up her equipment. I picked up a flyer for the event and noticed that the first hour (9-10) was supposed to be worship and then from 10-4am was dancing and party and normal bar stuff. I stayed until 10:30ish, because I had to catch a train out to where I was staying tonight. But I don’t think I missed too much, because it was all pretty much the same from the first I sat down. I enjoyed myself, but I don’t really know if anyone was worshipping. It is definitely one of the harder things for me to call church (not that I think anyone is intending for it to be so). I did like a lot of the music she played. I knew that there were a couple other people that would be playing/controlling/dj-ing the music the rest of the night, but I just could not stay that long. Also, I did see Pall right as I was leaving.

I got a train out to Longbridge and met up with my friend Steve that I met last weekend. He showed me to my room and we both were ready to crash. He did leave me with a warning to close my door though, because they have a cat and it will come in and stand on my face. Haha. The best pet warning I have ever heard.

What I learned:

It is best to check online on a group’s website before going to visit them to make sure nothing has changed in 6 weeks time.

Lakes can explode through a giant burp-like process of CO2 building up under the pressure of the water and then suddenly being released (but only in more tropical climates where a natural diffusion of gas in the body of water does not occur with seasonal cooling). And it can (and has) killed people.