A Week At CC Docklands!!

Hey folks!!
OK so this is probably the blog post that I should have done when I first arrived, because it has our weekly events and some of the faces at CC Docklands...but I just kept forgetting to take pictures for some reason! So FINALLY I think I have enough for a decent post, aren't you proud of me? :) So without further ado, let's take a walk through the week!!

We start off with Wednesday night Bible study. This is a new, small home fellowship which is across town in West London (we live in East London). When I first arrived, I was leading worship for this study temporarily until Dan Arnold returned from the States.

The study is held at Philomena's house (she's the woman in the middle). Also pictured here is Alejandra (on the left), who is always faithful to come, and my mom, Debbie (on the right).

Those of you who have been to the Bible College in Hungary might see some familiar faces here! Melissa (sitting next to Philomena) and Melanie (far right next to my dad) stayed with us this past week and attended Bible study as well!

Our next stop is the Thursday night prayer meeting! This is a really sweet time of fellowship and prayer for the needs of the church body at CC Docklands. I've been so blessed to lead worship on the piano here and to see God work in and through our times of prayer!

We meet at the home of Evan and Mitchie...

...and here they are!

Next we have the Friday night Bible study in the Prayer Room at Canary Wharf! I've been leading worship on guitar for this Bible study as well, but will be passing it on to Denae Templeton when she arrives this week! I really enjoy Friday nights, and we always have a neat time of fellowship afterwards!

Here are some of the folks who came recently!

And here we are enjoying some food and hanging out afterwards!

And then of course, we come to Sunday!! I know I already posted a couple pictures from Sunday service, but hey it can't hurt to send a few more, right? We have about 40 people that call CC Docklands "home"...plus the past few Sundays have been encouraging, as we have had several new folks who are coming regularly as well!

Here we have some folks setting up chairs and the fellowship area (in the back of the photo). Since the Idea Store (where the service is held) opens at 12:00 and church starts at 12:30, we have to move fast! These guys have it down to a science though!

Guys like Tom (holding the chairs) are faithful to come help set up early...

...while Dan and I practice a bit for worship!

And then we have our little children's ministry! This includes James and Jack...

...and Becky, (who definitely looks better than me in this picture!). :)

So that is a week at CC Docklands!! Now if you'll just bear with me a little longer...I want to show you a few more faces!!

This is Henry and Claire with two of their kids, Becky (from previous picture!) and Omar.

This is Mitchie (again!) with Lynn and Lauren (Lynn's husband, Carl, is in the next picture because I don't have one with all of them together!). I've been giving Lauren piano lessons lately, she's a quick learner!!

Here's Carl (with Lauren)! :)

This is Tom, Claire (again!) and Julia. Tom is wearing a little blue ribbon because we were celebrating his birthday! :)

This is Kevin, Alistair & Gwen, and Mitchie. :)

This is Maxine. We've been meeting on Fridays for a Bible study thru the book of James! She's been inviting her friends to come too!

And last but not least, here's a group photo of some of us at Tom's birthday party (which as you can tell, was a "bowling night!"). Thank you for taking the time to look at these pictures. I hope that it helps to get a visual of some of the things happening here! I SO appreciate your continued prayer for the work that the Lord is doing here and for the precious people that are a part of it!

The God Corner!!!

OK so every August at Notting Hill (in downtown London) there is a huge 2 day event called "Carnival"...basically it's a British version of Mardi Gras. From what I understand, several years ago, a few of the guys from Calvary Chapel (Robert, Efrem, and Patrick--now the pastors of CC South London) started a Christian rap/hip hop outreach in front of a Baptist church just outside the Carnival area. Apparently it's become a tradition now, so that it is commonly known by everyone as "The God Corner." Pretty cool, eh? So this year I was able to go hang out, hand out some Gospel tracts, and take some pics...so ready or not, here we go!!

As you can see, there was a pretty good turn out and people were getting into it! The location is ideal; there are people constantly coming and going as they make their way to Carnival from the tube (subway) station across the street.

This is Pastor Efrem speaking to the crowd. At one point he and Robert actually did some rap as well (some of you may have heard them, they're called "MOD," Ministers of Defense"), but I missed that part! They had loads of other guys getting up and rapping though, so there was plenty going on!

This is Pastor Robert sharing the Gospel with the crowd. The Lord has truly given these guys boldness in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, what a blessing to hear God's truth being proclaimed in the streets of London!

Just thought this was cute...here are some of the kids from CC South London getting their groove on. They were actually pretty good! :)

Some of the young people in the church did street dancing as well.

Surprisingly, they were able to coordinate a group "Electric Slide" (but they called it something else). I was out there going for it myself, but had to stop to take this picture...sorry, you don't get the pleasure of seeing me bust a move! :)

So that's "The God Corner" in a nutshell! It's so neat to see how the Lord gifts and uses His people to reach out in love to a hurting world! I mentioned that we were passing out tracts there, which was neat because many people actually took time to look at them! Although by the stage it was too loud to speak to people, apparently some folks went down the road a bit and were able to share the Gospel with quite a few people! Please pray that the seeds planted in people's hearts and minds will take root as they realize nothing in this world--not even a big ol' party like Carnival--will truly satisfy them apart from relationship with Jesus Christ!!