Jasmine in London

I'm baaaack!!!!

2008-06-25T14:36:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody!!
I just realized that I should probably update everyone and let you all know that I am back in California now!! I actually arrived June 11 but hit the ground running so the blog fell by the wayside! :) Anyways, I am staying at the Bible College in Murrieta for the summer , and as I mentioned in my newsletter, I'm going to apply for a Visa to return to London in the fall. However, I'm not completely sure if the Lord wants me to go back to the U.K., so I would definitely appreciate your continued prayers this summer! God bless you all and thank you so much for following my blog throughout this past year, I'm SO thankful for your prayers and encouragement!! I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on my plans!

Italy and Austria!!

2008-05-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

Greetings folks!! Well, I recently ventured from the British Isles over to "the continent"...as you may know, I was asked to teach a class at the Calvary Chapel School of Apologetics in Austria, so I decided to add a weekend in Italy since I have a friend there and I was already "in the area!" Anyways, here are some shots of my little adventure...enjoy!!

To start off, here's a little shot of me in Venice...

...and here are the guys I hung out with! I actually was visiting Dave Downs (left), a friend of mine who is a missionary in Montebelluna, Italy. The Lord is doing a really neat work in that area, and I was able to attend a few Bible studies and such while I was there (unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, oops!). The guy on the right is Daniel, he's a missionary in Hastings, England...we all had a great time hanging out together!

OK so back to more pictures of Venice...for some reason this was the only part of my trip to Italy that I took pictures of, so you're only going to get some tourist shots...oh well!!

This is definitely something you would expect to see in a place like Venice, huh? All I can say is, this guy must have amazing balance! As you probably know, the city is literally built on the water with a system of canals running between the buildings.

Of course, what would a trip to Venice be without seeing some gondolas?

This city has beautiful architecture, like this amazing outdoor staircase!

There also were some unusual sights...like the massive overpopulation of pigeons at St. Mark's Square! If you had any food on your person, you would literally be swarmed by these guys...kinda like this lady is experiencing here! This must be where Alfred Hitchcock got his inspiration for his movie, "The Birds," because it's pretty bizarre!

OK so totally changing gears now...welcome to Austria!! Calvary Chapel owns the castle pictured here; it was originally the first Calvary Chapel Bible College in Europe, but now serves as a retreat center as well as the School of Apologetics. Talk about a prime location--right on the Millstattersee (Millstatt Lake) nestled in the Alps!! What a blessing to be able to go there and enjoy God's creation!

Here's a view of the village of Millstatt...as you can see, we didn't have all sunny days! :)

Here's one more shot of the lake from the Castle!

Of course, I wasn't there to just check out the scenery...I was there to work! :) I actually taught one of my favorite subjects, Missionary Biographies! So here's a shot of my little class, they were such a great group of students! Since the course was condensed into one week, it was a bit of a marathon (two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening), but it actually went very smoothly and I think the Lord used the class to encourage all of us! These folks were definitely eager learners...

...and pretty good ping pong players as well! If there was ever any free time, this is where everyone would be! I definitely improved my skills by hanging out with them! :)

So as you can see, we did get to hang out a bit outside of class...although eating a heavy meal after 10pm at this restaurant probably wasn't the best idea!

So that is my journey to Italy and Austria in a nutshell (believe me, I could show you lots more but I'd get carried away)!! As always, it's such an encouragement to see the work that the Lord is doing all over Europe...and as the time draws near for me to head back to the States, I certainly am thankful to have been a part of the work He is doing over here!!

Here's the latest...

2008-05-05T08:51:00.000-07:00

Hey there everyone!! Just thought it was about time to fill you in on the latest over here in London, so here goes!!

Well, I think spring really is here this time...in fact, I've even had a chance to start working on my tan!!

Recently, we attended a "Teach the Word" Conference in Oxford. This was open to all the Calvary Chapels in the area (with mostly southern UK folks attending). As you can see, there was a pretty good turnout!

Here's one of the speakers, David Guzik! All the teachings were helpful; in fact, two people who came with us are new to our church and said that they have been so blessed to get sound Biblical teaching like this since they haven't had it before!!

During the conference, I also was asked to accompany my friend Amber on the piano as she sang a couple songs, so that was fun!!

The weekend after the Oxford Conference, there was a LeCrae concert that I went to with some of the youth. We had a great time, and a friend that Maxine invited even gave her life to the Lord at the end of the concert! That was the best part!! :)

That same weekend, I had the opportunity to teach a Bible study for the women at CC South London. What a wonderful group of gals they are!!

Here's another shot of some of the women...the Lord really came through and blessed the study, and I was definitely encouraged by our time together!

I guess this picture is pretty self-explanatory...this past Saturday, a bunch of us went bowling! It was a fun time and also a chance for us to continue building relationships with one another! We're planning to do this every other month, alternating with the homeless outreach.

Here I am with Joy, Lauren, Mitchie, and Lucy!

Hey, what would Jasmine's blog posts be without an occasional picture of my nephew?? A few weeks ago, my mom and I were able to take a short trip up to Scotland to see Mattie, Martin, and the kids...so I just had to throw this in!!

I don't know if Luke is praying for Lauren or just trying to palm her head, but he's pretty cute with his baby sister!!

And here's Baby Lauren at 9 weeks!! She is definitely an alert baby, always looking around at something!

So that's the latest here in London!! My next blog post will have a totally different change of scenery, as I head for Italy and Austria to teach a class next week!! Until then, God bless you all and thank you so much for your continued prayers and encouragement!!

April (snow) showers bring May flowers...

2008-04-09T06:40:00.000-07:00

Hey folks, time for another post! Well, I woke up Easter Sunday to see snow out of my bedroom window...

Just a few flakes, as you can see! Kinda weird at the end of March, but no big deal, right? Well, this past Sunday (the first weekend of April, mind you), I woke up to this...

And this is out the living room window...

So yeah, I now understand why Londoners say the weather is so unpredictable here! I must say that I actually LOVED having this surprise snowfall, even if I was the only one who enjoyed it!

Anyways, back to Easter Sunday...as I mentioned in my last post, we had to have our Easter service on Saturday this year because the IDEA Store where we meet was closed on Sunday. It went well, but to make up for missing the actual Easter day, on Sunday we had a dinner at our house! Over 20 people showed up and it went really well!

Here's Tola and Mawuse with a couple of Mawuse's friends who came to dinner (by the way, the baby is Joseph, Tola's son--he's a cutie!).

Moving on...for some reason, it seems like everyone is having a birthday this spring! Here we are celebrating Evan and Carl's birthdays...

...and here we are at another birthday lunch the following week!

We've also had several visitors passing through lately...like Emilio and Patty Carbajal (for you Bible College folks, these are Becca Brown's parents)! They were in London on holiday, so I got a chance to spend a couple days with them, it was such a blessing to see them!

Here's Emilio feeding the birds at St. Paul's Cathedral. Why is this significant? Well, for you Disney lovers out there, St. Paul's is the setting for the song "Feed the Birds" in Mary Poppins...so I thought I should take a picture! :)

We also recently had family friends Scott and Bev King visiting from back home in Washington!! So wonderful having them here!! This is a shot on the Thames River with Tower Bridge in the background!

And here we are with Big Ben and Parliament in the background!

Just this week, Cristina Malais also came over for a few days on her way back from Germany...had a good time touring her around the city as well. By the way, that's the Tower of London in the background!

We also met up with the Foxes and Dan Arnold for a meal!

One last thing which is kinda a prayer request...a few of us are starting to go to the train stations in the area to pass out Gospel tracts. This past Saturday we went to the station at Greenwich (pictured here) and it went really well! We expected to see our little tracts littered all over the ground when we were finished, but when we walked around a bit, we didn't see a single one! I saw many people reading the Gospel message, and a few even came up to ask for them! Even if it's just an opportunity to "plant seeds" in people's lives, what a blessing that is! As the Apostle Paul wrote, "One plants, one waters, but it is GOD who gives the increase!" Please pray that the Lord would continue to give a great increase of changed lives here in this city...

...because London needs JESUS!!!! :)

Spring has (almost) sprung!!

2008-03-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

Greetings friends and family!! Yes, spring is nearly upon us...so while you're trying to adjust to the time change, take a moment to enjoy a few photos of the latest happenings here in London!

I thought I would start off with a bit of scenery...believe it or not, I actually took this picture at the start of February!! It was so bizarre, one day all of these flowers just bloomed out of nowhere! My mom kept telling them to go back into the ground because it was still cold! I guess it was a pretty "warm" winter for London this year, but this is ridiculous!

Also in February, we were blessed to witness Lee's baptism (you may recognize him, he and Tayo dedicated their son Malachi to the Lord in January). Because he wanted all of his family and friends to be there, a bigger facility was needed, so it was held at a Baptist Church. The Lord has done an awesome work in Lee's life, and he even read his testimony to everyone...I think most of us were a bit teary-eyed!! :)

After he finished sharing with everyone, my dad prayed for him and baptized him!

After the baptism some folks had prepared a meal, which was really sweet...as you can see, there were quite a few people there!! We're praying that the evidence of what Jesus has done in Lee's life will really have an impact on his friends and family!!

The following weekend, there was a one-day youth conference at a church in South London held by a Calvary Chapel ministry here called "Next Generation UK." I was able to bring Lauren with me, and we had a good time...even though the conference started late due to a shooting down the street from us...sadly, that's life in the big city.

One of the main speakers was Laurie Brown, a scientist and pastor in Devon. He gave a great talk about the evidence of "divine design" in nature and science, a very pertinent message for these young people who are constantly indoctrinated with evolutionary theory in the schools.

The worship team from CC Cardiff came to do the music for the conference, and I guess you could say my friend Amber "recruited" me to sing with her, so that was fun! :)

Here's another shot so you can kinda see the rest of the group, Steve on drums and Taevyan on keyboard (I have no idea how to spell his name because it's Welsh!).

Moving along, this past weekend we had a group of students and staff from the Bible College campus in Mallorca come through for a visit (some of you may see a few familiar faces here)! It was such a blessing to have them come! We showed them around the city and my dad also did a bit of a history tour for them, which included John Wesley's house and chapel, pictured here.

Here's Paul getting into his preaching groove in John Wesley's pulpit.

The group was able to attend our Friday night Bible study at the Wharf...

...and the next day we all did the Bible tour of the British Museum! It was neat because some folks from our Wednesday night Bible study group also joined us!

So that's the latest from London!! Stay tuned for my next post...Easter Sunday on a Saturday (don't worry, I will explain later)!!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

2008-02-21T09:43:00.001-08:00

That's right, folks, I'm an auntie again!! My sister Mattie gave birth to little Lauren Elisabeth Tatton on Monday the 11th at 4:40am. She weighed 6 lbs. 9 oz. and is doing great!! We've all taken turns traveling up to Scotland to see the new addition to the family, so if you don't mind, I'm just going to take time out from my normal blog subjects to do a little family post!!

Here she is!!

Here she is with her amazing momma (who I might add looks pretty darn good for just having a baby a week ago!!).

Here she is with her big brother, Luke, and her loving poppa, Martin.

This was the first time that Luke got to hold Lauren (with help of course!).

Sorry, I have to throw in one more of Luke 'cuz he's so cute with his baby sister! He talks to her in a soft little voice, he's going to be a good big brother!!

Here's Auntie Jasmine teaching Lauren how to sing.

My mom is a VERY proud grandma...

...and my dad is quite happy as well!! :)

That's all for now, folks...my next post will be back to "business as usual" with everything going on at CC Docklands. There have been a couple neat things happening this month so stay tuned!!

Starting off great in 2008 (cheezy, but it rhymes!)!!!

2008-01-30T01:46:00.000-08:00

Greetings friends and family! Perhaps some of you feel like this year hasn't started on the right foot...maybe because your team isn't in the Super Bowl, or because your candidate dropped out of the presidential race...but more than likely it's because I haven't done any blog posts yet in the new year! :) So here I am, back in action to review the month of January!!

As most of you know, we spent Christmas/New Year's in Scotland this year with my sister and her family!!

Here's Luke and I enjoying the first Scottish snowfall of the year...of course, Auntie Jasmine had to take him outside to build a snowman (or a "mowma" as he calls it).

Here's a cute mother/son photo!

When I got back from Scotland, Angelena Chapman visited for a couple days on her way home from Israel...some of you CCBC folks might remember her!! We had a nice time seeing the sights and she was able to come to the Wednesday night Bible study as well!!

After Angelena left, my dad returned from the States and we headed off to Calvary Chapel Siegen, Germany, for a week. CC Siegen hosts many events throughout the year and has a Bible College extension campus as well!!

While my dad was attending a Pastor's Conference there, I had the opportunity to hang out with the Bible College interns there and help them serve meals, clean up, etc. We had a great time!

Here are Christy and Michelle preparing lunch. Most of the interns in Siegen were students when I was working at the Bible College in Murrieta, so seeing all of them was kinda like a little reunion! I was so blessed to spend time with them and see what the Lord is doing in their lives!!

Here's Annie making some German schnitzel (which is basically fried pork chops)...it looks kinda sketchy in this picture but it actually tastes pretty good!!

And here's one more shot of Annie, Michelle, and Chiara just for fun! Even though there are no pictures of me, I really was helping out and working--I promise!! :)

Back in London, we had a very eventful weekend, including our first church baby dedication!! Tayo and Lee (black shirt and tan jacket) dedicated their little son Malachi to the Lord on Sunday, which we were all really excited about!

Here's my dad praying for the Lord's blessing on his life.

Since those other two pictures were far away, I thought you should see a close-up of Malachi because he's pretty darn cute!!

We had a full house on Sunday, partly because several people came for Malachi's dedication...including some unsaved folks that had been invited! So we pray that the service had an impact on their hearts!!

Everyone definitely enjoyed themselves, as seen in the fact that they all stayed to chat for a long time! :)

So there's a brief update on the latest happenings here!! Plus in the past few weeks, the Lord has made some breakthroughs in the lives of various individuals...seeing Jesus change people from the inside out is such an encouragement and a powerful testimony of what only God can do in a person's life!!
Stay tuned for my next update...Jasmine becomes an auntie again!! :)

Jasmine's Post-Christmas Blog!!

2007-12-29T14:03:00.000-08:00

Greetings everyone!! Well, I meant to do this before Christmas, and obviously that didn't happen...but hey, what's a few days, right?? After all, I'm still in time for New Years so that's a point in my favor! :) Just wanted to do a little recap of the oh-so-busy month of December for you, so let's get going...

Of course, what would a Christmas blog be without Christmas lights?? I have to say, I LOVE going downtown this time of year!! This is on Oxford Street, which is where all the "high street shopping" takes place, it gets pretty crazy!

"City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style...." OK so this is the middle of the street, not the sidewalk, but it reminds me of that song!! :)

Naturally, I can't show you pictures of the city lights downtown without a picture of Harrod's!! I admit I never have actually gone inside (it probably costs money just to go into a store like that!)...but they had some pretty killer window displays!! :)

OK so moving along...at the beginning of the month, Denae and I made a little trip to Cardiff to visit the folks at the Bible College there since she hadn't had a chance to go yet! We had a great time visiting with our friends (who I'm sure you recognize from my October Wales blog!)...

...and of course when you have a couple worship leaders like Denae and Amber together, music is going to be involved somehow!

During the first part of the month, we also did a few special things for fun...like a Christmas concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London!! This picture hopefully captures how amazing this place was!!

I threw this shot in as well so you can see the HUGE organ on the right hand side of the picture. Let me tell you, I don't think I've ever heard a more powerful instrument--and the concert as a whole was just as great! I was reminded that the gift of music is one of the most beautiful things God has given to mankind!!

We also took a little jaunt to the British Museum! A few years ago, my dad put together a little tour of "The British Museum in Bible Light" which he takes groups on from time to time...so we decided to go do it!

OK so here's my plug for the British Museum--because if any of you come to London, you HAVE to check it out! For one thing, it holds some of the most important archaeological finds in history...like the Rosetta Stone pictured here! It was because of this "document" that scholars were able to first decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics, so it's considered by many to be the most significant discovery of all time! And you can see it right here in London, how about that?!? :)

OK so there are loads of pictures I could have included, but believe it or not, this is one of my favorite things in the museum--an Egyptian brick probably made by Hebrew slaves during the time of the Exodus!! As a Christian, probably one of the neatest things about the British Museum is to see how much archaeological evidence and support there is for Biblical people and places as described in Scripture. It's definitely an encouragement to our faith to see how these things validate God's Word!!

It's a good thing I was paying attention when my dad gave us the tour, because a couple weeks later I took Lauren, Maxine, and Rachel (Maxine's friend)!!

Moving on to church activities...we had a women's Christmas party at the beginning of December, which went really well!

Here are some of the ladies who came!!

We also had a chance to host another girls' sleepover!

Here's a little group photo of our last Wednesday night Bible study before we took a "break" for Christmas! What a blessing this study has been!! I also had an opportunity to teach at a women's Bible study for Calvary Chapel South London around this time, but I forgot to take pictures of that!! :(

A week before Christmas, we sadly had to say good-bye to Denae...she definitely was a huge blessing here in many ways!! This is a shot of her farewell party we had after church.

Here's a picture of everyone who came to church the last Sunday before Christmas...we were actually surprised that this many people were still around, as several folks go away for the holidays, so that was encouraging!

That's all for now folks...until next time, buh-bye!!
Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!! May you grow more and more in your relationship with Jesus Christ and experience all that He wants to do in your life in 2008!!!

When Worlds Collide--An American Thanksgiving in London!!

2007-12-01T08:11:00.001-08:00

Greetings everyone!! I meant to do this post last week but got a bit busy!! Nevertheless, it's still closer to Thanksgiving than Christmas, so that has to count for something!! :) Anyways, we were able to rent out a room and host a dinner for everyone in the church...plus some folks brought guests, so it turned into a bit of an outreach as well!

So here we are getting set up for the big dinner! We had around 30 people come so there was quite a bit of cooking and prep work!!

Here's my mom and Denae getting the pumpkin pies and cornbread ready...these are both pretty unusual things for the Brits to eat, so we were proud of them for being "adventurous!" Some of them actually had cornbread last year so they requested that we make it again!

My dad gave a brief Thanksgiving "devotional" before we got started with the meal.

So here we are beginning our feast!

Here's Justin, Tom, and Penny (whose name you might recognize from my newsletters!). I'm not sure if Justin was signalling for me not to take the picture or if he was just full from eating too much!

Here's another group photo...

...and here's me and Maxine and Denae after dinner.

Probably the highlight of our Thanksgiving dinner was a recording we made of "The 12 Days of Christmas" with everyone there! Denae and I recorded the music beforehand and then she put together groups of people to sing for the different "days." We thought it would be like pulling teeth to get everyone involved, but they all jumped in and had fun with it...and I have to say, it turned out pretty amazing! Plus it really seemed to bring everyone together, even those who came as guests!! :)

Justin, Carl, and Lee did some pretty crazy renditions of the "partridge in a pear tree."

The "12 drummers drumming" were sung by Analynn and her two boys (Jack and James--they were in a previous blog post). SO cute!! :)

Gwen, Penny, Lyn, Jackie, and Simone were our "nine ladies dancing."

Alistair and Dan did the "3 french hens."

Kevin and his friends were "4 calling birds" (and there were 4 of them singing, how about that!).

And of course, we had to have someone do "five golden rings," so Evan belted that one out! :)

So that's our Thanksgiving in London! We had a blast and the Lord really blessed our evening together! Even as I'm speaking of Thanksgiving, I have to say that I am SO thankful to be a part of such a sweet fellowship here in London...there's alot of love and unity in our body here, God has been very good to us!!

London in the Fall!!

2007-11-27T08:46:00.001-08:00

Greetings my friends!! Well, it's about time for some more blog posts! Since I got back from Wales at the end of October, we've been enjoying the change of seasons (yes, it is possible to enjoy cold weather!) along with various activities, so I thought I would do a quick run through!

Hey, why not start with a bit of scenery? Here's a familiar shot from Greenwich Park looking out over the city and Canary Wharf (on the right). As you can see, the leaves were just starting to change color here!

Here's a little shot of the falling leaves from our side of the river...if this huge ship wasn't in the way, you could see Greenwich from here! :)

As you can see, walking through Greenwich Park has some nice scenery this time of year (although you can't stand around out there for too long or you'll get frostbite)!

...which is why we've started bundling up a bit! :)

As many of you know, this month we had a girls' sleepover with a few of the young gals in our church. One of the neatest things lately has been spending time with them--Maxine and Lauren (pictured here) also have a Bible study with me and Denae on Friday evenings.

Speaking of Denae, I realized I hadn't posted any pictures of her leading worship...so here she is at the Friday night Bible study!!

Along with our regular Bible studies and prayer meeting at CC Docklands, another neat thing this fall has been our monthly women's meetings! I actually had the opportunity to share at our most recent one last week, and it was such a blessing! Here's a group photo from October's meeting. All you Santa Barbara friends will probably recognize a couple familiar faces--Karen and Malia Amling! It was so nice having them visit recently! :)

Here are a few more friends at the women's get-together...including Claire and two of her daughters (who might be familiar from previous posts!).

And here's a little shot of Julia, Mitchie, and Philomena!!

Last but not least, here's a "bonus photo" of something very familiar to us all...the beloved Krispy Kreme donut! This truck was randomly driving through King's Cross train station so I figured it was worth a picture. Of course, one little donut costs almost $2 here so this photo is about as close to Krispy Kreme as I'm going to get!! :)

So there's a very brief look at autumn in London...coming later this week will be a post of our Thanksgiving extravaganza!!

Cymru Am Byth!!!

2007-10-30T14:29:00.001-07:00

Greetings folks!! In case you're wondering, that was a Welsh phrase meaning "Wales forever" (I think!). I just spent two weeks there so believe it or not, I did learn something! I learned how to say "oatmeal" ("uwd") and "disgusting" ("uch a fi")...so you know that's gotta come in handy someday! :) Anyways, as most of you know, I was asked to come teach Church History at the Calvary Chapel Bible College extension campus in Cardiff, Wales. We did a two-week "block class," which included 3 hour lectures each morning (and homework of course!); this made it a more intensive class, but the students did quite well and I was really proud of them! So with that, let's get into some photos...

This is Church Street, so called because (obviously) there's a church at the end of the street! Just to give you an idea, this is right across from where the Calvary Chapel Cardiff church office/Bible college classrooms are located.

This is the High Street, where the church office is located (on the left hand side). As you can see in the background, Cardiff Castle also just happens to be right downtown, so we got to walk by it every day on the way to class--kinda neat!!

Here are my wonderful Church History students--Stacy, Melanie, Shannon, and Kelly!! These gals are the full-time students who came over from the Bible College in Murrieta; it's neat because there are also several part-time students from the church/community who attend evening classes (a couple people actually sat in on our class occasionally, so that was fun)!

Here's another shot of the girls in one of the rare moments when they weren't doing homework! :) This particular afternoon they took me down to Cardiff Bay and we walked around down there and enjoyed a surprisingly sunny day, it was fun!!

But of course, we did have to get some class time in as well!!

This shot is for those of you who have taken classes with me before and know how much I love to talk with my hands! :)

A nice bonus to being in Cardiff was getting to know folks from the church there and being involved in their weekly activities, such as the Thursday night Bible study at the Vickery's! Pastor John Vickery has been going through the Book of Revelation, so one night we watched a video on the situation in Israel as it related to our study.

This is my friend Amber Rios, a former Bible College gal who is now a missionary serving at CC Cardiff and the Bible College. I was so blessed to be able to spend time with her (I actually stayed at her flat!), and to see all that the Lord is doing through her as she serves at the school, leads worship for church, etc. I actually had the opportunity to play piano with her for worship, which was fun!!

This is Melanie (one of the students) with Eleri, Amber's "flat mate." She and Amber were great hostesses during my two weeks there! By the way, Eleri is the resident Welsh speaker, so she taught me everything I know! :)

As a little bonus before heading back to London, we spontaneously decided to go to a professional rugby match! This particular match was between the Cardiff Blues and the Sale Sharks (a London team). Cardiff won, which was probably a good thing so we didn't have to avoid any angry fans afterwards!

Rugby is kinda sorta similar to American Football, but I have to tell ya, it seems alot more brutal when they're tackling and jumping on each other without padding and helmets! As you can see, it's not a sport for wimps!

Here's Steve Vickery and Amber watching someone get clobbered during the match. By the way, Steve is also a former Bible College student (and John Vickery's son) who is now a teacher and the director of the Bible College in Wales. He also teaches the young adults' Bible study for the church on Tuesday nights. We've been good friends for several years so it was nice to spend time with him as well (plus he taught me the basics of rugby so I wouldn't be totally dazed and confused)!

While I was in Wales, there was a leaders' conference at Oxford for the Calvary Chapels in southern England and Wales. It ended up being a fun little reunion for those of us from the Bible College back in California! So I thought I would throw in a random "bonus" photo of Steve, me, Amber, Denae, and Dan!

So there you have it--a little taste of my time in Wales!! I really was blessed to be able to teach there and also to be a bit involved in what the Lord is doing in Cardiff!! Please keep Wales in your prayers, that the Lord would continue to open doors and hearts to the Gospel, as well as bless and grow His church there! "Pray also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ" (Colossians 4:3).

A Wee Bit of Scotland!!

2007-10-21T09:50:00.000-07:00

Greetings folks!! I was supposed to do this blog ages ago but I've been a bit limited on the internet access...these things happen!! Anyways, as most of you probably know, I was invited to come up to Scotland the first week of October to share at a one-day women's retreat hosted by my sister Mattie's church there (Calvary Fellowship of Carluke). It was a great time and the Lord really blessed it, so I wanted to just give ya a little snapshot of my time there!

Oops, how did this picture get in here? Just kidding! Before getting into the retreat, I couldn't resist sneaking in a couple pics of my handsome 2-year-old nephew, Luke!! :) Pretty darn cute, huh? As most of you probably know, my sister married a Scotsman (Martin) so they live up there.

Oh and here he is again!! OK I have to say that, being a big Seattle Seahawks fan, I in no way condone the Chicago Bears hat he is wearing (that's Martin's team)...but somehow he still looks cute in it!!

OK let's move on to the retreat!! What a sweet group of women this was!! Although the majority were from Calvary Fellowship Carluke, a few other women from neighboring Calvary Chapels attended as well (even a couple non-Christians who were invited!)...so of course that was great! By the way, the woman I'm sitting next to in the front row is Doreen (the pastor's wife who also happens to be Martin's mom!). She's such a neat lady!!

My sister and I were asked to lead worship together for the retreat, which was so fun (plus Mattie is a better singer than me so that helps)!!

Here I am getting ready to teach!! Let me tell ya, the Lord really showed Himself faithful in this! I had lots of spiritual warfare beforehand, so since I was sharing on the subject of FAITH, this was certainly an opportunity for me to step out, put that into practice, and see God do a neat work!! I was definitely encouraged by seeing His hand on the whole event (and also to experience once again the power of prayer)!!

Here's a little shot of the women spending time together afterwards. They don't often have the opportunity to get together for a retreat like this, so times of fellowship with other Christian women is super encouraging!

I thought I would throw in a couple shots of the church in Carluke as well! Here's Pastor Jim Tatton (Martin's dad) getting ready to share from God's Word...

...and here's the congregation singing during worship!

So that's the women's retreat in a nutshell!! As always, I wanted to give you a visual of what I've been doing, but in this case I also want to encourage you to please pray for Calvary Fellowship Carluke (and all the churches in Scotland of course!), that the Lord would continue to encourage and build up His people there, as well as raise people up to serve Him in that country that so needs the love of Jesus Christ! As Jesus said in Luke 10:2, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

Baptism PS...

2007-10-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

OK that was weird, somehow when I posted this my introduction was missing! So here it is...

Greetings folks!! That's right, it's time for another blog post! This one is special, because the last Sunday of September we had a baptism! This was a really neat time for those making public profession of their faith in Christ...but it was also great for those of us who were able to celebrate it with them!

CC Docklands Baptism!!

2007-10-10T06:39:00.000-07:00

Greetings folks!! That's right, it's time for another blog post! This one is special, because the last Sunday of September we had a baptism! This was a really neat time for those making public profession of their faith in Christ...but it was also great for those of us who were able to celebrate it with them!

So here they are!! Gary, Maxine, and Kevin were very excited to be baptized!

First a moment of prayer...

...then they are buried with Christ...

...and raised to new life!! :)

And here we are afterwards (as you can see, I was trying not to get wet!!)!

Here are a few folks who came into the pool area to watch. The baptism really was a neat testimony because some of the people invited to it weren't Christians!

After the baptism, we all enjoyed a meal and time of fellowship. The church body here is such a family, as seen by the fact that nearly everyone in the church came to support those being baptized!

More fellowship...by the way, the guy in the middle is Justin, who leads the homeless outreach!!

Here's Maxine's mom having a nice chat with my mom.

Here's a familiar face to all you Bible College folks!! Denae has been here with us for a few weeks now, it's been such a blessing having her! You might recognize Lauren as well, she was in my last blog entry!

So that's the baptism in a nutshell!! Stay tuned for pictures of my time sharing at the women's retreat in Scotland last weekend (I should get those up and running in the next few days)!!

A Week At CC Docklands!!

2007-09-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2007-09-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

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!!

Church Picnic Day (just for fun)!!

2007-08-23T02:18:00.000-07:00

In my previous post, I had pictures of the sign pointing to the Idea Store (a very "trendy" library where we have church), but never showed you what it actually looks like! So here ya go! This is actually an old photo of my sister and nephew standing outside the store.

The Idea Store has several "classrooms" which we use to hold church services; God has really given us favor there because they now let us use 2 rooms for church and another room for Sunday School (pictures to follow in next blog!)! This is me and my friend Karlene leading worship two Sundays ago. Those of you who remember old school Bible College days might remember Karlene, she was one of the first Brits to come to Murrieta back in the day!

So after church what do we do?? Glad you asked...

WE HAVE A PICNIC!! (At least, in August we can have a picnic because the weather is actually decent)!

Our summer picnic this year was held at Thames Barrier Park along the river (which you can see in the background).

So what do we do at the picnic? Glad you asked...

We learn how to play British ROUNDERS!!!

So here we have one of the teams huddling up...actually Lauren (on the left in the blue shorts, she plays rounders in school) is trying to explain the rules since most of the Brits didn't even seem to remember how to play! :)

In a nutshell, Rounders is kinda like American baseball...but different! You still hit the ball with a bat, run around stakes (poles in the ground), and pitch (bowl), as you can see me doing here...but other than that it's a whole new ballgame (pun intended)!

For one thing, you can only swing the bat with one hand...awkward! Plus the bat is short, so even strong guys (like Terry here) had a hard time hitting the ball!

See what I mean? :)

Well, ultimately, whether you hit the ball or not, on your third swing you have to run around the outside of the 4 stakes, which is what Peter is doing here. There's more to it than that, but I think that's probably enough for one blog post!

This post was kinda just "for fun," but I wanted you to see some of the "faces" in our little fellowship here. The Lord really is doing a neat work in London, moving in the hearts of His people and bringing in new folks as well...it seems like the Lord is continually drawing newcomers in and giving us opportunities to reach out with the love of Jesus! Please continue to pray, it means so much and I know the Lord is using it!

Here are some pictures, yippee!!

2007-08-09T05:10:00.000-07:00

Here's an artsy photo of me getting a (rare) London tan at Canary Wharf, where Calvary Chapel Docklands meets. In the background you can see the subway station and a couple of the many skyscrapers that give this part of London the name "Little Manhattan."

Here's another shot of the same area at the Wharf.

Once inside the building complex, you can simply follow the signs to the Prayer Room (where Friday night Bible study is held) or to the Idea Store (where church is held on Sundays)! Praise the Lord for such convenient access and strategic location!

This is a shot of our flat from inside the courtyard. It's a beautiful three-story home that the Lord provided for my parents last month. The windows pictured here face the River Thames, which is an awesome view!!

Those of you from Murrieta probably recognize these guys! We were blessed to have Lu Wing and his family stay with us for a couple days this week. Here they are at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich (where the Prime Meridian was discovered, wahoo!). This gives a great view of Greenwich Park, the Queen's House, Greenwich University, and Canary Wharf (where the skyscrapers are). We actually live right across the river from this beautiful place--God is good!

Here are a few folks from church. The church body here at CC Docklands is so loving and genuine, the Lord is doing a neat work in the lives of the people here in London...what a huge blessing it is to be a part of it!

I made it!!

2007-08-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, it took me forever to get here, but at last I am in England!! After a very busy (and tearful) week wrapping things up and saying good-byes in Murrieta, I headed for London on Monday night. I arrived safe and sound on Tuesday night, but alas, one of my suitcases didn't! Fortunately, it came in on the next flight so everything seems to be present and accounted for!
I jumped right in leading worship for Thursday night prayer meeting and Friday night Bible study. I will also be doing worship for church on Sunday (and, for a few weeks at least, another Bible study on Wednesdays!). When I play piano I'm fine, but my guitar skills are a bit rusty so please pray for me to get in the groove quickly!
So that is Week One in a nutshell...there is a really sweet fellowship of believers here and I am definitely looking forward to being involved and seeing how the Lord leads!! More updates to come (and pictures I hope!!)!!