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!!

Church Picnic Day (just for fun)!!

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!!

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!