London in winter

Despite all the complications and misunderstandings and frustrations, we finally made it to the big city. Hello London! It wasn't all that - mostly because it was freezing, the snow was so heavy we were covered head to toe in whiteness and couldn't see past our feet, the trains were delayed all the time, and we were basically stressed out trying to make it to the coach to get home in time. But other than that, it was cool to visit the capital of England and see the sights.

First stop - our hostel. After extensive online research about which hostel was the best for the lowest price without bed bugs or dirty toilets, we found this hostel by Hyde Park. It looked kind of sketchy from the outside, and we got hit on by creepy Pakistani guys, and it also looked really dirty inside, but the room itself was fine - bunk beds + sink + mirror + friendly strangers. Can't expect too much for 20 dollars a night.

Next stop: Tube station to go exploring in London!

We went to Covent Garden because we heard that's where all the shopping action was, and it was a really pretty area.

At St. Paul's Cathedral listening to awesome carolers. 

The snow and lights outside the cathedral kind of made it look like a scene out of Narnia.

Dear Mexican Food, oh how I've missed you! You were wonderfully delicious.

We caught the evening showing of Dirty Dancing: The Musical, on a whim, and got tickets to it at more than half price off. It was awesome - the dancing, the singing, everything.

The next day, we got on the Hop on, Hop off tour, with free tickets courtesy of our friends who bought 2-day tickets but were leaving and so didn't need their second day ticket. I was so glad we got those, because it made traveling around London that much easier. Plus we avoided all the train delays.

The Dorchester - a famous and expensive hotel where all the celebs stay.

Snowy park

The Marble Arch.

Oh cheap and good Primark, I will miss you.

The flags outside the apartments represent the fact that someone of importance once lived there.

These apartments reminded me of the movie 'Love Actually', one of my favorite Christmas movies.

So much ice on the ground, it was ridiculous.

Regent Street - shopping madness.

Piccadilly Circus - we didn't get to explore the area because it was too cold, so we just looked at it from the bus.

Big Ben and the House of parliament. I may not look it, but I was freezing and shivering under my 5 layers of clothes.

The London Eye - kind of looks like the Singapore Flyer - not really a big deal.

Right outside Buckingham Palace, waiting for the queen to appear, but she never did.

Buckingham Palace has its own fountain and statues. Go figure.

Statues of Aslan are everywhere! Okay, maybe not Aslan, but lions are everywhere in London.

Icy fountain.

Buckingham Palace is huge. And yes, my outfit is ridiculous. Those grey socks and Christmas mistletoe boots were bought in London because it was too cold and wet otherwise.

I love snowy parks.

Westminster Abbey - where Prince William and Kate Middleton will be married next year! It was closed when we got there, so we didn't get to go inside. Oh well.

All in all, it was a good trip and we did get to see all the major sights in London. Plus we got back to the base and didn't miss our coach, even though we were completely exhausted by the time we got back. But now I can say I've been to London!

Dancing, drama, disappointments, dinner

I know it's a weird title, but it kind of encompasses what this past two days have been like. A whirlwind of frustration, joy, excitement, laughs, fellowship, stress... and things like that.

Monday started off as a normal day - breakfast dishes as usual, even though I didn't eat a scrap of food because I always wake up at 7.45am and breakfast ends at 8am sharp. Eat a piece of cereal one second later and you get yelled it. But whatever. I'm used to 'serving' the community here; in other words, being their slave. But no more complaining. I'm over it.

So then we had our test review on the book about missions that we were supposed to read. I didn't read a page of that book because it was about communication, and 1. my major was communication, 2. I'm done with the whole studying thing and have been since I graduated 7 months ago. The test went okay; I just answered the questions with common sense.

Then our supervisor dropped a bomb on us - he told us we had to stay here on the base for the weekend, and that we couldn't go to London after all. That's already a disappointment. But here's more. The three of us clearly asked him for permission last week, and he laughed and said, 'sure, that's fine, have fun.' We all remember that scene like it just happened, but he claimed it never happened, which is a little fishy, because he told us his supervisor told him we had to do ministry right up til the 21st, the last official day of the program. In other words, it was like he 'forgot' about all that to save himself, and sacrificed us in the process. That was really frustrating.

Also, we'd already booked the coach tickets and hostel deposit, but apparently that didn't matter. They didn't care that we'd already spent the money. We have to stay here no matter what. It's like, the past 4 months we didn't get much ministry to do, and now, all of a sudden, when we finally want to do something for ourselves, we're needed. What. The. H.

So basically it wasn't even our fault. We did the right thing, asked for permission, got it, went ahead and planned the trip. But now they say we can't go. We were going to go from saturday to monday, but now we can only go on saturday and come back the same day. London is 3 hours away, for crying out loud! And that's from Birmingham, not from the base! So we're talking 8 hours of traveling JUST to go there for a day?? And then we have to forgo our hostel deposit and pay for another coach ticket?? These people are so irrational and selfish and rigid, it's completely ridiculous. I'm like, do you WANT me to leave this place with bad memories and negative emotions??

And the thing is, we don't even HAVE ministry to do over the weekend! Just a church service on Sunday and a lunch (hardly what I'd call ministry), and a Christmas party with the youth group on Monday (again, just a party). Plus we've already said goodbye to the church and they don't expect us to turn up again. So I just don't understand. Why are we wasting our precious money and time just to have lunch and go to a party?!?! And it's not like I'll ever come back to England again. It's not that great here. I just want to visit London once in my life. Is that so hard to understand???

So one team member isn't going to go anymore, and her money's going down the drain. Another team member's going to go for one day. And I'm going to ask for permission to go for two days or more. Because out of the five people in my team, one is going home on saturday (so he's not involved in this drama), one is not even going with us to London (so he's not involved either), one has already been to London, and one is staying here longer (so she has more opportunities to go). That means I'm the only one who's losing out since I'm leaving next week already. So hopefully the annoying staff member will be in a good mood tomorrow and listen to my explanation.

Anyway. That left me in a bad mood on Monday. Plus thinking about citizenship decisions again and what to do with my life... it's too stressful. I'm so tired already living here, with all the rules and restrictions, and it tires me out even more just thinking about the future.

But I got over it. And we went with the youth group in the evening to a gym that featured a Wii gym, complete with Wii sports like tennis, golf, skydiving, swordfighting, dancing, jumping... all kinds of fun stuff. It was so cool.

Their version of Dance dance revolution. More mats, more fun!

The hit-the-circle-when-it-lights-up-with-hands-balls-and-sticks game. It was a total workout, running back and forth in our teams, jumping and hitting the lights, and yelling like crazy. My team won 6 games out of 8. Yeah!

Wii Dance. First time playing, but oh so fun!

Today we went shopping in Birmingham (I will miss that place; it's become such a familiar place to us), and then we gave out tracts for an hour. Our last time tracting, thank God. I will not miss this ministry, simply because I don't think it's very effective, and it's always discouraging when you see tracts on the ground, crumpled up and torn. Plus I've never seen anyone come to Christ by reading a tract, so... it just doesn't seem like a very effective way of using our time to me.

We had dinner at our supervisor's place with his family, which was really nice, because they're awesome (most of the time.) Our supervisor is British, his wife is Indian (from Fuji), and their kids are the cutest 10 and 11 year olds ever. They're very hospitable, and I will miss hanging out with them. Plus the food at their house is always good; Indian curry, prata, rice, chilli that's actually spicy... oh we ate so much. And then we watched 'The Nativity Story,' which was actually really well-made, to my surprise. I thought it would be just another cheesy, poor quality Christian movie, but the cinematography, acting, dialogue, and everything was surprisingly good! And it gave the story a different perspective. I would recommend watching it.

Christmas happenings

There's been a lot of Christmas-y ongoings recently, which I love. Our team helped decorate the church in anticipation of Christmas, and now it looks awesome. I'm so proud of our efforts. Even the guys, who insisted on wrapping everything in tinsel - the speakers and the doors and the message boards.

Decorating the Christmas tree in the church hall for the sanctuary.

Untangling the decorations, which came straight from the storage room.

Decorating another Christmas tree for the lounge.

Professional Christmas tree decorators.

Our tree :)

One of the guys decided to hang a bird (which had weird red eyes) on this string of lights as a decoration, but it fell over so now it's just a creepy dead bird.

Hanging tinsel on the sign.

Decorating the church after youth group on Monday.

The girls put tinsel on my head and made me carry all that other tinsel and presents.

Some of the girls from youth group. They're awesome. I will miss them.

A group of youth called 'King's Kids' from Israel came to church to perform songs and dances.

They introduced themselves and I was surprised to find that they were all Jews, but from different countries like America, Russia, Ethiopia, and Germany, to name a few. 

This is a picture of the pretty street lights in Warwick, where I was on Friday to do 'pub ministry.'

My teammates abandoned me last weekend (the guys went to do boys club in a muslim area, and our fearless leader went off gallivanting to Nottingham to visit her cousin), so I went with my supervisor to join another team in their 'pub evangelism' --- we sang Christmas carols (about Jesus of course; no Santa songs) in three different pubs and gave out tracts with candy canes, and each one was better than the previous. I think it might have something to do with the night getting later and people getting more drunk. It was a Friday night, after all.

At the first pub, the people were middle-aged, and they mostly ignored us. At the second pub, the patrons were young, like my age, and they sang along with us for a while. At the third pub, the people were elderly, and they sang all the songs merrily with us and even requested us to sing other songs. All in all, it was a fun night.

This Sunday was our last church service at Hasbury (at least for 3 out of 5 of us on the team who are going home.) It was bittersweet. They had a special service with a dance, a song, and a drama skit from the youth group, songs and readings from the kids club, and a break dance performance from one of the boys. It was a great service, but we had to say goodbye to several people, which was sad, especially thinking about how I'll probably never see them again. Until we meet in heaven.

The girls did a great job dancing to the song 'Happy Day,' even though they were really nervous and forgot some of the moves. But they braved it through. I'm proud of them. And I'm glad they even turned up at all, because some people didn't come even though they said they would.

They did a drama skit about a photographer taking a picture of the Virgin Mary statue, but when he turns around to fiddle with his camera, shoppers come and completely change the statue, taking away the baby Jesus and putting a Santa hat, presents, tinsel, and toys in place of it. I think it was a really good reminder to us about how we shouldn't let the world commercialize Christmas, because ultimately, it is all about celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior.

My Hasbury team. We had to take pictures in the church for memory's sake. I still can't believe this was our last service. I really will miss the church and all the wonderful people there who welcomed us with open arms. The three of us who are leaving went to the evening service, and the elders of the church thanked us for serving the church, prayed for us, and blessed us. It was so sweet of them. And we gave them a present (a hanging Christmas decoration from the German market) and a card. They're such amazing people and they're really doing great things for Christ.