Chilly London

This has been an eventful week. Things at ACL are going well—part of the adventure here is helping the church move from an interim mindset to what we might call (in church-ese) ordinary time. In an interim time there are all sorts of vacuums that need to be filled, and there are some amazing people here who have stepped in and worked hard to keep this ministry floating. So much here is working well, and that is in large part due to the committed work of the folks who love this place. The task now is to move away from that stopgap, temporary kind of thinking to a more visionary, long-term frame of mind. That’s my job, in partnership with the people of the church, and I love it.

Our house is looking so much better—Julie has made it our home, and we’re getting more comfortable there by the day. Almost all the boxes are out of the house, and we’re settling into a life here that is recognizable, even if dramatically different from life in Burbank. We’re starting to think about having company—tonight the young adult group from the church is coming over for dinner and conversation. The associate pastor is gone for the week, so we’re taking over. There are about a dozen or so college and grad school people in the group.

Today has been quite an adventure. We were warned on the news over the past few days that a winter storm was headed our way, and when we woke up there was about 4 inches of snow and still falling. Ian and I made our usual walk to the bus stop—he was so excited to be out in the snow, kicking it, throwing it and letting flakes fall on his tongue as we walked. Our neighborhood looked so beautiful with snow.

This is a little street called Primrose Gardens, which ends right where we meet our bus in the morning.

This is England's Lane, a great street with some nice houses on the right, and a market, some hair salons, a butcher and a post office on the left. Behind me (about 75 yards) as I take this picture is a Starbucks--I can smell it from here.

Commuting in London is an adventure on the best days. In the morning I usually have to throw a few hip checks and the occasional elbow to keep people from running Ian over. Today when our Tube train arrived, you could see through the glass that it was packed. I asked Ian if he wanted to brave it, and of course he said yes. The door slid open and I said ‘we’re coming on.’ We squeezed in, surrounded by people reading papers, listening to iPods and generally doing their own thing. I was worried that Ian was getting crowded by people, so I kept some pressure on the back of the guy next to him so he wouldn’t get any closer. Ian still had his hood on so I couldn’t see his face, but when I tapped him on the shoulder he looked up at me with a huge smile. He has definitely ‘arrived’ as a Londoner—nothing seems to faze him over here anymore. I’ve told Ian this over and over again, so I’ll say it here, too. Our commute is my favorite part of the day. Here he is at our bus stop this morning in England's Lane.