Day Four was the best yet for most of the team. The day started as usual with Dustin leading us in worship and Troy teaching us a lesson in the series -- this one on "Reaping" what has been Plowed and Sowed. The team was quieter and more subdued, partly from our growing sense of fatigue. Still, Troy's teaching was insightful as always and the team eventually woke up enough to have some excellent responses from almost everyone.
Troy let us go each group to its own way and he left to pray for us. Then it was up to each group:
The University Group (Dustin, Jessica, Jaime, and Nate) went to an English pub near the campus and immediately struck up a conversation with a man in his early twenties standing in line behind them. His name was Devon (pronounced like "Steven") and he was from Malaysia. Devon's friends joined the group and great discussion ensued. Devon's friends left and Devon stayed with our group. All four members of the group saw a number of opportunities to bring up spiritual issues, but all four felt in their spirits that the time was not right yet. Nevertheless they spent the whole day with him and he asked to see them again -- he has Friday off and wants to give them a grand tour of Cardiff. This is the deepest friendship and strongest connection that any of us have made so far. The team was greatly encouraged after a couple of days of less fruitful attempts at connection. Jessica was especially encouraged, saying that each day was getting better and better. Nate wondered aloud if he could come back here again on mission in late June/early July.
The City Road Group (Allen, Deedee, Jonathon, and Zack) had lunch together at an Arabian restaurant named "Sahara" in an Arabian tent in the back of the building. They ate lunch sitting on a long but amazingly comfortable divan as all the other patrons around them smoked from hookahs. Pretty exotic. After lunch, the group went three different directions.
Jonathon and Zack walked about four miles over to a park at the far end of the City Road district and had long conversations with two different men. The first was a World War II veteran who was an admitted "Humanist, Socialist, Agnostic." They engaged in a spiritual conversation with him, including getting his opinion of why Christianity has dwindled to such a great degree in Britain in his lifetime. The second man they talked to was a Muslim man who not only has been to the U.S., but specifically mentioned (without being asked) that the main place he has been is Edmond, Oklahoma! Divine Appointments indeed.
Later, Jonathon and Zack went back to the Tredegarville Church and jammed for about 30 minutes with two other men, one of whom they had met the day before.
Deedee went back to the Tredegarville Church after lunch and again spent time with the ladies. Today was special for her because she got to meet again with Zimbabwe lady who had wept the day before recounting her immigration horrors and as an added bonus, Deedee got to meet with the lady's daughter! Deedee was so delighted the rest of the day seemed anti-climactic -- especially since she joined Allen after 3:00 p.m. (a little joke).
Allen had a lighter day than the climactic peak of the previous day, but it was probably a good thing since he did not seem to be firing on all his cylinders anyway. He did get to make two new friends at AJ's Coffee Cafe, including Katherine, a Welsh lady who is a returning student at the Tertiary College across the street, majoring in Accounting. She has an Italian husband and is learning the language in order to get to know her in-laws better. Allen teased her that she, a Brit, was addicted to coffee, and Allen, an American, is addicted to tea. Allen introduced Katherine to Deedee and the three chatted pleasantly. The three agreed to spend time with each other again if they ran across each other in the next couple of days. Allen's other new friend is James Lee, the surprisingly young owner of AJ's. He spent twenty minutes or so with Allen, teaching him more Welsh, and referring him to Mimosa, a great Welsh restaurant in the Cardiff Bay area the Team was going to that night.
The Whole Team met back at the Etap Hotel and left at 5:45 p.m., taking a couple of taxis to the fashionable Cardiff Bay area. Troy had decided to let the team postpone their normal evening debriefing until 9:30 a.m. the next morning. Instead the group decided to go to a musical entitled Mary Poppins. Jaime had first expressed interest in this, but it was Zack who had gallantly pursued the idea, even doing web research to determine costs and showtimes. The group tried to go to the Welsh restaurant Allen had heard about, Mimosa, but were ejected because they did not have a reservation. So they went to an excellent Italian restaurant nearby. When the meal was over the group only had ten minutes to flee the 2-3 blocks to the theater house. They fled as Allen paid the tab, took a taxi back to the hotel, and composed this daily report. I thank God that this duty has set me free from two hours of a live musical production.
All in all, the team is more and more filled with confidence, and more importantly, a sense of God's direction. We are more united as a team and more open to approaching strangers in ways that seem graceful, natural, and loving. Everyone keeps talking more about what God is showing them about themselves, how He is growing them up, than they are about their mission contacts with the people of Cardiff, which is itself going surprisingly well.
We are looking forward to what the next two days bring to us, especially as we pursue contacts we have already made with people -- Deedee's Zimbabwe lady friend, The University Group's Malaysian friend, Devon, and Allen's church basement boys, for example. Keep praying for us. We are all undergoing deep spiritual strain, but we are praying that the muscle development will be worth it, not to mention the value of the heavy lifting itself.
Allen
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