Day Three (March 17, 2009)

Day Three (March 17th, St. Patrick's Day) began just like the day before with rising at 7:00 a.m. or so and eating breakfast. Like yesterday, Jessica did not eat breakfast with us, because she apparently doesn't do breakfast. And for the first time, Jaime did not wear green--ironically, this was St. Patty's Day. We independently read more of the book of Acts for an hour or so and walked to the Treadergerville church where Dustin led us again (sweetly and passionately) in worship and singing. By the way, Dustin has been doing a superb job organizing this tour and keeping things running.

Troy taught us another brilliant lesson -- this one on "Sowing," which is a sequel to yesterday's lesson on "Plowing." He left the team alone for awhile (while he, with his servant's heart, made us all cups of tea!) and we did a little Bible study together. When he returned, we all stood in a circle and prayed aloud (all at once) for the person on our left: it was like speaking in tongues in English. Then he gave us our marching orders for the day, which was to seek "People of Peace" -- that is, those who providentially seemed willing to engage in rich conversation.

The day was much more successful for most of the mission team than the day before:

The University Group (Dustin, Jessica, Jaime, and Nate) wandered through generally empty shops (it was another nice day outside so all the people were outdoors) trying to connect with folks and then eventually focusing upon the outdoor areas themselves. Their attempts to connect were successful on a number of occasions:
Dustin got to pray for a man!
Jaime was very comfortable talking with a number of people in an outdoor setting.
Nate and Dustin made a connection with a group of Brits by asking them to explain the rules of Rugby.
Jessica was much more comfortable talking with a group at a typical English pub in Cardiff City Centre. They were all wearing giant green felt St. Patty's Day tophats. Some of the Brits had perhaps a taste of some Irish Guiness. An Irish girl in the group had perhaps a taste of several dozen Irish Guinesses. But they were as eager to talk with the University group of missionaries as they were to talk to them. They had a splendid cultural exchange! This was very encouraging, especially to Jessica, who has found the way to talk openly to people a little slow and daunting at times.

The City Road Group (Allen, Deedee, Jonathon, and Zack) started out their day at the Treadergerville Church.
Deedee got to talk one on one with a refugee woman from Zimbabwe who shared with Deedee her horror stories on trying to get into and remain in Britain with her daughter. She wept and Deedee bonded with the lady.
Zack and Jonathan got to hang out with a large group of international teenagers in
the church basement who had come to play billiards and ping pong. These men were from all over the world: Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Palestine, India, Kenya, and many more countries. One young man even began to ask Jonathan questions about Christianity, but the man had to leave abruptly when it was his turn to shoot some pool.
Allen went crazy talking to as many as 6-7 of these international young men at once, usually about American culture or the culture of their countries or American movies or British accents, or the flavors of tea, or the failures of Bush's international policies, etc. But the big moment for Allen came when a young (somewhat hostile) Somali Muslim asked Allen about the nature of Jesus Christ. Allen explained the nature of Jesus being both Son of God and Son of Man by pointing to a nearby new friend (Tariq) who was Welsh on his mother's side and Libyan on his father's side: Tariq is both son of Wales (when he wants to relate to the Welsh) and son of Libya (when he wants to relate to the Libyans). It was an analogy that provided many fruitful minutes of spiritual conversation, both with the young Somali and others standing around. Allen was so incredibly high after that encounter that he was in an extraverted daze for the rest of the day.
Zack and Jonathan had a chat with a mechant in an African shop who expressed frustration at feeling the British gave preferential treatment to the British and Western Europeans over other immigrants. For example, he pays more to rent his shop space than other merchants around him. Zack and Jonathan promised to come back and chat with him later this week; so they established a connection with him.

After the evening's debriefing, Allen stayed at the hotel to write up the day's events in the note you are now reading while Deedee and Jaime went with Troy to a Persian pre-New Year's celebration featuring some Zoroastrian culture. Meanwhile, Zack, Jonathan, Nate, Jessica, and Dustin went to a quirky little club/restaurant called Milgi's (featuring an actual yurt or hut in the back). This is the once a month "storytelling" night where people bring musical instruments and take turns singing and telling uplifting stories to the delight of others in the club.

Needless to say, the Lord has all of our attention and we are moving in harmony with Him, with each other, and with the good people of Wales -- moreso that we could have hoped yesterday after hitting a spiritual brick wall and moreso in many cases than we had a right to expect after a month of mission work in a Western European setting, let alone just two days at work in humble little Cardiff.

Keep praying for us. As much as God has done so far, we suspect He is not done with us yet.

Allen