Monday June 29, 2009
Today was remarkable for unexpected adventures.
All we were supposed to do today was to find common ground with the Welsh people by savoring some of their most beloved sites. We did tour Cardiff Castle, a Roman stronghold and an 11th Century Norman Fortress, but in the 1800's it became a Disney-like fantasy castle built decades before Disney was born, and funded by the richest man in the world, the coal magnate, the 3rd Marquess of Bute. We also walked the streets of downtown Cardiff (City Centre) and toured the Welsh Folk Museum at St. Fagans -- a gigantic compound containing original buildings reconstructed on site from all of Welsh history, including a pre-Roman Celtic Village, (complete with bee-hive shaped circular huts), and from the 1800's a tannery, cornmill, and blacksmith shop. Oh, by the way, it also had a castle with breathtaking sculpted gardens and a series of lilly pad pools.
But all of that turned out to be tangential. Here are the highlights of some unexpected encounters:
Jordan Deah Rice was hit between the eyes with a bumble bee.
Nikki Clark and Shannon Richardson found a really hot Welsh guy of Portuguese descent working as a tour guide in a 17th-Century chapel. They ran to fetch Jordan Deah, because he was more her age. His name was something like Joao (pronounced "Zhow" which Shannon could remember because his good looks reminded her of the word "Wow!"). They struck up a playful conversation with him. Soon the entire rest of the team were hanging out in the chapel with Joao. Then we all took our picture with him as we stood and sat in the "choir" of the chapel. And to our surprise (and Shannon's prompting) we all sang an entire stanza of "Amazing Grace." In the midst of much silliness and flirting, it was a surprisingly powerful spiritual moment. The words to that opening stanza are familiar enough to be disarming, yet profound enough to change a human heart.
Jordan Deah climbed a tree, sawed off to a stump about half-way up, and wouldn't come down after a photo session.
Jerry Beasley, Nikki Clark, Brian Booker, and Allen Rice had a delightful conversation with an elderly Welsh couple, Malcolm and Jackie, who were on vacation from western Wales, visiting the Welsh Folk Museum. Malcolm has experienced a lot of bad health of late and was happy to be alive every day after a series of heart attacks. Like many Welshmen, Malcolm is justifiably proud of being a part of a Welsh men's choir. When he heard that Nikki was a talented singer, he dreamed of having her sing with his choir the deeply spiritual song, "Ave Maria." Later, as the conversation moved from choirs to the churches in which choirs often performed, the team got to hear Malcolm speak of his steady Christian faith and his faithful church attendance. He mentioned attending the largest church building in his west coast town one Sunday, and the only people in attendance were the Anglican priest, himself, and one other member of the congregation. It was embarrassing to him, so he went back to attending his rather small (but much larger populated by comparison) church. It was sweet to hear Malcolm to be so open about his Christianity even in a time of great struggle in his life, especially as transparent as he was before four American strangers. As we parted to catch our bus, we all shook the couple's hands, and Allen encouraged him to "Keep the Faith, brother!" This discussion was especially encouraging because Malcolm's wife, Jackie, did not seem to be a believer (though she was certainly in no way opposed to the notion), so between the four members of our team and Malcolm there was a bit of relationship evangelism going on at a supposed "tourism" site.
By a divine appointment, as we all walked down the main street of the shopping district (Queens Street), Gavin Hart happened to run into some student missionaries he served with last summer. They greeted one another with joy and chatted for awhile, while Nikki and Shannon convinced Deedee Rice of the spiritual need to visit a scented soap shop.
While Jordan Deah was sitting innocently on a moving bus, a rose bush slapped up against a barely opened window ten feet off the ground and a fragment flew through the air of the bus about five feet, ricocheted off the side of her head and lodged in a tangle on the back of her curly hair. We dislodged it, took pictures and shrugged our shoulders, reckoning the event as par for the course for Jordan. Man those briars were sharp!
We started to dine at a particular pub, but Deedee wisely pointed out how hot it was inside (Wales is experiencing a bit of a heat wave -- in the 80's Fahrenheit today!) so we went to an air conditioned cafeteria that had more food options than we could work our exhausted minds through. We felt the restaurant was perhaps a divine appointment when the lady in front of us could not quite pay for her meal with her daughter and her granddaughters. We discreetly made up the difference with a simple "God Bless You."
At dinner we discussed what it was like to connect with the surprisingly open, friendly, talkative, and likeable Welsh. Nikki called them simply "Okies" and the analogy seemed to fit. Everyone chatted about their experiences of meeting with Welsh folk the last two days and about general guidelines on being God-dedicated in our encounters but still permitting the Holy Spirit to demonstrate humility, gentleness, and an ability to listen more than preach -- as a means of manifesting Agape Love.
The evening concluded with another divine appointment. As we were leaving the cafeteria, a twenty-something (?) lady walked quickly up to Allen and asked "Are you on Mission?" Allen, being dull, did not understand her clearly and so she continued. "I heard you all talking about God, but I wasn't trying to overhear." "That's OK," we said. She seemed so cheerful and eager to talk with us about overhearing our conversation about God, that Allen felt prompted to ask, "Oh, so are you a Christian, then?" "No," she replied, "I am Nothing." We laughed and patted her. "You're not Nothing," we said. "Nobody's just a Nothing." The lady continued her sweet, chipper conversation with the ladies a few more moments, and then parted as if she were a friend of more than two minutes acquaintance. She seemed genuinely delighted that friendly, loving people were talking about God.
Unexpected adventure indeed!
That's how it is here. The watermelon fields seem warm and mellow and ripe. We don't know if we are to plow or sow or water or reap or vintage but we are truly enjoying the sweet fruit of interaction with a great people and a people of great hope.
Tomorrow we tour Cardiff Bay. Dustin Loehrs arrives after lunch and later tomorrow night; he and Allen are to chat with the Elders of Rhiwbina Baptist Church about our experiences with Church Growth. Mainly we want to learn from them how they have been so prodigious at planting churches. We hope to deepen that friendship and partnership that we have already established between our two churches.
That's what is on the agenda. But you always have to be on the lookout for God -- He has a way of breaking through even the best-laid plans and of arranging every now and then an unexpected adventure! Or two!
Allen
Monday, June 29, 2009
Mission to Wales, Summer 2009: Days 1 and 2
Saturday June 27th and Sunday June 28th
Our journey began in a way that would seem quite usual for the Twenty First Century: Everyone coming from every direction.
Out of nine of us, only three of us (Allen Rice, Deedee Rice, and Gavin Hart) left together at 10:25 a.m. from the Oklahoma City airport. We were joined in the Houston airport by Jerry Beasley who ran up and was at the end of the line to board the flight to New Jersey. So four of the nine of us were finally together.
The Bad News: While Deedee was running to catch the New Jersey flight, she re-injured her leg. The day before, she went to the emergency room and had her leg scanned to see if it was a blood clot (General Rule: It is not a good idea to carry around a blood clot if you are about to go on a flight lasting seven hours.) The medical professionals determined she did not have a blood clot, but they never told what she DID have, other than excruciating pain. So running to get a Coke fix (yes and I do mean CocaCola), was not the best idea in physical therapy Deedee ever had.
Still, we landed in New Jersey without incident, and thanks to Deedee’s bum leg, we got to zoom along in one of those trams across the long expanse of airport hallways. WHEE! On another note, Allen decided NOT to slice open the top of his head on a sharp piece of jagged metal like he did here in March. I am not sure why he declined this time – the last time was so much fun. WHEE!
The New Jersey flight to Bristol was perhaps the most turbulent we have ever seen. Jerry said it was like a ride at Six Flags. At the craziest, most gut-jerking moment, Allen cackled in glee, raised his right arm like a bronco buster and souted out : “YeeHaw, Ride’em Cowboy!” To a lady named Kim from Wales who was sitting on the same row, this seemed an unusual gesture.
Once in Bristol, we met with three other members of the group (Brian Booker, Shannon Richardson, and Nikki Clark) who had arrived by train from London after touring Edinburgh, Scotland. At that moment, Jordan Deah Rice strolled up and joined the group, having arrived at the Bristol station on a separate train by way of London, Romania, the Ukraine, Russia, and Moldovia (where she had narrowly avoided tragedy when she was apprehended by some corrupt and libidinous Moldovial policemen -- don’t ask).
Finally eight of the crew were together with the ninth, Dustin Loehrs, scheduled to arrive in two more days, on Tuesday afternoon. The Exhausted Eight explored the towering, mystical ruins of Tintern Abbey, and 12th-Century Welsh monastery (pictured upper right), and then toured the grand edifice of Caerphilly Castle, a broad-shouldered monument of grayish brown stones which looks like Tolkien dwarves carved millennia ago within a triple circle of moats and lakes.
We checked into the Etap Hotel in Cardiff City Centre and walked to a nearby Welsh pub called “The Cottage’ where we sampled the simple fare such as Welsh Crawl (a lamb stew) Welsh rarebit (which, sadly, was soggy and bland) and some excellent meat dishes. We topped it all off by sharing a granny caramel apple pie smothered in custard.
Better than sharing our delicacies was when we shared our hearts. Each of us answered three spiritual questions which required courage and transparency: 1) What, if any, was your religious upbringing,
2) What has God been teaching you in the last few years, and 3) what inspired you to come on this Welsh journey? There were tears, and sweetness, and bonding.
Then we returned to the Etap, exhausted, but at Peace. What a rich, deep way for strangers to begin a journey together. This level of openness and depth is very unusual for the Twenty First Century!
Allen
Our journey began in a way that would seem quite usual for the Twenty First Century: Everyone coming from every direction.
Out of nine of us, only three of us (Allen Rice, Deedee Rice, and Gavin Hart) left together at 10:25 a.m. from the Oklahoma City airport. We were joined in the Houston airport by Jerry Beasley who ran up and was at the end of the line to board the flight to New Jersey. So four of the nine of us were finally together.
The Bad News: While Deedee was running to catch the New Jersey flight, she re-injured her leg. The day before, she went to the emergency room and had her leg scanned to see if it was a blood clot (General Rule: It is not a good idea to carry around a blood clot if you are about to go on a flight lasting seven hours.) The medical professionals determined she did not have a blood clot, but they never told what she DID have, other than excruciating pain. So running to get a Coke fix (yes and I do mean CocaCola), was not the best idea in physical therapy Deedee ever had.
Still, we landed in New Jersey without incident, and thanks to Deedee’s bum leg, we got to zoom along in one of those trams across the long expanse of airport hallways. WHEE! On another note, Allen decided NOT to slice open the top of his head on a sharp piece of jagged metal like he did here in March. I am not sure why he declined this time – the last time was so much fun. WHEE!
The New Jersey flight to Bristol was perhaps the most turbulent we have ever seen. Jerry said it was like a ride at Six Flags. At the craziest, most gut-jerking moment, Allen cackled in glee, raised his right arm like a bronco buster and souted out : “YeeHaw, Ride’em Cowboy!” To a lady named Kim from Wales who was sitting on the same row, this seemed an unusual gesture.
Once in Bristol, we met with three other members of the group (Brian Booker, Shannon Richardson, and Nikki Clark) who had arrived by train from London after touring Edinburgh, Scotland. At that moment, Jordan Deah Rice strolled up and joined the group, having arrived at the Bristol station on a separate train by way of London, Romania, the Ukraine, Russia, and Moldovia (where she had narrowly avoided tragedy when she was apprehended by some corrupt and libidinous Moldovial policemen -- don’t ask).
Finally eight of the crew were together with the ninth, Dustin Loehrs, scheduled to arrive in two more days, on Tuesday afternoon. The Exhausted Eight explored the towering, mystical ruins of Tintern Abbey, and 12th-Century Welsh monastery (pictured upper right), and then toured the grand edifice of Caerphilly Castle, a broad-shouldered monument of grayish brown stones which looks like Tolkien dwarves carved millennia ago within a triple circle of moats and lakes.
We checked into the Etap Hotel in Cardiff City Centre and walked to a nearby Welsh pub called “The Cottage’ where we sampled the simple fare such as Welsh Crawl (a lamb stew) Welsh rarebit (which, sadly, was soggy and bland) and some excellent meat dishes. We topped it all off by sharing a granny caramel apple pie smothered in custard.
Better than sharing our delicacies was when we shared our hearts. Each of us answered three spiritual questions which required courage and transparency: 1) What, if any, was your religious upbringing,
2) What has God been teaching you in the last few years, and 3) what inspired you to come on this Welsh journey? There were tears, and sweetness, and bonding.
Then we returned to the Etap, exhausted, but at Peace. What a rich, deep way for strangers to begin a journey together. This level of openness and depth is very unusual for the Twenty First Century!
Allen
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)