A full week!!

I can hardly believe the first full week is over! We have heard from four speakers thus far and the material is so RICH!! All of the speakers have been with YWAM for a minimum of 18 years and Paul Hawkins, the lecturer for this week, has 37 years as a YWAMer. He was here at the beginning. Paul is speaking on the character, nature and ways of God. He has made it a point to say that "How we see God will determine how we see everything." It has made me stop and think about how I see my God..I want to know Him more. This teaching is foundational in the YWAM organization..what a privilege to receive the message from a man who has been walking faithfully in missions for almost 40 years. He has incredible stories of God's faithfulness, his provision, his goodness and his love. REALLY GOOD STUFF!! I am so excited to be here..to see what God is doing in the lives of the people here...to see his work throughout the Kingdom as we hear from the missionary family who is preparing to go back to Central Asia. God is truly amazing..he is so good.
I had the opportunity to spend this past weekend in London with my friends Hope and Vince. We packed as much as we could into two days..we must have walked 20 miles!!! Saturday started with the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. It was quite a ceremony that required the entire area in front of Buckingham Palace to be blocked off. Many other streets are closed too as the guards march in and out of the palace gates while playing patriotic music. This was a highlight of the trip for me...Hope loved the tall fuzzy bearskin hats worn by Prince Charles' guard.
We then headed to Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. I'm not sure I have the words to describe how beautiful these monuments are. We all three just seemed to stare in awe at the size and beauty of the buildings....well, Hope and I stared but also snapped a ton of pictures!! Big Ben is on the end of the Houses of Parliament...WOW! Just amazing. We were among thousands of people who were looking to get a glimpse of history.
Sunday we headed for SW London to church at a Vineyard!! The subway system in London is called "the tube" and little did we know the city would be doing repairs on Sunday. So off we go, on the tube to the Vineyard... one hour later we arrived! What should have taken 30 minutes turned into and hour as we tried to manage the tube...Thank goodness the Vineyard here breaks for tea and donuts after worship!! We made it just in time to hear a wonderful message. That was great!!
OK...gotta get to bed but will share more tomorrow if I can. I will leave you with our memory verse of the week.... For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
Blessings!!!