A visit; a photo exhibit; quaint cafe's; Camden Town!

Last week we had a visit from Luke & Luciana Thornton from Anthony, KS. Luke works at Harper Industries where Ed used to be. Luke was in Europe for work related things and was able to bring his wife, Luciana, with him. He and Luciana married in August (I think that's right). Luciana is in her last year of Pharmacy school, doing her rotations at hospital pharmacy's. She has November and December off and so was able to join Luke on this trip. We had spent the day at Spitalfields market, a place where there are mostly clothing items designed and constructed by the people who are in the stalls. Some of the designers "make it" and move on to a better venue and others are hoping for the same. Luciana was excited to find a man who was showing wool coats that she liked. He didn't have her size so he fitted her and said he would have it done in 48hrs and meet them at the train station before they were to head home.

Ed & I went to our third Photography exhibition at the Natural History Museum. Shell sponsors this competition where the photography is of wildlife and has different age categories. One of my favorites was actually in the 10-15 year old category. After seeing the exhibit, we stopped at a French cafe for these large coffee's....I actually had hot chocolate. A very nice way to warm up out of the cold drizzle.

On our way home, we stopped at the Camden Town Markets. Every time I go, which has been about six times now, I find another part of the market that I haven't seen before. Here we are under the streets and canals where there are small little stalls along long hallways. We were able to pick up a couple of Christmas presents.

Autumn leaves

Now that the leaves are mostly shed from the trees we can see Whittington hospital from our back yard. This is where we go to give blood, do lab work, or to be seen in the A&E (accident & emergency).

Ed and I worked in the garden on Saturday raking the leaves. It's a big job as we have so many trees. I helped for awhile but my arms felt like they were screaming so I had to quit sooner than Ed.

Other than the fallen leaves, it doesn't really look like Autumn. Many of the shrubs will retain their leaves all winter here.

I don't know if I ever have showed a picture of our train in our back garden. Somewhere along the years past, someone decided to shape the hedge into this train. It used to be a couple of feet taller but I told Ed it was too dangerous to trim and made him shorten it up.

House in the Rockies available!

I just realized that some of the comments that have been entered on some older posts was not published correctly and they aren't showing in the comment section. Sorry about that to you who sent those in. They are now published.

If anyone knows of a family, couple, or a single person who would like to live in a new home in the Colorado Rockies for a year or so then have them contact us. We thought we had someone who was going to live there from Jan 09 for a year but that has not panned out. We would really love to have someone live there to take care of the place. We do have two families that look in on it regularly but it is so much better if someone is actually living there. We would rather have someone we know or at least someone we know, knows. All we ask is for them to take care of it and to pay the utility bills. No rent other than upkeep. So if you know of anyone that needs time off, a sabbatical, a change of scenery, even if it's not for the whole year we would welcome people for a few weeks, months, or whatever.

Just know that it is also available for vacations. We would require that you leave it clean (launder your sheets & towels and remake the beds) and general clean up (vacuuming, put dishes away, clean bathrooms). Get in contact with us via email: ed55shirk@yahoo.com

November 15th...a special day.

First off....Happy Birthday to my oldest sister Rosie!

We have been rather busy at the Centre and so have not been out and about to take any pictures lately. Besides the guest rooms getting a lot of use, the Prayer Hut and Library have been busier than usual. There have been different groups using our meeting space and we have had several seminars recently. We have been "on duty", 24/7 for several weeks now. But, we meet such wonderful people that, what we do, doesn't always feel much like work.

Ed has been working on the Centre's fund raising campaign and filling in as co director while the director and his wife are in North America on a three month assignment for Mission Network. That plus all his regular jobs. I've tried to help him some with the yard work which has left me with some sore muscles. With all these trees the leaf raking is a constant job.

I wish we had more guest room space as I have to turn people away frequently. There are many people who are on their way to or from mission assignments that need to stay over in London. It's always interesting to hear their stories.

We only have 15 months left on our term here in London, so if anyone of our readers from home were planning on visiting, make your plans soon!

Fireworks

Guy Fawkes Day has come and gone, and there were some spectacular fireworks at a nearby palace but we knew that there would be thousands and thousands of people there and I didn't want to be shoulder to shoulder with them. So we climbed up on our roof and watched them from there. We couldn't hear the music but we could see them fairly well.

When we took a trip to York this summer we found the house that Guy Fawkes was born in.

The weather here has been dreary and rainy. Very much what I thought London would be like but hasn't been until the last six months.

We had Krista Ehst over for supper tonight. She is a Goshen College Graduate from Pennsylvania who is here for six months doing an internship with the Anabaptist Network. The Franconia conference has sent her to work with and report on the Urban Expression churches and their outreaches in East London. These are missional churches that are trying to draw in new people to Christ as well as those who have become disillusioned with the institutional church. The hope is for her to take some of these ideas back to the States to see if they will work there.

Victoria & Albert Museum

The London Mennonite Centre is a charity. And as with many charities, there are times when the bottom line doesn't look so good. Such is the case with the LMC. The programmes and activities at the Centre have changed and taken on different forms over it's 55 year history and now the Board of Trustees are having to make some decisions as to how the Centre can run more efficiently.

There are many people who have been positively affected by the LMC and want to see it continue. We are hoping for a positive response to our fund raising appeal that we are sending out this month and we covet your prayers for this appeal and for our staff, trustees, and programmes.

Here are a few pictures from a recent trip to the V&A (Victoria & Albert) museum in London. This is from the stained glass room.

This is an artists sculpture of Samson slaying the thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey at Ramath Lehi (Judges 15)

Daily prayers and a surprise snow fall.

Monday through Friday we have a short time of what we call Prayers. Right before lunch anyone in the house is welcomed to attend. We usually have a liturgical reading followed by prayers and end with a blessing. We take turns leading this and Phyllis is doing her part on this particular week.

We had a surprise last Thursday with some snow. It has been rare that London gets snow at all and especially as early as October. It was quite beautiful however. The past couple of weeks has given Ed and I plenty of opportunities to have theological discussions on many levels. We've had one of the LMC's counsel members visiting our library in preparation for a seminar he is speaking at and over coffee and tea breaks there have been good discussions. We've had numerous guests that have also joined in on our break times which have led to talks about their work for the church and a few days ago a guest that talked about why he has left the church. He is from Northern Ireland and it was intriguing to visit with him about his views and to answer all his questions about the Mennonites and Anabaptism.