London 2016 Day 4 – LCM Summer School including Mile End

On this morning I felt well again, so I was looking forward to another day of summer school :)

On our way from the flat to Walthamstow Central station we saw this funeral carriage at the corner of Hoe Street and Albert Road.

The summer school morning started with David Ng teaching us about 1 Corinthians 9 which includes the famous passage on cross-cultural mission.

Later we learned from Imtiaz Khan and Tim Spring about the many aspects of cultural diversity and what impact it can have in a multi-cultural society.

Afterwards we had lunch which was as excellent as on the days before. It’s also time to mention Laura Bol (photo above on the left) who had organised all of the summer school. She was very helpful and caring when it came to individual issues. I had been in contact with her in advance about my body’s whims regarding food and she sent me links of all the food she had ordered, so I could check the ingredients. For Hermann who needed his lunchtime nap because of fatigue she arranged that he could use the library where he slept on the carpet floor after lunch. Big thanks to you, Laura!

In the afternoon we travelled to Limehouse station with DLR. Close to it was Husk Coffee, one of LCM’s projects, in front of which we met with our guide for this afternoon Henk van der Meer. We didn’t enter, but started out tour instead. The sun was shining and it was quite warm, so whenever we stopped and Henk explained something I tried to find some shade which wasn’t always easy.

Of course this wasn’t a tour to see the beautiful parts of the area, but to get an idea about the kinds of people living there – many of them immigrants, but we also walked along a road where many British flags were to be seen on the balconies to celebrate the Queen’s (official) 90th birthday. On one fence we saw this:

After a short coffee / tea break at ELT Baptist Church we set off by bus for a visit to the East London Mosque. I had been to Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and to a mosque in Eastern Turkey, but this building was much bigger than both (at least I think so). They kept expanding and had also bought a neighbouring synagogue – once a large Jewish community had lived in the area.

The summer school day ended with this visit and Hermann and I went down the road to Aldgate station to take the tube back to Walthamstow.

You can read more on this day on the LCM Blog!

London Day 3 - LCM Summer School including Webber Street

This day was one of those which I call my 2 Corinthians 12:9 days – days I’m feeling very unwell, but unable to give in to it, because I have got something important to do and hoping that God gives me enough strength to cope. And this was going to be a particularly long day…

Of course it started with summer school again. Robert Prendergast of the LCM training team managed to lead us through 1 Corinthians 5-7 in one hour. He put it all under the title “Sex & The City”, but his sermon was much more interesting than the first episode of the series of the same title (the only episode of it I ever watched) ;)

After the break we split up and while Helen Thorne (also of the training team) talked to the other group about sexual abuse, our group learned about mental illness from missionary Martin Street. Hermann and I chose this topic, because we were able to relate to it much more. It was not just a lecture, but the participants were asked to contribute to it. Of course mental illness is a broad topic, but we still learned how to reach out to people with any kind of mental health issue.

In the afternoon we visited Webber Street, LCM’s day centre for homeless people. We heard about what they were offering to the homeless people, like breakfast, showers, clean clothes and someone to talk to. We also heard about the kinds of people coming to the centre. What I found most interesting was that there are people from Eastern Europe who are working in London, but deliberately living on the streets to save more money which they can send or take home. Later we took a tour in the house and were shown the different facilities.

After the official part was over, we met with Petra Zimmermann who works for LCM at Webber Street and in the Covent Garden area. She showed us into the staff rooms where we sat for hours drinking tea and talking about all kinds of topics. Two years ago we had briefly met her in the (now closed) Café Eterno at Covent Garden and she and I were in contact via Facebook. It was great to finally “really” meet her :)

In the evening Hermann and I had to go to Paddington Station again where we finally got a replacement for the defective mobile wifi device. We were back in our Walthamstow flat about 9:30 p.m. and I was grateful that God had helped me “survive” and I had even been able to enjoy most of it, despite my body acting up in different kinds of ways during the day.

More on this third day of summer school can be found on the LCM blog.

London 2014 Day 13 – Demonstration, Lego Bus Stop, Morris Dancers

On this day, the last day of our stay in London, I felt much better, though the cold was still there. First we went to Café Eterno again for early lunch and to say good-bye to the very kind staff.

Then we resumed our walks.

We came across a demonstration against the government’s austerity measures.

Some of the demonstrators missed the the point.

We went to Regent Street to have a look at the Lego bus stop close to Hamleys.

At the Thames we found this used book market.

Later we passed this group of Morris Dancers and watched them for a while, though the blazing sun on that day was hard to bear for me.

 

Goodbye, London :°°°( Hope I see you again soon!