Day Five

Day five began with a wonderful night’s sleep at my roommate, Angie’s, flat.  It felt so good being someplace that I was supposed to be and know that I was safe.  It was a much different sleep than anything I’ve had since being in Europe.

We ate breakfast and then headed to the GFA office.  We had a prayer meeting that I couldn’t really tell you about if I tried.  One of the blessed drugs I take, makes me feel like I drank a pint of hard liqueur for about an hour.  Which just happened to kick in when we arrived at GFA.

I got a tour around the office, which was really a tour of the pictures on the walls.  It made me feel that me, and us as Americans, are not doing enough for outreach or missions.  It gave me goosebumps to know that Indians wait for months to hear the gospel because there are not enough missionaries to tell all the hungry souls that flock to centers.  Stories of Indian women that are in their hundreds that say that have been waiting to hear the gospel.  After being told the good news at 116 years old, a frail old woman meets her Savior after only a few months.  The world is so much bigger than what I have ever dreamed that it was.  You could watch the Discovery Channel everyday for a year and never come close to all the things that God is doing.

I met the volunteers in the office and the staff.  The wonderful Americans and Brits that have given their lives to Christ and walk with Him.  Brian and Mindy took me to lunch with their son Elijah to a fantastic little tea shoppe called, Betty’s.  I must explain that instead of pronouncing the “t’s” in Betty’s like Americans do as “d’s” they must be pronounced with a harsh T sound.  It was a light lunch of some wonderful English food and an education on English etiquette.  I have never had anything quite like British scones with jam and whipped cream (which is NOT cool whip and should never be in the same category…ever.)  I am making a stop on the way home of some scones and whip cream.  It was simply amazing!   While in the shoppe, I saw some British cakes and puddings.

The city was absolutely fascinating.  One of the most interesting things was this man.  He is called, The Purple Man.  He cracked me up!

This is the York Minster.  This place was amazing.  When we go back I am taking a full tour around this guy.

This church took my breath away.  I studied this church in my humanities class a few semesters ago and it was amazing to be able to see the same things that I studied.  It took my breath away to see such enormous buildings with such character.

All the streets of York are really narrow, but this is called the Shambles.  This used to be an old Butcher’s street.  That’s why the building are constructed with a overhang to protect the meat from the sun.

This is the Walmgate Bar.  A gate refers to anything that allows you entry through a wall and a bar refers to something that can keep you out of the wall.  Calvary Chapel has on outreach program that’s called Gatehouse Coffee.  It was rated in the top 35th best coffee shop in England, which is absolutely wonderful considering that it’s a Calvary Chapel outreach program.  This is a true “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day” program!

This view from the city wall made me giggle with a childhood laughter!  I thought my pastors from Wyoming would get a BIG kick from this!  This is my home church.  I am so excited to see that it is worldwide and that God is using it in a mighty way!

This wall is the historic walls were built in 867 AD over top of walls that originally constructed in 71 AD.  It was unbelievable to be walking on top of something that dates back to when the when the apostles were walking around on earth.  It’s rumored that some of the stones came from Jerusalem itself because Roman’s tended to carry large things around with them.  This is Constantine's Wall.