Well the past few days have gone great! On Tuesday we went to a funeral for someone in the village. It took place in the parish church and it was very sad. After the funeral we went to a family from the church's home. It was lovely! We had an amazing meal with lots of fun and games! I feel so welcome by all the people that we meet! It is such an answer to prayer!


On to Wednesday! :) We had prayer meeting in the morning and once again..it was such a blessing! To come together with believers and share with each other what we need prayer for as well as praying for anyone who comes to mind. It is so refreshing! After the prayer meeting we went to a home group meeting. I enjoyed getting to know those people as well! They were very welcoming and we had tea and biscuits and all kinds of other stuff! :) Then we got to experience something that is very different and "very English"....Morris Dancing! :)

 This was quite an experience and it was very interesting! haha I really enjoyed it as well!


Thursday! It was quite warm! 78 degrees!! (well for England! I know back home it was in the 100s!) So this was the day we went to the secondary school here in Moulton! We had a question and answer session with a 10th grade class on different issues that we, as Christians, deal with in our world. And boy were they some heavy questions! ha The main topic was of drugs, alcohol, crime, and poverty. Yes, it was quite a large topic! I am so thankful for your prayers as well! I feel that it went very well! They all asked great questions and listened to everything we had to say. The teacher was a Christian as well and was leading the discussion so when there was any stall in the questions, he would give us one to speak on. I pray that what we said had an impact on the students lives and that what we said will stick with them! That they would have a curiosity to learn more about what "those Americans" were saying about what Christ had done in there lives! 


After the question and answer session, one of the head teachers took us on a tour of the school. wow! It is huge! It is a school of 1,500 students! It had different buildings for each subject and was basically a college! and this was only a village school! That night one of our friends from church took us to the cinema! I really enjoyed it and we got to have so much fun with her! I am reminded time and time again of what an amazing opportunity this is! How great it is that I am able to meet all these wonderful people!


Today we went to a food bank in Corby. It is operated by Mr. David's son-in-law Adam so we got to see the inner workings as well as helping out! 

So much cereal!

Esther! One of the fellow volunteers

Jennifer was a helping hand! ;) 

We got to meet and greet the people that came in to get food and talk to them about who we are and why we were here! Our accents are such a conversation starter! haha We organized and categorized food as well as bagging it up for the people. I really enjoyed it! And the people were very sweet and such a joy to talk to!

God has really been encouraging me in that no matter where I am or who I am talking to..whether a toddler, 10th grader, elderly, or homeless...He will lead me and will ALWAYS be near. I am so thankful for that assurance! :)

It has been a while since I have posted! :( So this post will be somewhat long :/ One of the most surprising things that I have learned so far is that despite all of us being able to speak English..it is still so very different! I cannot keep count how many times we have had to ask people to repeat themselves or explain what a word means! haha One of the most interesting conversations I had was when a guy was talking about guinea pigs but I thought he was talking about his kids. Boy was that a shock! haha He did not get his kids stuck under the deck, just the pigs! :) 


Each night I am so blessed by my readings in God's amazing Word! The other night I was in Psalm 119 and God reminded me of His amazingness! My prayer for this entire trip has been that when people meet me that Christ's love would shine through me and that I would be a blessing to those around me. Well here is a little piece of what I read: verse 74 "May those who fear you rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in your word." Wow! that is my prayer for this entire time!


So the past few days have been relaxing and seeing some of the countryside. One of the guys from church took us on a walk to see the ruins of a church that was built in the 12th century. It was such a beautiful walk! This country is absolutely gorgeous!

Took a walk with our guide, Dave

Thanks Rach for risking your life to take that picture! :)

The 12th century ruins of Old Saint John's Church of Boughton

Poppies (a sign of hope) on the wall

I touched a REALLY old stone!!

Then it started to rain!!

We could not resist!

A castle which someone is actually living in!

They do have dirt roads! and it was a beautiful walk!

Fields of Poppies and corn

the EVIL plant!! (Stinging Nettles)

Detour! Down a public footpath

beautiful weeds that are taller that me!

 After we got back we were quite hungry and Mrs. Beth had cream tea for us! It was sooooo good! Scones with butter, jam, and cream! and of course some tea! I am getting hungry just thinking about it again! :)

Cream Tea!!!!

 On Sunday we took part in the service and read some Scripture. It was a child dedication service, so we had quite a few people there! As well as a group from Texas Baptist Seminary! After church we went over to a couple's house for dinner. It was delicious! I tried some very traditional English dishes: parsnips, beet root, roasted Jersey potatoes, and beef roast with strawberries and cream for dessert! Oh it was so good! and I liked all of it! The beet root was a little different but not too bad :) We had lots of fun with their two children! After dinner we went for a walk around their village of Billings.

It was a little chilly :)

Beautiful Poppies!

The Billings Parish Church

This house reminded me of some in the movies!

The village!

Yesterday we took advantage of the nice weather and went to the Foxton Locks! Since I live very close to the Tombigbee Lock and Dam, I was familiar with the principle of the lock system but this was very interesting! And we got to talk to some very interesting people while we were there!

Canal boats!

Such a good horse! ;)

Beautiful countryside

A snack of some ice cream! :)

Love them! 

The series of lock systems!

English sheep!

No I did not drive but boy did I scare Mr. David!

When we got back we went to help out at the church with the Boys Brigade. Rachel, Jennifer, and I were in charge of the games and activities. We played Upset the Fruit Basket, Ships and Sailors, and English dodge-ball (yes, it is quite different than the American version). The boys we helped with were from the ages 8-12. They were great! 

Upset the Fruit Basket

Go boys go!

Then we made paper airplanes

 While we were making the airplanes, all the boys in my group were asking me "what is the most aerodynamic form?" and I had NO CLUE! haha I have not made many paper airplanes! But we worked hard on our planes and afterwards we flew them to see whose went the farthest...ours lost :( so I asked the boys what they named their planes. Most of the names consisted of Fail, Bomb, or Crash but one was the Millineum (sp?) Falcon. haha We tried! :)

One, two, three....throw! :)

Such sweet boys! I loved my time with them and I am looking forward to next week to see them all again! Today, I just got back from a funeral. It was very sad. I am so thankful that God is the light of my life and that I know I will be with Him in eternity one day! Please be praying for us this week! On Thursday, Rachel, Jennifer, and I will be speaking in front of an assembly at the local secondary school about American culture. Pray that we would have the chance to share about how God is integrated into my culture and how He has changed our lives! This is such an amazing opportunity to share with others!

Yesterday afternoon the three of us girls went on a walk to explore the rest of Moulton. It was lovely! There is an agricultural college right next door to the church so we went and looked around. It was very pretty around!

The flowers were so beautiful

As well as the structures.

After leaving the college we went walking down the street and came across the Moulton Parish Church. The word that could best describe it is just "wow!" This church building is older than America. It is hard to comprehend! 

Moulton Parish Church

After passing the church we came to a bridge with a lovely stream that cut through most of Moulton. As we were walking it felt like we were walking through the movies! The hedge rows as fences, the fields, etc. It was amazing!

Stream that goes through Moulton

Thatched roof cottage in town

Another shot of the Parish Church

Taken from the stream of the Parish Church

Beautiful estate

Look at the sky (and the airplane) ;)

The coolest thing is that their are random footpaths throughout the village. You can take your dogs and let them run in the public fields as well as have a picnic! :) it is absolutely gorgeous! (it may seem that I comment that everything I see is so pretty...cause it is!! ;) haha)

Public footpath and field

Now it brings us to today (Thursday)! Thursday is Mums & Tots! The church puts on a program called Toddle Inn that allows local moms to bring their children to play and enjoy the company of other moms. Also that their kids can enjoy an organized program with other toddlers! :) I had a blast!!!

The morning group!

The early morning group was the youngsters! I had so much fun and I got to hold a few babies!! :)) There was even a baby that was only 2 weeks old! He was absolutely precious! :) Can you tell I had a blast?  

Sweet baby Mark was 4 months old!

The late afternoon crowd was a little older. These were definitely a great playful group! I was so busy baking biscuits (cookies), holding babies (the doll kind), and rolling dough that I did not have a chance to take any pictures of these sweet kids! I had two little shadows! Annalese and Neeve were such sweet girls! When we sang songs and played music they were so excited! it was so interesting the songs that we are accustomed to singing are somewhat different here. For example the hokey pokey is called the okey kokey. I really enjoyed it! :) I am looking forward to next week to see and play with them again! I am also looking forward to tonight which is the Girls Brigade Awards Night! Meeting many new girls from the community as well as some of their parents! :) Today has been a day of forming relationships! I have really enjoyed meeting a wide variety of people of all different ages! :)