July 16 – August
14, 2018 – “The London 15” – OBU Student Abroad in London, England
This summer, I had the privilege of spending a month
in England with a group of 15 students from Oklahoma Baptist University. Dr. Lindsey Panxhi (an English faculty
colleague) and myself, along with our respective spouses, conducted a
faculty-led Study Abroad that spent four weeks on the ground in London teaching
OBU courses to OBU students while being immersed in the culture and history of
Great Britain. These are our stories!
Sunday, August
12 – Hillsong London
First thing this morning, Emma and I walked back to
Her Majesty’s Theatre in pursuit of the missing wallet. We found someone who knows a lot more, and he
promised to go check himself and get back to us by phone. With that promise, we headed to Hillsong Church,
just down Tottenham Court Rd. It was
certainly a different worship experience for our group – very much like a YC /
Falls Creek worship service. Very loud,
very upbeat, very Pentecostal! The
church meets in the Dominion Theatre, a still-working venue (currently playing,
ironically, Bat Out of Hell). You could
feel the bass drums pulsing in your chest – it was a bit much for some of our
girls.
The guest preacher was Tommy Barnett, who is
apparently a very famous Pentecostal preacher.
His key biblical text was Mark 16:15-18 (NOT Scripture … grrrrrrrrr), and he spent most of the 45-minute
sermon talking about himself and his ministry experiences. It was a bit hard to take – but it was a
unique worship experience for everyone.
Four very different Sunday morning worship times – Holy Trinity Brompton
(contemporary, orthodox, evangelical), GraceLife London (Tom’s Church: blended,
conservative evangelical), Church of Scotland Aberlady Parish (traditional,
state church), and today’s Hillsong (super-contemporary, charismatic), plus a
liturgical Evensong service at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
After church, back to Pickwick. The Theatre called – they found Emma’s
wallet! She’ll walk back there this
afternoon to get it – and everything is in the wallet – more good news. Vanessa and Arsid got lunch laid out, and
then Vanessa and I went out! We went to
The Ship Tavern, right by Holborn Station, for a traditional Sunday roast. Vanessa had the beef, I had the lamb – both
with mashed potatoes, vegetables, and Yorkshire pudding. A very delicious feast! Topped off, naturally, with Vanessa’s
favorite dessert, sticky toffee pudding, with caramel sauce and ice cream. It was our first meal by ourselves – a kind
of date afternoon together! Then we
walked to GraceLife for their 4PM service – although we had to leave before the
service was finished to be back in time to cook supper for the team.
After supper, I spent some more time getting receipts
entered to know exactly where we stand going into our final week. Then we chatted with the kids, and off to
bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment