Morgan Family Travels - 7

Dear Friends and Family

This week's missive is being sent out a day early as I will be spending tomorrow up in London with a friend I met through the Trisomy 18 Support Foundation.

To begin with I should mention about Greenbelt, which we went to almost two weeks ago, but which I forgot to say anything about in last week's letter. Trevor and I went up to Greenbelt the day before he left for Houston. It is a full four-day festival in Cheltenham that attracts all manor of 'fringe' Christian groups. They all camp out on fields near the race course there, and there are loads of Christian groups, speakers, bands of all types, services, etc., to take in. We didn't have the option of going for the whole weekend so we did a Saturday blitz. We were able in the course of a single day to get a fairly good feel of the 'emergent' church in England in all sorts of places. There are a few groups, they are mid-sized (between 15 - 60) and tend to be bi-weekly events. It is an official 'thing' - they even sell pre-packaged worship stations at 50 pounds a piece - but is still developing and questioning how they fit. We were glad to find that people were involved, but didn't really see how we were to fit into it - didn't feel there were lots of people to go and learn from, and equally didn't feel asked to teach any of them, really. We shall see what comes of it. We also met people from Northumbria Community, Iona, and a few other monastic-like communities that were small and struggling (under 6 people as full time members). It was encouraging, but not directing.

Now for this past week....

Trevor is still in Houston, and reports that he is on track to catch a flight back to Gatwick next Friday (the 15th of September). He's worked hard and got tonnes of work accomplished, so hopefully that will leave everyone pleased. Last Friday night he helped out with the relief efforts in Houston for New Orleans Internally Displaced Persons by sorting clothes. Not terribly glamorous, but he was glad to be able to help. On Sunday he went to Ecclesia, an 'emergent' church in Houston. They have their 'small' service in the mornings, which he attended (along with 100 other people!) and their larger service in the evenings with about 300 attending. They have an art gallery and a coffee shop, and they had people there willing to ask Trevor along for a meal after church, which he really appreciated. His comment was that it was still basically an evangelical church, with an emergent skin - their wasn't the opportunities for full group participation, bringing of gifts, interacting with material, that we have come to love at the Journey - THANK YOU, JOHN!

The girls and I went along with a family friend who's Kaitlyn's age (Elizabeth Simpson) to the outdoor pool in the nearby town of Guildford on Sunday afternoon, which the girls quite enjoyed. Monday we went down to Havant to visit Serena for her birthday - she and Hannah are now both our little one year olds. We went to visit Fort Nelson which is in nearby Portsmouth (pictures to be seen on the blog). Then we spent the night and on Tuesday we spent the day with Kimmy enjoying her life with her (including a shopping trip into Portsmouth complete with shoes for Hannah and a couple of 70% off poncho's from Monsoon, which I was quite pleased with.)

Wednesday we spent mostly at home - laundry, a quick trip into Guildford for art supplies, groceries, and Kaitlyn's first day at Rainbows. We have a stunning Rainbow's leader who's quite happy for her to participate while we are here and willing to let us pay just for the time she attends, without the stress of having to commit for the whole term or buy lots of expensive uniform. All of which is WONDERFUL as we really haven't got long-term sense of where we will be.

Today we went into Hampton Court Palace in London. (see blog for a few pictures). The Palace was originally built by a Bishop, but the King (Henry the VIII?) was aroused by the amount of money being spent on it and the Bishop quickly decided that it was actually being built as a gift to the King! We enjoyed wandering around the Tudor kitchens, the Queen's and King's rooms, the maze (the first in Europe), and the gardens.

We are looking for ways to have dialogue with people from back home - we really value all of your friendships, and want to continue to stay abreast of all of the goings on of your lives as well as letting you know ours. Please offer suggestions as to how this can best be accomplished - we're happy to phone people if that's best, or to email individually or through letters, etc. Any other technology has the potential to be considered!