It's fun to have friends!

Note: I wrote this post several weeks ago but never posted it. So here you go.
My new friends did came over on Saturday night, Sept 22. Kristen, Ruth, Alex and Tim all came for dinner, which was relaxed and fun and then Laura joined us and we all played a raucous game of snooker. What, you ask, is snooker? That's what I asked! It's kind of like pool, only harder. Seeing as how my sum total of pool games played is about three, I was at a distinct disadvantage at snooker. There I was, trying to set up a shot on the Granges' snooker table (imagine a pool table only a smaller size, with different balls, different rules and different scoring system)and I've got my friends all giving me helpful instructions: "Lean your cue on your hand more," "Move your back hand further up," "Put your head down so you can see the line of the ball," "Stand on the balls of your feet," "Stick your bum in the air," etc... The difficulty, of course, is that two of the instructions came from people on my team and three of them came from enemies on the rival team who were all trying to set me wrong! I did fault a few times (whenever the white ball doesn't hit another ball the opposite team gets four points and sometimes even more) but we won the game, in the end, thanks to the magic snooker stylings of Kristen and Tim. And, I will admit, I got a few balls in myself...one red one and the pink one. Yippee! After snooker we watched some football (soccer) on TV and I showed them some Brian Regan snippets, which they enjoyed. Everyone went home around midnight, so I'd call my first party in England a success.

Yesterday was my first time teaching the Trent Vineyard Kids 9- to 11-year-olds. The VKids ministry amazes me. They actually have more than enough volunteers. About 250!!! I've never before been in a church where there were so many folks ready and willling and eager to work in children's ministry. Many things about Trent are, frankly, astounding. God is at work in this place and I am eager to learn more. Anyway, an honest-to-goodness primary school principal coordinates InteracTiV, the 9-11 room, with a team of about 4 teachers. Imagine a smallish room with 5 adults and 35 hyper kids. For snacks we actually give them squash (sugary juice) and Cadbury's (chocolate) during church, which I thought would be a disaster but seemed to work well. The kids do activities and worship and then break into small groups for Bible study and prayer. I had a blast and the kids seemed rather in awe of my exotic American accent. They'll get over it soon, I'm sure. I'll be in with them twice a month so will hopefully get to know some of them.

Then more Discipleship Year friends invited me out for "Sunday roast," a real English tradition. We all walked back to a nearby house (very few people here have cars) and I first enjoyed the luxury of a hot shower, since our boiler at home was broken for a few days. Then eight of us walked through The Park, a swanky part of Nottingham that was once a private estate, and into the city centre. We all ordered various roast dinners at the Canal House, a pub that's built over the canal and actually has boats docked on the canal inside the building! By the way, a pub here is a bar, but it's also a coffee shop and a restaurant. Pubs are very family friendly places, during the day at least. After a hilarious meal, about six of us decided to walk to another pub for pudding (dessert). We found a place called the Ropewalk that has lots of squashy couches and board games. However, a rugby game was on (most Americans probably do not realize we're in the midst of the Rugby World Cup and that England is now in the semifinals) and since I wasn't too interested I curled up on a couch and took a Sunday nap. When I woke up we all had some drinks and chatted some more, and then Ruth and I suddenly realized with horror that we had to be back at church in an hour. So we walked as fast as humanly possible back to her house where we made sandwiches and wolfed them down while practically running to church.

I got there at 6:35, five minutes late but nobody noticed. Phew! They are strict about our serving times. I then did set-up with a team, mostly which consists of placing chairs in a very precise manner and at just the right time to facilitate community. After the service we cleaned up and I was home around 11. It was such a fun day!