home again, home again

Back from England. I was asleep by 9 pm last night. Of course, it felt like 2 am to my body.

Up at 4:45 am. No surprise there.

The Greenbelt Arts Festival threw me into a whole new state of being. I'm so used to Christian gatherings where we emblazon our Christian lingo onto each sentence we speak and show off our faith. It's different over there. Faith is just, well, a part of you and you can go and listen to speakers and music, wander around the pavillions and absorb new expressions of what God is doing without feeling the need to advertise what you've learned.

We began our trek on British soil at the home of Debbie and Andrew Jones. More about them in a separate post because they were the biggest God-talk of the trip for me. On Friday we made our way out to Cheltenham for the festival. If any one mental image survives this trip it will be sitting in Andrew's van as he sped down the narrow streets of London with a trailer (caravan in England) hitched to the back. Now that's moxy! I honestly felt like I was on Cartoon Network or something.

Friday afternoon I sat with Will at a roundtable discussion on the Emerging church. When I walked into the room I thought, "Oh sheesh, look. It's a buncha men." I was the only woman in the room and I was only there because I was a wife. I'm thankful to say that three more women came in because honestly, I would have gone out of there thinking, it's just another patriarchal movement where they say they value women but the numbers prove otherwise. Still a little male-heavy, but honestly, how many women really are ministering at that kind of level? Maybe the Emerging church movement will help change all that. And they actually asked me to say a little something which was very gracious. Honestly? People don't usually want to hear from novelists. We just tell stories forgoshsakes.

Gracious people all around. Good tea. Cool people watching. And a really big message from God during the large mass on Sunday. Shared communion with thousands of believers from across the world. Truly, truly amazing.

Just an overview of the time spent. Not done yet. Still need to digest it all.

grace and glad to be home. hope you all are doing fine!

lisa