Friday, October 12, 2007

The Escapade...Part 1

Monday morning, Julie and I drove over to the Lloyds with Lynda to “regroup” before all the different teams were sent out to begin the work of spreading the word about the Fun in the Park day. =D There was a small group of Welsh and Americans that went to some local schools to put on a short skit and tell them about the Fun in the Park. The rest of us non-thespians were broken into 3 groups and were sent out to different neighborhoods to go “leafleting”. It was kind of weird, because I hadn’t done this in a while. But I quickly overcame my fear of dogs and…people…and was able to “press on” for the glory of God! Even though we did get a few door-slams that morning, I was so enjoying the scenery as we walked through the streets of Merthyr. There is so much that us “city folk” take for granted, living 10-20 yards from the next house and hiding midst the towering buildings constructed only in the last several decades. I LOVED walking only a block from the house we were staying at to an old catholic church that was just sitting on the corner of the neighborhood. ~This was just one of my few rabbit trails…I hardly EVER go on rabbit trails during my stories! Speaking of rabbits though…~
So after a morning of walking up and down steps, opening and shutting some really cool-looking gates, and knocking on doors till our knuckles bled (well, not really), we all drove back to the Lloyd’s for lunch. This was so much fun! Each of our families had packed us lunchboxes of some sort, and had made note of our likes and dislikes in just the last few days! It was so sweet! We all ate outside under this little garden area covered by a trellis. After lunch we went out to leaflet some more. That evening after we had “freshened up” at our respective homes, all our families drove us to this Chinese restaurant downtown where the pastors and their families met up with us and we took up the entire upstairs of the restaurant! You know, in the typical American fashion. I ate these little white foamy things that didn’t taste like anything. I tried a few other things for the first time too, but I don’t remember their names. It was a wonderful dinner and really fun fellowship with the church members.
Following dinner, Mike and Sharon (a couple in the Merthyr church) asked a few people to come over to their house down the street for a “sing night”. They ended up receiving the whole American team and some of their host family members! AGH! It was very enjoyable, with Nathan playing the piano, James playing the guitar, and Kyle and some of the other guys leading a time of worship. We sang some old traditional hymns, and some newer upbeat worship songs. It was a wonderful time of refreshing, and bonding with our spiritual family. But of course, we had to go out with a BANG that night! As they were finishing up, a few of us decided to go down to Cafarthfa Castle so we could view the castle from the stage we would be playing on in a few days. Some of the guys had already seen it all lit up at night and said it looked really cool. So we got directions from Andy and we were off!...at 10 o’clock at night….the time that the Cafarthfa park closes….without a native Merthyrian to guide us through the city…boy, we're adventurous!

1 comment:

Tammy said...

Yeah, I'm glad you are writing again..look forward to reading more about your trip.