Hello and Goodbye

Life in London can be a bit transient- we've had to say good-bye to several friends who were here temporarily on work or study visa's.  Always encouraged to know we will see each other again in heaven someday!

Yesterday we said goodbye to Sau, who was here in London completing a Master's program.  She is on her way back to Singapore next week and we will miss her piano playing on Sunday's and her amazing cooking!  

Nicole, an American friend who grew up just a few miles from me, is on her way back to Newport Beach with her husband after two years in England.  We celebrated with tea and window shopping.  Not a bad day.  Thanks Nicole and we'll be praying for you and Brent as you transition back into life in the States!

With all these goodbye's it was nice to say "hello" to someone.  Matt and Tina Valjeon visited Gracelife yesterday and Matt preached a great sermon.  They recently planted an Afrikaans  church in South Africa and are in London visiting their daughter.  Matt was in seminary with Tony's brother Wayne in Los Angeles and sends his love to the Kuypers down under.  

More Pix from Wendy's Ruby Shower

Monica, Wendy (the beautiful bride) and Inutu

We had everyone finish the sentence "A Ruby is..."

Then they turned it over to "Wendy is..."

Praying for the massive amounts of food we ate!

 Donna sharing her devotional

Making a Rehearsal Bouquet out of the gift paper.  

Apparently it's not a tradition in the UK, but Wendy loved the idea.

Friends from Home

We love our church and are so thankful for the many, many friends we've made as a result of attending Gracelife London.  I honestly don't know how we would have made it without them all.  

It's a fairly new church, only about 20 months old, and our pastors, Tom and Ross, are recent graduates of the Master's Seminary in LA.  Though they are both originally from the UK they took their lovely families and spent several years in So Cal studying, then moved to Central London to begin Gracelife London in January of 2011.  Because of their ties to the seminary and Grace Church we've had many visitors from the States, including pastors, teachers from the seminary and several missions teams.  They've done everything from concerts in the park and street evangelism to construction (one team built a new bathroom complete with shower in the basement).  

The most recent team was from Kindred Community Church in Orange County.  It was such a blessing to see friends from back home and to be encouraged by some Americans.  I thoroughly enjoyed visiting, worshiping and serving with them and wish we had gotten a chance to spend more time together.  We did make time to get ice cream one night.  

Thank you Kindred Team!

A Nice Surprise

Someone special bought us tickets to see Vivaldi by Candlelight at St. Martin-in-the Fields.  We had dinner in the Catacombs before then enjoyed a fabulous concert.  Thank you!

A Bridal Shower

I'm realizing that I'm not very good at taking pictures of people- I kind of focus on the food, or flowers, or signs.  Oops!  I'll have to work on that. 

But here are some pix of the food and decorations from a Bridal Shower I hosted for a dear friend from Church.   She will be the first bride at Gracelife London.  How fun!

 It was a "Ruby" themed shower- based on Proverbs 31.  

'A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.'

We all wore red and Donna shared a lovely devotional about how even before the fall, in the first marriage, God created Adam and Eve to be dependent upon his word and instruction.  We ate loads of cake and drank pitcher after pitcher of  Sparkling Rasberry Lemonade (thank you Martha Stewart). 

I made a yummy cake with buttercream frosting though it almost killed me trying to get it the way I wanted.  British butter is so much more intense in color and flavor, so I had the hardest time getting it right.  In the end it tasted good, but it wasn't exactly the way I remember growing up...

 The Bride is on the far left of the couch

Congratulations Wendy and Alan!

Kew Gardens

It's actually been hot here!  Two days in a row I didn't even need a cardigan.  Amazing! 

One of those days we spent at Kew Gardens.  LOVED it!  Both of us agreed we want to come back but at different times of the year to see what's in season. 

My brother said it looks like the sign is directed towards butterflies.  Silly boy :-)

Kew Palace

 The Olympic Rings

 The Palm House

 Sigh!  This is why we love England

Two Palaces in One Day

We took advantage of the warm weather to visit Buckingham and Kensington Palaces.  I have to admit I was looking forward to seeing Buckingham, but my expectations were kind of low.  I've seen pictures of the palace and it looked... kind of old and stuffy.  It totally blew me out of the water.  It was so clean and beautiful.  We weren't allowed to take any pictures but if you ever are in London during the summer I highly recommend a visit.

I know it's kind of lame, but as I was walking around, instead of thinking "this is so cool, all these monarchs through the years have walked these halls," or "here's an amazing piece of historical significance" all I could think of was "Wills and Kate took their wedding portraits right here!"  I know, I know...

 Look at Tony's coffee- isn't that hysterical?

Outside Kensington- we didn't pay for the tour here, just looked around the gardens.