Last week we found out our shower was leaking into our neighbor’s flat below. We quickly called a plumber out to see where the leak was coming from. Apparently the guys who lived in the flat before us decided to put in a shower by themselves and botched the job. Water had been leaking behind the tiles and down into our neighbor’s flat. The plumber told us that the shower would need to be torn out and totally redone. We were told the plumbers would be back out in a few days to start the job of replacing our shower.

Since living in London we’ve learned that if you have workers in your house, it is expected that you have tea for them while they are in your home. So when the plumbers arrived I asked if they’d like a cup of tea. They seemed quite surprised by my asking and also a little nervous about the American girl making their tea but accepted my offer. So I pulled down a small tea pot, heated up some water and spooned in some loose tea leaves. The plumbers, still a little apprehensive about me making their tea, had decided to hang out in the kitchen and watch. I’m pretty sure they wanted to make sure I didn’t mess it up. After taking their cups of tea and having a drink, one of the guys commented by saying, “That’s proper, that is” and the other agreed. I couldn’t help but have a BIG smile on my face. I had accomplished the art of making “proper” tea!

The shower still isn’t finished yet. Did I mention it takes forever for anything to get done in London? Hopefully they’ll get it finished up next week.

I had the opportunity to go to an Eid party this past weekend. Eid is kinda like Christmas for Muslims. It’s a holiday that occurs after Ramadan (the month of fasting). They give gifts and basically get all dressed up, eat and party for three days. It’s not unusual to see the families splurge and rent a really nice car to drive around town in or to see the young boys paying random people to let them ride in their nice cars.

Since Ramadan ended on Tuesday, The Arbour Youth Center decided to have an Eid party for all of the female youth that attend the center and I was invited to come. I was told that I needed to be dressed up for the event and that meant I needed either a Sari or Shave Kameez. When I told some of the girls in the fashion club that I didn’t have either of these, they told me not to worry, they’d bring me something appropriate to wear. 

On Saturday the girls kept true to their promise to bring me something to wear, which was a beautiful Sari. It took 3 of them to get me dressed and quite a few pins to keep my “baby bump” covered. One of the girls also took some time out to do some mendhi/henna on my hand which is always cool. I felt like this was a true bonding moment for me and the girls in my class. 

The party turned out to be a blast and included lots of food, dancing and loud music! It was good to see the girls get to let loose and lose the head coverings for the afternoon.

Let me introduce what we like to call the gun boat.

The gun boat is actually a Fiat Multipla that we acquired from our company for use until fellow team mates come back from the states. Not only is it quite wide, but it will sit 6 people thanks to the 3 bucket seats up front and in the back. It also has the funny little headlights under the windshield and the stick shift is on the dashboard. It’s a weird little car. 

We have been very thankful to have this car as it has allowed us to move house and haul stuff all over London. However, it’s also been the thorn in our side and expensive. Since we’ve had it, we’ve received 2 tickets. One was a parking ticket which also involved a boot costing £175 ($350) and the other was a parking ticket for £100 ($200) for parking 4 inches over a white dashed line. Oh… and did we mention it costs £80 ($160) for a tank of gas?

Here’s where the thieves come into the picture. Two days ago Charles came home and was unloading some books from the car. He locked the car and came inside to unload. He realized he had left his cellphone in the car and when he went to retrieve it the car was unlocked and his cellphone was gone. This isn’t the first time that this has happened. Apparently the car has a mind of its own and likes to unlock itself at random. But now Charles is cellphoneless and we have to buy a new one… add another £40+ to the growing tab that we’ve racked up from this little car. 

Now I know it sounds like I’ve been bashing this poor car and that I’m totally ungrateful. It really has been a good thing for us and we really have appreciated having it. It allows us to go grocery shopping without having to tote bags for 1-2 miles. It was also a huge help for Charles’ exhibition and for us moving house (got everything into two car loads… including furniture!). I guess we just came here with the mindset that we wouldn’t have a car and now we have one and it’s just made life more complicated.

Funny how that works. In the states life would be so much harder without one and here it seems so much easier not to have one.

Sorry it’s been so long since we’ve made a post on this thing. Life has been a little insane! To try and get you all caught up on the happenings in our lives and where we’ve been, here’s the run down (the short version).

 

1. Found out in May we’re gonna have a baby! In August we found out it’s a BOY and we’re due on December 29th!!!

2. June and July were filled with summer teams and art exhibitions. All of which went really well and we were able to make some great contacts with people here in our community! We were especially thankful to have met some of the most wonderful college aged kids ever! We had 9 JSI’s come from the states to help run the summer groups and they were amazing! We couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to work with.

3. August was filled with trying to get caught up on everything we hadn’t done in June and July. At the end of August Charles and I had the opportunity to take a little break and make a quick getaway to Scotland for a few days which was amazing! We were able to visit North Berwick, a small fishing town on the coast (many thanks to Ally’s parents for taking us in for a few days!), Edinburgh and Glasgow. 

4. Part of August and the beginning of September was also filled with trying to locate new housing and getting moved. We were living in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment on the 3rd floor in a building with no elevator. So we decided it was time to begin looking for a new place that would accomodate us and the new little one. We are thankful to have found a place that will hopefully be perfect for our growing family! It even came with a rocking chair!

 

5. And in addition to all of that, add in doctors appointments, meetings, art classes, martial arts classes and various other little things.

Now that you’re caught up… here’s what we’ve got coming up!

Fall art classes start up on the 22nd of September. Charles will be teaching another painting class and also a mixed media class. I will start back up with the girls club at the Arbour Youth Center on the 3rd of October. The girls club will mainly have an arts focus and we’ll be working on different projects throughout the term. I’ve continued to do design work for Departure and for some organizations back in the states. If you know of anyone who need some design work done… send them my way!

In addition to the art classes, Charles will also continue with his martial arts classes. He’s been seeing about 12 guys coming to the class. The manager of the building has asked Charles to teach a second class so he’ll be moving from 1 to 2 nights a week starting in October.

Charles was able to exhibit over the summer and had a great turn out. He will be exhibiting at Departure starting on Monday for two weeks and then again at the House Gallery in October. Pray that he might be able to sell a piece of art or two!

and last… but not least.

Baby Reid is due at the end of December!!

The Arbor Youth Center is located in the park down the street from our flat. The center is in a unique location because is sits in the middle of a park, next to a mosque, in a town known for it’s low income and high population of Bangladeshi immigrants. This past week Charles and I had the opportunity to come alongside this center to help out with art and self-defense workshops during “Easter Holidays.” (Basically the equivalent to the U.S. Spring Break.) The youth center activities were specifically set aside for girls this past week. The center functions this way largely because most of the girls come from Muslim backgrounds and it would be inappropriate for them to mix with men socially. 

We facilitated an art workshop for a group of young girls between the ages of 11 and 13.  The theme was “Drug Awareness” in lieu of the growing presence of narcotic sales in the local community.  The girls came up with the ideas for the piece. We just tried to ask good questions and showed them how to work with spray paint and acrylics.  We were very impressed with their final results.

This week Charles will talk about self defense with a mixed group of boys and girls.  It should prove to be quite interesting.

We look forward to working more with the Arbor in the future. 

I worked at the Arbor Youth Center today with a group of teenage girls. After a long morning of working on a mural we took a break and did some henna. Check out the cool tattoo I got from a cool 13 year old!

Back in early March, we returned home from a long day of teaching art classes to find evidence of an attempted breaking and entering upon our flat. We had left the flat around 9:30 in the morning and returned around 10pm. After unlocking the door to the main entry hall and climbing 2 flights of stairs, we approached our door to find the exterior moulding warped and cracked. There were also flakes of white paint on the carpeting. The lower of our two locks had been punched in.  

Remarkably, the door held. It turns out that it was actually made out of a decent hardwood; not just cheap MDF. Secondly,  the upper lock remained engaged despite evidence of repeated kicking, i.e. footprints, on the door. At the end of the ordeal, the door had sustained some wear and tear, but fortunately the perpetrator was not able to enter the premises. Nevertheless, the incident has certainly heightened our awareness and made us more sensitive to security concerns. 

The police, also known as Bobbies, came out to file a report on our behalf the following day. Crime scene investigators dusted the door for fingerprints. We also had our fingerprints taken in order to disqualify ourselves in the investigation. Nearly four weeks later, yesterday as a matter of fact, we were contacted by a Bethnal Green investigator notifying us that a match came back from their database concerning the fingerprint they had pulled from the door!! 

We are extremely grateful for the professionalism  and efficiency that we have encountered with local law enforcement. Truth is, we weren’t expecting that they would actually find a match; so we were a little surprised when they called. All things considered, it could’ve been much worse.  

We thank God for protecting our home and for his grace and provision in times like these. We also want to say thanks to all the bobbies for all the hard work and long hours that they put in to try and keep our communities safe!  

Every Sunday morning we hear the church bells ring at St. Dunstan’s; a nearby church. Not the cheesy recorded bells, but the real deal; loud, clear and true, church bells. It is interesting that when these bells used to ring a flock of parishioners would rush to fill the pews. Today the bells are still ringing, but the people aren’t showing up like they used to.

Everyday Charles and I get to walk by this building and we always comment about how beautiful this historical place is. There is a sense of time that is evident in the architecture, stained glass windows, and adjoining cemetery. It’s sad to think that at one time this place was full of light and warmth and now it’s just… cold and empty. We pray that God would be on the move and re-ignite the flame that was once there among the people of this place.

We were out in the area of Whitechapel today looking at potential exhibition spaces. After walking up and down Brick Lane a couple of times, towards Spitalfields Market and back, we had a pretty good walk. On the way back to the tube station, we stopped into the Idea Store. The Idea Store is basically like our public libraries back in the states. They have books, music and videos that you can check out. They also offer different classes in art, dance, music, computers, language, etc.

While we sat on the bench flipping through the catalog of upcoming classes, a South Asian gentleman startled us and everyone else in the store with a loud, long snort! The staff allowed it to go on for a short spell and thought it was humorous. As the man continued to snore, a few people, who may or may not have known him, made attempts to wake him or at least muffle the ruckus. The gentleman even snored so loud at one point that he woke himself up. He immediately closed his eyes and went right back to the sawing of logs. Eventually, a tall black gentleman, who worked as a security guard for the store walked over, woke him and politely reminded him that he couldn’t sleep in the store. The black guy had a proper British/East Ender accent. (Think Cockney.)

We began to wonder if it was actually his sleeping in the lobby that was the problem or the snoring.

(We’re guessing it was the snoring.)

Do you ever wonder where the day goes? I mean, you wake up, you roll out of bed, you go through the daily routine and before you know it you are right back where you started. Often times, the day is a blur and you wonder what you actually accomplished or if you accomplished anything at all. Have you ever had insomnia? The effects are not dissimilar. You want to sleep, but you can’t; your body is exhausted, but your mind races. When you do finally sleep, you sleep hard. You wake up feeling like you’ve been through three rounds in a fight. That has certainly been my experience for the past few weeks.

We have really hit the ground running and jumped right into a number of exciting projects. Between teaching art classes, martial arts and getting settled into the new environment, it is not really surprising that I am exhausted. Throughout the day, we have so many things that vie for our attention. We have spouses, families, friends and we have other responsibilities that come with work, colleagues, etc. It often feels like you are holding several tall sticks and balancing spinning plates at the top of them. Stop spinning any one of them for too long and they start to topple.

These first months have been great, but we are looking forward to a break. We finished art classes for the term this week and will have four weeks before the summer term. We will be using that time to focus on some of our other design projects, personal art work and planning for summer projects. Lastly, we will also be doing some work related travel to Barcelona. We are extremely excited about the upcoming months.
We pray that you might be found resting in Him this Easter weekend and walking in his Light.