Evidence of God's Grace

Serving in London was a later addition to my European itinerary, in fact it wasn't added until after I got back from New York. A good friend of mine and sister in Christ was planning on working/vacationing in London about the same time I wanted to begin my Europe missions trip. I thought was why not begin my trip possibly serving in London and visiting with her as well. Just so happens that the Chefs for Christ NY team has done loads of mission trips to London in the past and still keep in touch with their friends out here. Putting two and two together I had my NY friend Stan, get in touch with his London friend Jess, to see if she could accommodate me and if there were any serving opportunities in her local church. Walla! Jess researched some serving opportunities with the churches and organizations nearby and I booked the plane ticket! A place to serve and a place to stay, boom boom, God opened the doors and I'm here.

Passport stamps

There have been some slight hiccups so far, as it were, or more so things that have tested me. First would be entering the United Kingdom. This is only the second time I've been out of the states and on the immigration form (think that is the name of it) I truthfully noted missionary as my occupation-bad idea. This added an extra half an hour to my airport stay. The immigration officer asked me the nature of my stay and serving and had me sit aside, while he took my passport to his supervisor to get my entry approved. He told me technically I shouldn't be allowed into the UK but he's permitting it under the guise that I'm only going to be visiting these churches. Interesting experience but oddly enough I didn't sweat it, the thought that came to mind was "God's in this" and mentally I didn't even go down the road of what if they don't let me in? Praise God! Don't be too impressed because I soon lost my cool, the extra time the approval took caused my shuttle service driver to give up waiting on me and by the time I reached the exiting terminal he was gone. Uh oh, back and forth I walked, looking at names of every sign the drivers were holding up. The free internet access didn't work on my lap top to get a hold of Jess so I finally rang her mom and she called the shuttle company to go back and pick me up. Phheeewwww! This time I was prepared with a phone number, address and some local currency, all of which I didn't have in Belize when this happened there. 

Saint Mark's Church

Next, the serving opportunity fell threw the day before I left for London (coffee house under renovation) so I've been scrambling to set something up, my heart is serve while I'm here not just be on "holiday". Jess has rang a few churches but just showing up has been the most fruitful. Like I mentioned in the previous post, Saint Mark's church was open to me serving there and I'll be talking a more consulting role with them, suggesting new menu items for their cafe. Similar to what I did in Belize, adding new recipes to the meal rotation for the teams.
This Tuesday I ventured out on my own for the first time on the bus to Waterloo to visit Oasis Church. They run a cafe as well and I popped in to speak in person about possible volunteering there. The Hub Coffee House, to be exact. Just a brief email the night before that they positively responded to and I simply walked in ordered a iced mocha and asked for the assistant manager and he told me how the church got started (very interesting) and I told him about my training and what God has me doing this year and within 5 minutes he are putting me on this weeks schedule. Josh (assistant manager) and his boss were just praying about getting some extra help for the cafe because loads of people are on holiday right now and they were even thinking they would have to shut down the food part of the cafe because of the lack of staff. I'm an answer to their prays too. Boom, once again God provides!
While I was there observing how they make the sandwiches, pizzas etc. I was reminded of how awesome it is that I get to take this small skill/passion of food preparation and travel the world, meet God's people and have a blast, it's just too cool.  Before even emailing Oasis Church I was telling Jess that I had a feeling that something might happen there, only going off the fact that the ministry I served in Belize is also named Oasis. Sure enough, and it's not about being right, I'm learning what it means to step out in faith trusting God's provision, that He has gone before me and His plans are for my good. Amen! Thanks once again to those who are praying for me at home. I'm a blessed woman, what can I say :)