weekend in Melksham

Well the "queen" has been temporarily dethroned, and I am free (for a few minutes anyway) to use the computer. Fortunately for the rest of us, even the "queen" has to take showers and go to sleep... On Friday I went to visit the Firth's in Melksham. I took the train (for the first time!), which was very exciting, since I had no idea what I was doing. It's a good thing I asked somebody, because the trains are labeled by final destination and I had to get off and switch at some point. Oh well, you live and learn and now I'm a pro at the English trains!! It takes less than an hour to get to Chippenham from Oxford, and that includes a ten minute wait in the middle. When I got there Catherine and Pastor Margaret picked me up. Then we went to Catherine and Owen's for lunch (they're the couple that just got set in as elders this Sunday). They live in an incredible old English farmhouse, out in the country. The cows are right in their backyard, and there was an amazing sunset that evening, it looked like the whole horizon was on fire. Catherine made us homemade tomato soup and banana bread (my favorite!). Then we just spent some time visitng with them until Becky got off work. They have a15 month old son named Samuel who is such a pleasure (that's "Growing Kids God's Way for ya), and Becky and Chris watched him that night too, so I got to see a lot of the littlest member of Good News. Catherine asked me if she'd seen me before, because I looked familiar, I was like "No that was probably my brother, Micah." Haha. Went to Chris and Becky's that night, we visited for a while, and Becky made a wonderful meal of BBQ chicken. On Saturday we had 7am prayer at the Firth's. I've been up before the sun more times this week than I have all year!! But, in addition to what was accomplished in the heavenlies, the breakfast afterwards made it well worth it!! Visited with the Firth's and the Pastor's for the rest of the morning. (It's crazy that you can hang out with people for hours, and head home while it's still morning!) Then Chris, Becky and I visited Lacock, where they filmed Pride and Prejudice, and Bradford-upon-Avon. Lacock was an adorable little town, we saw a very old church, the tithe barn, went into some little shops, and took a walk through the country. There's also this amazing old Abbey outside of the town, but unfortunately it's closed for the season. Bradford was really cute too. There was a "football" game going on when we got there. Then we went to some old stables converted into shops and had "cream tea." Mmmm, I love my English tea and scones!! Came home to another one of Becky's delicious meals- chili. Then we watched "Creature Features" which are made by the same people who did Chicken Run and very funny. We ended up going to be quite early, since we were all exhausted. On Sunday we went to church, had to get there an hour and a half early to set up. They hold church in town hall, and it's so perfect! We had a wonderful time, it was great to hear Pastor Wayne preach again. They made me stand up and greet the church, then get back up again and say some more so they could get a picture. Small churches can be embarassing ... Afterwards the whole church had a lunch of "American" food. Meatball subs!! And loads more of fantastic food, especially since I've been living off of canned soup and toast. They even sent me home with dinner to eat on the train! Altogether it was a wonderful weekend, it's great to see people from home and spend time with those you really love. But it's also a little hard to come back then... I love Oxford, and I'm really enjoying my time here, but when it comes to England my heart is definitely in the country!