The Best Day in London with Brother John

Spending the day in the ministry was one of the best and most memorable experiences for me in London.  My plans were previously made so I knew to meet Brother John (a 72 year old elder at the Hall) at 10 a.m. I left my dorm at 9:15 a.m. to make it on time, although I ended up with enough time to make it to McDonald's to get my usual Latte.  The Tube (now that I know where I am going) was a breeze, and with 10 minutes to spare I arrived.

There were some friends who were waiting outside already and they informed me Brother John was looking for me since he was 20 min early and within minutes I saw his arms waiving from down the street. There are many aspects of the day that were awesome but the first was that I got to actually drive in someones car with the steering wheel on the opposite side of the road.  The brother jokes that Americans have the wheel on the wrong side and British have it on the right side (an argument I about to win) so I chuckled and was grateful he was driving and not me.

The work we were doing was the track work so we arrived at 3 large vertical buildings and he and I alone tackled 150 doors.  We met and spoke with many from all different back grounds.  People were very open to discuss God along with the concerns they had with what was happening currently on the world scene.  I wanted to note similarities and differences in the ministry in Europe vs. the States and found  the main similarity was how common the beliefs are across the world.  People in London are just as affected by what is happening with the economy and are were very much disgruntled about the lack of concern from the government.  The differences were the way people were able to articulate the beliefs they had. I felt like we did a very good job bringing comfort from the bible and at the end of the day felt that work is more gratifying than any other work being done around the world.  I learned to never underestimate what giving people hope can do.

Around lunch Brother John and I went to McDonald's (his treat) and talked about his wonderful wife of 48 years and what it takes to keep a marriage strong and happy. It was encouraging to know that someone with such longevity still had such a strong feeling of love and devotion for his wife after all these years.  It was very encouraging and ultimately I couldn't help but note several keys to marriage that I could undoubtedly benefit from if I too adopted.

After lunch we went on several calls and ended about 4pm with a bible study. The girl we went on the study with was very bright and seemed to have a very solid understanding of what she wanted from the bible. He dropped me off at the Tube and I made it hope by 5pm.  I noted this to be one of the better days of the trip which was hard to top. When I got home I relayed the info to Jason (who was encouraged as well).