4348 Miles to Worship

I've had this story on my mind for a couple of weeks and just hadn't taken the time to write it out.....so hear it is.

About 15 years ago I joined my husband in London for the last week of a month long business trip. I was so excited as I my travel experiences have been limited, especially out of the country. There was so much I wanted to experience in such a short amount of time. Since my husband had been in Europe for 3 weeks already, he felt pretty acclimated and ready to show me around.

I arrived on a weekend and one of the first things we chose to do was experience a worship service in England. We knew there were large and famous churches we could easily attend, but we found that there was a small church within walking distance of our hotel with a Sunday evening service. PERFECT! We were so excited. What an experience this would be. Our first opportunity to worship God with people 4348 miles from home!

As we strolled from our hotel in the cool evening air, just the walk was an experience as we were following directions given to us by the hotel staff. The church was beautiful as we approached it. It's old and historic look from a block away was totally London! Did I mention how excited I was?

As we entered the church we were greeted by Londoners with that wonderful English accent that makes every word sound musical. We found a seat in a pew that allowed us to take in all visual aspects of the room. We didn't want to miss anything when it came to this worship experience. We anticipated the music, the liturgy, the sermon by a London pastor! What would his message be about? How would he address his congregation? Would it be based on scripture and bible readings? Would it be contemporary and address an issue of today's world? And to hear the words in that beautiful English accent and dialect. We were so ready!

And then it begins. A couple of beautiful traditional hymns......and then the Pastor began to speak. Wait....where's the English accent? What did he just say? Thank you? And that he's honored and excited to be visiting from where? Yep.....we traveled 4348 miles from Omaha, Nebraska to a beautiful church in London, England to hear a very nice pastor from TOPEKA, KANSAS! True story! It was a very nice service and great message....and the pastor was SO excited to greet us after the service when he realized his "neighbors" had come to see him!

Check in again soon!
~~Teresa~~