Picture Pages

Last night I was about to make a long post with many interesting facts and many pics, but the computer shut down just before I published... AARGH! So here's a condensed version:

Fri. 6-17 - Lunch with principal of BCC, Richard Massey, and his wife, Christine...treated us to traditional English food - Branston pickle, pork pie, sausage rolls, Scotch eggs, and treacle. Richard also gave me a book, The Gift of Prophecy in the NT and Today by Wayne Grudem.

Fri 6-17 afternoon - Worked my last time with John Hull... gave me a copy of his book which details his descent into blindness -- On Sight and Insight. It was the first time that I can recall that I've told someone whom I know well 'goodbye' knowing I will most likely never see them again. Sad.

Fri 6-17 - Supper with Gurmakh, one of my students, and his wife (whose name was hard to catch). They are both from Punjab, India but have spent most of their lives in the UK. He converted from Sikhism to Christ 15 years ago at the age of 32. Now he's 47, married to a Christian, and they have 3 Christian kids. He gave me books on how to share Christ with a Sikhs and Hindus.

Sat 6-18 - Lunch with Jon and Su at a great chicken place downtown... said goodbye knowing we'll meet up again.

Sun 6-19 - Church - I was actually allowed to preach one more time and had a novel topic - Fathers - on Father's Day (UK and US). After church went to the preacher's house for a cultural meal... Had many delicious Nigerian dishes wish I can't name and 2 traditional Scottish dishes - Haggis (eaten with mashed potates and yellow turnips, aka rutabagas) and white pudding. I was amazed that I loved it all... don't let your English friends disparage Haggis anymore... its just their way of asserting their superiority... like the BBC.

Sun 6-19 7pm - Turned in the keys to the landlord and tried to finish packing. Depart Monday at 12:30 pm and are slotted to arrive in Nashville at 8:30pm Monday night. See below the pictures for a poem I came across a couple of months ago which seems appropriate at this point... I hope none of my British friends will take it as a jab... the UK is an awesome place in many ways... but home for me is America.


Where the Pahl family will be living - Asbury Overseas Guest House


Our little abode at 13 Clifford Rd - on the right


My path to and from the Uni everyday always involved the blue door and the yellow gate


When I came home on the afternoons I'd often look through the front window and see Helen eating her dinner.


A road I biked/walked/bused almost every day - Lordswood Rd between Bearwood and Harborne


Speaking of Harborne, this mathematically challenged and outdated sign is outside the Harborne Baptist Church.

Also on my daily route... but it does have plenty of cars


Yesterday morning Helen summoned us and we discovered her pacy (pacifier called a 'dummy' in the UK, similar to the older term 'fooler') in backward... something I often do to get her to laugh. I turned it rightways and she promptly flipped it back


The bike given to me by a brother here which now goes to a Nigerian brother here studying medicine.

The back of the Metro newspaper given free everyday on buses and trains. Notice the rage over the purchase of the Manchester United soccer team (the Yankess of the UK) by American Dan Glazer who owns the Tampa Bay Bucs. Isn't it ironic, what with the McDonald's ad at the bottom?

Now, the poem:

"AMERICA FOR ME"
Henry Van Dyke - 1909

'TIS fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down
Among the famous palaces and cities of renown,
To admire the crumbly castles and the statues of the kings,—
But now I think I've had enough of antiquated things.

So it's home again, and home again, America for me!
My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be,
In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars!

Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air;
And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair;
And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study Rome;
But when it comes to living there is no place like home.

I like the German fir-woods, in green battalions drilled;
I like the gardens of Versailles with flashing fountains filled;
But, oh, to take your hand, my dear, and ramble for a day
In the friendly western woodland where Nature has her way!

I know that Europe's wonderful, yet something seems to lack:
The Past is too much with her, and the people looking back.
But the glory of the Present is to make the Future free,—
We love our land for what she is and what she is to be.

Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me!
I want a ship that's westward bound to plough the rolling sea,
To the bléssed Land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars!
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See y'all in the funny paper.