Friday 19 June 09

Everyone awoke promptly and we all broke our fast (well, Matt continued fasting until lunch, but that's another story).

Very interestingly, Emma's room seems to be haunted - the doors open and close themselves from time to time, so we asked Kate if the place were haunted. She said that she used to think so, but it had been years since anything had happened. Still, there had been some ghost hunters who had stayed in the place when they were investigating another Stratford site. Kind of spooky, eh?

Interestingly, today's site is the Old Rectory, which is the subject of a small book by John Wesley which details the haunting of his father's house. Very cool.

At any rate, it's an early start, and we have yet another flawless pickup by Johnsons - with yet another Malcolm, who is also a Yorkshireman, so he even knows where Epworth is! Nice.

Our anticipated 3 hour drive is accomplished in a somewhat sleepy 2.5, and we pulled in with the kids still trying to wake up to see a bus with a sign in the windscreen reading "MPUMC" - a North Carolina church was just finishing a tour as we arrived.
Oh, and our arrival was earlier than expected so we had our tour before lunch rather than after lunch. Peter Brown took us through the place, trying valiantly to engage the kids with his stories, and getting some real participation.

We'll be happy to tell you about the rectory, but since we're heading toward closing time here in the café, let me just say that both Peter and I were disappointed that the hymn Samuel Wesley had written was no longer displayed - along with the copy of the musical setting our church had provided them - and Peter shared the story that Charles Wesley had sung that hymn (Behold the Saviour of Mankind) when visiting prisons in the early Holy Club days.

Next was a nice lunch of sandwiches and spring vegetables soup with tea and coffee. Very nicely done, and everyone enjoyed it.
After a quick tour of the physic garden, we were off for St Andrew's church, which was under renovation. Fortunately, the side with the main entrance and Samuel's tomb was still accessible.

We had a bit of devotional reading in the sanctuary, then the kids got Judy to stand on the tomb, where John had preached when the pulpit of the church was denied him. Quite a thrill all around.

Walked back to the coach and headed home through much more traffic, but we still made decent time, even with a little stop at a services for some drinks.

We got home and updated the blog for the prior day just before that place closed - great to see all the traffic and comments: please keep them coming!


Heidi and I got a few photos of the Shakespeare sites that hadn't been much visited, then it was time to go over Sunday's worship service. That was handled quickly, and then it was off to Garrick's Inn for dinner with Kate and John (our hosts).

Dinner was great, and Kate and John were thrilled to have been asked along (as were we that they would come with us). Once again, had a bit of trouble with the American MasterCard in the British system, but the phone was able to handle it and all was well. We had a great talk with John and Kate on the way home, and everyone retired for the night - after they finished packing, because come morning, it's off to Newton Abbot to stay with our host families of the congregation of the Avenue Church.

It's all very exciting, but some of us are a bit nervous to go stay with strangers. I try to explain that these are all our friends, whether we know them yet or not, and there is more anticipation than angst, so it seems to be working.

Oh, by the way - we've confounded the weatherman at every turn. Each day we've had dire forecasts of rain, cold, clouds, etc. Nonetheless, it looks like I'm coming home with a tan - yes, I had to go to England to get a tan. Bizarre, no?

OK, we may have more time tomorrow to catch up on the weekend, but let me tell you, it was simply fantastic. You're all in store for more stories than you can shake a stick at, and they're all going to be great. You can't wait!