A Trot Through Wales

London has been such a great city to be in. While I've only actually spent two full days in the city and the other two in Wales, I still love what I see around. The weekend was such a great experience here. Friday night we went to a youth/college age worship night put on by Hillsong Church at a theatre known as "The Forum" (the first of its kind to be done here in London). It was so powerful to see Jr High, High School and College-agers come together to worship as one body, jumping around, singing and just praising our God. The band was amazing and the worship and prayer time made such an impact. They had some students up on stage at the very end of the night to pray us out, and one of the students, who wasn't more than 12 or 13, hit me in the gut with his prayer. He talked about having a wall up between you and God, and to just let it down and let Him in between that wall... I can't put the words together as well as he did and he is so young, yet so rich in his place with God (or so it seemed). It was just an amazing night and some much needed time spent with God.

Saturday and Sunday we went on a tour to Wales. We boarded our bus Saturday morning after stopping at the nearby Starbucks and awing at all the Christmas decorations they have out. I think it's so early to have Christmas things out already, but I have to remind myself that they don't have a holiday like Thanksgiving here in between Halloween and Christmas. I still love the vibe that Christmas brings though!

We spent most of the day on and off the tour bus, making stops along the way to Brecon, Wales. Our tour brought us to the Chepstow Castle, Tintern Abbey and another small town, known for its second hand bookstores. The sights were amazing, especially the ruins of this old Abbey that stood during Henry the 8th time. The hostel accommodations were also great. I had expected a pretty run down place, but our hostel room was like a hotel room with four twin beds in it, that were soooo comfortable. Two of Samira's friends were also on the trip with us, Kristin and Stevie, who made me laugh so hard all weekend.

Sunday was spent in the Wales countryside on horseback. The horse I rode was named Nimbus, like the Nimbus 2000 broomstick Harry Potter had! He was quite the character and had a personality to him that was quite ornery, but warmed up to me after a little while. The hills were rolling green, with rich colors of golden yellow, burnt orange and reds all around, even the dirt (well mud here) was saturated in color. It rained a bit for the first two hours we were riding, but it wasn't unbearable until the last hour when sheets of rain came pouring down and the wind smacked it right into your face. We were sopping wet by the end of our tour and it was so cold, but we all still had a great time. The beauty of the countryside is unspeakable. It literally felt like I was looking at a picture someone took and then digitally enhanced its colors. Who knew that there were colors outside of the "California brown." It's just a bummer that I didn't get any pictures of it, because we weren't allowed to have our cameras while riding the horses, because they could spook easily. Needless to say, it was beautiful there.

We made a stop in Oxford on our way back into London as well, and visited the famous "Eagle and Child" pub, where JRR Tolkein and C.S. Lewis were some of the writers who used to meet to bounce ideas off eachother for their next great book. It had a cool atmosphere inside and delicious Treacle Tart.

Our weekend came to an end when our bus arrived back in London and we were back in Sam's room at the university of Westminster. We were happy to be 'home' and warmed up by the scolding hot showers we took, but sad that we were no longer in beautiful Wales.

My trip is coming to a sad ending in a few days when I must return home. I am happy to see everyone, but sad that traveling is coming to an end.