Back in Octoberish, Rosalie was talking about maybe going on a Maranatha mission trip at Christmas and suggested I look into it as well. So I looked at the Marantha website and my eyes fell on a medical mission trip to India for early December. I was intrigued as I work with several Indian coworkers and have been hearing a lot about India. So I requested info on the trip and then forgot about it! December came and went and I though nothing more of it until I received info in the mail in January for the same trip except that it had been delayed until March 2009. So I thought about it and really felt that it wasn't by accident that I hadn't missed the trip. I figured that God was calling me to go on this trip but I was delaying in making a decision. I talked about it a fair bit with a family friend, Lorna, who had lived in India as a teenager. Still I delayed. Then I recieved a phone call from a Maranatha employee in India asking me if I was coming on the trip! I said I was thinking about it and she encouraged me to come. At that point I decided to go, but was still a little nervous about going and decided to take no detours but go straight there and back! After all I knew women shouldn't travel alone in India. Then Lorna told me that if they told me they were looking for any "old school teachers" to come along, she would take it as a sign from God and go as long as she could get time off work! Wouldn't you know, the next time Maranatha called, they asked if I knew anyone that i could bring to India; that they were still a little short on people and could I bring anyone; they didn't need any medical training! I told Lorna and immediately she put in for time off work. At that point I put for my time off as well and we hit the ground running! This was just one month before the trip! I felt like Moses, having been show signs and wonders but still not trusting God and having doubts so he sent along a companion, Aaron, or in my case Lorna! We managed to get our India visas in time and book our flights without too much difficulty or expense; we got good deals! And a bonus, we were able to book flights with stop-overs in London! As well as going a few days early to visit one of the places in India where Lorna lived as a child!
We enjoyed our 12 hour stopover in London and visited many places:
Coming from the London Heathrow Airport, got off the tube at Picadilly Circus!
St James park
Buckingham Palace for changing of the guard - Irish guard that day, grey coats instead of red
Walked through Trafalgar Square!
and had lunch at the Silver Cross pub (had chip butty, jacket with beans...)
Posed with the telepone and rode a red double decker bus!
New queen mother statue
New queen mother statue
The London Eye
Riding the London Eye
Riding the London Eye
Big Ben and the Parliment Buildings
Took in a service (Evensong) at Westminster Abbey
Then quickly made our way back to the airport via the tube again! Mind the gap!
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