Amsterdam

We spent time with one of the managers at The Shelter in Amsterdam. This is Corneah who is responsible not just for the day to day operations but also for all evangelism of guests - some 38-40 thousand per year. He was very generous with his time and we were thankful for the time we spent with him.

Amsterdam

We have arrived in beautiful Amsterdam.

Yesterday we spent the day in the hands of a tour guide who took us in and about everywhere.

We spent quite a bit of time looking at the work of 'the Shelter' - they have an accommodation ministry extraordinarily similar to our work at Golden Grove. Only they are for backpackers.

I spent time with the manager there trading ideas and hearing of what they do. Their scale is much larger - they had almost 40 thousand people through their doors last year.

We also saw their partner ministrys: a health centre with doctors and nurses, drop-in for the homeless, and ministry to the city prostitutes amongst many things. Really quite amazing.

The city still had a number of vibrant churches - but Amsterdam is far from the city that was at the centre of Christianity for so many centuries. The city's main church has a Marilyn Monroe exhibition celebrating her 90th birthday and only holds church services when there is a special occasion (so small did the regular congregation get).

Amsterdam is an incredible city... The most beautiful streets I have ever seen sitting beside the the very opposite. Very thankful to have come here though and the privilege meeting some wonderful people.

Ghent

We did a flying visit through Ghent.

A most incredible city that is similar to Brugges but a little less touristy.

We saw a castles and a church that I loved St Baafs. The chocolate waffles were OK as well.

Westminster

I took the opportunity to visit the Houses of Lords and Commons to hear debate on welfare and aid. I would love to show you what I saw but photos were not allowed... They took my camera off me.

Westminster is an incredible building. I saw Archbishop Justin Welby in the House of Lords-he spoke on the topic of welfare.

The London Tube meets the Bible

For those into maps and the Bible.

Cathedral friends

We had a wonderful dinner with former Cathedral members and neighbours of ours at Newtown Micky and Ellie. They are now at St Helen's Bishopsgate.

At dinner was a friend from Sydney, Gav, who was in my year at Moore College and now works for Cornhill and St Thomas North Sydney.

We enjoyed catching them up on the Cathedral. Ellie cooked the nicest meal we've had while traveling. It was a great night. It reminded us how much we valued their friendship when they were in Sydney. It's always the way that you notice something once you've lost it.

Micky explained the excellent Bible reading programme they have at St Helen's... called Read, Mark and Learn.

Kings College Cambridge

A lovely night at Evensong at Kings College Cambridge. Truth told, the taking of this photo may have been against the rules. If you wanted, you could do the rounds moving from College chapel to chapel hearing Evensong. Although I think some no longer exclusively sing BCP Evensong which is sad.

It is amazing that many of these Colleges still sing the words of the Bible every day and people line up to hear them sing.

As a huge Book of Common Prayer fan, it was lovely to attend. Also reminded me how good our choir at St Andrew's is... Ross and the choir sound great on Monday and Thursday evenings in the Cathedral.