Home (Part 2)
Yes, I've used this title before, and I'm sure it'll come up again. So here's "Home", Part 2.
Yesterday marked 3 months since we embarked on this missionary experience. In some ways, we still feel very new here and in other ways this feels like home. I recently happened upon a message shared by someone I don’t know on Instagram. It describes really perfectly how we feel:
“The day you start living in another country you’re no longer a tourist or a traveler but you are not a native either. You become something in between your old life and your new one. And it doesn’t matter how long you go for or if you come back. You’ll always be part of the collective who have lived this unique experience and know all too well the feeling of belonging and not really belonging, of living within the in between, and know that both feeling homesick and at home, comfort and the unknown, can exist at the same time.” (Emma Sait)
The other day we went to Costco and were waiting in line when a gentleman started chatting with us after hearing our American accents and noticing our name tags. He asked about what we were doing and if we liked living in England. This is a common question we get. They’re obviously curious about our name tags. And I think people are so anxious to know that we’re having a good experience and want us to appreciate what they love about their country and if we’re able to overlook some of the negative things. We always assure them that we LOVE living here and love SO many things about their country.
And then last Sunday we spoke in Church and this was part of the message I shared:
“We feel that many decisions we had made over the past few years were pivotal and that a path was made open in ways that we saw the Lord’s hand in getting us here. We know this is where we’re supposed to be, for reasons we have already seen, and probably for many reasons we don’t even know yet. We already feel like you are all a part of our lives and always have been.”
All that to say…this has become HOME for now. We truly feel blessed to be having this very unique experience that is both amazing and challenging in all sorts of ways and to get to do it in such a beautiful place among truly lovely people.
This past week has been filled with another great visit from one of our kids. Jared came to spend a few days with us and we loved getting to show him a few places, and he also spent a few days on his own in London while we were working in the office.
Then this past weekend, we drove to the area of Kent to visit Canterbury, Dover Castle and the White Cliffs of Dover. Beautiful, epic, quaint, dreamy and all the other superlatives!
And while we’re talking about cathedrals, I heard a talk at BYU Graduation recently (shout out to our daughter-in-law, Laura, who graduated and we were able to watch her walk in graduation online, hooray!!!) where the speaker shared an experience of a professor of a study abroad program encouraging the students to attend a different denomination’s church service as often as possible. And whenever they attended, they were to go with an open heart and prepare themselves to have a spiritual experience.
As we’ve visited these majestic and historic cathedrals, it’s very easy to view them just as beautiful buildings and tourist destinations. But this talk reminded me to not forget that they were and still are houses of worship designed, with spires pointing to heaven, to bring people closer to God. God’s Spirit is not reserved for only one church. It can be felt wherever there are people striving to do good and be good and connect with divinity.
Also you know by now my love and appreciation for cemeteries. I also find these cathedral tombs very fascinating. Especially this one below. But also a little creepy. We talked with a docent about it. I highly recommend talking to the church docents—they're always volunteers, they're usually older, and they're delightful and are filled with amazing stories and history! She shared that this archbishop (I think that’s what he was) was nearing the end of his life and it was the custom for them to each design their own style of tomb to depict how they wanted to be remembered. So before he died he would sit in the cathedral watching as his own tomb was being built. He specifically wanted this design showing him on the top of the tomb in all his finery and good health, and then below showing him old and shriveled. He wanted everyone to see a reminder of their own mortality, that we all end up the same way.
We also visited St. Martin’s Church, which claims to be the oldest church in the English-speaking world still in use today. And of course it had a graveyard next to it. Fun fact: in England, they don’t call the graves next to a church a cemetery, they call them either graveyards or churchyards. Cemeteries are the public burial places not located near a church.
Then it was down to Dover Castle on the Southeast coast. So much history here, but the most interesting was to go underneath the castle inside the tunnels used during WWII to plan the rescue (called Operation Dynamo) of hundreds of thousands of soldiers across the Channel at Dunkirk, France. Jon is the war history buff, so I only vaguely knew this story, but I definitely want to learn and read more about this because of the miracles that took place that saved so many lives. Here are some books I’m adding to my “to read” list: Dunkirk reading list.
We truly love this place we’re calling “home” for a season. And we love the work we’re doing, even when it’s challenging. We’ll be sending a bonus newsletter soon from Jon with more details about his specific responsibility, which deserves its own post—it’s wordy because he’s a lawyer haha! :)
♥ Until next time, we love you! Cheerio! ♥
Words of the Week:
Today we’re sharing words related to cathedrals. It’s been helpful to understand the different parts of a cathedral and relating to the Church of England:
Abbey - A church that is or was once the home to monks or nuns.
Archbishop - Leading bishop with authority for a province. There are two provinces and therefore two Archbishops in England – Canterbury and York.
Crypt - A crypt (from Greek crypta "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics.
Diocese - Main administrative and pastoral area in the Church of England – often roughly coincides with local county boundaries. There are 42 dioceses.
Eucharist - An ancient name (from the Greek word for 'thanksgiving') widely used today for the service that is otherwise known as the Holy Communion, the Lord's Supper or Mass.
Evensong - A service of psalms, readings, and prayers in the evening, also called Evening Prayer. (Highly recommend going to one, we attended one at Westminster Abbey last summer and it was beautiful.)
Liturgy - The public worship of the Church.
I’ve found the cathedrals so fascinating. Little chapels inside the cathedrals where royalty are buried or famous people. We took a tour is Westminster Abbey and really enjoyed the history. I’d go again
That tomb type is called a Transi Tomb and they a type of cadaver monument. They were most commonly seen in the 14th-16th centuries. Really pretty example of this art form.