London! -- St. Paul's Cathedral and the British Museum

Dear Nathan

Trudy and I are 100% exhausted and so ready to come home tomorrow.  But, also completely satisfied.  We saw St. Paul's this morning/afternoon and then only had about an hour in the British museum before it closed.  Another wonderful day.  We actually climbed up to the stone gallery of St. Paul and got an amazing panorama of London.  We also went to the Whispering Gallery which is just under the dome and is so cool.  If you turn and whisper along the wall, it travels all the way around the room and you can hear it with perfect clarity.  Trudy walked away to go to the other side.  She stopped to look down into the nave, and I quit watching her and looked the other way.  After a couple of seconds I heard her say, 'Christina,' and I started turning back saying, 'I thought you were going to the other side. . .' only to find she WAS on the other side.  Completely on the other side.  Very weird.  You would have been very proud of me because I went up and up even though it was somewhat nerve-wracking.

St. Paul's Cathedral

St. Paul's

Going up and up and up!

We made it!

What a view.

That's the Globe, Shakespeare's theater, on the other side of the Thames.

How many pictures did Trudy take??

The ceiling of the choir and Jesus chapel were mosaics of the creation and various other biblical stories. They just glittered and shone.  They are made out of 6 million pieces of colored glass.  Apparently the Cathedral took 35 years to build, and when it was finished, Sir Christopher Wren was the first architect to see the cathedral he designed actually finished.  Another cool element was that around the bottom of the dome were statues of various church fathers, like Augustine, Jerome, Basil, the Gregories, etc.

Scones and clotted cream just outside St. Paul's.  

I'd been looking forward to this treat the entire trip!

Oh, I forgot to tell you that outside of one of Westminster Abbey's doorways there were statues of both Bonhoeffer and King, almost right next to each other.  And as we were walking home from the tube last night, at about 11:30, we saw a fox, an actual fox!, in the park!  It was red and looked like it had just walked out of a Beatrix Potter book, and right in the middle of London!

The London park where we saw the fox.

This e-mail is just a hodgepodge.  I am REALLY tired.  What struck me at the British Museum this time was what total thieves and shiesters the Brits are.  Everything in there is stolen.  If I were Greek and went into the ancient Greek rooms, I would be so pissed.  They just pried whole panels of carvings straight off the Parthenon and shipped them back to England.  According to the guide book, they are 'protecting' the artifacts for Greece. 

Inside the front doors of the British Museum.

Egypt.

Moses and even Joseph may have seen this very carving.

Hieroglyphics

The Rosetta Stone

Assyria/Babylon (I can't remember exactly which!)

Babylon!!  

This huge statue was just sitting out in the open.  I said to Trudy, "Wow, it's just right here.  Maybe Daniel touched this.  And now we can just reach out and touch it."  As I reverently did just that, a security guard walked by and snapped at me, "Hey, don't touch that!"

I love you so much and am SO glad to be coming home to you tomorrow.  More kisses and hugs for the little ones. 

Love,
Christina

Goodbye Foreign Missions Club!

Goodbye Great Britain!

Hello Airplane Kitty!  What was the name of the this wonderful kitty-pillow, Trudy?

To see all the blogs of the St.Andrews/London trip, follow these links:

UK Adventure - Edinburgh

St. Andrews - Part 1

St. Andrews - Part II

St. Andrews - Part III

London! The Tower of London

London!  Hyde Park

London!  Westminster Abbey and Les Mis

From the Past

Nathan found these old videos the other day.  I think they're from the fall of 2011, which makes Z 4 and Eden about 6 months.  Nathan and Eden are making a video for our church's worship album.  And Z is talking about a hole he and his friends were digging at Little House (his daycare).

Stuff

Life just goes on in its normal way.  Here are a few pictures and videos of the day-to-day.

Trying out new hair-dos on Eden, since her hair is getting a little longer.  Pig-tails:

This is a fun one, with three rubber-bands on each side.  I adore the little curls at the end!

Ta Da!!

Nathan's book has been published!!  It is called Karl Barth and the Resurrection of the Flesh: The Loss of the Body in Participatory Eschatology.  We just got our copies a couple of days ago, and I'll post a link as soon as it's available online.

Unbroken

Last night I finished the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.  It's an amazing story and a great book.  It tells the life story of Louie Zamperini: olympic athlete, WWII bombardier, and Pacific POW.  The story is harrowing, exciting, suspenseful and brutal.  But the thing that makes the story so wonderful is that the end is totally surprising and absolutely delightful.  It's hard for me to express how full of charms the ending is without telling you about it.  So go get the book and read the whole thing.  Don't stop until you've finished the last page.

Brother and Sister

Just a few fun pictures of Z and Eden.

Amah brought them shirts from California:

Trying to get a good picture of them both.  The last one is my favorite:

Last night Z woke up with a bad dream and then fell asleep again in my bed.  Only a little later, Eden woke up crying and got into bed, too:

Owl Art

Z made this at school.  Wow -- I think it's great!