The Championships, Wimbledon

23rd of June

Within only a few hours being in the UK I had gotten tickets to Wimbledon! My host family had come into a couple of tickets they were not going to be able to use, so they gave them to me and one of my teammates. We just had to pay to get ourselves down to the tournament, which is in London. So yesterday morning (Tuesday the 21^st), after a short train ride to Liverpool, Paul Seddon and I took the train down to London Euston, and from there the metro to Wimbledon. We arrived right around noon, which is when play starts on most of the smaller courts, so we walked around some of the courts before going to our seats since play on Centre Court did not start until 1pm. Our seats were just below the cameras for television, which was fairly close to the court. The grounds are beautiful and the smaller courts are all unreserved seating, so you can watch any match you wish. Many of these smaller courts have only three rows of seats separating the path from the court, and the players seem as though they are within touching distance which makes for a great atmosphere.

We made our way to our seats on Centre Court for the first match between Serena Williams and someone I cannot remember. It was a bit surreal to see athletes in person I had only ever seen on television. Serena was pushed to a third set, but came through rather easily as she found her form in what was an entertaining first match of the day. We left after the match, not realizing how quickly the Federer would be playing, to go have a look around the grounds and see some of the matches going taking place on the smaller courts. By the time we got back to Centre Court, Federer was winning the first set 6-5. I will not bore you with the results you can easily find online, but at the end of play on Centre Court we had seen Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Maria Sharapova all live and in person, and all win their respective matches. The longest break we took from Centre Court was when play was scheduled to stop after Djokovic (the Sharapova match was changed later). During this time we watched some of the other matches taking place. All of the smaller courts have unreserved seating, but most of them were taken and Paul and I were forced to stand on our toes to watch the play. We were able to partake in one of the traditions of Wimbledon, strawberries and cream, but Pimms was far too expensive at £7 a glass.

The return to Liverpool was rather interesting because we misread our tickets, and instead of the train leaving at 0948 from Euston it left at 2107. So we arrived at the station in plenty of time, if it had left at 9:48. We were forced to take a different train to Manchester and get off in Crewe, from where we took a taxi to get close to home. Eventually we got home safely, which is all that matters.

I will post some pictures on facebook...

UK Tour #1: Leeds

 19th of June

On Friday last week we drove over to Leeds to play our first proper 11-a-side match against the Yorkshire Christian league IX. Unfortunately, some of the better players from the league were unable to make it to the match, and we fairly easily ran through them 5 - 0. The next day we helped the Yorkshire Christian league put on their end of season tournament. It was a 7-a-side tournament, so in the morning we helped them set up goals and cone off the pitches and throughout the day we played in the tournament as a team and officiated the matches. During our break for lunch Josh Kimble (sorry Josh if I misspelled your last name) shared his testimony and the gospel and was followed by Josh Walshe who gave another message and reiterated what Kimble had to say. It was a great opportunity to share the gospel with 150 men from 20 to 50 years of age since few of the them are Christians, even though it is a Christian league in name. Many of the teams are affiliated with churches in Yorkshire, so for those men who did take the message to heart, they have some where to continue their search for answers. On Sunday we attended Mosaic Church in Leeds, which would resemble many modern independent churches in the US. The main point of encouragement from this church was the sincerity that could be seen by much of the congregations who truly enjoyed being there. Overall, our first UK tour went well, and despite a few problems with tearing down the goals, it was a good preliminary to this coming weeks tour.

Church in Willaston

16th of June

I realize that it has been some time since the last time I posted on my blog, but we have had a rather full schedule the last week or so. During the time since my previous post I have attended a couple of church services, worked a couple of youth group sessions, played a full match and a 7-a-side tournament in Leeds, and gone to Wimbledon. However, for ease of reading, I will only address the church services, youth sessions, and the matches in Leeds.

Myself and three other of my teammates are working with a Methodist church in the town of Willaston. On our first Sunday in the village, we attended a combined service between the Methodist church and the Willaston Church of England. It was largely attended by the elderly populations of both congregations (the younger people attending services held earlier at the respective churches). I was intrigued as to how they would combine two different denominations in a single service. It went off rather well, but I think the Church of England conceded more than the Methodists. What surprised me most was the reaction of the audience after my teammates and I shared what we were doing and a brief testimony (max of 90 seconds for each). They congratulated us on our bravery and courage to share our faith openly. It is hard to explain exactly how I took their compliments afterwards, but it was the least hostile environment I have been in front of before, no more than thirty people, all over the age of 60 years. It just felt a bit strange. Either they were shocked to see young men speak openly about their faith, or it has just been a while since they had seen anyone speak about their faith. As I said though, it is a bit hard to explain. Just odd.

The following two Mondays we were in charge of the youth group sessions, the first being ages 8 to 11 and the second being 12 to 14, or there about.  I will not go into much detail of each session, but I get the impression previous youth groups are nothing more than a place to hang out for the kids, and the Bible is rarely, if ever opened. We shared the gospel with the kids both times we were with them, and I have no idea how many of them had actually heard it before. The youth pastor does not seem to be too bothered to give lessons, and leaves it all up to us. Needless to say, there is significant room for improvement.

Arrival

As Friday draws to a close, it is crazy to think I have already been here for four days. The travel was long and tedious, staying awake for roughly 36 hours (could not sleep on the flight). However, I have been able to adjust quickly to the time difference and did not feel the effects of jet lag. We trained on Wednesday and had a Bible study on Thursday, but today was my first proper day of training outdoors, and my legs feel fairly good. Tomorrow we are playing in a local seven-a-side tourney, which should be fun.

As for where I am staying, the academy is actually on a peninsula just west of Liverpool called Wirral. The players are spread out among several different host families. I am staying with a lovely in Willaston . The Mitchel's have a beautiful home and have put me up in a lodge on their property. So far, English life is not much different than what I am used to, and I have enjoyed it quite a bit. Although, I did not realize where I am at is above the 58th parallel, so I could still see some remnants of sunlight when I went to bed at half past eleven. It will take some adjusting to, but seven o'clock feels a bit like three or four in the afternoon.

Well, I need to keep this short. Some of my future posts may be a bit more insightful, but this will have to do for now...