Busy Weekend

June 25-26, 2011

Saturday arrived with lots of rain clouds in the sky, but with only a few days left in Cambridge, we headed out anyway.  Our goal was to get to Bury St. Edmunds, where my father was stationed during World War II (about 40 minutes east on the train).  We also hoped to get to Ely and see their amazing Cathedral ( about 20 minutes north on the train).  After much discussion (friendly) and changing of our minds, we decided to head to Ely first.  By the time we got there and started walking from the train station to the cathedral, the skies were starting to look a little better.  What a beautiful cathedral!   It has an octagonal tower that is quite nice.  We got adventuresome and took the tower tour, which meant we climbed up and down 165 narrow steps, but we got some really nice pictures! I will post a few pictures in my next post.

Then we walked back to the train station in a drizzle, and took the train to Bury St. Edmunds.  The old Rougham Air Base is 4-5 miles from the train station in Bury, and the roads to get there were not designed for walkers, so we took a taxi to a restaurant that was called the Flying Fortress, and is in a building that was on the old base.  After a nice lunch, and looking at many WWIl pictures on the walls, we asked how to get to the old control tower, which has been fixed up by a group of people called the Rougham Tower Association    (  http://www.rougham.org  ).  As the crow flies, it was only 1/2 mile across some fields, but because of fences and a big county fair going on in the area of the old runways, we had to walk around.  We had a great path for 30-45 minutes,  but it ran out, and we were on a road with no good shoulder for us to go to, so we started praying for wisdom.  About that time we got to the entrance to the county fair.  We asked directions again, and one of the men offered to take us there. We called him "Angel #1"!  We would have never found  the place without him!

We were greeted by a small group of men who were members of the Association.  Most of them had grown up in the area, and remembered life in Bury with all the American airmen around, bombers taking off, and even German planes flying over them on their way home from school.  We were really impressed with this little group of Brits, who have worked so hard to preserve this little bit of American history.  After the war, the tower had been turned into a residence, as there was such a shortage of housing. This group has done a lot to return it to the way it was in the early 1940's, and have a small museum of artifacts and memorabilia.   We stayed there several hours, as they showed us around. A lady member of the association arrived, and as I visited with her, she asked where we were staying.  I explained that we were in Cambridge and came by train, and she offered to take us back to the train station.  "Angel #2" is what we call her!
On the way to the station she mentioned her grandchildren, so I asked about her children.  She told us that she only had one son.  His father was an American serviceman, who did not choose to marry her or have anything to do with his son.   She said that it was his loss, in reference to the father.  But in spite of that experience, she still works hard to preserve the memory of what the 94th Bomb Group did during the  Second World War.

We were exhausted by the time we arrived back at our flat.  We had talked of going to London on Sunday, but went to bed undecided about whether we were going or not.  In the end, we went, arriving by train at Liverpool Station around 9:45am for a 10:30 worship service at St. Helen's Bishopgate, an evangelical Anglican church.  Alan has really been blessed in the past year by the preaching of their former pastor, Dick Lucas. You can listen to him too by checking their website:  http://www.st-helens.org.uk/.
The church is only a 2 1/2 block walk from the train station, and is in the middle of the business district, a very old church, nestled between some very tall sky skyscrapers.   One of the skyscrapers is shaped a bit like a pickle,  and Alan talked to a man at church who said they call it "the Gherkin."  St. Helen's is a commuter church and has 3 services each week - 10:30 am, 4pm, and 6pm.  There are around 250 - 300 people at each service.  And all 3 services are different each week, with different preachers preaching different passages,different music, etc.  The preachers all rotate between services.  It sounds like a lot of work and planning.

After the morning service we were invited to go to another old church building about 1/2 block away where they served lunch.  Someone told me that they have a chef who oversees all the cooking.  All the other helpers were volunteers.  We ended up at a table with some interesting folks.  Two of them are with MTW doing work with the Muslim community in  London.  They only have this meal once every six weeks.  How gracious God is to work it out that we were there for the lunch.  Not only was it a delicious lunch, but we enjoyed visiting with the people at our table and watching their church in action.

After lunch we walked to the river, crossing the London Bridge, and caught the Tube to Green Park.  It was in the 80's and all of London seemed to be out sunning in the park.  We walked through the park to Buckingham Palace.  Then we decided to check out Hyde Park, which adjoins Green Park.  If we thought there were a lot of people in Green, Hyde had at least twice as many.  It was a zoo!!  We stopped to ask a policeman what was going on, and he said that Rod Stewart had a concert there that night.  So people were lining up to get in and others who didn't have a ticket had claimed a spot in the grass within hearing distance.

As soon as we could get out of the crowd, we headed back to the Tube which was like a sauna full of sweaty people.  We headed back to St. Helen's for the 6pm service and then caught the train back to Cambridge.  We sat across from a sweet girl named Debbie on the train. She is from Northern Ireland, Derry to be exact. But she went to Cambridge, graduating last year.  She was a music major at St. John's and has two part time jobs in Cambridge. We talked all the way to Cambridge, so the trip seemed short.

It was a busy weekend, but we are thankful that God worked it out for us to do these things.  There were several times when we were not sure of the way to go, but His hand was there to guide us.  Praise him for his steadfast love.