Post No.2 - Departing & Arriving

At Departures, Auckland

Well, we finally left! And we finally arrived! On Saturday 14 we flew out of Auckland (see photo) at 7.15 pm on Air New Zealand for an 11 hour flight to San Francisco. We had a 4 hour stopover there then on to London with Virgin Atlantic (9.5 hours) arriving at Heathrow at about 10.15 Sunday morning. [An aside: The American security searched our bags, when they were in transit, and in doing so damaged the lock on Lenda's bag; the moral of the story - When passing thru the USA don't use locks they can't open with their security key otherwise they will break in and not worry about the damage - the sods!]

Lenda & Cathy Webber outside her house

Lenda outside St Paul's

 We traveled really well; both flights were during the night so we slept or dozed most of the way. Heathrow was a breeze (friendly and well signed) and before we knew it we were on the underground (tube) to Northfields (7 stops) to catch the end of the 11.00 am service at St Paul's (see photos) where Mark Melluish is the senior pastor/vicar; we arrived in time for coffee and the sermon. After the service Mark's PA, Cathy Webber, took us to her place (see photo) where we stayed the night.Cathy hosted us brilliantly well and we felt most welcomed. Staying in her townhouse (3 stories) was an interesting experience to say the least. The rows and rows of houses in narrow and congested streets... it was as if we had been there before re; films and TV, but it was cool and so different from anything in New Zealand! We went to the 6.30 pm service and afterwards spent a couple of hours catching up with Mark. We felt really at home at St Paul's; it was in many ways like being at St Andrew's CHB; the style was similar and most of the songs we knew or use ourselves.It was great!

Martyn & Emma Sargeant's home and the car we cannot use!

The next morning we caught the tube back to Heathrow where we met up with Martyn & Emma Sargeant and their two children Oliver (7) and Amy (5) whose house we were going to be staying in while they are overseas. It was great to meet them but we forgot in the rush to get a photo Blast! Her dad, Mac Rowse then drove us to Birmingham and introduced us to the house (see photo). Emma & Martyn house is really a cool place - she is obviously very creative and their are lots of artistic touches around the house. They had left the place set up for us including an evening meal and food for a couple of days. They had put a lot of thought into it which was very touching/sweet! Mac and Ann Rowse had us around for tea and cake that afternoon and again for dinner that night (we ate the meal Martyn had cooked us the next evening). We were blown away by everyone's hospitality and generosity; we felt so welcomed and so blessed. It had been a great day and we really felt that we were meant to be here. That evening we made plans for the next day - to orientate ourselves with Birmingham by bus, change sim cards, and connect with Nigel di Castiglione, the senior pastor/vicar of St John's Harborne...