Our Weekend in England

Written by Brittany

As most people reading this blog know, I am half-British and half-American. My dad was born & raised in England, and I have a very large British family that still lives in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

This past weekend, one of my cousins, Kate, got married in England, and Jadon and I were lucky enough to attend the beautiful wedding! It had been three years since I had been over to see my family, and while I did not get to see everyone, it was such a joy to see the people I did!

We flew to London's Stansted airport very late on Friday after school, landing there just after 1am Saturday morning. That night, after a rather eventful journey from the airport, we stayed in a Holiday Inn Express near the airport before catching a train north the next day.

Saturday's train trips were enjoyable & uneventful. It was such a relaxing experience taking public transportation that was in English! While we love exploring countries and experiencing other languages, you always have to be paying extra attention when you're listening for words you don't really understand. Here, we could just relax until we heard the announcement for our stop.

Saturday afternoon & evening were spent exploring the small town of Newark, England. It was a beautiful place with a gorgeous church and even castle ruins! We hadn't done any research before arriving, so it was a pleasant surprise to find some much to explore!

We had a beautiful day to go exploring!

Sunday afternoon was the wedding, and when we arrived at the venue, we were amazed at how beautiful it was! We were also staying at the venue that night, so we checked into our room and got ready for the big event!

This was the first British wedding either of us had attended, and we didn't know if there would be much difference culturally between British & American weddings. For the most part, things were very similar, though there was one large difference. When Kate & Paul went to sign the marriage certificate, a beautifully decorated desk was brought out which they sat at and then signed the certificate as part of the actual ceremony. The legal aspect of marriage was featured more than I have seen in any American ceremonies. It was very interesting, and the ceremony itself was absolutely beautiful!

Kate & Paul signing the marriage certificate

The rest of the evening was SO enjoyable. Being with family, meeting new people, celebrating in such a beautiful place. It was clear that Kate had planned everything to a T, and it was all carried out perfectly. I'm not sure I've been to a more beautiful wedding.

View of the grounds from our hotel room

The Bride's family

Gorgeous table setting

The next day, we were able to have breakfast with the family before we had to take our train back down to London & caught our flight home.

At breakfast with my cousin Emily, the bride's sister, and her youngest son Joseph

The trip was much too short, but it was so fantastic! We are really hoping to get back to England again soon.
To see all the pictures from our weekend, click here!

Updates!

Well it has been over a full month since our last blog post, so this will be a quick update post to get everyone caught up.

- In August we traveled to Greece for a week! It was a great (though hot) vacation where we got to see some of the most beautiful scenery and some wonderful ancient monuments. To see the rest of the pictures, click here!

Santorini, Greece

Santorini, Greece

The Parthenon, Athens, Greece

Ancient Olympic Stadium, Olympia, Greece

- WE HAVE OUR VISAS! We are now done with all things visa related for the WHOLE year! If you remember our experiences last year, this is a huge Hallelujah moment!

- We got to visit the Strahov Monastery in Prague, and see two of the most beautiful libraries in the world! For us English majors, this was a beautiful big deal.

The Philosophical Hall Library

The Theological Hall Library

- We have been back to school for 2 weeks, and it has been great seeing our students from last year as well as meeting our new students. We're really looking forward to beginning the English Drama Club next week as well as starting English Movie Nights at our school this year!

Prayer Requests:
- We will be doing a lot of traveling coming up, so prayers for safety as we travel as well as rest as we balance travel & work schedules.
- Health.
- There is a group of six CRU members who have just moved to Prague for the year. Prayers for their ministry here as well as their interactions with students.
- There are two of our Teach Beyond team members who, due to visa issues, are still not in the Czech Republic. One arrives this week, and the other is still waiting for her visa to clear. Prayers for them as they hit the ground running once they're here and peace/patience as they wait.

Praises:
- We have started attending a weekly Bible study with a group from our church which has already been a wonderful blessing & we're looking forward to how God can use our time together.
- Being back at school has been great! Though it's still work & tiring, we're just so glad to be back with the students.
- Fall weather is here!
- Grace, Providence, Mercy, & Joy!