First Few Days!

Hello from Harpenden!
Our team arrived Saturday morning around 9am (local time) but what felt to us like 3am. So, naturally we were a little out of it : ). After an introduction to the campus and some time to unpack and settle in, we walked to downtown Harpenden. We spent some time looking at the little shops, enjoying the beautiful scenery, and mostly trying to stay awake until they let us crash at 8pm. Below are some pictures of some of the staff's children that we played with for a few hours. They introduced us to their secret clubhouse, archery and explained some British phrases we didn't understand : )

On Sunday we walked to a Reformed church downtown in the morning and then got to spend the afternoon in London!!! They split us up into groups of four, gave us a small amount of money for dinner and then we were off on an adventure of exploring and trying not to get lost. The afternoon is best described in pictures, so I posted a bunch : ) We got to experience tons of traditional British things like: eating fish and chips in a pub, riding the tube and a double decker bus, and seeing Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the London eye. It was an unforgettable (and exhausting) day!

This is The Albert, the pub that we had lunch in - it was awesome!

The English have an interesting sense of what makes good chip flavors haha

Yesterday we were given a tour of the main buildings here on campus, learned the history and culture of YWAM Harpenden and then were charged with exploring the campus for ourselves, so that we could get to know our home for the next four weeks. We also had to brainstorm some ideas for our first project - an interactive prayer walk through the gorgeous woods on the YWAM property (pictures below). This will be an integrative project between the art majors and youth ministry majors that are both on this trip.

Today we will hit the ground running on our projects! I'm still not sure of many of the details but apparently we will be doing up to 15 projects!

Just for fun, here are some local phrases that I've picked up in the last few days.
Glamping = glamorous camping
Cue = line
Squash = an artificial orange drink
chuffed = excited
cheeky = kind of like audacious
whilst = while
quid = buck (like slang for a dollar)
daft = crazy

Well, that's all for now. We're just now getting acclimated to everything, and the projects have only just begun. Some prayer requests would be: continue to get good rest, that homesickness would fade quickly (no matter how many trips I've gone on, I still get it really easily), that we would do quality work and God would inspire us with creativity and great ideas. Some praises: that jet lag is basically already gone, for the beautiful weather we've been having, and for good rest so far. Thanks for reading and praying and stay tuned for more updates!