Europe Day Fourteen

Today we visited Westminster Abbey. This is where Queen Elisabeth the II was crowned queen (and many of her forebears). This is also where she was married, along with Princess Di and Prince Charles. This is the most beautiful church. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside. Many of the kings and queens of England are buried here along with Handel, Chaucer, Tennyson, Charles Dickens, the Bronte sisters and on and on. This view you see here is actually a side entrance. This is not the entrance that everyone goes through to be married or buried.

Took our pictures with Bobbies at Big Ben.

From there we walked across the street to the UK Parliament. I had referred to it as the English Parliament, but someone read my blog in the last few minutes and sent me a correction. They said this:

"I hope you had a great time in England. Just one thing - that wasn't the "English parliament" you visited it's the UK parliament. England is one of the only countries in the world that doesn't have its own parliament - something we are fighting to change."

I stand corrected. Thank you for reading my blog and sending me that correction.

While we waited to get inside, we met a precious couple from Israel. This is always a highlight for me, meeting people and getting to talk to them about the Lord. It was like the Lord kept putting them in our path. When we finally started waiting in line to get in, there they were, right next to us -- again. She spoke broken English, he only spoke Yiddish and Hebrew. She said she enjoyed talking to us because she could actually understand us. She was having a lot of trouble with the Brits. I told her that we were as well. She also could understand me better than Dale. Dale would say something and then she would look to me to interpret what he just said. He always has had problems putting the cookies on the lower shelf. Dale started quoting a few Hebrew verses to them that he knows by heart, and you should have seen the smile light up on their faces. Pray for this precious couple -- Rachel and Mordicai -- and PRAY for the peace of Jerusalem.
Then we had dinner at a wonderful little restaurant called the Red Lion, built some 500 years ago. We had beef wellington, which is like a roast baked in a crust of bread. By the way, do you know where the term "upper crust"comes from? When the people in the middle ages baked bread, they had very hot ovens with the heat coming from the bottom, obviously. The top part of the bread would be light and fluffy and the bottom part would be burned. They would slice the top part off and serve that to the wealthy. The poor people got the burned part. Hence, "Upper crust." :)

Another Highlight for me:
After dinner we went back to Westminster Abbey for a church service. Oh, my goodness, it was so wonderful. The choir sang in that “Gregorian chant” style. Not even what it’s called, I’m sure, but I’ve always loved that kind of singing and in this magnificent church – breathtaking. They had several prayers and stand-ups/sit-downs and then the pastor began to pray. You won’t believe this. He began, “Today is the anniversary of the gift of the statue of liberty to America from France.” I’m sure most every American doesn’t even know that anniversary date. And then he began to bless America. He prayed for everything that is on my heart. It was the most amazing thing. Of course, it brought tears to my eyes. It was like a special gift from the Lord to us.