Monday, June 13th--- 10:30pm (Hartlepool)

    Today was a revealing day. This morning, we woke up at 9 from Karen saying, "Get up girls, we're in England!" It was a beautiful day.

    We started off by Karen reading out of the "princess book." It's a book of  letters from God to his princesses. Each one has a theme. She randomly flips thru it and reads it to one of us. Bri's was about being content in Jesus and mine was about stepping out in confidence. It was a great way to start.

    We walked to a cafe in a church called Cornerstone because Karen felt earlier that we needed to build relationships there. Shortly after she told us she wanted to go, Colin said that they had kicked him and his group out for having Bible study too late or something. Karen's response was, "Well, that's why then. We need to go for restoration."

      So, at cornerstone, we ordered a pot of tea and teacake (sort of like a toasted raisin bun with butter on it.) Colin walked in while we were eating and it was cool that he went back there. We decided to eat there every morning and do devos.

    After breakfast, we went back to the church we're helping (ELIM) and Colin let us email our families. When we were there, we talked to a girl named Loraine who, last night introduced herself to us. She's young and could really get out of the environment here. It's a whole other mindset. People in Hartlepool work so they can drink at night. I think she needs to come back eventually but, God's gotta transform her mind and it's difficult here.

    So then we took a walk around town, looked at tea sets, and saw some sights. Ok... something you have to understand about England is that there are barely any restaurants that aren't also pubs. We wanted to sit and talk and there was a restaurant and a pub right next to it. But they shared one door and you had to walk thru the bar to get to the tables.

     We were standing around being indecisive and unsure about how to get in and we didn't want to look weird looking around. Then I remembered what Karen read this morning. Walk in confidence! So I walked right in, got us a table, went up to the bar, ordered, paid, and sat down. HAHA!

    I know it's little, but I feel like we need to be faithful in the little things and practice the things we're called to do. That way, when it's something more important, it's easier.

     Later, we went to Hartlepool museum. Now let me backtrack... A theme of this trip is opening the gates. Karen gave me a key to the gates of praise and she had more keys she gave out to people thru out the trip. Also, Karen LOVES the queen! haha... So the museum had double doors and between them on the wall, there was a picture of the queen with an article underneath about her giving someone the key to Hartlepool. Underneath the article was a key! It was amazing. We all just stood there looking at each other. It was another confirmation that we belong here. Definitely in my top 3 moments of the day.