Today has been a good Sabbath day. It started super early for me, though! By the time I had finished my blog post last night and talked over Facebook Messenger with Eva, I wasn't going to bed until 12:45am, then got up at 6:30am to go running. I sent some messages to Sarah Knapp-Ellis after I got back (thanks again for covering the pulpit for me this morning!).
We went to worship at Salisbury Methodist Church this morning. It is a very inviting church with wonderful congregants. The sermon had to do with needing to find time to recharge - in a way, withdrawing for some times in order to re-engage with those in need. The pastor's interpretation was that when Jesus sent out the 12 disciples to do healings and casting out of demons, Jesus "went on holiday" for that short time to recharge. Then, when the crowds recognized "them," the text is saying that the crowds recognized the disciples as having done awesome things. So now, not only does the crowd want a piece of Jesus, but they want a piece of the disciples, too! In the midst of their enthusiasm (when they wanted to keep on telling Jesus about all of the good things that they were doing), Jesus suggested that they take a break and head to the other side of the lake. Even though the text does not mention this, the indication is clear: Jesus is trying to ensure that burnout does not happen for the disciples. Even though it seems counter to logic, often times the best time to take a break is when things are going exceedingly well. Waiting until times get rough (in this instance, waiting for when ministry gets near impossible) is too late to be able to recharge one's batteries because that's when you need the energy most! It's about setting a rhythm in life of engaging, recharging then engaging again.
After the service, it seemed like the entire congregation stuck around for tea and coffee. They had what looked like a gift stand, second hand books and movies, even baked goods for sale in their fellowship hall. It's always good to see community in a church that doesn't want to leave.
We headed back to Sarum for a quick lunch, then we hopped on the coach for Bath! Like Stonehenge, the past two times I have been to England I was unable to visit Bath. While at bath I visited Jane Austen's home where she grew up. I did not, however, feel the inclination to pay money for the tour - so instead myself and two others in my group went down to the park just down the street and rested there for a bit. There was a group of people playing patank (the spelling I'm sure is wrong there...). It's like bocce ball but with smaller balls evidently. Once the two in our group who went through the tour were finished, we headed on to the main event (for me, at least, considering I'm not a huge fan of Jane Austen): The Roman Bath!
It was rather interesting for me to learn that the Roman Bath wasn't excavated until around John Wesley's time in the 18th century. One would think that such a big deal of Roman architecture would have been studied and preserved since it was built - but such is not the case. Then, when one realizes this, it becomes even more humorous that those that wanted to use this place as a tourist attraction commissioned Roman looking statues to be put up to try and make people believe that these were original statues of some of Rome's famous Caesars. Kind of cool, kind of funny. It's neat that (with some preservation, mind you) this structure's main pools are still working. The geo-thermal pool is still working, feeding the main pool where those who visited would bathe and soak in the warm water. It was also interesting of note that the room housing the geo-thermal pool that fed everything was the room devoted to worshipping the Goddess Sulis Minerva (I know I have the Minerva part right at least). For me, the biggest surprise was that this was a place of worshipping at least one Roman god - I had always assumed from hearing about it that it was just a gymnasium / bathing area / day spa deal going on. At the end of the self-guided walk through tour we had an opportunity to drink some of the water that came out of the spring. While some others thought it was the worst water in the world, it actually reminded me of straight-up well water that hadn't had the high mineral content filtered out (kind of like the showers at camp, I guess...).
I forgot to mention that before even going to Jane Austen's house, 6 of us visited the oldest tea house in Bath (c. 1482), Sally Lunn's, which is the home of the "world famous Sally Lunn Bun." Now, I'm not sure how world famous these buns are, but I can tell you that they are delicious! I had cinnamon butter on mine and it was awesome!
Bath wasn't what I had expected. I don't know how much sense this makes, but Bath seemed much more European than the rest of England. Now, I recognize that the UK is part of Europe, but there seemed to be a much heavier influence of Italy and France than I had expected. It's lovely, it's just that the architecture and gardening reminded me a good deal of the few days I had spent in Paris and pictures of Italy. It didn't seem as British in that regard... I'm sure I'm making little sense with that statement but that's how I feel. Regardless, awesome stop!
If you notice in my pictures that will be posted, I took the bear I got at Stonehenge yesterday and brought him along for the trip, snapping photos of him doing things like drinking and eating at the tea house, purchasing a ticket for the Roman Baths, getting his picture taken with the Jane Austen statue, etc... I thought that it would be fun to take these pictures then make a photo book for Micah. Maybe one day it will be a fun way to talk to him about my trip and possibly get him excited to go visit England someday in the future - giving me an opportunity to share my enthusiasm and love for this country. Besides, it's cute!
It's almost unbelievable to think that we are 7 days into the start of the pilgrimage and have only 3 more full days to go. This has been an awesome and inspiring experience and I am eager to see what these final days will have in store for us all!
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