Catchup & My Turn

The next few days have been really about just catching up on everything that I was not able to do while traveling over spring break. We had a great talk to the students in the Vocation class from a couple of speakers. They share wonderfully about how to mix Christianity & faith into the workplace even when you job is not directly dealing with faith. Angela Buttolph shared her experience from working in the fashion industry and Steve Cole shared how he interacts with C-suite people. They both shared how they don’t focus on telling people the Gospel but living the Gospel before the lost. They shared beautiful stories how doing this has opened doors with different people to then be able to actually share the Gospel. The students were very encouraged.

I had a bunch of emails and grading I had to do as well as doing several video calls to students back on campus for advising meetings. It was hard since the days have been getting nicer. Becky took advantage of these days and headed out. Her first day she rested her ankle and spent time on the Thames Uber River Boat. She just road the boat up and down the Thames. She also met with a student later in the day.

The next day I had my class, and the schedule was for them to learn programming. We could have just sat in the Daniel House and done the work, but since we are in London I felt we needed to get out into the city. I looked online to find a coffee shop that we could go to and not be a bother at. I found The Wren Coffee Shop which is housed in the St. Nicholas Cole Abbey and is named after Sir Christopher Wren the architect. The church dates back to the twelfth century. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and was rebuilt by Wren in the 1670’s. It was destroyed again in the London Blitz in WWII and finally rebuilt in 1962. It is a great open space with large tables for groups to meet at. I went the day before and confirmed I could hold my class there and they said it would be fine. It turned out to be a great location and the students really enjoyed going there. We all grabbed a hot drink and pastry and settled in for 2.5 hours of learning to program. We had fun.

Becky and I had lunch, and she updated me on her latest PT appointment. He does not feel this new injury, before spring break, is too bad, but he will need to see her several times. She is really struggling with it. Then I sat in on a video call with Samford faculty as we learned about how to deal with generative AI in higher education. It was interesting. Becky enjoyed the afternoon walking through some garden areas.

I finally had my first injury here the next day. I was on my walk in the morning and came out of Mews area and I woman and her dog came across my path. I slammed down on my left leg and something happened. I tried to walk after they passed and was in terrible pain. It took me a block to convince myself I could work my way back to the DH. I just spent the day inside, which was hard as it was a gorgeous day out. Becky got to enjoy it. I was able to limp down to a pub to have my weekly meeting with Drew and Elliott.

Mark and Jamie also arrived at the Daniel House late Wednesday. Mark, Abigail, and Jamie will be spending the weekend with us. We will be seeing a show and Mark, and I will be going to a soccer match on Friday with all the students. Hope my leg is better.