Keep Calm and Carry On - Etc.

 We talked with our counterpart senior missionary couple in the other place - Cambridge today.  It was great to spend a little time with them.  We sat at our computer talking and looking at them.  It is a great way to visit, but still nothing quite matches face to face.  

Sister Roskelley confided that they slept in today....I told her we had too.  That's got to come to a halt.  We need to get on a schedule.  That will help us get through this lockdown.  We shared with them some of the things we will be doing to help our YSAs and they shared some great things with us.  One of the things they mentioned was having dinner together.  Everyone would fix their own meal and sit down at the table, have a prayer and turn on the zoom meeting, where each eats and visits with the others "at the table."

I'm not quite sure how that would turn out, but it could work.  This afternoon, we walked to our newlywed couple's flat with cookies.  We texted them we were there, we put the cookies at the front door of the building, walked about 30 feet from the building and waited for them to come down.  The young husband came out.  We enjoyed getting to know him last year as a single young man.  He has a cute wife and they are both in school and trying to negotiate everything that is going on in the world.

We came across a wonderful little cemetery on the way to deliver cookies.  This is the entrance.

SK is pointing to a tree....you can't tell, but it was quite lovely.  Because we are now on lockdown, and can only go outside for exercise, I told him that he should wear his pickleball shoes, so that he legitimately looks like he is exercising.  He has been wearing the same pair of shoes for everything, church, our 4-mile walks, trips to the store....everything.  It is because "they are so comfortable."  He didn't want to wear the pickleball shoes because "What if they get ruined before I get to play pickleball?"  There ARE wonderful athletic shoes sold in England.  Happily he relented and put on his new pickleball shoes.  And I hope at some point he will (in post-COVID England) find a way to play pickleball!


Recently, someone said, "We are British and we can get through this."  I love that thought.  If my history is correct, the Brits saved Europe by saying that - instead of capitulating during WWII.  This is also the place where "Keep Calm and Carry On" originated, which is quite possibly more apt now than 80 years ago.

Today, November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day.  It is a day to celebrate a a villain and a failure.  Guy Fawkes, a Catholic conspired with others to annihilate the entire Protestant Parliament, including the king in 1605 by planting great kegs of gunpowder in the cellar of the parliament building.  He was captured, along with most of the other conspirators and was about to be hung/drawn and quartered when he jumped from the platform and broke his neck, dying instantly.  Every year he is burned in effigy.

I posted on the YSA feed that one of the young women just experienced a death in her family and is suffering, asking for prayers in her behalf.  There was such an outpouring of love and support from so many.  I hope she feels everyone's faith for her.

Another young man posted:  "Hi everyone and happy day one of lockdown!  If anyone is feeling overwhelmed or lonely feel free to send a message!  I'm sure we can arrange outdoor two person meet ups or just chat via message."  I think there is a great deal of support for each other.

In the evening we met with the YSA reps over a Zoom call.  They planned out November, which was fascinating.  It will all be done by telephone calls, texts, Zoom calls, WhatsApp communications, and whatever else there is out there.

Missionary work is going forward in unprecedented ways and I guess the YSA program is as well.  It will be a very interesting November.

Comments

melissa said…
How neat that everyone is finding a way to carry on. And good for you for doing a cookie delivery!!
November 6, 2020 at 11:53 PM
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