{"id":1949,"date":"2024-04-23T16:18:25","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T16:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/?p=1949"},"modified":"2024-04-23T16:18:25","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T16:18:25","slug":"fellowship-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/2024\/04\/23\/fellowship-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Fellowship in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

Because of Holy Week here in Spain, Alaina and I had about ten days to travel to Europe during the break. During that time, we visited Paris, Amsterdam, London, and Edinburgh. It was a lot to fit into that short period of time, but I thoroughly enjoyed every city and country we went to. I could go on and on about the experiences we had, but with this blog, I would really like to focus on the church service I went to in London and just how much I appreciated being able to worship with my brothers and sisters in Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I won\u2019t lie; it has been a challenge for me to go so long without attending church. Yes, I watch some live-streamed services, and doing daily devotions has helped me develop good habits, but I miss fellowship and communion and all of the amazing things that worshiping at church offers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Amidst planning for spring break and deciding which places we should visit, London was not originally very high on my list. I had heard great things about it, but I felt no sense of urgency or strong desire to go there. Alison Foxen, an MLC student currently studying there, mentioned that the mission church located in London was having an Easter service to celebrate Christ\u2019s resurrection. It didn\u2019t take long for our \u201cstudy abroad squad\u201d to decide that we all wanted to meet up in London for spring break to celebrate Easter Sunday together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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It was truly a blessing that all of us studying abroad were able to make it for Easter Sunday. We came from all over Europe to worship together. I loved catching up with everyone and hearing about their experiences. We toured London together and enjoyed each other\u2019s company after not seeing one another for such a long time. This experience has really brought us closer together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Before church, we all got breakfast together at a quaint cafe, then headed to the church where the WELS mission was holding the service. It was an old German church in London with a great location. There were so many people there! I had not expected so many people to be there since it is a fairly new mission, but the church felt full \ud83d\ude42 I met new people as I had some refreshments before the service started. It was so refreshing to talk to people about Jesus who shared the same Easter excitement as I did.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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As for the service itself, I was overwhelmed with joy at hearing the gospel message while being surrounded by fellow believers. The Pastor preached a wonderful sermon, and the Easter hymns we sang brought me to tears. I missed this. There was even a trumpet! We took communion as well, which was so nice since it had been so long since I had been blessed to do that. I cherished every part of the service and was thankful that I was able to go. Even after the service, we stayed around before our train left to talk to the members there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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I worried before leaving for Spain how it would affect my faith life. I knew that church was such a strong way to strengthen my faith, so what would happen after months of not attending? Being here has made me much more intentional about seeking out God\u2019s Word in my free time, such as doing daily devotions. At MLC, I attended chapel, went to church, and heard about God\u2019s promises in my classes. It was structured for me, so I did not feel the strong need to do my own devotions or go out of my way intentionally to study God\u2019s Word. That was an immature way of thinking, as I have now learned the importance and richness of a personal devotional life. I would not say that I took church or being surrounded by fellow believers for granted before arriving in Spain, but I do think that I have a greater appreciation and love for them now. I can not wait to go to church when I get home \ud83d\ude42\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Despite the challenges that being away from MLC and my home congregation has brought me, I thank God that he used this experience to strengthen my faith. He blessed me with resources that I have at my fingertips to dive into God\u2019s Word and study it. He blessed me with the opportunity to worship in His house on Easter Sunday, even though I was thousands of miles away from my home church. God has blessed me abundantly!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Because of Holy Week here in Spain, Alaina and I had about ten days to travel to Europe during the break. During that time, we visited Paris, Amsterdam, London, and Edinburgh. It was a lot to fit into that short period of time, but I thoroughly enjoyed every city and country we went to. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":1951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/files\/2024\/04\/776FCA64-09E5-4C8B-B846-3A98094C0D07_1_105_c.jpeg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Lhdr-vr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1949"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2009,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions\/2009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}