Some of our friends

Brian here again: As we've said before, we're blessed with some wonderful friends here in England. Last night we were treated to our first real English Christmas dinner by Sophie, a fellow history student. Here's our happy little group after a lovely dinner, from left to right: Kim (a history MA student), Kim's boyfriend Kristian, Rowena (history MA student), Sophie (history MA student), Sophie's boyfriend Darren, Lizzie's boyfriend Paul, Lizzie (history DPhil student), and Jordan.


Iain was passed around as always. Here he is with Kim:


And with Rowena:



Then tonight we had two guys from church, Anthony and Mark, up to our flat. Anthony is one of Iain's two favorite people at church--Anthony can get a smile out of Iain even when he's in a bad mood.


This is Mark and me. Mark is the 'associate worker' at church--basically the same intern-type position that I had at our last church. He's a wonderful guy who has lived all over the world, including Cuba. I envy him much for that. Someday I'll visit Cuba, too.


We had a great time, as you can see from the picture below. Anthony is trying on Iain's reindeer hat in the spirit of the season. It's official (because the hat says so): Anthony is Santa's favorite reindeer.


(Sorry for posting that one, Anthony. . . . Not really, I guess. If I was, I wouldn't have posted it.)

Praise God for good friends! Especially since we're so far away from our family and friends back home, it is a tremendous blessing to spend time with these lovely people.

Tomorrow we're going to a couple museums in London . . . for free! Right now it's time for bed.