International Markets Come to Leicester

This past weekend Leicester had International Markets through the streets of downtown. So after church on Sunday we decided to head towards the city and see what we could find at the markets. Although it was cloudy and a bit muggy, the atmosphere was quite festive. There were hundreds of venders and each came from different countries in Europe and around the world. Many of them have restaurants in Leicester as well. It goes to show you how diverse the city of Leicester actually is.

Ryan and I spent some time walking to each vendor taste testing all they had to offer. They had food like Italian pastries, Mediterranean olives and peppers, Turkish delight, and Polish sausages to name a few.

 

 

One of Ryan's requests for dinner when we visit my home in CA is bratwurst. The kind of Bratwurst you get at the grocery store. Well here at the International Markets they had Bratwurst on the grill made from real German hands:) When Ryan saw that he couldn't bare the thought of turning it down. So we thought we would for-go our packed lunches and grab a couple tasty Bratwurst. 

As we continued to walk down the street I spotted from a distance a bright yellow sign that read "Dutch Oliebollen." Now this was something I  couldn't turn down and since Ryan had never tried Oliebollen before we gave in and ate Oliebollen for desert! Finally our stomachs were satisfied:) 

We made our way through the rest of the Market and enjoyed all that we saw! Here are a few pictures. Before we made our way to the markets Ryan and I stopped at a nearby neighborhood so you'll find some extra pictures along with our trip to the markets. In this neighborhood we found two very large, beautiful churches. They were both old and gothic looking. Hope you find those pictures interesting as well as well as the market pictures. You'll also see all the fun fall leaves on the trees! The colors are really starting to change here and its beautiful!!!

Enjoy!

Stamford, UK

Apologies to all our followers out there for not updating our blog. It's been about a month since we have been in England. Each week we've settle in our home a bit more and are finding our way around Leicester. 

Although it's only been a few weeks since we've become residents in the UK, we can already see glimpses why the Lord has brought us here. Both Ryan and I have the extraordinary task of sharing the Gospel with many unbelievers in Leicester. We are both extremely humbled and privileged at the opportunities that God has given us to share the Gospel through the game of basketball. 

Each week Ryan and I have responsibilities to go to schools and teach basketball to students. Along with several of his teammates, Ryan attends a number of different schools each week to teach the game of basketball and lessons that involve fitness and health. He continually meets new faces of children who are enamored with his status as a professional basketball player.  Ryan sees this as a great opportunity to set an example of a Godly young man for the kids to look up to.  I on the other hand only have one lesson a week at the same school with a group of 15-20 girls. Leicester is a heavily populated Muslim community and the school that I teach basketball at is filled with Muslim students. I am eager to get to know the girls over my 10 weeks of coaching them. My daily prayer is that I am faithful and bold in showing them the love of Christ. 

Another huge part of our time over the last  month has been trying to find a home church to worship at for the next 7-8 months.  Through a friend that Ryan met at Master's, who happens to be familiar with the UK, we were directed to a church in Rugby, a town just 30 minutes outside of Leicester.  Consequently, Ryan and I made our way down to Rugby on Sunday 10th of October.  This church was of particular interest to us because we had heard that the Pastor is a graduate of The Master's Seminary.  We worshipped with them on their 43rd anniversary service and had great fellowship with the people there and really enjoyed our time meeting with Pastor Tom McConnell and his wife over a traditional English lunch after the service.  Tom referenced us to a bunch of great churches right in Leicester and since then we have been visiting them one by one. We still plan on building a relationship with Tom and his wife, as we see them as a great couple we can learn from in our time here.

There are some definite advantages about being in the UK over some other great places we could have ended up this year.  One bonus is that we have some friends close by that we can visit every now and again.  Two weeks ago after one of Ryan's games we met up with Craig and Amanda Owen. Amanda is a friend of Ryan's from First Baptist Church in Perkasie, PA, Ryan's home town. It was nice to see a familiar face and fellowship with another Christian couple... I'm sure we will see plenty of them in our time here.

Another great thing about living in the UK is that everything is generally in close proximity to one another. Ryan and I made our first day trip to Stamford, a historical town only an hour east of Leicester.  Being in this town made us feel for the first time we were truly in England. The streets were made of cobblestone, old stone buildings were covered in ivy, churches were on every corner with their steeples soaring above the rest of the shops and each had tombstones smothered in moss that were so old you were unable to read the names on it. As we made our way into the village, we stopped at the Burghley House. The Burghley House is England's greatest Elizabethan house. It was built in 1555 by William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer of Queen Elizabeth I. We were in awe at how magnificent this place was. Each room was so ornate in detail and filled with bright colors. We only have pictures of the outside because no photos were aloud inside, but hopefully you can see how extravagant this place was from the pictures.  

We expect this is only one of the many wonderful sites in the UK so we plan to make day trips as often as our schedules allow. The history and landscapes continues to blow our minds here in England and we will continue to put of more pictures of all the sites we see in the future!

Hope things are going well back in the states! We will try to stay up to date in updating our blog! Hope you enjoy the pictures especially of our new addition, Zulu! She is our new kitten:) Very playful and cuddly!

Welcome to England!

Hello from England!

Well we've made it! Our flight to London went relatively smooth and quick. After we landed things didn't go as quick. We were told that once we made it through immigration there would be a driver waiting for us carrying a sign with "ZAMROZ" on it.  

We made it through immigration and saw hundreds of drivers carrying signs but none had "ZAMROZ" on it. Here we were in the biggest airport I've seen with no phones and no numbers to contact anyone or English money if we had a phone. After what seemed like forever of walking up and down the terminal --searching for what I imagined in my head, an English man in a suit and funny hat driving an old-fashioned taxi like the movies-- we finally found an internet station where we could get ahold of someone over email. 

An hour and a half later we realized our driver was at Terminal 3 while we were waiting in Terminal 5. So, with our home/life in a cartload of suitcases we raced down the terminal to catch the train to take us to Terminal 3. We roll up the ramp thrilled to see a little man carrying a sign with our name on it...although a bit disappointed for he was nothing like I imagined:)

We arrived at our lovely apartment nearly two hours later. Since then we have settled in very nicely. 

Because we haven't received our car yet our days have consisted mostly of cleaning and getting settled in our home, taking walks down the street to the Birstall shops and taking bus trips into Leicester city. Our neighborhood is quite new and very English:) the roofs are tall and slanted just like in Peter Pan, and the roads are curvy and narrow with tiny little cars. I imagine our car will be similar when we receive it. The club likes to give the players a few days to adjust to driving on the wrong side of the road, especially with stick shift. Although we drove on the left side in Australia it should still be interesting as we haven't tried stick shift. 

Ryan has had several practices with his team and has thoroughly enjoyed jumping right in with the new guys and looks forward to playing full-time this season. I get to meet my team for the first time tomorrow at our practice. I'm looking forward to meeting some new girls and trying to get involved right away as well. We both have tournaments this weekend; Ryan's games are home and I will be traveling to not sure where yet. Hopefully next week I'll get to interview for a job at the hotel; one of the club's sponsors.  

By the way, I just wanted to congratulate my hubby for winning MVP in the SBL in AUSTRALIA! Great Job Babe!

Like I mentioned before, things are settling in very nicely here in Leicester and we look forward to telling you more about our great experiences in the future! We always covet your prayers as it is not always easy being away from home and as we begin a new adventure may we be a shining light to those we come in contact with. We are once again thrilled for what God has planned for us here and we thank Him for His provision and grace in these special opportunities.

Love you and miss you all!!!! 

Cheers

PS. our new address is:

1 Brook Furlong Birstall

Leicester, UK LE4 3LU