Labor Day Weekend

  I can't believe it is almost a week since the start of the long Labor Day weekend, time seems to be going too quickly.  However, as it was quite a busy weekend I thought it would be good to share some of my experiences.

  The first thing to note is the spelling of Labor - although it goes against all my inclinations and sensibilities not to include the 'u', I suppose when in Rome...

This is not us!!

  The weekend properly got under way on Saturday morning - at 4.45am to be precise when my alarm went off.  Matthew, Caroline, Caroline's brother and I set off for the long drive to Tennessee.  Now this is where the difference in culture shows.  I think a two and a half hour trip each way constitutes a long drive, but apparently to them, it is an easy drive!  We were heading for the Okoee River as we were going white water rafting.  This was also the stretch of river where they held the white water events for the 1996 Olympic Games.  White water rafting is not something that I have done before, and I was a bit nervous when I had to sign a disclaimer removing any responsibility from the company we went with in the event of my death!  However, it turned out to be a lot of fun.  There were 7 people in the boat - 6 novices and a professional 'guide'.  There were also about 8 or 10 other boats going down the course at the same time.  The route starts gently, a few small rapids, and bumping into a few rocks - the kind of thing you'd expect in a theme park (just without the safety harnesses!).  And then our guide told us we were approaching a 12ft waterfall.  The thought of going over the edge of a waterfall twice the size of me certainly got my heart beating a bit quicker. Although it was a bit of a drop, I imagine the 12ft must be down to the river bed, rather than to the river because we certainly didn't drop that far.  Our next moment of excitement came when, in the middle of some rapids, we found ourselves stuck on a rock!  We tried all sorts to free ourselves.  Our guide got us to all sit on one side; to all sit on the other side; to paddle on one side; to shift people around the boat to change the weight balance - all to no avail.  In the end the only course of action was for our guide to get in the water (thankfully we were past the worst of the rapids in that section) and push and pull the boat until we were freed - surprisingly, during all this, no-one else fell in!  The Olympic section was intense with lots of rapids coming in quick succession.  By the end of the course I was wet, tired, but at the same time quite exhilarated.

  You will also be surprised to hear that I was also quite hungry!  So on the way back we stopped at Cracker Barrel.  For those of you who are from the UK reading this and have not sampled the delight of Cracker Barrel, then please check out their website (www.crackerbarrel.com).  They say that they are there to please people with good food and an old country store.  I'm obviously not the one to comment on how authentic an expression of Americanism they are, but I would be quite happy accepting that they provide a good taste of country America.  I had their chicken and dumplings which is meant to be a signature dish, and I could certainly feel my arteries clogging up as I ate it - but it was good!

  Sunday had a completely different tone.  I went for the first time to Decatur First United Methodist Church which is where I'll be doing my church placement for the year.  It actually has two sites as it owns a chapel across the road (from where this picture is being taken).  The main church hosts the two traditional services each week (8:45am and 11am) and the old chapel holds a Come As You Are (CAYA) service each week at 11.  The people on Sunday were so welcoming, offering to take me to football (US not soccer) and baseball matches, and one older lady (who was born in Britain) inviting me round on Labor Day for burgers and a swim in her pool - sadly I wasn't able to go.  If this first day is anything to go by, it should be a wonderful experience filled with warm Christian people.  I will be interested to see how a church of this size (about 2,100 members) manages to organise itself and ensure all people are included and used.

  Finally, Monday saw me enjoy my first Labor Day holiday.  Those of you from Thatcham Methodist Church may remember Amy Spivey who was our minister for a year.  Well she, along with her husband Tim Moore and their daughter Laura-Clare now live in North Carolina and are only a couple of hours drive from Atlanta.  So they kindly drove down to see me on the Monday.  We were able to go to Decatur and see the church, we had lunch at Raging Burrito which turned out to be a fantastic Mexican restaurant in Decatur and then drove on to Candler so they could see my college.  It was just a lovely day spent catching up with old friends.

  This is a far longer post than I anticipated but it was such a lovely weekend that I wanted to share it with you all.  Now that the fun is over, the work most definitely has to begin...