One of the highlights of the trip for me was to see some of the places where John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, went to.
This is Aldersgate Street where John Wesley's heart was strangely warmed and he had his conversion experience. Obviously London has changed much over the hundreds of years since but there is a church now where the street would have existed.
Nearby was this large metal piece (20 feet tall by 10 feet wide) of John Wesley's journal entry when he understood that Christ saved him personally.
We went to John Wesley's house which was near his church Wesley chapel. This site became his home base of operations where daily services were held, often at 5 or 6am before work, and traveling preachers came.
This is what is known as the powerhouse of Methodism. It was a small room where Wesley prayed every morning beginning at 4 am. This was his ritual and his place. He would kneel for prayer. They say all great people of God were people who prayed very early in the morning.
John's brother Charles wrote many of the great hymns of the faith such as "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing", "And Can it Be", "Love Divine, All Love's Excelling". This was his organ and it is still in working order.
This pulpit is from one of Wesley's first churhes, the Foundry, soon after his conversion. All of us preachers had to get a picture in it.
This is his chapel. It was beautiful. They were practicing for a BBC broadcast when we came so we didn't get to see much of the chapel. It was a shame. The picture below shows a remarkable design. In our churches today when we have lots of people come we bring in metal, portable chairs. This church had these wooden pieces which extended from the pew when they needed more seating. It was very creative and I have never seen that at any other church.
This statue of Wesley is placed in a courtyard. Behind me is the church he constructed, to my left is the house where he lived.
This is where Wesley is buried, in back of the church. The monument was erected and people come here regularly to visit. The structure behind it is Reuters News Service Building. The church was in much financial trouble in the 1970's and had to sell off some of the land.
Wesley went to school at Oxford and was ordained there. Nearby is this church called St. Mary's. It is a very old historic church. It used to be the church of the University and held many important meetings here. For example Thomas Crammner who wrote the Book of Common Prayer was tried here as a heritic and was led out to be burned at the stake. It was in this pulpit (or one like it), that John Wesley preached his famous sermon "Salvation by Faith", the first after he was converted and began to articulate his conversion. Today it would be like going to the richest, most culturally elite church of your city and preaching in it. If I'm not mistaken he only preached here once more.
Our trip to London was a great experience. We made it with only one missed flight but all our luggage arrived safely with us. At Heathrow Airport we rode a 15 passenger van to our lodging in London about a hour and a half away (15-20 Miles) with traffic. We flew all night long and when we arrived, we got going on our tour of London. The first two days were designed to give us an overview of the city so we could understand the challenges of ministering in this city. Even though they have thousands of churches, they only have about 5% who attend church in England. Part of the reason we went to London was to see how a totally secular culture was and to give us a preview of how our American culture could become. 
This is the front of Westminister Abbey. It's history goes back to the 1100's AD and almost all famous people from England are buried here. It was here that Princess Di was married. UNforntately we were not allowed to take pictures in the building but you can see it at 
This is Parliment where all the politicans do business. You see big Ben on the far right.
This is the back of parliment. It was inside here that William Wallace of Braveheart fame was tried and killed. Below was an interesting statue we came upon.
Parliment is on the Themes River. I took a picture of something called the Duck. It is a touring vehicle that drives on the road and in the river. What a tour. Below is the London Eye. It is like a big ferris wheel that overlooks the city. I planned on doing it on my day off but the cost was a little out of my range.
This church is St. Paul's Cathedral, unbelieveable site and beauty. It is amazing that during World War Two when London was being bombed that this churched survived. 
Our Last day in London was a free day to see things we wanted. Some of us went to the Winston Churchhill Museum of his life. It was great and it showed how a great leader he was. We have no idea what the world would be like without his vision and leadership.
Tuesday night we went to see the musical "Wicked". It is kind of like the Prequel to the Wizard of Oz. The plot was fantastic and the lead singer was incredible. It was about how the wicked witch got wicked. If you ever have a chance to see this play, do it! 
One of the first games was lining up all the Beeson Pastors to see who could eat a donut off a string first. Because of years of training eating donuts, I was able to edge out the competitors. 
This was my winning prize, a pumpkin deck of playing cards. Max was so proud.
