Our Christmas Meal

Our group picture with newcomer Glen (in suit).

9 December 2006. Jenny had been meaning to invite LSE to her new place even before. But there never was a better time than Saturday to hold the LSE session at her place - and have a Christmas meal!

By lunchtime, almost all managed to arrive at Jenny's flat. After Ben and Ian decorated the walls with balloons, David finally made it just before we all sat down for the meal.

Jenny has prepared a traditional English meal for the group. From starter to the main course, we all marvelled at Jenny's cooking and labour - especially the big chicken which was legendary. And we were all truly stuffed! We also played a game of 'famous names' while having dessert.

As you could see in the pictures, we all had a great time! We left Jenny's place late in the evening after planning for our next meeting in January -- looking forward to a great year for everyone in LSE.

LSE Goes Bowling!

23 November 2006. Having found out that most of the accessible bowling alleys in London (Hollywood Ball, All Stars, Bloomsbury, Queens, Trocadero) were fully-booked on this day (and for most of the weeknights on the run up to Christmas), we settled for Superbowl at Elephant & Castle for our LSE social night.

Situated on the top floor of the soon-to-be regenerated Elephant & Castle (E&C) shopping centre, going there was a literally a minute walk from the E&C tube station. Apart from being very accessible, Superbowl proved to be good value for money as we only paid GBP6 per game per person!

Jonathan (in a jumper with big stripes) also joined in the fun and challenge.

It was a good and fun bowling night. At 9.30pm, after having played two games for two hours (with air hockey and video games before that), everybody agreed it was time to have dinner (somewhere out of E&C). We hopped onto the Northern Line (and almost left Will) and got off at London Bridge station.

After saying goodnight to Jonathan and thanking him for putting up a good challenge (he beat us all on the first game but fell third on the last game), we strolled along Borough, went past Southwark Cathedral and passed through Vinopolis to Bankside, to stop and dine at Pizza Express.

From where we were situated, we had an amazing view of the City and St Pauls. Whilst tucking in our pizzas, we discussed further our plans for LSE Christmas meal - at Jenny's place. Another get-together to look forward to!

Journey of Faith

9 November 2006. Credit goes to Jenny for this session of ours. Apart from preparing the much appreciated jacket potatoes with a wide variety of toppings one can think of, she has led us in evaluating our journey of our own Christian lives.

As an ice breaker, we tried to arrange ourselves and form a line in order of our date of birth - without speaking! Nice try but to no avail.

We each shared with a fellow LSE our past and present Christian life: how we got to know God and grow as Christians as well as our present needs for our faith to advance. We also examined our Christian suitcase and what's inside it, the tools that we carry with us in our journey.

We also brainstormed on the next meetings: LSE socials (bowling and Christmas meal) as well as possible LSE sessions like helping a soup kitchen in King's Cross.

A Time of Our Lives

26 October 2006. It was Mary's turn to take the lead in LSE. After dinner at her and Alan's place, we have talked about the attachment that she sent in her LSE e-mail invites to us.

The LSE evening saw us reading Ecclesiastes 3: 1-14 with James and Will joining us for the first time. Although we have read this passage in Broad Sanctuary a few months back, having done this again in LSE was very helpful as a small group sharing each other's understanding and reflections made the discussion more in-depth.

Each of us had the chance to write down a list of our prayer requests and had another person pray for it.

L-R: Ben, Verity, Mary, David, Will and James

Ben, Verity, Alan, David, Will and James

Protect the Human Week

12 October 2006. In celebration of "Protect the Human" Week, Ben and Ian threw a party for LSE at their flat!

With Ben leading the session, we were introduced to Amnesty International (AI) and its works. Whilst a few of us have been AI volunteers in the past, it was good to know this international organisation better through a video presentation on AI's past activities and history.

Verity, Mary and Ben arranging to pin their Protect the Human badges.

The video on The Secret Policeman's Ball (a successful AI's activity) got us into a good discussion. It was a win-win project where not only the charity organisation benefited but also the artists that participated; as little did they know it would be a launch pad for their successful careers!

From L-R: Jenny, Alan, Ben, Verity, Mary and Ian.

We had the pleasure of having Ian and Verity joining our LSE evening. The discussion became more interesting as we shared our ideas and vision for our immediate environment and the world we live in.

To conclude the evening, we were treated to a panoramic view overlooking the Tower Bridge and the City at the roofdeck of Devon Mansions! Many thanks to Ben and Ian for hosting.

Catch Up at Costa

28 September 2006. While most could not make it, LSE still met up over coffee at London Bridge station. Ben, David and Jenny talked about how things are with each other at Costa Coffee shop.

God's Ambitions for Us

14 September 2006. The LSE evening saw us sharing our childhood dreams and ambitions and comparing it to where we are now, as well as what our (and God's) future plans are. We'll leave it at that - what's been shared that evening will be just within the confines of Churchill Place.


from l-r: Alan, David, Miya and Jenny.

What probably different this time is that we read and shared our understanding of Psalm 37, which contains this verse: (4) "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." The session put us at a good level of depth, knowing and understanding each other's pursuits. To conclude the evening, we prayed to the Lord for enlightenment, acceptance and blessings.


JJ at the far right.

Discovering Churchill

24 August 2006. We have decided to try a nice place in the eastend for our meeting. The practical choice: Canary Wharf. And what a better way to try the new Churchill Place.

Jenny volunteered to take the lead and facilitated in asking a round of questions to get to know each other a level higher.

Highlights…. Jenny and Mary discovered that they are both Julia Roberts’ fans, favourite films are Notting Hill and Pretty Woman, respectively. Sharing one’s dream holiday, Ben longs for a tour at the Safari whilst Alan wants a Northern Lights experience in Alaska and a stay at an ice hotel in Iceland. Talking about good reads, Andrew's favourite book is an inspirational one – it’s about a cleaner who became a top calibre neuro-surgeon. For Mary, the book that she loves reading again and again is The Little Prince.

We played a game too [Game of Consequence, Jenny calls it]! We passed papers around after writing an item and folding it up so that the next person writing the second entry would not see the previous one. Each piece of paper had the following entries: Book title, Author, Synopsis, the Review, and the Reviewer.



Now the stand outs...

WORSTSELLER:

Title: The Gods Are Not to Blame
Author: Miss Betty Bluelane
Summary: Mary was desperate to go to the loo because of diarrhoea. Will she succeed in her quest? This is a story of determination and great self-motivation in life.
the Review: 'Good as toilet paper'
Reviewer: Anne Droid of the Sanctuary Times

RUNNER-UP:

Title: Alan, is a member of the Papparazzi?
Author: Android Coffee-Anan
Summary: A man killed his father and married his own mother without him knowing.
the Reviews: 'Amazingly not funny' and 'A must not read'
Reviewer: Playboy Magazine

THIRD PRIZE

Title: Canary Wharf Dreamers
Author: Wole Soyinka
Summary: The cleaner that manouvres from the glass walls of Canary Wharf -- loudly polishing the floors and making them squeeky clean.
Reviews: ' Really crappy' -- Sunday Times; 'Posh Beckham can do a nicer one' -- Hello Magazine; ' Not a good read' -- News of the World

As to the other two, they're are totally incoherent - but still a bit funny!





If you were wondering, yes, the LSE meeting wrapped up in a prayer.

LSE in LS!

10 August 2006. East London Starbucks shops have a lot to learn from Starbucks Leicester Square in terms of opening hours. And so for LSE, it was a meeting at Starbucks in Leicester Square!
After 4 upgrades of seats, we finally settled at a corner of two comfy sofas and a large armchair. We have expected the worst in finding the perfect seats for ourselves. But good thing it was a Thursday, so there's not much competition for seats.

Frap was the easy choice for most of us. JJ, being a 'regular Starbucks goer', had to settle for a juice. It was great to catch up with each other and involve each other in an interesting discussion about different concepts of LS!