Arrived.

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to let you know I successfully arrived yesterday at 11:30 a.m. local time. (Don't ask me the Mountain Standard time, as I'm trying to ignore it completely in hopes of getting over Jetlag faster.) On my arrival Jonathan, the Ministries Support Manager and Hostel Warden, picked me up and helped me negotiate two large bags and a guitar to the other end of London. I unpacked everything into a lovely room that I don't even have to share at the moment, got cleaned up from the flight, and got to know some of the people I will be working with.

For anyone who's curious about the flight, I got on the plane, watched Chariots of Fire, and pretty much slept until Heathrow.

Today, another intern is arriving. I think she's the last one before LCM training kicks off. There's a meeting tomorrow, but the bulk of the training should be the 5th - 9th. My plan is to run errands - I need to stop by the post office to get my biometric residence permit and then run by the market to buy groceries.

Finally, a word about the hostel, copied straight from the Hostel Manual in the downstairs room,

"Visitors often ask about the Hostel building, so here is a brief history...

The house was built in 1734, in the reign of George II (1727 - 1760), as the parsonage to St John's Church, Horsleydown, which was one of the last works of the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches. This body, which in fact only managed 15 churches, was set up in Queen Anne's reign by the Tories who were anxious to rescue the suburbs from the clutches of nonconformity. By 1734 the Whigs had been long in power, money was short, and for St John's church the commissioners ordered a cut-price job from their two surveyors - Nicholas Hawksmoor and John James. The parsonage was designed by Hawksmoor in 1733.

Land for Horsleydown church and parsonage was bought from St Olave's school as early as 1718, but it  was only in June 1727 that the two surveyors who had been trailing their separate designs were ordered to "jointly prepare a model of the Church by the next meeting that may be built as cheap as possible". The church was built, a rector, Philip Ayscough, appointed, and in July 1733 he applied to the commissioners, stating that as much of a sum of £1,100 "as your Lordships shall judge convenient" should be set aside for building him his parsonage. The vestry minutes preserved in Lambeth Palace Library record on 12 July 1733 that £700 should go to "building a Parson's House". Two of the vestrymen who signed the minutes, John Arnott and William Coates (a mason and carpenter respectively), also signed the detailed contract for building the parsonage on 13 August.

One brick on the east side, just above head height and readable from the pavement of Tower Bridge Road, still has John Arnott's scratched record of the completion date.

Finally, in case you are curious, the Latin inscription on the plaque outside means:

"To give is to receive"
(DARE QUAM ACCIPERE)

You can click here for an image of the house. It's the one on the right with a green door. Feel free to look around the neighborhood. I don't know where anything is yet, so tell me when you find the grocery store. Man does not live on toffee and digestive biscuits alone.

Grace and Peace,
Corrie