We arrived at Victoria and decided to go directly to Buckingham Palace, then take in the floral tributes at Green Park before walking along The Mall, through Horse Guards Parade and on into Westminster. As it turned out we pretty much walked the post-funeral procession route in reverse. Outside Buckingham Palace we immediately bumped into a couple of ‘rapid response pastors’ from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association UK who were ministering to people in the crowd. What a privilege to encourage them, pray with them and share about CCN. Surely a divine appointment and nudge for us to get back to taking kids on mission.
In Green Park, the aroma of millions of flowers hit you well before you could see them. It was hard to appreciate the sheer scale of the tributes laid out in lines with hundreds taking the time to walk between them. Here we took the opportunity to leave a CCN card expressing our gratitude to Queen Elizabeth for the way she expressed her faith to the Nation.
It certainly felt like we had stepped into a moment in history. The atmosphere created by hundreds of people quietly paying their respects and was impressive. London seemed to be on pause. Standing on a traffic free Westminster Bridge, alongside the recently renovated Elizabeth Tower was somewhat breath-taking emphasising the significance of the time.
For CCN, we felt that it would be great to look forward to all God wants to do in this nation. In this respect we will plan to run an event as close as possible to the coronation of King Charles 3 and try and pray in the places that will feature in this historic event for our nation. So, it looks like a trip back to one of our favourite places – Westminster Abbey. Watch this space.
Trevor Johnson
September 2022
