Exeter and Old Friends

Today was moving day as we left London and headed for Exeter in Devon; that's in the Southwest part of England, right before you get to Cornwall. We had one last breakfast with Debbie and Marshall and then asked a fellow passing by if he'd take our picture together.

Both of them then drove us to Canary Wharf were we caught the Tube for Paddington Station. We took the Jubilee line to Baker Street, one of the older stations. They say that this one is haunted.

At Paddington, we picked up tickets pretty easily, and were off to Exeter by 11:10. The ride took about two and a half hours. When we got there, Jeanne and Bob Claycamp picked us up at the station. The Claycamps are two old friends from our Shiloh days that I haven't seen for at least 20 years. Kathy has seen them both much more recently at the Calvary Chapel pastors and pastors wives conferences.

Bob and Jeanne have pastored a Calvary Chapel in Phoenix Arizona during all those years since Shiloh closed in 1978. A few years ago, they turned their church over to their son and began to look for new mission opportunities through Poema, a ministry they started to encourage young pastors and ministries.

Through that, they got an opportunity to pastor a church in Exeter England, where they've been now for the last six months. Since we were going to CreationFest we wanted to stop by and see them. It turns out that we weren't the only ones to stop by. The entire Dingman clan was on the way to CreationFest (for the third time), where they had rented a Caravan for the week. In addition Dave Shirley was in town working with Bob on a plan for moving the church to University grounds and thinking about other plans to be announced at CreationFest.

Bob asked us if we wanted to go for a walk, so the Bob, the Dingmans and I took off for downtown. Kathy stayed back to work on our reservations for Wadebridge and to help with Jeanne with dinner. 

The downtown area is really clean and modern, with a 2005 pedestrian only street running through the center of the city.

With all the modernity, though, there are pockets of history retained throughout the downtown area. There are old buildings, like St. Stephen's Bow from the middle ages:

There is an old roman wall that dates from 200 AD. An almshouse that has been partially restored along with the Roman ruins that lay underneath it.

Finally, at the center of town is Exeter Cathedral. It's truly mammoth. After dinner, Kathy and I walked back down (since she'd missed her chance to see it earlier), and got a picture just as the sun was setting.