Here is the story of the end of term and my trip home for Easter:
On the last day of term (Friday), I handed in my essay on behaviour management. As of Thursday morning, I had written about 1,200 words. By 4am on Friday, I had written 4,100. However, there were birdies singing when I went to bed!
That weekend, Michael came to visit. Sunday afternoon, we headed back to Michael's in York to begin my journey home for Easter.
Monday was Michael's 23rd birthday. However, he wasn't very well, so it was sort of postponed until Tuesday.
So, on Tuesday, we went to see Amazing Grace and really enjoyed it. We then went home and had steak, saute potatoes and roast butternut squash for dinner, before heading out to meet a friend of his from Macc at the pub. A good time was had by all.
On Wednesday afternoon, I headed to the station to go home to St.Albans. I caught the train to King's Cross (although I was getting off at Stevenage), sitting opposite a middle-aged man with a very nice Dell mini-laptop.
We got talking. He asked me where I was going, and told me that he was a barrister and was on his way back from Middlesbrough, having won a court adjournment because his witnesses couldn't agree on their story.
At this point, I was doing number/word puzzles based on the DaVinci Code. (the relevance of this will become clear).
At one point, he asked me if I was going on holiday this year. I said that I was going to the Greenbelt festival. He'd never heard of it and it took a little bit of time to establish that 'Christian Arts' was not a person ("Christian as in the faith, not the name").
He told me he used to go to church when he was younger, but hadn't been in a long time. I suggested that he go for Easter and (to my surprise) he agreed that that was a good idea!
He then noticed the DaVinci Code puzzles, and asked me what I thought of the book. I confessed I'd not read it but that I'd like to. He told me I should. Having established that I was a Christian, he asked me why I thought that the Catholic church/the Vatican/Opus Dei had put so much effort into countering the DaVinci Code. I said I thought it was because the issue was very important and that the church believed that they had the truth and that potentially people's souls were at stake.
The conversation rapidly progressed on to why I believed what I do, what evidence there is for any of it (made slightly complicated by the fact that he wouldn't accept the Bible as evidence), what 'truth' is, and a whole bunch of other questions. I focussed on the resurrection, and did my best, but I was tired and only had an hour. Plus, he was a lawyer!! Anyway, in the end, I gave him my email address. On 1st May (approx one month from the conversation) he will re-ask his question on what evidence there is for Christianity and why I believe it, and he wants a reply.
And then Dad picked me up at Stevenage station and drove me home.
Not much has happened since.
5 years ago
