Results were apparently quite good

Basically used the recipe at joyofbaking.com, without the pecan and gingersnap layer and with some added vanilla suger. Nice!

For the Danish-minded people, I found the recipe here: www.dk-kogebogen.dk.

Here you get excellent Italian food with a great view over the runway. When you step into the caf̩ Рwhich is really a restaurant Рyou suddenly loose the cheap feeling you usually get from airport places, but still retain the air travel goodness feeling.

My two favourites are the pizza with Goat’s cheese and various vegetables (for an amazing £8 at an airport), and the penne funghi. The last-mentioned is served in two sizes: Main course and starter. As it turns out, both times I’ve tried the starter size, I’ve had more than enough to eat. Have a look at my half-eaten plate:

Yes, this is the starter-size. Not only does it feature an amazing white wine cream sauce with aspargus and wild mushrooms (not only ‘champignon’, but real exciting mushroom-sorts), but it is served with (if you wish) gracious amounts of parmigiano on top, as well as freshly ground pepper. All for the price of a little over £5. This place is truly a find, and remain one of the reasons for which I treasure Gatwick airport so much.

Went to bed a bit late last night after having been to Laura’s ‘studenterfest’ (a party you throw when you’ve graduated from high school), but was fortunate enough to be able to sleep late today. Had the opportunity to see Bobby’s (our Café church minister) 1-minute Facebook video-intro to his sermon today on the topic of ‘real rest’.

So I got a little over eight hours of sleep before I was awoken by a phone call from a good friend, whom I was very glad to hear from, so this made a perfect start of the day. Afterwards, I had the opportunity to reflect a little, write in my journal, and read through Paul’s letter to Titus, which was the place to which I had come in the Scriptures, this morning. Especially Titus 3:9 made me pause a little: “But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.” (NRSV)

Soon after, I was out running. It was nice to feel that I’m getting a bit in shape, so I can actually run for most of the 25 minutes – on the route that used to take 30 – without having to stop for air. To add to the excitement, I ran into one of my cat friends I think I’ve met her before – I think it was a her – this black-brownish cat who looked very happy to see me in the rain, and came running towards me from the distance. So I took a few minutes to say hi and went on running. When I settle down sometime, I would definitely like a cat.

Afterwards, I made myself a nice brunch; I could post pictures, but you can just look down a couple of posts from last Saturday’s brunch to the picture of the baguettes with tomato, mozzarella, fresh basil, olive oil, salt and pepper, to see what I had This was enjoyed with freshly squeezed – that is, before they put it onto a box in the supermarket, but at least it was not diluted concentrate – orange juice and further conversation with the before-mentioned good friend.

After a tiny bit of reflection, I turned to Isaiah 58 and read most of it before walking out the door. It’s one of my favorite passages. I was out the door quite early, and thought I might just get out of the Metro one station early (Nørreport, that is), and walk to church along the lakes of central Copenhagen. While going to church, I had a very relaxed feeling. Just feeling good. I got out of the train at Kongens Nytorv, but got back onto the train right away, as I had the feeling I should go to Nørreport instead. So, I did. As I got out from the station and up to street-level, I wanted to cross over to one side of the street I was to walk up, but there was a red light to my left. Strangely, there was still 5 seconds of green light to my right. So, I went that way (it made no difference to my route, as it only determined I was walking upwards on the left side of the street, instead of the right). When I had crossed the footpath over the street to the right, I saw a woman sitting, holding out a cup, needing money. I felt impressed to give her some money, so I did. And besides, it was very fitting with the passage I’d read before going out the door. It all fit so well together, I couldn’t help but wonder if God had sent me past her today, for her benefit as well as for mine (the amount I gave her couldn’t have made a huge difference, but I hope it got her on the way to meeting just a small amount of her real material needs). I remembered one of my teachers at Newbold who said something like this in a tutorial session: “The main theme of the Old Testament is not even God’s love. It is His justice. He is the God who cares about the underdog. Who provides justice for those who have been mistreated.”

The topic of Bobby’s sermon today was ‘real rest’, taking his point of origin in 1 Kings 1:1-4. Just a couple of highlights (as I remember them):

‘You can’t explain about rest unless you’ve experienced it’
‘These servants knew that the King needed help. Needed help to do what he couldn’t do, to get warm.’
‘Why does it say that David did not have sex with her? Remember the story in 2 Samuel? This shows us that David has grown.’
‘If there is no warmth in your thinking, God isn’t there’
‘Real rest is getting close to God’
(and there was another, brilliant, statement, but I just can’t remember it, which is driving me just a tiny bit crazy. No, not really, but still )

I think one of the main things I brought along is that the things we cannot do for ourselves, God can help us with. And that God can provide real rest for us. That He is the one who will provide it. And that nothing but God will provide us with real rest. None of the shorter-term things that we think will make us happy. But it’s hard to convey; these are just fragments. I hope they will get the recording of the sermons sorted soon, so they can be podcast (now also as a verb ).

The worship after the sermon in particular, was awesome, in the truest sense of the word. Just a couple of quite quiet songs, not intimidating in any way, and with quite a few a cappella-sections, God felt very present.

Afterwards, I went out with 4 friends and had a very nice meal at Jensens Bøfhus. Food, as always, was great. And the fact that the service wasn’t up to par was okay, since it provided us with free desserts

Sitting back in the apartment of the friend who’s been nice enough to have me staying for the summer, but who isn’t here at the moment, I am left with the feeling that today, I have experienced real rest. It’s not something tangible, but it’s still something I know I’ve experienced, and something I certainly know I would not be able to provide myself with these days. And I just want to acknowledge God for this.

Baguette with Tomato, Fresh Basil, Mozarella, Olive Oil, Lemon juice, Salt and Pepper.

Pasta with Ricotta and Basil, covered in Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper and Fresh Basil leaves.

Just thought these should be on the blog as well