Pancake Day

Last Tuesday was Pancake Day in the UK! Also called Shrove Tuesday, it is the last day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Many years ago it served as the last opportunity for Christians partaking in Lent to indulge in foods not allowed during the following weeks. Pancakes were often made on Shrove Tuesday because they contain fat, butter, and eggs which used to be forbidden during Lent. Today everyone celebrates Pancake Day regardless of religion and many restaurants and cafes serve pancakes all day long. A pancake in England is more of a crepe as opposed to a fluffy, thick American pancake.

For our Tuesday night meal at Canvas on Pancake Day, we had a pancake bar. We cooked over 100 American-style pancakes and provided every topping you can imagine: butter, maple syrup, golden syrup, Nutella, blueberries, raspberries, whipped cream, lemon and sugar (a popular topping here), and more. It was so fun to see how everyone topped their pancakes. We loved our first Pancake Day and plan on celebrating it for years to come!

Another Canvas Baptism!!!

Last weekend was a great weekend for Canvas, for us, and for Ash. Many moons ago Ash was reached out to by the Canvas staff. He was one of the first students to regularly come to Canvas events. Ash has graduated now, but continues to be involved with Canvas as much as possible. Despite living and working a couple of hours away, Ash comes by Canvas on most weekends and even makes it to an occasional event during the week.

When Ash came to Canvas (although at the start it was more about Canvas going to Ash) he did not believe in God. Ash thought those who believed in God did so because they needed that to make themselves feel better. Ash believed that he was stronger than that and did not need to believe in a god to make himself feel encouraged.

Ash has been pouring over scripture and reading books about God with people from Canvas for years now. A while back Ash began to accept that he now believed in God, and this past Saturday Ash gave his confession of faith and was baptized.

We made a day of it as we went to Wales where it all went down. So Saturday morning we piled into tiny little European automobiles and headed off to Wales. The trip out and back was beautiful as we looked out across the English countryside. We stopped for lunch in a little town called Hay-on-Wye famous for their many bookshops. Afterwards we headed out to The River Wye (yes it was very cold!) for Ash's baptism. Following the baptism we went back to Hay-on-Wye for some celebratory sheep's milk ice cream. It was quite a day, a beautiful day, and a day to be remembered.

The crowd gathered

The scene

Pete, Ash, and Rachel

Cake Sale

Last week we had a Cake Sale to raise some money for the Canvas trip to Mexico to build a house with Casas por Cristo. In the States, we call them bake sales, but in England they are called cake sales. One of the students who is going on the trip, Kim, initiated the fundraising event. Kim came up with about 6 different recipes and spent hours in the kitchen. Kim was incredible and we could not have done it with out her. We made around 300 cakes (meaning cup cakes or cookie bars type things, all of which the British call cakes) and we had another 50 or so cakes contributed by other friends at Canvas. We set up a table next to campus and sold about 200 cakes that afternoon, and finished selling the cakes at night by going around to the dorms and knocking on doors. Overall the cake sale made around £150 and was a great way for us to spend time with students.

It was a cold day for a cake sale.

Kim, our expert baker.

Our donation box (built by Mike, painted by Alli) and some cakes.