April was an extremely busy month for us this year, so buckle up, this is going to be a long one!
We started strong on the first by getting our Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK! This is a huge immigration milestone for us, and one we have been working towards for over five years. Having ILR means that we can live and work in the UK indefinitely, are no longer considered sponsored by my job, and are no longer under immigration control. The only restriction now is if you leave the UK for more than 2 years, you lose ILR and start over at square one. So, we aren’t done with our journey just yet. Once you have held ILR for 12 months, you are eligible to apply for citizenship, and we will be doing just that on April 1, 2026. Citizenship will mean getting a British passport, getting the right to vote, and having the complete freedom to come and go as we please.
So while that goal is on the horizon, getting ILR is a huge big deal and we celebrated in the most British way we could! I wore a new UK themed scarf from my favorite UK dress company, Popsy; we got fish and chips from the local chippy, and we watched a very British/Welsh movie, called Dream Horse.
On Friday, we celebrated again by going to a fancier British restaurant - Ye Olde Ferrie Inn near Monmouth. This pub was established in 1473! The food is all hyperlocal, sourced from farms and butchers located within 10 miles. We ordered the pheasant and the chorizo loaded fries, and it was some of the best food we’ve ever had here. We also tried a locally made cider called “Ol’ Butt”. While the name is quite funny, “butt” is actually a term of endearment for a friend in parts of Wales! The pub is located right along the River Wye and the views are gorgeous. Afterward, we went to Amy and Ben’s for a game night, which was also a good way to celebrate!
On Sunday the 6th, we had cafe style worship at Caldicot, this time going through the whole story of Holy Week and into Easter. Then that evening I went with Amy and the girls to see the musical Six in the cinema. They filmed a West End showing with the original cast, and had a 15 minute introduction about the origin of the musical. I’ve been wanting to see this one for a while and I really enjoyed seeing it on the big screen! (Bonus: Learning all the names of Henry the VIII’s wives came in handy during a quiz at the end of the month, I was the only one at my table who knew the sixth wife was Catherine Parr!)
Thanks to getting our ILR just in time, on Monday the 7th, we hopped in the car and headed to France! My brother was going to be there for the week on a trip with Camp Courageous, so we made plans to meet up with him for a couple of days. The road trip turned out to take a lot longer than we thought, from start to finish, including taking the chunnel, it was about a 13 hour trip from our front door to our hotel near Disneyland Paris. We drove through a lot of small towns and noticed that almost every single one had a 24/7 pizza vending machine. You heard that right, a pizza vending machine! After passing so many of them, we finally had to stop and give one a try. It was so fun and the pizza was surprisingly good. This whole pizza was ready in like 5 minutes and only cost 4 euros!
The next day we spent at Disneyland Paris! The weather was absolutely perfect for spending the whole day outside. My brother’s train was delayed so while we got there right when it opened, they weren’t able to arrive until lunch time. We did a few rides waiting for them, then met up for lunch together at a Pinocchio themed Bavarian restaurant. (The food was wildly overpriced and mediocre, to be expected I suppose.) It was so fun to meet up with my brother in a new country!
Our favorite ride of the day was the Star Wars-themed Hyperspace Mountain. The line took about 45 minutes to get through, but it was decorated like you were in an intergalactic airport, and characters like C3PO and R2D2 were dotted throughout, so it was pretty entertaining in and of itself. Joel and I were tuckered out by dinner time, so we took Matthew back to his group, had dinner outside of the park, then went back to our hotel for an early bedtime.
The next day we ventured into the city to meet up with Matthew again. It took us about 90 minutes on public transit to get to the heart of the city. We got off the train at L’Arche de Triomphe, then started our way walking across the city.
We made our way towards the Eiffel Tower, then decided this was close enough. They were sold out of tickets to go up the tower, and I decided I’m okay missing that. So we took some pictures from the bridge and called it good.
Then we walked along the River Seine, making our way towards the Louvre. We were again very lucky to have an absolutely gorgeous day. The views everywhere were stunning.
We finally made it to the Louvre, which is where we met up with Matthew. We decided not to spend the 20+ euros to go inside, the lines were incredibly long and it would have been very crowded. I did very much enjoy seeing the famous glass pyramids in person.
From there we walked all the way to Notre Dame.
There was a line to get inside, but it only took about 20 minutes to get through. The inside was very crowded, but beautiful. There was some kind of service going on, with a priest speaking at the front (in French, of course.) I was very impressed at his ability to lead a service with a bunch of tourists milling about, not paying attention. I supposed he is used to it! The inside was absolutely stunning, and I took dozens of photos, but I’ll just share the one.
Before going in, we were hungry so explored the nearby cafes looking for a snack. We found what I think is the best possible one! If you are facing the church, go down the left side, and go all the way to the end of the church. On your left will be La Flanerie Notre Dame. Their ham and cheese croissant was the best I’ve ever had, and they had a pistachio croissant and a pistachio milkshake that were to die for. This was the best food we had in Paris! Oh, and the flan! What they are named for! I am not a big fan of flan, but we got the almond flavored one and it was incredible.
Walking down that way also let us see some of the restoration work being done on the church, which was very extensive.
At this point, we had walked over 20,000 steps and I was losing it, so we got an uber to our next destination. We went to the Galleries de LaFayette so Matthew could return something, but we were also treated to a gorgeous view of the city from the roof!
After that, we made our way back to Matthew’s hotel to drop him off, then Joel and I got McDonald’s for dinner (don’t judge, we like trying it in new countries) and then took the 90+ minute journey back to our hotel. The next day was our long journey home, though we had fun eating at an “American” themed restaurant when we stopped to charge the car.
After that incredibly tiring (but fun!) week, it was home again in time to kick off Holy Week - my busiest work week of the year. I led Palm Sunday at Rogiet, then each night of the week we worship at a different church in town.
Good Friday is a holiday here, so we have a joint service in the morning. It is usually held outside, but this year we had to move inside due to the weather. We still had over 100 people in attendance which was amazing!
On Easter morning, we went to a sunrise service this year, held by the Magor Baptist church down at Black Rock. It was quite cold (about 40F) and the sun was only barely peeking through the clouds, but it was nice to be able to worship together before I was off to lead two services at Caldicot and Earlswood Valley.
Easter Monday is also a holiday here (so it’s a 4-day weekend for people who don’t work in a church, haha) so we went to spend the day with Amy and Ben and the kids. We played games, Amy made a huge homemade roast, and we just generally had an awesome day. Po was very excited to show me the gingerbread Easter scene she made featuring the empty tomb, the risen Jesus, and Mary Magdalene. I mean, how cute is that!
On Tuesday, I got my post-Easter massage and then we spent the day prepping the house for some visitors to arrive. On Wednesday the 23rd, my friend Fred arrived! Fred was the senior pastor at FUMC Ames when I was appointed there as the associate pastor, and we worked together for four years. He is also the minister who married Joel and me. He came with his friend Michael, and we started the visit off with some Welsh cakes from the local cafe, then a walk to Caldicot Castle, then a trip to Black Rock to see the sea, then dinner at the local pub. They were only going to be here till Saturday so we had to cram a lot in!
On Thursday the 24th, I took them on a whirlwind tour of the local area. We went to Caldicot Castle, had lunch and did some shopping in Tintern, visited Tintern Abbey, then we swung by the local dairy for ice cream from the shed before stopping at Earlswood Valley to show them the oldest Methodist Chapel in Wales. Then we went home to have tea and biscuits in the garden, before getting fish and chips from the local chippy for dinner. The weather was gorgeous and we got to eat dinner outside. It was a fabulous day!
On Friday the 25th we went into Cardiff for the day, and it was so much fun. We explored the arcades (covered shopping areas), went into the castle courtyard, and had lunch at a place I’ve been wanting to try for a while - New York Deli. The sandwiches were incredibly and we will definitely be eating here again. We also tried a new donut shop - Whocult. The donuts were delicious and look how cute!
After the city centre, we drove over to the bay area to explore as well. Fred really enjoyed going into the Wales Millennium Centre, as he is a big theatre fan. (And later he surprised us with a gift card so we can go see a show on him!)
Then we did something that was a first for Joel and me as well - we went on a boat tour of Cardiff Bay! We learned that the bay has only looked like this for about 25 years, when they built a dam to keep the water in the bay. Before that, when the tide receded twice a day, the whole area was just a muddy mess. Now it is gorgeous all the time. It was fun to get a view of the bay skyline from the water.
We had so much fun with Fred and Michael, they were great guests and travel companions. After another great pub dinner, it was an early evening to bed, then they were off to London the next day! Joel drove them into the city while I stayed home to catch up on work.
Saturday afternoon is when I went to the aforementioned quiz, which was a fundraiser held at the church. My team came in last place, so we got what is apparently a traditional last place prize here - a wooden spoon! I was very amused by the Bible verse they wrote on the spoon - Matthew 20:16. Go look it up and you’ll see why.
Thankfully, the last few days of the month were much less busy, though I did have a lot of work to catch up on! I promise I worked plenty this month, even though it mostly looks like I had fun. May is promising to be much more chill, but the rest of the summer will also be busy with visitors. I’m looking forward to it!
XOXO, Bethany