Arrived safely on Monday evening and got to bed at 10.30pm – 4.30am St Albans time. Seem to have spent the rest of the week waking up slightly less early each morning. It’s now Saturday morning and I feel like I’ve adjusted to the 6 hour difference. I’ve visited the church at Handley where I’ll be doing the majority of my preaching and – believe it or not – they seem fairly normal, although there was that man with two heads … Only joking. Just goes to show that you have to travel a long way from home to find that people are much the same wherever you go. I’m getting ready for my first service there tomorrow – Independence Day. The plan is to get out alive at the end without having offended anyone by suggesting that God is not on any one nation’s side. This is not the first time that I’ve visited the American South, but every State is different. However there are some consistent features: the confusing road intersections, the friendliness of shop and restaurant staff and the openness with which people talk about their faith – I saw a man in his thirties sitting reading a Bible in a shopping mall. That was one of the sights that will stick with me. Another is the sign outside a roadside diner that read ‘All you can eat Catfish’ – not something you would see outside Loch Fyne in Verulam Road. Speak to you soon. Love Simon