Bristol

Bristol has an estimated population of 433,100.  It is England's sixth and the United Kingdom's eighth most populous city.  It was granted city status when it received a Royal Charter in 1155.  In the 13th century it ranked in the top 3 English cities after London, alongside York and Norwich.

Some places of interest are Bristol Cathedral, St Mary Redcliffe Church, the Floating Harbour, and of course Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge.

It has 2 football (soccer for my American friends) League clubs: Bristol City and Bristol Rovers along with a number of non league teams.  There is also strong interest in rugby and cricket to name a few.

For more information, you can try Google or even Wikipedia.

Memories of Bristol

As previously mentioned, just over 30 years ago, I received a call to the England Bristol Mission.

Just after Christmas 1981, and just before New Years, I boarded a National Express coach at Norwich Bus Station for my journey into the mission field.  I went via Victoria Bus Station in London, where I changed coaches, and stopped at Heathrow Airport.  I wondered if there were any other missionaries who were flying in that day, and although there seemed to be many possibilities, none of the sat together but sat all over the coach.  One lady traveller sat a couple of rows behind me on the opposite side of the coach.  Arriving at Bristol Bus Station, I was meet by the Assistants to the Mission President, and this lady joined us - she was a sister missionary from Denmark!!!  Later we joked about it all - it seems she also was wondering if I was a missionary!!  Later that day I went with one of the Assistants to meet another missionary at Bristol Temple Meads railway station.  I would later become quite familiar with the place as when we moved we normally went via train (especially if we went from Wales to the southern parts of the mission), or if we had to travel from Bath (my first area) to Bristol for zone conferences we often caught the train.  Our Zone Conferences were normally held at the Wells Road Chapel, and I just remember walking there, though I doubt I could remember the way now.

I never got to serve in Bristol itself - the closest I got was Bath, but the Mission Home/Office was there and the first few days of my mission were spent there.  It's all a bit of a haze now, but they were good times, and I'm so happy that Zac, Elder Mitchell, is indeed following in my footsteps.