Day Seven ~ A day at the beach!

This morning we met Sarah, Rachel and Tony.  They brought Grace and Thea, youth from Shipley. Along with Jack, all the youth piled into the minibus with Sarah & Rachel to get to know each other, while Jo and Brian rode with Tony and we headed on our day’s adventure. After a two hour drive through York and the scenic North York Moors National Park, we arrived in Whitby, a fishing village on the eastern coast. We parked and walked through the village and up the 199 steps to the Whitby Abbey and the Parish Church of St. Mary. Established in the 600's by St. Hilda, it was the place of the Synod of Whitby and where the Celtic Christians decided on when Easter would take place. Cailin stated, "It is amazing to think people stood here so long ago and made decisions that still affect us today. There is such an aura about this place. You could definitely feel God around you in this place." After walking around for a few minutes we headed back to the minibus and retrieved our beach gear and down the cliffs to the beach we went. Most of the youth did get it the water, which was a cool 60 degrees. Nora, Cailin, Cole, Jack, Grace, Thea, Rachel, Sarah and Brian even went all the way in for a swim. It was a gorgeous day in Whitby, as the weather was around 85 and sunny. We had an hour or so to walk the village and do some shopping before a tea of fish & chips at Robertson's. After a pleasant day at the beach, we traveled back to Bradford to our hosts and called it an early night.