Superman Eats at Burger King

Superman saw my underwear. Does that mean he really DOES have x-ray vision? Not necessarily, but I guess I'd better explain...

I arrived in London late on Thursday night and quickly realised that I didn't have any clean clothes to wear the next day. I decided that, in order to hold things over until I got a chance to wash clothes the next day, I should try to find a place where I could buy a new pair of underwear for the morning. It was after midnight already, so I didn't know what the odds were that I would find an open shop at that hour, but as I was in central London I knew that it was at least a possibility. After walking around for a few minutes, I found a little newsagent's near Piccadilly Circus where my hotel is, and I noticed they were selling "souvenir" English boxers with the Union Jack on them. Not what I would typically choose, but I figured nobody would see my underwear anyhow. The important thing was that I would have something to wear when I got up in the morning!

So I picked them out and went to the cash register to make my purchase. I was shoulder to elbow with a really tall man who was in front of me in line. It turned out he was Brandon Routh, the guy who played Superman on the new film, Superman Returns. He was just out of the London premiere of the film & was also stopping in the shop for a few things. So Superman saw my underwear, but not with x-ray vision & not while I was wearing it!

I ran into him again at Burger King a little after midnight. He was directly in front of me in line again, and this time I noticed ironicly that there was a large poster hanging directly above his head that had a big picture of him on it and was advertising the new movie. Interestingly enough, however, nobody in the large crowd seemed to notice that it was him. I could tell that he seemed to want to just relax a bit after the big premiere earlier in the evening and so assumed he might not want attention to be called to his presence and to be bombarded with hundreds of autograph seekers (though he was standing right under a picture of himself!), so I decide not to say anything that might call unnecessary attention to him. I just discreetly commented to him saying, "Hey, that looks like you." He laughed and said, "Thank you."

Interestingly enough, today I was wishing that I could find Superman again because we could have used some help in a search for a missing child. I was hanging out with my friend, Veronica, who was visiting with an educational tour group with her son, Aaron, when one of the kids from the group went missing. We searched around the city for hours and ended up involving a host of security guards at a Turkish Festival we had passed through, as well as the London police department, in the search.

I remarked that if we had Superman on the case, surely he could find the boy! However, rather than calling out to Superman we just called out to God and continued the search until we received a phone call from the hotel saying that the lost boy had found his way to the hotel on his own and was safe and sound. The young lad certainly gave us a scare, but it at least made our day adventurous. It also gave us a chance to learn to know a number of fine London police officers, who were all very kind and helpful. Even after we confirmed that the boy had been found at the hotel, they insisted on sending two officers to stay with him for the two hours it would take us to get to the hotel ourselves and pick him up. When we finally arrived, they took us outside with the young boy so he could have a photo opportunity in front of their police car.

Those who follow my journal may have noticed that I have not posted to it in ages. I've been doing well though and have been as busy as every preaching and teaching all over the world, and things have been going great. I'm taking this week off, however, and am getting some rest before returning to a busy schedule of preaching in Africa, Scotland, America, Mexico and India over the next few months. For the next few days, I plan to do nothing but read books, eat good food, visit a few museums, and wander around the streets of London to see if I can find any more superheroes roaming these streets.