Do Not Be Anxious

"Do not be anxious about anything, 

but in everything, by prayer and petition, 

with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, 

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

-Philippians 4:6-7

Story of my life.  Well, at least this has been the theme for a good two months now.  Thanks to my good friend Laura, not only is it memorized, but it is memorized to a jingle!  Check it out here.  And while you're at it check out other Seeds Family Worship videos.  They use kinetic typography, along with a catchy tune, to help make the memorization process all the easier.  Sure, it's meant for kids, but adults needs these things, too.

So there I was singing "Do not be anxious" for a variety of reasons as I tramped around London and now I find myself back in the States still needing it.  What gives?  I thought part of what I was anxious for was to go home.  I've found myself looking at the inevitable return to London with dread.  WHY??  Everyone else seems to love it.  I hear about how awesome people think being in London is all the time, but for some reason I can't share in their enthusiasm.  There's a lot of cool stuff and I've met some awesome people, so WHY can't I embrace it and have the time of my life like everyone seems to think a year in London should be or says theirs was or has been??

Cause it's not where my heart is.  Virginia is my home.  China is my passion.  So just why did the Lord lead me to London?  Of course the masters degree has something to do with it, but there's always something else.  Maybe it was to help me more clearly understand where my heart is.  And I think I'm learning about waiting.

A few mornings ago, I opened my Bible and the first thing I saw was this:

"Until the time came to fulfill his dreams, the LORD tested Joseph's character."

-Psalm 105:19

Then I'm like, "Ohhhhh no."  The day before, a friend of mine had said, "I have a better analogy for you than London being a fiery furnace.  It's more like our being refined like a Hertzler refines a pig slowly for a roast."  So I asked if I would be edible by the time I get back.  He said no because we're not done roasting until heaven.  Short buddy has some wisdom between his ears.

I found myself praying that I wouldn't just squeak by but pass with flying colors.  But that verse led me to think of this:

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life."

-Proverbs 13:12

So if deferring dreams makes the heart sick, why am I being told to wait, wait, wait?  Because waiting on God is trusting in God.  It's trusting he knows the right time, the right place, and the right people.  It's trusting he's had it all figured out before time began.  It's trusting that he has a very good reason to say, "Wait."  It's learning the discipline of not trying to control things myself but instead depending on God to see them through in his way and in his time.

"But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. 

They will soar high on wings like eagles. 

They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint."

-Isaiah 40:31

"Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. 

I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand."

-Isaiah 41:10

 I have been chewing on this post for about a week and yesterday the sermon at New Life provided a nice little capstone.  "Don't ever give up on the God that's never given up on you.  Life is hard.  God is still God.  Don't give up."  Pain and suffering come to all people.  God never promised that being in the middle of his will is 'safe.'  It's safe in an eternal sense, but it doesn't mean pain won't happen in this life.  Just ask Jesus.  Or the disciples.  Dying on the cross or getting martyred wasn't exactly a walk in the park.  Pain came to Job even though God referred to him as a righteous man because God wanted to illustrate a point, use it to teach, and bless Job more in the latter part of his life than in the first.  There is no karma in the Bible.  God simply takes care of his own.  Are you going to allow your circumstances to define your theology or are you going to allow your theology to define your circumstances?  Maybe God has you on the insane boat that's going through the rapids while others are quietly drifting down the river.  Enjoy the journey that God has you on.  You're on it for a reason.

"'My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,' says the LORD.

'And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.'"

-Isaiah 55:8

 So in the meantime,

"Wait patiently for the LORD.  Be brave and courageous.  Yes, wait patiently for the LORD."

-Psalm 27:14

"Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him."

 -Psalm 62:5

"While I'm Waiting" by John Waller - A jam for the season.

He Loves Me

Two weeks ago, on December 5th, I was at the weekly Monday night Christian Union meeting on my campus.  After the meeting, people were eating mince pies among other things for the CU Christmas party.  I've been gluten free for nearly two years thanks to an unexplained intolerance, so I wasn't eating any of it.  One of the guys in the group told me that he used to be lactose intolerant, but God healed him and now he can eat whatever he wants.  He asked to pray for me.  I said sure.  A couple nights later, he messaged me and asked if I had eaten any gluten yet.  I said no.  He asked why not.  I said I felt like that guy in the Bible who said 'Yes, I believe but help me with my unbelief!'  I took the leap of faith and ate some.  The next morning I had one brief, sharp stab of pain but nothing else.  I actually felt really good.  No smoldering pain.  No stay in bed pain.  No swollen nastiness.  No super fatigue.  Leaping again, I ate one more thing.  Still I was fine.  The next morning I had cinnamon rolls and went for a run.  I was wondering if this was for real.  I wondered if it was going to suddenly catch up to me.  I wondered if I should say anything to people lest it prove to be untrue.

I have a lot of good God time when I run and during this run I was asking all of those questions.  God's answer?  Went something like this:  "You believe I can heal.  You've seen me heal.  You would believe this for another person.  So why won't you believe I would do this for you?"

BAM.  Smackdown God style.  Smackdowned by love.

Why can it be hard to accept God's love?  Why is it hard to just let him love me?  I think somehow there is still a part of me that wants to earn God's love.  That wants to earn praise and recognition as if it's a matter of sport performance or class ranking.  A part of me that wants to be like, "Look, Daddy!  Look what I've done!  See you can be proud of me!"  But it is completely unnecessary.  God loves me no matter what I do, just as my earthy daddy loved me on both good days and bad.  Yet it is so easy to fall into the 'I need to earn it' trap.  So easy to say, "Oh well, I deserve this problem because I mess up way too much.  Yes, God could heal me, but he sees my heart and knows there's still darkness there.  He's saved me, but I shouldn't ask for more than that.  I'm too unworthy.  Let someone else who fights the battle better than me have the blessing."

But the Word of God says,

"If God is for us, who can ever be against us?  Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?  Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own?  No one - for God himself has given us right standing with himself.  Who then will condemn us?  No one - for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us.  Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?  Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?... No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love.  Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow - not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below - indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

-Romans 8:31-39

"He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter..."

-Romans 9:23

God wants to lavish his love upon us not because we deserve it but because it glorifies his name.  We who accept his love, accept his sacrifice upon the cross, accept reconciliation, accept his preeminence, accept his omnipresence, his omnipotence, his divine Lordship, his perfection, his wisdom, 'do' not because we need to seek approval but because we have approval and rejoice in it.  We rejoice in its freedom.  We rejoice because he loves us.

Today I ate gluten.  Tomorrow I will eat gluten.  Not because I deserve it but because my Heavenly Father wants to teach me how much he loves me.  How much he loves all of us.  How much he cares about even the little things.  Because let's face it, a gluten intolerance, as annoying as it is, is not the worst problem a person could have.  But yet, he has healed it to woo my heart another step closer to his.

"Look, I am making everything new!"

-Revelation 21:5

Don't fight him.  He loves you.  He wants to be mighty in your life.  He invites you to be his bride.  Have you said yes?  Have you come to the alter?  Have you said 'I do'?  Have you come to the only one able to save?  To wash you white as snow?  To make you new?

"But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners."

-Romans 5:8

Oh Jesus, lover of my soul.

London Adventures: Dec 5-15

I'll say this first: I'M HOME!  After class yesterday morning, I hung out with the Messersmiths a bit before they gave me a ride to the airport.  My plane took off an hour late, but I eventually landed in DC at around 9:15pm EST.  To my surprise, my brother, Bobby, and his girlfriend picked me up and I guess we were having too good of a time chatting which led to Bobby following the beltway into Maryland and we didn't get home until midnight even though we left the airport around 10... whoops!  At that point my body was thinking that it was 5am, so I hit the pillow.  So exciting to be back!!

School:
 Spent my time studying for my Silk Road exam and using the physical library sources while I could for my essays due the first week back from Christmas.  I think the exam went well...

Work:
 Topics have still been going on about American vs English words and foods... they can't grasp the concept of an American biscuit.

Church:
Sang Silent Night as a trio with Corinne and Lisa for the morning service and then we had the Christmas Cantata in the evening.  Voice = shot.  I don't know how I sang the soprano of Silent Night but I did and then later ended up lip syncing any "high" alto or long notes... but the program was fun and the food delicious. :)

Randoms:
 "Watched" the six Messersmith kids last Thursday... Emily doesn't really need watching and is more like an extra watcher, so maybe more like watched five.  Crazy times!

Dinner with four of the five flatmates on Saturday night.  Everyone made something.  Therefore it was Chinese food plus sweet potato casserole.  Then Wednesday night, my last night, four of us hung out eating ice cream and tang yuen.  So great that we are finally getting to know each other!

Perseverance

"That is why we never give up.  

Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.  

For our present troubles are small and won't last very long.  

Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!  

So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; 

rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.  

For the things we see now will soon be gone, 

but the things we cannot see will last forever."

-2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Perseverance.

I remember when I learned that word.  My 8th grade English teacher used it to describe me after the Middle School County Championship softball game.  Leaving the dugout, I had been heading over to the on deck circle, talking to my teammate who was first up that inning and already there.  Unfortunately, she didn't hear me and decided to swing the bat just as I walked by.  Fortunately, I saw it coming and was able to block the bat from hitting my face.  Unfortunately, that meant my hand got smacked right on the metacarpal V (the bone connecting your pinky finger to all your little wrist bones).  Fortunately, later I found out it was not broken, just incredibly bruised.  In the meantime, however, I still had to bat and play catcher with an out of commission left (catching) hand.

I remember when I memorized those verses out of 2 Corinthians.  I was in a Chinese hospital going through something I would never wish upon anyone.  Basically I spent a month and a half in and out of three different Chinese hospitals and, at the time of memorization, I was in the middle of having a procedure done that I don't exactly recommend and also in the middle of my longest single stay.  It was about a week and a half and consisted of just about every test imaginable (without anesthesia), no food, and no Internet or global phone (only sporadic contact with the US when someone from my organization would Skype call my Chinese phone).  Eventually, this whole thing culminated in an unnecessary appendectomy all because I'm apparently intolerant of gluten.  Doesn't sound real does it?  I was being stretched in ways and having my limits tested more than ever before.  In some ways I still feel like I'm recovering from it.  I would be lying if I said it wasn't a traumatic experience that I'm still working out the repercussions of.  I am not the same.

"... Your strength comes from God's grace..." - Hebrews 13:9

But there is something good that I experienced to a greater degree than before: Spiritual food, the Word of God, sustained me in ways nothing else could.  I clung to my Bible; I clung to the promises of God.

"The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes.  

He is close to those who trust in him." - Nahum 1:7

God tells us that his grace is sufficient for us.  That he's all we need (2 Corinthians 12:9).  In verse 10 Paul states, "For when I am weak, then I am strong."  God shows up powerfully in our weaknesses to be our strength, to help us overcome.  Kind of like when I had that bashed up hand and my teammate "became" my second hand to get that victory cheeseburger into my mouth (we won by the way).  God is more than able to get us through whatever situation we're in.  Whether we be sick, hurting, lonely, forgotten, tired, anxious, overwhelmed, discouraged, frustrated, used, abused, hungry, thirsty, poor, persecuted, sad, mourning or anything else, God is mighty among us.

"The Lord says, 'I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.  I will advise you and watch over you.'" - Psalm 32:8

"See, I care about you, and I will pay attention to you..." - Ezekiel 36:9

"I will never fail you.  I will never abandon you." - Hebrews 13:5

I don't know about you but for me those words feel like a massive hug being wrapped around me.  It's God the Father holding me, whispering, "Don't worry, it'll be okay.  We're in this together."

London Adventures: Nov 28 - Dec 4

I can't believe it's December!!

School: 
The week culminated on Thursday morning when I finished and turned in my first grad school essay.  I'm so excited that's over with!!!!!  I then proceeded to sleep 15 hours that afternoon/night.

On Wednesday I didn't have class because of a massive strike by the faculty about their pensions.  The extra two hours to work on my essay were okay by me!  Many students joined the protests and were trying to prevent anyone from entering any of the university's buildings.  I had to fight through them to get into the library because I needed to look at an article again to finish that essay.  That was interesting.  Something I've noticed while being here is that the British love to protest.

I finally found out what my student number at SOAS is, figured out their library system, and checked out a book from there for one of my next essays!  SOAS is the School of Oriental and African Studies, another branch of the University of London network.  One of my classes is there, so I had to do a bunch of intercollegiate paperwork that no one really bothered to explain to me, took forever to process, etc., etc... anyways bottom line is that it's done and this may sound like I haven't been in their library but I have.  I just couldn't check things out and had a hard time figuring out why the reference numbers given with the books in the catalog didn't match up with their location!!

Next order of business: Get all the research done that requires my physical presence at one of the libraries here before going home for Christmas because I have two essays larger than that first due the first week back from break!

Work:
Started working two regular shifts this week.  I'm definitely happy about that, but this week it was a little annoying since they're on Tuesday and Wednesday and I had that essay due Thursday!  Fun times comparing American and British English though lol...

Hockey:
We played the last game of the fall season (which is the first half of the full season) on Saturday and won 3-1 even though we were down 1-2 players the entire game!  That's some good zone defense for you haha!!  And I may or may not have taken someone out... 0:)

Church:
We've got another young adult!  I'm not going to try to spell her name right now.  She's from the Netherlands and pretty cool.

The last practice for the Christmas Cantata was this afternoon because it's in a week!  I can't believe it's that close!  And rehearsal had a lot of shenanigans today.  Guess that's what happens when you run through the same program you've been doing for months twice in a row!  Wise men "riding camels" and the men's section breaking out into some sort of zumba shuffle... yeah...

Randoms:
Friday night I cooked Chinese food for the Messersmiths and despite my killing of the spring roll wrappers it was still a success.  I figured the littlest kids would use forks but no they insisted on figuring out the chopsticks.  It was cute!

Saturday night I went to Meghan's for a tree trimming party.  For the first time in my life I used tinsel and strung up popcorn and cranberries to wrap around the tree.  We also created a 'bonfire' in the grill on their deck facing the canal.  Of course this was essential being that we're a bunch of archaeologists.  Field school memories :)

Yesterday I suddenly realized just how close it is to time to fly home for Christmas!  As of tonight, I will be Stateside in 11 days!!  Landing at Dulles the evening of Dec 15 - crazy!!!

And happy birthday to my favorite Katie Bird!  We need another joint birthday party.  Speaking of which, just when did ten years pass since our first one????  More craziness.

London Adventures: Nov 14-27

Hmm I'm thinking this listing the highlights thing that I did last time is going to be best from now on.  Now that I'm well into classes and all I don't see the need to give a day-by-day account of class, work, and study.  I'll try to just hit particularly interesting things and maybe I bit of what I'm thinking during this time.  Also, hopefully I'll get back on task of a weekly update... my bad!

School:
- Essays!!  Just to clarify something, if I say essay here it's not a short couple pages.  My experience in the States says an 'essay' is short and a 'paper' is long.  Here everything is an essay, not a paper.  Also, at the master's level you are writing a 'dissertation', not a 'master's thesis.'  Another thing is that they have a specified length by number of words instead of number of pages.  Thank goodness there is a word count tool in Microsoft Word!

- Two essays were scheduled to be due before Christmas break and I was starting to get stressed about it because I was definitely behind in research due to all of the time I've spent sick.  I am pleased to say though that one of those essays is now due after break!!  Takes a lot of stress off of me these next few weeks.  I still need to get a lot done before break though because since I'll be home I won't have access to anything in our libraries that isn't online.  Since now I have two essays due that first week back, it looks like I'll need to be writing a lot over break.  Goal is to get pretty much all of the research done before I leave.  This is so weird because I haven't had courses that lasted all year since high school!  Everything since then has only lasted a semester, meaning no work over Christmas!  For now I still need to finish that essay due coming up on Thursday, Dec 1.  I can't believe it's about to be December already!  And I'm so behind again due to being sick again this weekend ahhhhh...

- My Chinese Archaeology class had a 'field trip' of sorts to the British Museum.  So awesome that it's connected to campus.  I can walk in and out of it whenever I want.  It's really neat to see artifacts we've been talking about in class in person.  And my Silk Road Archaeology class had class in the British Library, only a 10 minute walk from campus.  They brought things out of storage for us.  We got to see documents and books from the Silk Road that are over 1000 years old!

Work:
- My shifts have been sporadic but thankfully next week I start working regulars.

Dorm Life:
- My flatmates and I are all officially Facebook friends with a group forum to communicate!  lol it took long enough!!


- Within one 24 hour period I lost my keys and got locked in our bathroom.  Where the keys went, I still don't understand because I used them to get IN so they must be in the flat but we've turned the place upside down and still can't find them, meaning I had to pay for new ones.  Grrr.

The locked in the bathroom thing... yeah sounds weird but it really did happen.  And it happened just before 4am.  Woke up, needed a bathroom break, went in and couldn't get out.  It's a deadbolt and as I turned the lock it just kept turning and turning without moving the deadbolt.  I stood there thinking this must be a dream but soon realized it wasn't and was determined not to spend the rest of the night sleeping in the tub.  Since it was then very early on a Saturday morning, I knew it would be a very long while before my flatmates woke up.  The bathroom is on the inside of the building, so no windows, the door opens inward (so no kicking it down), and the hinges have screws on the inside of the door frame (so no prying them off, not that I had a tool anyway).  I was yanking and picking away at the frame around the deadbolt when one of my flatmates, Xiao, woke up, heard something, and came to investigate.  So happy he found me!!!  After he tried kicking down the door and slipped a knife under for me to try to use, he went and got Tianyi (another flatmate).  Tianyi had a tool kit, not surprising he's the engineering major, and freed me by taking the entire lock off the door.  By this time it was 5am and I was sooooo glad to be out!  My hockey teammates were very amused by this story later on that day... I even got voted the "idiot" (for lack of a better term, and in an endearing way of course) of the game for it.  How that story was relevant in the voting I don't know... but at least I had votes for "Man of the Match" as well lol.

And I'd like to add that when I told a member of staff here about it she was just like "oh that happens all the time"... ????

Hockey:
- I'm still playing for the Accies.  This past Saturday I played for both the 1s and 2s.  During the 2s game we only had 10 players the whole game and we were playing the team on top of our league.  We lost but managed to hold them scoreless the second half and only lose by 1!  Very busy game in the backfield.  They better watch out for when we play them next round.  Still reveling in how super fun it is to have hockey a couple times a week.  I love how it is a game for all ages here.

Church:
- Corinne, another 20-something, moved here from Canada!
- The Messersmiths rescued me in my illness this Sunday.  I was starting to feel pretty bad again on Saturday and was feeling just horrible by Sunday afternoon.  They said I looked like death warmed over.  Lovely.  Slept on their couch all afternoon and took over the guest room that night.  Felt so much better in the morning!  I think London life would be miserable without the people of CBC.

Thanksgiving:
- Unfortunately, I for the first time had class on Thanksgiving, BUT fortunately it was in the morning so I was completely free to enjoy Thanksgiving afternoon and night at the Messersmith's along with Paula, Bobby, Rachel, and another American family from outside of London.  Oh and Corinne the Canadian was permitted to join after work in the evening seeing as she's a North American haha.  Paula and Lisa did the cooking, Pastor Steve did the turkey, and it was delicious!!!  Lisa even made a gluten free pumpkin pie!

Randoms:
- I will be running the Paris Marathon in April!

London Adventures Oct 31 - Nov 13

Ok I'm just going to admit failure on this one, try to give the gist, and move on...

Halloween happened to be on Monday which meant CU and it was a really good night.  Sang on the worship team and was particularly moved by "Beautiful" by Phil Wickham:

When we arrive at eternity's shore
Where death is just a memory and tears are no more
We'll enter in as the wedding bells ring
Your bride will come together and we'll sing
You're beautiful, You're beautiful, You're beautiful

(I highly recommend his entire Singalong album by the way).  Another line states, "Soon we will be coming home."  How true.

Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.

Remind me that my days are numbered - how fleeting my life is.

You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.

My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.

-Psalm 39:4-5

The question of course is where will you spend ETERNITY after this brief life.  "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard" (Romans 3:23).  His glorious standard is the Ten Commandments, given to us simply to show our need for Him.  Imagine sin as a bunch of stickers and for every sin you commit a sticker is stuck to you.  That means every lie (even "white lies"), every stolen item (even that paperclip at work), every hateful thought (Jesus said to hate someone is to murder them in your heart), every lustful thought (Jesus said to look upon someone with lust is to commit adultery with them in your heart) and the list goes on.  For even just one sticker you are marked with sin and cannot enter Heaven.  Nothing you can do will 'earn' your way to Heaven.  Just 'being a good person' is not enough because none of us is truly good.  

Yet, "God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners" (5:8).  "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord" (6:23).  Sin leads to death and an eternity separated from God because in His perfection He cannot look upon sin.  But praise be to God that He provided a way to be cleansed!  "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved" (10:9-10).  When we confess Jesus is Lord, Jesus' righteousness covers us like a giant robe and hides all of our imperfections.  It is then through Jesus Christ that we can enter God's presence and spend eternity with him in Heaven.

I praise God that I know where Dad is.  The night that he died a good friend of mine had a dream.  She didn't know he had died that night until after she woke up.  She saw him standing with his arms spread wide, a huge smile on his face, meeting Jesus.  Such a glorious confirmation of God's Word when Jesus said, "Don't let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God, and trust also in me.  There is more than enough room in my Father's home.  If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?  When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.  And you know the way to where I am going" (John 14:1-4).  Friends, it is because I love you that I say this.  I pray that I will meet all of you in Heaven.  Put your trust in Jesus.

---------------

Baked a chocolate cake in honor of what would've been my dad's 68th birthday.  Chocolate icing and ice cream along with it of course!

Spent these past two weeks finally getting into what I guess would be normal life here after all that time sick.  Started running and working out again.  Most of the time I've been pretty sore, but it feels so good!  Began practicing with the Accies Thursday nights.  So weird that training is only once a week.  2-0 shutout win on Saturday the 5th and played center forward on Saturday the 12th - HA.  Technically scored, too, if the ref had held for advantage like you're supposed to (I shot the ball after it rebounded off of a defender's foot and as it held no advantage for the defender to have the ball hit her foot the foul should not have been called).

Began research for my essays that are due before Christmas.  I feel so out of practice!  I haven't written a paper in two and a half years!

Guy Fawkes Bonfire Night Nov 5 - Remember, Remember the Fifth of November

Visited Cambridge on Nov 11 with Rachel and James.  James did his undergrad there, so he was the tour guide.  First time out of London!  Loved the campus and town!

Alive Again

This pretty much sums up the past month:

I woke up in darkness
Surrounded by silence
Oh where, where have I gone?

I woke to reality Losing its grip on me
Oh where, where have I gone?
'Cause I can see the light
Before I see the sunrise

You called and You shouted
Broke through my deafness
Now I'm breathing in and breathing out
I'm alive again

You shattered my darkness
Washed away my blindness
Now I'm breathing in and breathing out
I'm alive again

"Alive Again" Matt Maher (listen) 

When thinking of October 2011, I think of a black hole. I feel like I've emerged out of a huge black cloud that had me both physically and mentally down. It's as if suddenly I can see everything around me and rejoice in its beauty. It's as if suddenly I'm ALIVE.

"Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. 
Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."
-Romans 12:2

"And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. 
For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. 
But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 
And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying,
for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will. 
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good
of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."
-Romans 8:26-28

"Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? 
Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity,
or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?...
No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us."
-Romans 8:35, 37

It's also funny how sometimes you can give something up to God, being truly content whether or not you ever have or do that thing again, and then God just hands it right back saying, "Here, it's a gift. It's always been a gift, but now that you understand a little more of how it comes from me, you're ready to receive it again."

"Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, 

the glory, the victory, and the majesty.

Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, 

O Lord, and this is your kingdom.  

We adore you as the one who is over all things.  

Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything.  

Power and might are in your hand, 

and at your discretion people are made great and given strength.

O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name!  

But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you?  

Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us!

-1 Chronicles 29:11-14

Happy Birthday Dad

But those who die in the Lord will live;

their bodies will rise again!

Those who sleep in the earth

will rise up and sing for joy!

For your life-giving light will fall like dew on your people in the place of the dead!

-Isaiah 26:19

Praise the Lord!

For he has heard my cry for mercy.

The Lord is my strength and shield.

I trust him with all my heart.

He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy.

I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.

The Lord gives his people strength.

-Psalm 28:6-8

Honor the Lord, you heavenly beings;

honor the Lord for his glory and strength.

Honor the Lord for the glory of his name.

Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.

The voice of the Lord is powerful;

the voice of the Lord is majestic.

The Lord reigns as king forever.

The Lord gives his people strength.

The Lord blesses them with peace.

-Psalm 29:1-2, 4, 10-11

Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones!

Praise his holy name.

Weeping may last through the night,

but joy comes with the morning.

You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.

You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,

that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.

O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!

-Psalm 30:4-5, 11-12

In Loving Memory
Linwood "Marty" West, Jr.

Dad, "The Great Pumpkin"

b. October 31, 1943

d. May 16, 2006

"Temporary situation"

"Seek the Lord, all who are humble, and follow his commands. 
Seek to do what is right and to live humbly."
-Zephaniah 2:3

London Adventures: Oct 24-30

Monday:  No repercussions from last night's rice pudding, so I buttered my toast this morning!  The day consisted of snacking, reading, and realizing my Monday class wasn't meeting this week.  The professor went somewhere this week, so he moved reading week to this week.  This means we have class during reading week... kind of not cool.  Walked to campus today and it felt awesome to be outside moving around.  I love that the ivy on buildings is turning red.  Also may finally be completely, officially enrolled in my SOAS class!  Was able to collect the paperwork from UCL, get my professor's signature and return it to the SOAS office.  Something I find interesting is that my name apparently doesn't blend in with the British the way I thought it would.  Erin isn't really given here.  "Eren" is a male name, but isn't very common.  My professor was surprised to see that I'm female!  Went to CU and had a great time continuing to get to know people and hearing about the weekend away.

Tuesday:  Walked to AND from campus today!  Exciting!!  That's a total of five miles.  I can't wait to be running again.  I'm afraid of getting a true workout and setting off the sickness again though.  The day was literally spent reading anywhere between a green spot outside, a coffee shop, and the library.

Wednesday:  Reading, reading, class, CBC Bible study, reading, reading, reading.  First late night of the semester.  Using dictionary.com a lot for these readings...

Thursday:  CU morning prayer, class, paid psych research participation, reading (for fun!) in Starbucks, wandered through Camden Town Market.  Met a South African from my dorm going to the bus station in the morning (didn't get up early enough to walk... felt pretty crappy from the short night most of the day actually) and had a fun conversation comparing British culture to our own.  One thing noted by both of us is that Brits just DO NOT get up in the morning like people at home do!  Everything is so dead in the morning and coffee shops, gyms, and libraries don't open anywhere close to as early!  A good end to the day: one of my flatmates from China made Xi'an style Chinese food that I got a sampling of as well as legit Chinese green tea!

Friday:  I love not having Friday classes.  It's like an extra day to the weekend.  Met up with Meghan to walk to campus.  Read.  Went to Burough Market, curious to see if it was decorated for Halloween.  I expected at least that the various venders would have Halloween style goods, like cupcakes/cookies at the bakery stands with orange and black icing, but they didn't!  Only one stand had pumpkins.  It had the little mini ones and you could decorate them.  Oh, well, still had fun exploring, especially because my new friend Rachel from CU (another American!) met me there.  Tried Turkish delight with Turkish coffee... delish!!  I always wondered what Turkish delight was in the Chronicles of Narnia books... also got a gluten free carrot cake from the GF bakery stand - YUM.  Explored Camden Town Market a bit more on my way home. 

Saturday:  Hockey day!!!  It was so fun to play again!  The game was in Richmond.  Haha it's so funny how there's an American equivalent to so many places here.  I had gotten an e-mail from the team captain asking me to fill in this weekend in goal.  She had gotten my e-mail from someone in the UCL hockey club.  The team is the Accademicals ("Accies" pronounced "Akies" for short).  They want me to keep playing for them and I'm thinking that I will since they actually train and compete at times that fit my schedule!  The level of play wasn't any where near what I'm used to, but at this point I could care less and just want to play.  It began as a club for UCL alumni, so their uniforms have the UCL crest on them which is pretty cool since I can't play for the actual UCL club.  The opposition tried to steal me away to their clubhouse to get me playing on one of their teams after the game.  That was awkward... but a compliment I guess.  Speaking of compliments, I seem to have made an appearance at the Longwood Chi Alpha Halloween party last night... as a costume! LOL.  Alexa you are too funny.  So if you've been wondering about all the Facebook pictures that have gone up with me at Longwood, that's your explanation!

Sunday:  Clocks fell back and hour, so I'm temporarily only four hours ahead of EST.  Light morning run - first since all the sickness!!  CBC morning service, Fun-o-ween (kids running around the church basement in costumes consuming sugar), choir practice, evangelism course, evening service, ice cream with the Joe and Judith.  Wore my traditional Chinese top for Fun-o-ween, a bit reminiscent of last year but oh well. 

"We will not abide in victory unless we first abide in obedience to God's Word." - Pastor Steve

London Adventures: Oct 17-23

Monday:  The flu hit me during the night (does it ever hit during the day??) and I spent several hours on the bathroom floor.  The whole day is just a feverish blur.  Missed a class.  Not happy about that.  Really not good when they only meet once a week.  At about 9:30pm the Jerkins from church brought me medicine and Gatorade which I am SUPER thankful for!  I didn't have any and could barely walk across my room let alone go out to buy things.  When they arrived I was shaking head to toe with the fever.  Medicine definitely calmed it down!!

Tuesday:  Still sick but not as bad as yesterday!  The meds must have helped me sleep because I don't know the last time I slept for so long or so soundly!  Stayed in my cave.  At least I can think and process things today so I managed to get some reading done.  Though I'm definitely better than yesterday, my throat is threatening to get sore again, so I'm nervous about that.  Britain doesn't like me very much it seems... on that note: booked my flight home for Christmas!  I'll be State-side Dec 15 - Jan 5!!

Wednesday:  Still sick.  Read what I could before class and made it there though.  Dizzy by the end of it, so didn't make it to CBC for mid-week Bible study.  Stopped in the library on the way back to the dorm because my Thursday class is one you HAVE to read for or else you are completely lost because it's a class discussion about the readings, not a lecture.  Rested, then read as fast as I could!

Thursday:  Still sick.  Made it to class and felt accomplished that I could participate after last night's cram session.  Went to T-Mobile and topped up my phone so now I can communicate like a normal person.  Going to the T-Mobile store had taken me halfway back anyway, so I continued walking since I was feeling pretty decent.  Saw two people dressed up as American football players!  That was not something I was expecting!  Apparently they were promoting a pub or sports bar of some kind that's going to be showing a game this weekend.  Grocery store for more tea and crackers.  Found GF ginger biscuits which I'm excited about.  Chilled the rest of the afternoon/evening.  Thursdays are kind of like Fridays for me right now because I don't have classes Friday.

I enjoyed the sight even if they were wearing Romo jerseys... 

As Englishmen, they're clearly just confused!

Friday:  Still sick and seem to have relapsed since yesterday's improvement.  Tried to fight it.  Finished the "Seasons" blog post I started yesterday.  Went to the bank to pay for the CU Weekend Away (like the XA Fall Retreat) and deposit my first pay check!  Went to work.  Only lasted an hour.  Felt awful.  Bus on the way home suddenly had to terminate a few stops before mine so had to walk farther than usual which was not good for me at this point.  Spent 20-30 mins laying the in grass in a park enjoying the sunshine and trying to gather energy.  Got back and napped for the rest of the afternoon.  Didn't leave for the weekend away.  Really disappointed about that.

Saturday:  Still sick.  Stayed in.  Lots of reading, online chatting, and napping.  This is when a movie marathon with friends would be useful.


Sunday:  Still sick.  SO bored of my room.  Really glad to go to church and risked it even though I was afraid of my body freaking out from the exertion of getting there.  Really weak on arrival but had Gatorade in my water bottle and drank it throughout the service and it perked me up a bit.  Started going really downhill in the early afternoon and doubted my ability to stick around, but it worked out (maybe it was the Coke after choir practice lol).  Choir practice went well, the evangelism course began, and then evening service. 

"If God puts something in your heart - JUST DO IT.  No 'yeah, but...'s.'  God takes the unimaginable and makes it manageable.  GOD IS ABLE.  Be a person of God who can see past the difficulties like Joshua and Caleb!" -Pastor Steve

Back in my room now.  Heart is happy after today.  Taking a leap of faith with rice pudding.  Lisa says it helped in their household after they all had the flu a few weeks ago.  I'm thinking maybe it's time to see if my body will handle something other than toast and crackers.  It has been a week.  Here goes nothing!

Seasons

If you were to ask me what my favorite season is I would tell you the fall.  Fall is just absolutely gorgeous with the leaves changing, decorating both the trees and the ground (and Virginia is clearly the winner on this).  Leaves crunch as you walk and no one is too old to deliberately jump in them.  It's not too cold and not too hot.  You can break out the hoodies in the mornings and evenings when the air is crisp but take them off as the sun warms the mid-day and you can still run in just shorts and a T-shirt.  Fall also brings pumpkins!  And boy do I love pumpkin everything!  Pumpkin pie, pancakes, muffins, lattes, bread, ice cream, candy corn (the pumpkin shaped pieces!!) and even stir-fried (thanks China!)... And apples!  Hot apple cider, pie, crisp, baked apples, caramel apples...  not to mention that fall includes the warm fuzziness of looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas!  Add in hayrides, campfires, s'mores, and how about sports?  Personally it's always been the championship season for field hockey, so it's historically been full of rivalries and intense competition that you've been training for all year.  The World Series to cap off the sport I grew up on.  And the start of football season.  I mean seriously.  Fall is AWESOME.

BUT.  Fall leads to winter.  My least favorite season.  Once you get past Christmas and New Year's, it's just cold.  Things are only pretty if there's snow.  And snow is fun... for a while.  It's hard to run in snow (though Jennie and I have done it).  Running on a treadmill just isn't the same.  And even if there isn't snow you have to bundle up to run and bear with either being really cold until you warm up or really hot once you warm up.  And, yes, I know you get hot once you warm up other parts of the year, too, but I would much rather be hot because it's hot outside than hot because I have too many clothes on and then have to deal with sweaty winter clothes clinging to me.  And then the chill between cooling down and jumping in a hot shower!  It gets dark early and the sun rises late.  Noses are runny.  No outdoor batting practice or you'll break your bat.  Fake tans look exceptionally orange (not that I've ever had this problem).  People coughing in the library.  These are just a few of my least favorite things...

This year all of this looks different.  Fall is... too cold.  I'm already in a scarf and hat.  I'm not in Virginia (at least when I was in China I missed fall because it stayed warm and the leaves didn't change).  The scattering of trees in London doesn't cut it.  People don't eat pumpkin.  I don't have a hockey team.  I can't watch the sports games I want and have yet to see candy corn.  Oh and I'm sick... three weeks of being sick.  Some sort of sore throat/head cold virus and now the flu?  I feel like I skipped fall and plunged into winter.  Can someone say take me home country roads?  Yes, I said country roads.  I've decided I'm not truly a city person.  My suburban nature likes to retreat away from the city center and find more space.

All that being said, I just want to make it clear that I don't hate it here.  There are good things here, too.  I just don't feel like it's where I want to set up permanent residence.  Which is okay since I'm not committed to that.  And maybe right now it has something to do with being sick and having to figure out new systems.  We'll see.

Anyway, the reason I got on that topic is because of seasons.  Life's seasons.  Life has so many more than just four seasons.  And they don't always come in a predictable order, for a predictable time, or in a predictable cycle.  Sometimes we're in one season much more than others.  And sometimes we repeat seasons much more than others.  And not everybody is in the same season.  If you think about it though, nature's seasons can also demonstrate some of those qualities.  The closer you are to the poles, the more winter you have.  The closer you are to the Equator, the more summer.  The mid-latitudes have the most variety, and winter here is summer in South Africa.  Every season is going on somewhere, someplace, all at the same time.  The predictability question is more related to the weather within a season.  It's sometimes like school kids getting mad at the Weather Channel for predicting snow that didn't come.  And to take it further, 'summer,' or any season, never looks exactly the same as you remember.  It may be hotter, cooler, drier, wetter, more humid, less stormy, etc. than the ones that came before.  Therefore, one could say that nature's seasons are relative to a particular time and place.  Life's seasons, however, are relative to a particular time, place, and person.  I think we all know that we can be experiencing a completely different season of life than the person sitting right next to us.

So what is the constant?  Well for nature's seasons you could say nature's laws.  We know we don't have to worry about black ice on a steamy summer morning or winter following spring.  But what about life's seasons?  All the crazy seasons of joy, harvest, growth, sorrow, loneliness, contentment, preparation, dryness, learning, waiting, mourning, celebration, illness, victory, discerning, discovery, providing, going, staying, listening, teaching, participating, watching, excitement, boredom, trusting, relaxation, working, and all the other ones you can think of!

The book of Ecclesiastes talks about seasons of life:

"For everything there is a season,

a time for every activity under heaven.

A time to be born and a time to die.

A time to plant and a time to harvest.

A time to kill and a time to heal.

A time to plant and a time to harvest.

A time to tear down and a time to build up.

A time to cry and a time to laugh.

A time to grieve and a time to dance.

A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.

A time to embrace and a time to turn away.

A time to search and a time to quit searching.

A time to keep and a time to throw away.

A time to tear and a time to mend

A time to be quiet and a time to speak.

A time to love and a time to hate.

A time for war and a time for peace."

-3:1-8

It's my favorite book in the Bible, one of the reasons is probably because the author seeks answers to questions we all all ask.  As we're taken through the author's quest for wisdom, meaning, and purpose in life, we begin to despair as the author repeatedly says, "I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless - like chasing the wind" (1:14).  "I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly.  But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind" (1:17).

He speaks of the futility of pleasure and work: "Anything I wanted, I would take.  I denied myself no pleasure.  I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors.  But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless - like chasing the wind" (2:10-11).

And the injustices of life, "for the wise and the foolish both die" (2:16), to the point of declaring, "So I concluded that the dead are better off than the living.  But most fortunate of all are those who are not yet born.  For they have not seen all the evil that is done under the sun" (4:2-3).

As well as the futility of wealth: "Those who love money will never have enough.  How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness... We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born.  We can't take our riches with us" (5:10, 15).

So why do I love this book?  Because of the conclusions that transcend all seasons and walks of life.

"To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life - this is indeed a gift from God.

God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past."

-5:19-20

"Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don't have.

Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless - like chasing the wind."

-6:9

"Accept the way God does things,

for who can straighten what he has made crooked?"

-7:13

"Whatever you do, do well."

-9:10

And finally:

"When people live to be very old, let them rejoice in every day of life.  

But let them also remember there will be many dark days.  Everything still to come is meaningless.

Young people, it's wonderful to be young!  Enjoy every minute of it.  

Do everything you want to do; take it all in.  

But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do.  

So refuse to worry, and keep your body healthy.  

But remember that youth, with a whole life before you, is menaingless.  

Don't let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator.  

Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, 'Life is not pleasant anymore.'

Remember him before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is dim to your old eyes, 

and rain clouds continually darken your sky...

Remember him before the door to life's opportunities is closed and the sound of work fades...

Remember him before you become fearful of falling and worry about danger in the streets...

Yes, remember your Creator now while you are young...

The words of the wise are like cattle prods - painful but helpful. 
Their collected sayings are like a nail-studded stick with which a shepherd drives the sheep.  

But my child, let me give you some further advice: 

Be careful, for writing books is endless, and much study wears you out.

That's the whole story.  Here now is my final conclusion: 

Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty.  

God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad."

-11:9-10, 12:1-2, 4-6, 11-14

The fabric of life is dynamic and multifaceted, being ever woven into a great beautiful perfection we can't even begin to comprehend and God is what holds it all together, weaving it using the good times, hard times, and all in between.  Trust God with every season of life.  He's got it under control.  And it's what every one of us was made to do, no matter where we are.

"Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time.  

He has planted eternity in the human heart..."

-Ecclesiastes 3:11

"For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, 

so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."

-Ephesians 2:10

"Look!  I am creating new heavens and a new earth,

and no one will even think about the old ones anymore."

-Isaiah 65:17

London Adventures: Oct 10-16

Monday:  Still not feeling well so I went to the NHS.  The doctor said she didn't think it was strep but that it was definitely an infection, probably viral, and to come back towards the end of the week if it's still not getting better.  Still can's really talk.  Free lunch from the monks and library until class.  Really frustrating when the professor asks a question and nobody is answering but you know the answer but you can't speak loud enough to really be heard.  Went to CU from there but ended up leaving early because I was feeling awful.  Last night I'd had an email asking me to sing, but obviously I had to decline.

Tuesday:  Woke up and made myself an omelet - I must be feeling better!  And what is that noise coming out of my mouth?  A voice?!  Read until time to go to work and then had my first adventure trying to figure out the SOAS library.  Apparently they have had issues in the past of people hiding books so that only they know where they are and can always use them when they want.  I'm wondering if that isn't still happening... it's also frustrating because I don't have the same library privileges as a SOAS student, such as not being able to check all categories of books out.  Skyped with Michelle M. tonight!  Great to catch up with her!!  It was really funny when Maddy was trying to figure out where I was.  Apparently dogs don't understand the concept of a computer.  She would look around when I would talk and kept trying the window.

Wednesday:  Got paid to participate in another psychology research project.  Free lunch from the monks.  Class at SOAS.  Found out the professor's accent is German.  Also found out that I am supposed to register for the class with SOAS as well as UCL and nobody told me.  I had registered on UCL's system, but apparently I have to apply to be an intercollegiate student at SOAS as well.  The office had closed by the time class ended, so I'll have to deal with that tomorrow.  Also found out that "study packs" for the class had arrived in the bookstore.  Never heard of them before, but I'm liking it!!  It's a really thick book of the majority of the required readings (solves most of my library problem!!!).  Basically if the reading is an except or article then it's in there but whole books still have to be found on their own. 

Walked to Chinatown which is on the way to CBC anyway and had Chinese snacks for dinner.  Hopped on the tube at Piccadilly Circus to CBC.  Still had a bit of extra time, so I read in the park before heading to the church and... FINISHED MY BIBLE!!!!  I'm excited to say this, but I'm also a bit ashamed that I didn't do it years ago.  I had read the New Testament the whole way through before and major chunks of the Old to the point that I really wasn't sure which parts exactly had I not read so now I've read straight through and can definitely say that I've read the whole thing!  Started back in mid/late January with the 21 day fast at New Life.  I had a goal to read through the Gospels in the 21 days and I did.  Then I just kept going and finished the NT again which led to finally reading straight through the OT!  On the way back to the dorm I ended up on the same train as one of my flatmates (Carol from China).  Out of all of London!  Haha this stuff really doesn't surprise me any more.

Thursday:  Morning class with Dr. Tanner.  Feeling like I've been hit by a truck again today.  Not sure how I feel about this class.  He basically seems to want us to have a big class discussion about the readings, but doesn't ever really say what HE thinks about all the theories... we'll see about this.  Went to the bank to activate my debit card that finally came in the mail and found out that, yes, my loan money had finally been processed!  That was exciting.  Got the paperwork from SOAS.  Three signatures needed.  One is my professor.  The other two are from UCL but I had no idea who needed to sign them, only that the lady that gave me the form said something about Judy.  Free lunch from the monks.  Didn't perk me up as much as I thought it would.  Eventually found Judy who took pity on my condition and took the form saying that I didn't need to do anything else with it and she would take care of it.  Praise God because all I wanted to do was go to bed! 

I stopped in the Accommodation office before heading back to the dorm to pay my fees (which were not automatically deducted from my loan like I would've expected?) and ran into a Chinese girl from IOA who lives in the same dorm as me that I met during orientation.  We walked back together and found a really old church that we admired for a bit.  Had a good discussion about the differences between Christianity, Catholicism, and Islam.  Napped for two hours.  Woke up feeling better than before.  Walked back to campus for CU worship practice.  It's actually more like a worship jam and it was AMAZING.  Super pumped afterwards.  The Spirit of the Lord was totally there.  But finding it strange that all of a sudden I'm involved in all this musical stuff and not sports??  Worked on some reading and watched the Longwood hockey game on live webcast while chatting online with Jennie in Senegal (is this real life?).

Friday:  Wend to work feeling much better again and still pumped from the jam session last night.  Hoping all the way through the shift that I would feel well enough to finally workout again afterwards and I did!  I lifted but didn't run or anything.  I was shaky by the end of lifting and I really hadn't done as much as usual but it definitely felt good to do something again!  Also talked to Flor at my work who plays for a hockey club and she said her team needs and goalkeeper, so she's going to email me information.  There are two different training sessions Monday nights and I could make the late one so this is exciting!  Went to the IOA library to checkout books for the weekend, then back to the dorm to Skype with Laura!  Another one that was great to catch up with!  I love how Skype allows us to "hangout" with people even when we're oceans away!


Saturday:  Ran a good 45-50mins and LOVED it.  Oh man it had been like two weeks thanks to fresher's flu.  Although I felt good running, very soon after it hit me hard!  I was reading for class and ended up napping because my whole body just crashed.  Then I read some more.  By the afternoon I was already sore, but I would rather be sore knowing I did something to better myself than feel like a lump!  Was supposed to meet Emily at 3pm to practice for our duet we're supposed to sing in church tomorrow (eek?).  Came time to leave and I realized I wasn't sure we had clarified meeting at the Messersmith house or at the church.  Since I didn't have a phone yet this was a problem.  I had to send Facebook messages and wait for a reply until I could leave!  Ended up down there eventually (reading more on the tube) and we practiced.  They've lent me their extra pay-as-you-go phone, so now I shouldn't have problems like this any more!  Experienced a LARGE Sainsbury's (grocery store) that has a MUCH larger gluten free section than any by me!  Then to the Messersmith's for taco dinner (yum) and a good time just chilling. 

Got back to a message from Firefly, a Chinese girl I met in China two years ago who has since come to the UK as an exchange student.  She graduated this year, but is looking for a job and has an interview in London on Monday and wants to meet up!  She got exposed to the Gospel through the coffee house and English camp ministry while in China and then accepted Christ once she came to England and got involved at a church!  I'm excited to see her!  And it's really nice/weird having a phone again!

Sunday:  Sang "I Surrender All" with Emily during the morning service.  First time I've sang in church (you know apart from being in the pew!).  Thai lunch with some church ladies and then sang with a group from the church at a senior citizen home.  I really hope I die before my body breaks down that much.  It was really cool to see them start singing along to hymns they knew though.  And lots of them had tears in their eyes.  Then we got ice cream before choir practice (While Esther's away the mice will play!! Haha choir master Esther says cold things are bad for singing).  We ran through the cantata, then had evening service, and then back to the dorm.  And side note:  When did Cadbury start selling "Screme" Eggs???

London Adventures: Oct 3-9

Monday:  First day of classes!  Crazy how late school starts here!  Only one class today:  Art and Ritual in Ancient China and it wasn't until 4pm.  Went to the gym earlier in the day.  Squat day plus swimming.  Free lunch from the monks.  Class was half introduction/here's your course outline and half lecture.  Met a Chinese girl who just got her qualifications to teach Chinese before coming here.  She's worried about her English.  I need to practice Chinese.  This could be a very good thing.  The teacher is Chinese and thankfully has a very good accent.  In fact, nearly the entire class is Chinese... and most are actually SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies - part of the University of London) students, not UCL.  The classroom was over-packed.  Not everyone had a seat at the table.  Not to self: get there early!  Thankfully I did have a spot at the table.  Taking notes without a table would be obnoxious.  After class I went to CU for what would be the equivalent of XA's Thursday Night Worship.  It was a large room, but so many people showed up that there was literally no path out if you wanted it!  Lindsay R. and some others that aren't new said that they had never had so many people before.  At the beginning they had people stand up by country.  I wish I had counted how many there were represented because it was a lot!  And I got recruited for the worship team.  I don't really understand what's going on there... I still don't see myself as a singer!

Tuesday:  No class but I worked at ULU all morning.  Wasn't feeling too great during my shift and soon afterwards found myself going back to the dorm to lay down for the remainder of the day.  However this rest was interrupted by an overdraft notification on my US bank account.  Confused because I hadn't bought anything, I checked my online banking and discovered what appears to be the third fraud on my account within the last five weeks.  The previous two still are not sorted out by the bank even though I reported them.  I'm really, really tired of waiting for this to get sorted out.  I've been using Skype to try to call the bank for the past couple hours or so and no matter what line I call either an automated system or a person tells me to call back later because "they're experiencing a high volume of calls."  My UK bank account isn't fully operational yet. Still waiting for the paperwork, cheque card, etc. to arrive via post. One good thing though is that I finally received notice that my loan cheque is ready for pickup so you know what I'll be doing straight after my morning work shift tomorrow!

I've never felt so insecure financially in my life and would really appreciate prayers. I feel like I'm in a nightmare that I can't escape. I feel like if I were in the States this would've been sorted out by now. The whole time I've been here I've been fighting with someone, whether it be the bank, the UCL Finance Office, or the UCL Accommodation Office and it just makes me want to go home. Christ and his body are all that that are keeping me sane and afloat and it's really hard for me to keep positive right now. I don't want to be a downer to the people around me, but it's a real battle to not let it take over my life!!

Wednesday:  Worked another morning shift at ULU and felt like I had been hit by a truck the whole time.  Sore throat, sinus congestion, tired, sore, etc.  Free lunch from the monks.  Needing a never ending supply of hot drinks ever since yesterday afternoon in order to operate and not feel like I'm choking on myself.  Art and Archaeology of the Silk Road class at 3pm.  This one is actually held at SOAS and again I am vastly outnumbered.  And the classroom is super full.  Really weird chairs with little writing boards (? not sure what to call them... definitely not big enough to be called a desk or table) that fold from the side of the arm.  I don't like them.  Teacher (Dr. Nickel) has an accent, but I'm not sure where he's from.  He doesn't speak as clearly at Dr. Tao (Monday's class), but it's still understandable.  He just likes to run his words together.  I seriously wonder how non-native English speaking students can deal with non-native English speaking professors and their accents.  Sometimes I have to seriously think about what's being said and I'm used to English!

Met Charmaine at ULU to go to CBC for Wednesday night Bible study.  The tube was soooo hot and crowded.  Neither of us were feeling well, so I think we were both pretty out of it by the time we got there.  Afterwards the Messersmiths let me come over to use their phone to try to straighten out this bank business.  They have a really good plan for calling the States.  Long story short, I left there having been told I'm getting my refund.  PRAISE GOD.

Thursday:  Woke up feeling much better and had my core course in the morning (Art: Explanation and Interpretation) with my course coordinator, Dr. Tanner.  A native Brit!  Spoke to him after class because I'm wondering what to do about next year.  Seems weird to be thinking about that when we're just starting here, but if I were to go into a PhD program next year then I need to have all of those applications done soon!  My main question was whether or not our program ending after the US starts school, restricts me to UK schools if I were to continue next year.  He says, no, it doesn't.  I would just have to make sure to finish my dissertation early.  But on the other hand, he generally recommends taking a gap year between masters and PhD because if I were to go to the US then I have to worry about finishing early and if I were to stay in the UK then I would have to submit a PhD research proposal along with my application.  The UK programs are shorter because they don't require more classes.  You go straight into dissertation writing, so you already have to know exactly what you're going to research before you apply.  This is hard to do when you haven't even submitted your MA proposal yet!  This all makes a lot of sense, so I think I'm leaning toward taking this advice and not applying for next year.  However, this now leads to the question of what would I do with a gap year?  God only knows...

Then I went to the gym, free lunch, the library, and back to the dorm.  Did some work and went back to the gym for UL swim club.  They have a competitive and non-competitive group.  I figured I'd swim with the non-competitives since it has been years since I had a swim practice and maybe eventually I might make it up to competitive since it doesn't look like I'm playing hockey.  Well there were so many people there that they decided to have time trials to cut people at the end of practice.  During practice I had been moved up to a faster lane because I was too fast for the one I started in (Surprise surprise!! lol I thought I was going to be the slowest person there!), so I was feeling pretty good and enjoying it.  Swimming with people is so much better than a swim workout by yourself.

The time trial was two laps (down and back).  This is normally a 50m, but this pool is a weird length so it was a 66m.  Anyway, they had multiple people going at once, even in the same lane, and a bunch of people timing.  My turn eventually came and as I approached the wall I was a good body length ahead of the person in the next lane.  I flipped and pushed hard off the wall and as soon as I shoot forward I realize the other guy in my lane is in the middle of the lane and we crash, so I lose all of the momentum coming out of the turn and find myself having to restart from a dead stop in the middle of the pool (not exactly something you can do very quickly).  I get back to the other side and the person recording times (and the person who had me change lanes earlier) goes "Did you hit somebody?" and I said I had, coming out of the turn, etc.  Obviously she hadn't actually seen it happen because it was way more than a brush with somebody and you wouldn't be asking that question if you had actually seen what had happened.  So I'm thinking she's going to take that into account on my time and I'm probably going to have to do it again.  Nope.  Whoever the head hancho lady was just took the times and cut people off above a certain mark (never said what the cut off time was, just told people if they made it or not) and I asked her about how I had run into somebody and she just seemed all flustered and didn't seem to care.  So I guess God doesn't want me on the swim team for some reason.


Friday:  Felt like death again.  The morning wasn't terrible.  Met with someone about CU worship team.  Met with people at ULU about more employment paperwork.  Met Synnove for free lunch and the intentions of going to the IOA library.  Well by the time we got the lunch I was feeling really bad and couldn't really eat it.  Ended up heading home and crashing for the rest of the day/night.  Throat getting super sore and I wonder if I have strep or something.  Also have a super congested head.  Looked up the times for the NHS on campus and unfortunately they're not open on the weekends, so if this doesn't get better I guess I'll be going there on Monday.  Highlight of the day would be chatting online with Kristyn.

Saturday:  Feeling AWFUL.  Left briefly to get more medicine and soup but spent the rest of the day in my room.  Don't really have a voice.


Sunday:  During the night I woke up feeling so incredibly bad around 1am.  Throat was just absolutely on fire.  I remember being something like "Oh Jesus please heal me because I want to go to church" and next thing I know I'm waking up in the morning feeling TONS better!  By the time I was leaving for church I was going down-hill again, but still functional in comparison to yesterday.  Also learned my lesson about morning showers.  I tend to be a night shower person, but I didn't bother yesterday so I had to take one this morning.  Well with one shower and six people you better take it while you have the chance because you never know when someone else is going to jump in!  Should have grabbed it right when I woke up, but decided to drink my coffee first.  Then someone was in it so I had to wait and I was therefore late for church.

Today I still didn't really have a voice, but it was still a good day even if I wasn't healthy.  Became a temporary student member of the church.  Church ate together after the service and then I went to the Messersmith's and that involved sweet potato casserole (YUM!) and Wii Mario Kart with Messersmith kids.  Just listened during choir practice and sipped hot tea (hot liquids are the only thing keeping me alive I feel like!).  After evening service there was pizza fellowship in the basement.  They were so sweet and got me a chicken salad since they knew I couldn't eat the pizza. On top of that, this morning Angie gave me small cartons of rice milk and almond milk for me to try since she saw my Facebook status a few days ago about not liking the taste of British milk AND the Messersmiths had apparently gotten excited when they discovered the gluten free section in the grocery store so they gave me a goodie bag!  Feeling very blessed and thankful for friends and the body of Christ.

Also feeling convicted about needing to get back to using this blog as more than merely a journal of day to day happenings.  It needs more meat.

London Adventures: Sep 26 - Oct 2

Monday:  MALLORY CAME!!!  Pastor Steve and I met her and her team (Katie, Ryan, and Andrew) at the tube station by the church and helped lug their eleven suitcases to one of the Sunday school rooms.  Yes, four people with eleven suitcases.  Haha don't worry - think medical supplies!!  They're very thankful that they won't have much stuff when they come back and I don't blame them!  Their mission organization is based out of Northern Ireland and they have to get on a tiny plane to go to orientation there, so the luggage needs to stay in London.  It's so cool to be a part of their trip!  When Mallory first started talking about the trip I would've never imagined I would be here right now!  And it was SOOOO awesome to see Mallory!  Not only was it refreshing after being away from everyone who really knows me for a month, but it was also great because I've only gotten to talk to her a few times since the end of the school year.  She's been working with TeamEffort in a variety of places, ranging from a reservation in Arizona to Haiti.  We hung out in the church for about and hour and a half before they had to head back to the airport.  They will come back through on Thursday to get the luggage on their way to Uganda.  They were all so tired today since they flew all night.  I very much dislike overnight flights.  They make you feel awful!  Back on topic, today I'm thankful to see a friend from home and for CBC for helping them out with their luggage issue!

Tuesday:  Job interview at the University of London Union (ULU) and I'm hired WHOOHOO praise God I get to limit how much of the loan I spend!  Then I was walking around before heading over to get in line for free lunch and happened to walk through a CU event in Gorden Square that I had forgotten about!  It was "Cake in the Park" to just try to get some interaction going with new students.  I saw Lindsay R. and we were like 'heeeey' and I was like 'oh yeah CU event whoops' and then she introduced me to Georgiana, a freshman from Romania, and the two of them came with me to get free lunch.  Lindsay is in her second year and had never heard about it!  It was awesome that they were just as excited about it as I was and it was really great to eat with people!

Wednesday:  UCL Institute of Archaeology Graduate Reception.  Welcome speech, introductions, etc.  Broke up into programs and met with our course coordinators (Dr. Tanner).  He seems like a likable person.  He has a lot of live up to after Dr. Coles!  Also met individually with him to discuss our course options.  Mine was simple as I already knew what I wanted to take when I applied and said so in my application.  He likes the course combination, too, and says it seems "quite interesting."  The whole program (all ten of us!) have to take the 'core' course "Art: Interpretation and Explanation."  Other than that we have options to choose from.  Mine are "Art and Ritual in Ancient China" and "Art and Archaeology of the Silk Road."  All three of my courses last the entire year!  Some only last a semester at a time, but mine all happen to be full units.  I haven't had a course for an entire year since high school!  Weird to think about.  They also only meet one time a week each!  I'm being told it's "a lot of reading."  Also I seem to be the only person in the program who didn't get a BA in Archaeology and the only one focusing on Asia?  Interesting. 

One thing that I am NOT happy about though is that it appears I can't play hockey!!  I was under the impression that the universities here don't hold Wednesday afternoon classes because that's when all of the sports teams play.  Well apparently only undergraduates are guaranteed that time off because my Silk Road course is on Wednesday afternoon!  NOT.  HAPPY.  And the China class is on Monday afternoon/evening which is when non-university clubs practice??  So I dragged my goalie bag here for nothing??  I mean at least it flew for free on Virgin Atlantic, but still.  That's a really big bag to drag around for no reason!  And while I know I'm here for the masters program and not for hockey it was certainly something I was looking forward to having the chance to do one more time!!

Thursday:  Mallory again!!  Morning run and then met Pastor Steve and his son Stephen at CBC.  We took the luggage to the airport in their van (amazing how much closer the airport is when you have a car!!) and then I waited with the luggage in the airport for Mallory and team to get there.  Pastor had to be at an afternoon appointment.  It didn't take too long for them to show up and then we realized they couldn't check in for their Uganda flight for another five hours so I stayed and Mallory and I talked the entire time.  Good times.  I'm excited to hear what God does in Uganda and I'm humbled by His ability to divinely orchestrate things so intricately.

Friday:  Went to Freshers Fayre.  All the clubs and societies have booths to advertise and recruit new members in this two day event (the first day was yesterday but didn't go).  Tracked down the hockey club and confirmed that, yes, my class does mean that I can't play with them.  Now I really wonder what I'm supposed to be involved with.  Funny how I assume coming here and them having hockey means that I get to play hockey and then poof no it doesn't.  Particularly in the last few years, I've noticed more and more how I think for sure that such and such is what I'm definitely going to do and then something turns it upside down.  Some of those things I can look back on now and really appreciate all of the things that came about due to that change.  I wonder how I'm going to look back on this.  Also unexpectedly worked my first shift at ULU tonight.

Saturday:  Long run.  Free frozen yogurt.  CU fellowship lunch.  New friend Charmaine I met at the IOA Reception Wednesday came with me.  Met more cool people.  Lifted and biked at the gym.  First weights workout since leaving Farmville!  Crazy!!!  Then a very painful evening because someone had refilled my orange juice at the lunch (that I wasn't eating because it was sandwiches) with something called a "squash" here.  Apparently there are many varieties and this particular one involved orange and barley so it still looked like orange juice in my cup.  I took one sip and realized it wasn't orange juice and so lo and behold a few hours later I'm in major pain.  By the time I was walking the 2.5 miles back from campus I just wanted to be curled up in my bed.  Gluten is not my friend!!

Sunday:  CBC morning service.  Lunch with CBC people.  Running around a park barefoot with four of the Messersmith kids.  Ice cream.  Choir practice.  Evening service.  Good day.

London Adventures: Sep 19-25

Monday:  Went for a run and found a replacement for the prowler:  Primrose Hill sprints.  I tried to walk them off before running back, but I ended up flat on my back in the grass!  I was very thankful that it was a sunny day so that I could bask in it while I recovered!  You can get paid to participate in psychology research projects here, so I've signed up for some this week.  I had a preliminary meeting this afternoon for one I'll do on Thursday.

Tuesday:  Move in day!!  I moved into my dorm this morning.  Jamie and Meghan helped me.  It was really weird when they left since we've been together like nonstop.  Hawkridge House is for postgraduates and each floor appears to be divided into four flats.  Each flat has six bedrooms, one kitchen, one bathroom with a tub and toilet and one bathroom with just a shower.  Each person has a key to the flat and a separate key to their room.  Apparently the cleaning staff has not made it to our flat yet since people moved out yesterday because the kitchen and bathrooms definitely need cleaning!!!  I also scavenged pots, pans, and dishes from the common room that the previous residents left.  There is a common room for the whole building that was piled with stuff people who moved out yesterday left.  With a bit of soap, I'll be set!

I've met two of my flatmates, both from China!  I wanted to chuckle at that one.  It didn't even surprise me.  God is always so purposeful.  The weird thing is though that they are both guys and I've seen one other person that also appears to live in the flat and be a guy from China.  Seems really strange how each flat is co-ed.  I hope at least one of the other two mystery people in my flat is a girl!!  I mean, we have our own rooms, but the bathroom thing is weird.  I don't like having to bring all of my clothes with me to take a shower.  It's so much easier to just wear a towel back to the room and change, but I guess I'll just have to deal.  I also hope that they aren't okay with the current state of the bathroom and kitchen.  I know not all guys are super gross in their cleaning habits, but since everything is dirty right now it's hard to tell where these people lie...

I went on an exploration walk to find the grocery store.  Bought some food and cleaning supplies.  Then I went on an exploration run and found my way to the canal from here.  Finally, I met Van at the Covent Garden tube station to show her where Chipotle is!!  I had found it a couple weeks ago in my wanderings and tagged her in a picture of it since she is so Chipotle obsessed.  I knew she would want come lol.  She was a teammate of mine at Longwood that graduated this year.  Now she's playing hockey for a club in a suburb of London, staying with an aunt and uncle and looking for a job.  She treated me to dinner and then we wandered around.  I showed her UCL and some other places nearby.  It was really great seeing her and hanging out!!


Wednesday:  In the morning I participated in a psych experiment about emotional processing.  I was hooked up to an EEG while being shown various pictures.  Also had a very interesting conversation with Guilia (the researcher) about possible differences between how Americans and Europeans handle their emotions.  Anyone have any comments on that?  I personally think that Americans tend to put on a facade more than Europeans, especially the males.  We are more likely to box ourselves up and not share negative emotions that may be in a turmoil within us, trying to ignore situations and not get emotionally involved lest we be seen as weak.  Just some thoughts that came out of that conversation.

After that I got free lunch from the monks and headed over to International Student Orientation.  (I still think it's weird that I'm a foreigner in an English speaking country!)  After getting my welcome pack and a tour of the Student Union buildings, I headed over to the welcome speech.  I love how I spotted a seat, headed towards it, and then realized when I got there that it was right next to Meghan!  Haha out of all the people there ( and there were A LOT) I managed to end up sitting next to Meghan!  It was a big auditorium.  Hundreds of internationals!!

Afterwards, Meghan wanted to walk down to Bloomsbury Baptist Church to get some information, so I went with her.  Then I continued wandering around.  I ended up in Chinatown for awhile.  It's still decorated for the Mid-Autumn Festival that was last week.  It's the second biggest festival in China, second only to the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year).  The best comparison we have would be Thanksgiving.  Families are supposed to travel far and wide to be together around a table and eat, but instead of pie they eat mooncake!  Cake is a misleading translation because they're definitely not anything like our flour-based cakes.  Very hard to explain.  Someday you'll just have to try one!  The festival always coincides with the full-moon.  It evolved out of the legend of Houyi and Chang'e.  You can read about it in the link above.

They also carry around carved lanterns out of smaller gourds like plants (kind of like our Jack-o-lanterns but not exactly) and paper lanterns on wheels.  There are also paper ones that are 'flown' by lighting a piece of flammable wax-like substance attached to the bottom of it.  It lifts into the air like a hot air balloon.  Two years ago I was in China during this festival and we flew some from the coffee house roof.  It was really beautiful to see hundreds of them in the air above the city.

Eventually I had made it back to UCL, as I approached I was wondering about the Christian student population.  I was like "God show me your people" and then someone hands me a flyer for a church saying they were having a free international dinner the next day.  Very interesting.  By this time there was no point in returning to Hawkridge if I was going to go to Bible study at CBC, so I went ahead and began walking in that direction, hopping on the tube at Piccadilly Circus and then wandering around Chiswick until the doors opened (Yes, a lot of wandering today).  I got a small hot chocolate during this wandering since it was getting cold and I would like to say that I love how much less sweet hot chocolate is here!

In the Bible study we continued looking at Colossians.  Quote for today:  "If God keeps the whole universe together don't you think He's got your life under control?"

Thursday:  Day two of orientation but first the follow-up to yesterday's psych experiment and participation in another one.  Apparently I have a large posterior parietal cortex.  Put THAT on your resume LOL.  Free lunch from the monks again and then headed over to enroll, but found out the system was down for non-EU students so I couldn't do anything.  The Institute of Archaeology (IOA) had an informal reception and I got to meet Dr. Tanner, my course coordinator.  He had interviewed me by phone (I believe it was back in March) before I was accepted, so it was really nice to meet him in person!  Only ten people were accepted to my program.  I met one of them, Felipe from Chile.  Dr. Tanner said that a Dutch guy was also there, but I didn't meet him.  It's really nice that when I said my name he immediately recognized it and was like "Oh, from America!"  He seems like a happy person.  I've heard that he's tough, but that's not always a bad thing.  I'm glad that although I'm at a large school my program seems like it will have a small school feel.  I walked back to the dorm with a couple Chinese girls who are in a different program of the IOA.

 Went to the international dinner at the church in Angel that was on the flyer I got yesterday.  Found out that the Christian Union (seems to be the British version of a campus ministry) had been handing out flyers on the Main Quad that I had missed about a meet and greet type thing tomorrow night.

Friday:  Spent the morning getting enrolled and got my UCL ID.  Participated in another psych project.  Registered with the National Health Service.  Went to the IOA library tour with Meghan.  UCL has sooooo many libraries!!  Sat on a ledge in the sunshine on the Quad until the Christian Union people showed up to show the way to the reception.  It was really great to meet other Christian students and I hope to get to know them better!  There were some Chinese students there, too, and I walked back with two of them.  I showed the girl where Argos is (a store) and we both got coat hangers.  I can finally hang up my clothes!!  The boy became a Christian while studying in Macau.  I thought that was interesting.  One not so good thing though was that there was absolutely nothing I could eat at the reception and I was starving by the time I got back to the dorm!


Saturday:  Spent the morning and early afternoon reading then went for a run to Regent's Park and did a couple loops before running back.  Skyped with Michelle L. who leaves for the Peace Corps in Peru on Tuesday.  It was really great to get that chance since we're not sure if she'll be able to use the Internet where she's going.  Then I went back out and walked around the Camden Town Market.  Oh man the selection there is crazy!  It's just stall after stall of stuff and food from literally every corner of the world!  When I got back all but one of my flatmates and I talked in the kitchen for a while.  This is the first time I had met two of them!  In total there are four Chinese (three boys, one girl), one Japanese girl and me.  The Chinese girl was the one who was not there.  Two of the boys have never been outside of China before.  The other one studied for a year as an exchange student in another part of England.  The Japanese girl has been a bunch of places.  It was really funny that she felt like she was the odd one out because I speak some Mandarin, making her the only non-Mandarin speaker!  Yesterday I had seen one of the Chinese boys and he had told me the demographics of the flat.  He said, "We have World War II in our flat!"  Hahaha don't worry there doesn't seem to be any animosity!

Sunday:  Went to CBC.  It was "Friend Day."  The church has been making a great push to invite people to come to Friend Day and practice inviting people to check out Jesus.  Definitely a lot more people, including some people that just randomly walked by and decided to come without any idea it was Friend Day.  The Wednesday night prayers the past few weeks are being seen at work!  One of these people was Brazilian and there was also another American couple (AL and TX).  I am still continually being amazed by the diversity here!  Pastor spoke on the story of Noah as an illustration of the salvation story.  Not a story of how God destroyed things but a story of how God loves and restores.  I hadn't really thought about how Noah wasn't so far removed from Adam and could've heard stories of God directly from him.  That's really cool.  And also sad that all those other people had that opportunity, too, and chose to reject something right in front of them.

After the service there was a birthday lunch downstairs for Felicity (one of the pastor's kids).  Then I got a coffee with Emily (the eldest pk) until choir practice and evening service.  Renee gave the message on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, particularly on the verse 2 line of "A time to be born and a time to die."  Basically that we are all born and then move on to dying.  You can't escape it and you don't know when your end is so redeem the time God gives you.  Don't waste it.  I hope that we don't all have to go through loss to have that hit home.

Went to Pastor Steve's house with Joe and Judith for kabobs.  Also played Mario Kart on the Wii with some of the kids and then after we ate some American football came on the TV to which we all said "NOW it's a Sunday!" haha great fellowship today.  But the big game is tomorrow:  Redskins vs Cowgirls.  And unfortunately just like Pastor Todd I will have to forgive Pastor Steve for his poor choice in teams.  Wish I could watch the game!!

Getting up early to head back to the church to meet Mallory and her mission team that is headed to Uganda at the tube station!  They are being allowed to store their luggage at the church while they go to Ireland for orientation with their mission organization on a small plane that doesn't allow more than a carry-on.  Such a blessing that they won't have to travel as far from the airport to drop off their stuff as they would if it were to all go in my dorm.  And also a definitely blessing that I won't have a mountain of luggage filling up my room!  Super excited to see her!!

And happy 21st to my brother Bobby today!  It's times like these that I can't believe how time flies!