This is what studying is like!

I finally started actually typing words in a Microsoft Word document! Oh yes, the essay is being created! I have been reading for what feels like months… well, it has been months… and this afternoon I finally actually started writing down what I have been thinking/ranting/reflecting/reading about. I have 691 words… only 4309 to go! This really brings back memories of living at 70 Thirlestane road with my lovely flatmates Sue, Saz and Elle. We would all compare how far we each had got on particular essays, and reward ourselves with Neighbours and tea breaks… or by short middle-of-the-night power naps (Elle!). Essay writing just isn’t the same without them! (sigh) I guess Elle and I will just have to soldier on in Edinburgh and Prague respectively, and try to distract each other with MSN, at least!

It is a week ago since Thanksgiving, but I didn’t get round to putting up the photo that I took when Phil and I went to our American friends for a good traditional Thanksgiving meal! It was fantastic! Debbie is a wonderful cook, so we had a feast… it was pretty much a Christmas turkey sort of affair, with some excellent Thanksgiving additions: namely, sweet potato something-or-other (oh so yummy!) and pumpkin pie. And we also got a plate of turkey (and potatoes, veg…) and dessert to take home with us! Phil was in heaven..!

So, we had a great night. They are a really wonderful family, Phil and I babysit the kids, Nick and Selina, fairly regularly, so we know them pretty well.

Another photo which I meant to post ages ago is of the Thomas family… with their new addition: Anna Grace. Matt and Jenny adopted Anna in September, and we had a welcoming and blessing service for her at our church, Sarka Valley Community Church.

Anna is so smiley and cute, but she doesn’t seem to like smiling for photos… we tried, but this was the best that we could do! She can hardly sit/stand still for two seconds, so I was pleased that we even got a photo, nevermind a smile! Anna is a real character and is completely adored by everyone in the IBTS and Sarka Valley communities. Seeing her tottering around and smiling at everyone makes me feel very broody… but I think that chapter in our lives will have to wait a little longer!

Anyway, I should probably get back to the essay-age. I am learning how to cross-stitch tonight… oh yeah! My mother would be proud..!

Long time no blog…

Greetings friends, family, bloggers, and random punters…

I want to firstly offer my humble apologies for my atrocious lack of blog-age over the last two weeks. My life is just that boring!

Well, not really… I just haven’t got round to it yet… and that’s why… but the guilt has been overwhelming me! I don’t actually have much to say right now, but I wanted to share this quote with you, which has been inspiring and uplifting me all week:

“Six hundred years ago Julian of Norwich tried to express her sense of the love of God: The love that God most high has for our soul is so great that it surpasses understanding. No created being can comprehend how much, and how sweetly, and how tenderly our maker loves us. As truly as God is our father, so just as truly is he our mother. In our father God Almighty, we have our being; in our merciful mother we are remade and restored. Our fragmented lives are knit together and made perfect man. And by giving and yielding ourselves, through grace, to the Holy Spirit, we are made whole.”

It went well!

On Sunday morning, I led the service in church, and according to people who I can trust would tell me the truth… it went well! I was happy with how I had led the service, so I was really chuffed that others thought that I had ‘done good’. I have yet to get feedback from the Rector of the seminary, which may turn this all around, but, for now, I am happy!

IBTS has been hosting a conference on Israeli-Palestinian conflict resolution, and I’ve managed to attend some of the discussions/lectures, which has been very interesting and informative. Although I am definitely not a Christian Zionist, I don’t think that I had ever thought about the Palestinian perspective of things. It really is such a hugely challenging issue, and it will take work on all sides for any sort of peace to be established. As a result of the conference I hope that Christians will take a more initiative, peace-making role in Israel/Palestine, because it sounds like the church there is pretty impotent. Why is it that the church is so often slow to respond to situations of war, oppression and violence?

ahhh… Friday…

I really don’t find Johnny Vegas funny, but this photo captures how I feel! Its finally Friday evening, I’ve got my faded pink jogging pants on, eating dinner whilst typing and generally lazing about! Its beautiful, really.

This week has been hectic: on Monday evening, as part of the Baptist Women’s International Day of Prayer, I and a few other girls got together (joining millions of other women around the world!) to pray for our home countries, our churches and other people around the world and the problems that they face. On Tuesday night Phil and I went to an amateur magic show put on by one of Phil’s students… it was… ummm, interesting. I was sitting in an aisle seat and was terrified that I would be asked to be a volunteer (a vital ingredient for any magician!). Usually I wouldn’t mind too much, but the fact that everyone else there was Czech, and obviously the magicians also were, I was scared witless that I was going to have to explain in pigeon Czech that I couldn’t speak Czech. Most of the show I was just concentrating on memorising how to say ‘Sorry, I don’t speak Czech’ in Czech! Anyway, I managed to avoid having to say anything… thank goodness! On Wednesday night I met with all the students to see how they are getting on, as I (being Student President) had to report to the Board of Trustees today. Then for this Sunday’s service I wanted to get a small choir together to sing a South African Zulu song, so did that on Wednesday night after the student meeting, and also last night after aerobics! (oh yes, aerobics..!) So, its been crazy this week. But good too, although I’m glad its Friday night and I can just relax a bit.

Needless to say, studying has been slightly abandoned this week, so I will have to do something about that tomorrow, as well as complete my preparation for Sunday, when I will be leading church (or ‘chairing’ for the ex-brethen folk). I am feeling very nervous and apprehensive about this new experience that is fast approaching, but I’m trying to keep calm. At Sarka Valley Community Church (which is a baptist church), Sunday services are organised by a leader, who facilitates and leads the congregation to worship. The leader does not preach the sermon though (thank the Lord…!) but sorts out everything else. It has been stretching and challenging to think about appropriate songs, different times of prayer, and how everything should fit together etc. I am also going to be brave and use Powerpoint and the beamer in church (!) which means that I have to sort out a good and helpful presentation for the order of service that will aid worship. As well as scary, it is really exciting to feel like I have a voice, and that God can and hopefully will, use me to lead others to worship him. This is an amazing realisation and blessing for me! Having gone to a church for the past couple of years in Edinburgh where women are not (yet) allowed to lead or ‘chair’ the service, I feel like I’m starting to feel released from those bonds and the attitude that women are somehow incapable of leading in church. It is both exhilirating and terrifying. The possibility that I might be able to have a voice in the church is intoxicating… but the responsibility that comes with this newly-being-found (!) freedom is serious. If you pray, please pray that I would do a good job, that I will truly facilitate meaningful worship, and that I will be myself in the process. I will blog about it on Sunday or Monday…. hopefully it will be good news!

Anyway, I am going to make myself a cup of tea, turn up my Dashboard Confessionals CD and try to find some chocolate…

Hope that you all enjoy a lovely, relaxing and peaceful weekend… with not too much DIY (er, Mr Costley..!) Love to you all. xxx

Phil turns 26! (well, last Tuesday..!)

 Phil with his cake, complete with candles!

Its official, Phil is an old man! He is closer to thirty than twenty. Isn’t that scary? Anyway, on Friday 27th October, Phil’s mom Hazel and a family friend, Ruth Hamilton arrived in Prague so that we could all celebrate with Phil his 26th birthday. We did the usual touristy things: including Prague Castle, St Vitus Cathedral and Charles Bridge… obviously all activities punctuated by many coffee breaks!

 Phil, me and Ruth in the Castle gardens.

It was really good fun doing things around Prague with ‘the girls’ (as Ruth and Hazel were dubbed) and we all had great craic together.

 Phil and Hazel, Prague’s old town in the background.

Tuesday 31st October was Phil’s official birthday, but unfortunately he had a normal working day, followed by football in the evening for him, and leading the Youth Alpha group for me. How very romantic! I think we were all celebrated-out from the weekend, so we will probably do something special next weekend, just the two of us.

This week has been really hectic, so its great to finally be at the weekend… I think that some work might need to be done, but much relaxing is on the menu too! Hope you all have fantastic weekends, wherever you find yourselves!