The End of November

Wow, I can't believe it's November 30 already. Where did this month go? Right now I'm sitting in the computer room listening to Switchfoot (Hello Hurricane - Enough to Let Me Go), which is actually making me feel a little homesick since I haven't listened to my own music very much here. The last two weeks have been busy, but I can't honestly think of many significant things that have happened. Like last time, you're going to get the "As I remember it" version of events so hopefully you won't mind jumping around a bit.

The weirdest thing that's happened is that my hands have been shaking off and on since last Wednesday. At first we thought it might be related to the lymes disease I got from a tick bite back in October, but I went to the doctor, and blood tests ruled that out. Now I am basically waiting to see if it goes away in the next week or so, and if not, I guess they'll run some more tests. Your prayers for this would be greatly appreciated.

On Saturday I baked sugar cookies and chocolate peppermint cookies for our outreach last night. We brought cookies with us to share and made up packages of cookies with a verse and "God Jul" (Merry Christmas in Swedish) for the students to take home with them. We had seven or eight different kinds of cookies in all, and I think everyone enjoyed them.

On Sunday, our family group had a surprise birthday party for the two boys in our family group who had their birthdays this fall. We tried to through a kids' party with face painting, pin the tail on the pig, fishing for candy bags, and pizza. The cake was a typical Swedish kid's cake: a box of ice cream dumped out of the box and covered with candy and chocolate syrup. To add excitement to the whole evening, the power went out about an hour before we were scheduled to start so we ended up doing most things by candle and flashlight and the pizzas were barbequed!

We had our first book report due last week. It was only two pages, single spaced and it felt like a lot of regurgitation, but some of it was helpful to help me process ideas. Now we are reading an apologetic book. Out of a choice of three books, I chose On Guard by William Lane Craig. So far it has been really interesting and even intellectually challenging. I don't understand all his points on first read but talking with people helps me to process. I don't always agree with what he says or think that people I would debate atheism with would accept his arguments, but they certainly are interesting, and I'm looking forward to reading more.

About two weeks ago, our new principal arrived! Holsby has been without a principal for about two and a half years, and the director has essentially been filling both roles. I'm not sure what exactly the principal does... but he's here now. His name is Luke Thomas, and he's the son of the current director of Capernwray/Torchbearers worldwide and the grandson of the founder.

This week our speaker is John Breneman, and he's teaching on the book of Daniel. It's been cool the way he takes familiar Bible stories and pulls out new ideas and things to think about. Did you know Daniel was at least 82 years old when he was thrown in the lion's den? We've also been looking at the dreams and visions and how they've been fulfilled or partially fulfilled in history in the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman empires.

Last week Monday, I think, I spent the day with Trista, the wife of one of the staff members here and the mother of twins Hazel and Huxley. I was going to help her out with some baking, but the twins were teething and hadn't slept well. We tried tying them to our backs so we could bake but Huxley wasn't going to have any of that so we ended up taking them for a walk instead. When we got back, I help to feed them while Trista made biscotti.

Last week Thursday night, after lectures, the girls played a nice 'prank' on the boys. Over travel weekend, Magda and Sophie wrote emails to the families of all the boys asking for a story and picture from their childhood. They put the pictures into a slideshow, and we read out the stories while everyone sat in the Bik and the boys drank hot chocolate. When the boys went back to their dorm, they each found a cookie with an encouragement note baked into it as well as a cookie in a shape that reminded the girls of that particular boy. It was a pretty elaborate prank and more than two weeks in the planning, and the boys didn't suspect a thing.

Saturday evening, a group of us (mostly girls) sat around a table after dinner and had a long discussion about relationships and marriage and raising families and a lot of other topics that went along with those. Afterwards, I went for a walk; it was dark and kind of windy which made for a really cool atmosphere.

Last Tuesday we had our second prayer day of the year. This time it was a day of solitude. We assembled in the chapel at 9:30 with sack lunches and were told we had to be back by supper. There were some optional stations we could work through in the chapel, which took about an hour and a half but other than that we were on our own for the day. I dressed warm, packed my Bible, notebook, mp3 player and started walking into the forest. I prayed and journalled; I sang as I walked with and without my mp3 player; I sat still for a while; I read the Bible. It was a challenging time but worthwhile.

In general, my knee has been doing okay. I tried it out again a week ago and I made it twenty minutes of running before it started to hurt. Now I am trying to build it up slowly by going for ten minute runs, and I'll slowly increase it. Thanks for your prayers!

Well, it's supper time now so I'll sign off! I hope you had a great November and hopefully you'll have an even better December!