I think I just realized that I actually live here in Wrexham. My jewelry has been staying in the travel pouch that I made for the past five months. But now it has a place to live in my room, on my wall. Oh, and I had fun exploring the possibilities of old newspapers today!
Looking back at 2011
I know that Christmas is just begun, but I've been thinking about this past year and all the good things it has held for me. If I could choose one word to sum this year up, it'd be "content," because I am. Full-up to the top, cup over-flowing, cat on a pillow in a sunny window content. I haven't done anything to deserve such goodness, but I am thankful and blessed by God's generosity. Especially in terms of people.
2011 has been the year of people like no other. At one point (the 12th of November, to be specific) I felt like I didn't ever want to meet a person again because I was feeling overwhelmed after meeting 200 new people at once. But I have met more new people and enjoyed getting to discover who they are. If you're someone who I've met for the first time this year, thank you. You're awesome and I look forward to getting to know you better in the coming years. If you're an old friend, thanks for sticking around. I like life much better, knowing you.
December 2011 Playlist
In music, like so many other areas of my life, I like it better when things aren't predictable. It drives me nuts when I can tell what the next words of a song are going to be when I've never heard it before. So keeping that in mind, here's some music to celebrate Christmas with. Hopefully you'll understand why I enjoy these songs so much, once you've listened to them!
Home again, home again, jiggity jig
We just arrived home in Wales after a couple hours of driving. Have I mentioned how stressful I find driving the UK? It has nothing to do with driving on the opposite side of the road. It's more that the roads are incredibly narrow, and what would be a one lane road in America is a two lane road here. And there's loads of roundabouts. I think we went through 20 in two hours of driving. Even so, I am enjoying learning to drive.
While we drove home, we took the time to talk about all that's happened this week at King's Lodge. Since it's a school, we've made up a name for this time (Processing Time) and have four specific questions that we ask:
- What did the speaker say?
- What did it mean?
- What does it mean to me?
- What are some ways to apply what I've learned, and how can we help each other in that?
One of the thing that our speaker (Ken Helser) said was that the key to discipline is desire. In other words, if we're going to keep doing something, we've got to want it! And it so true in my life, that I'll get excited about (reading the Bible, praying, drawing, blogging, etc) and come up with all these grandiose plans to do it, but then fail. Because I had excitement, not desire. But the good thing is that I can keep asking God to give me desire, and in his grace...he'll give it. So I'll keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking, until I see the consistency of discipline and the consistency of desire in my life!
O come, O come Emmanuel
And I desperately want Jesus to come into my life in so many different areas. I want to see Jesus in the way I relate to people. I want to see Jesus in the way that I seek the truth. I want to see Jesus in the way that I think about the future.
Aberystwyth Missions Fair
I realize that November's been quiet on the news front. That's not because there's a lack of news, but rather that it's been too busy to take the time to write. My plan is to write a newsletter sometime before Wednesday, just so I can keep calling it a monthly newsletter!
From Friday to Sunday this past week, we were in Aberystwyth for a missions fair. The fair was hosted by the Christian Union who did a fantastic job of organizing the whole thing. There were 24 missions organizations represented there, and multiple seminars about missions available. Sadly however, only a handful of people showed up!
Nevertheless, I greatly enjoyed my time in Aberystwyth. I lived there for three months while doing my discipleship training school with YWAM. But it's been five years since I lived there. While walking around Aber, I was reminded of so many experiences and conversations that happened long ago. I'm so thankful for that time, and for the amazing people that I got to share that time with! (And for the people I get share life with currently.)
The photos:
- I love the robins here. They're much cuter than the american robins (which are actually thrushes).
- The ocean. One of my favorite things about being in Aber was hearing the breakers as they rolled in at night. Such a beautiful and melancholy sound.
- Aberystwyth seafront. Lots of colorful houses!
- From the top of a hill in Snowdonia. We were headed to Lake Vyrnwy to see a sculpture one of our friends in Wrexham had done. I missed a turn, and the GPS rerouted us through the back country, over a "mountain." But it was very much worth it!
- Lake Vyrnwy. I sailed here several times when I was learning to sail. We almost sunk a boat one time. :D
A Sunny Autumn Sunday
Here's a few photos from last Sunday. We had a beautiful, warm sunny day, so I went to Bellevue park with Kristin. It was so wonderful to wander around and make some photographs. The first photo, however is of my room with my new desk in place, looking out the window. Perfect. I hope you enjoy the photographs! It's such a joy to try and communicate a bit of the beauty around us.
Psalm 119-Aleph
I've had a brilliant idea, but I don't have the skill to carry it through. I'll probably keep trying though.
I've been reading Psalm 119 recently and realized how much we lose through the English translation. In Hebrew, each set of 8 lines began with a different letter of the alphabet. So verses 1-8 all began with aleph which is equivalent to our letter a. How cool would it be to write something that reflects that?! Like I said, I've been trying, and it hasn't been going so well. Anybody want to help?
I've written a sentence to summarize what the first stanza's all about. If anybody wants to try and write an eight line poem on that theme, it would be amazing! If people respond, I'll keep posting about the rest of the psalm.
So here's the summary (although you might want to read the psalm for yourself): How happy are the upright, who walk the way-obeying God's statues with their whole heart.
A bit of a DTS update
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I'm sitting in Costa Coffee at the moment, enjoying some time on my own, skyping with my friend Teal and getting ready for a short teaching that I'm giving on Monday about decision fatigue. There's been times when I've sat down to breathe since the beginning of the dts, but this feels like the first time that I've really made time to write and think about something non-essential for more than a few minutes.
The beginning of dts has been fantastic. Anna and Kristin (our two trainees) have been doing so well! There's so much new information to learn-like where everything goes in the kitchen and how to find your way around town. Add to that living with roommates and a moderately busy schedule and there's the possibility of feeling rather overwhelmed. Happily, that hasn't happened. (At least not too much, anyways.)
For me, this dts is so different than others that I've been involved in. For a start, it's a small team staffing the school (only Sarah and myself are full-time). Being a smaller leadership team means more responsibility. So I've been leading prayer times, worship times, meetings, I've taught once already and will again. Best of all, I get to lead our "creative workshop" which is basically a craft time. It's great having a time set aside to be creative together. All four of us (Anna, Kristin, Sarah and myself) really enjoy it.
The dts has been running for three weeks. The first week was an introductory week, laying a foundation of what the school will look like. The following week, we had a guest speaker (Steve Sullivan) who spoke about the covenant that God made with Abraham and what that means for us and for missions. This past week, Mark Vening (who is the national coordinator for YWAM Wales) spoke about Jesus and the cross and how that all works.
This following week is our first outreach week. That means that we'll be working more in the community and focusing less on learning in the classroom. I'm really looking forward to what we've got planned. We'll be trained to be street pastors (a ministry on the weekend to the pub/club scene), hang out with refugees and asylum seekers on Thursday, and then get some training for a ministry that focuses on praying for people on the streets.
On a more personal note, Wrexham is beginning to feel like home. I've decided which church I'm going to attend, and have joined a home group. I went to my first one on Wednesday evening, and really enjoyed the people that were there. I look forward to seeing what new friendships come into being in the next few weeks!
Names and Faces
If you didn't hear, I've got a phone! I'm very happy about it, as I have never had a smart phone before. Also, it takes decent photographs. So I've got some photographs (of people! imagine that) to share with you.
The first is Steve Sullivan (who was the speaker for our first week's teaching) and then some from an afternoon at a coffee shop with Sarah, Sonja, Lucy, Anna and Kristin in that order. Now you've got some faces to put with names!
Before everyone gets here...
It's our last chance to draw in a huge breath before plunging into the joy and madness that is DTS. With two trainees this time around, it's going to be totally different than anything I've experienced before. I'm excited, nervous, in disbelief that this day has finally arrived. (At least, it will have arrived by Sunday).
But before Kristen and Anna got here, we decided to do something fun as a team. So Mark and Sue took us up to Betws-y-coed in Snowdonia, and we went hiking at Capel Curig near where Mark spent some time growing up. It's beautiful, and a little bit wilder than the rest of Wales. Perfect. I like it wild.
World Maps, Decision Fatigue and Human Trafficking
That's pretty much what my week's been about. One of the things that I love about working for YWAM is the variety of work that is done. On Thursday, for instance, I started the day off researching decision fatigue so that I can teach about it a few weeks from now. In the afternoon, I went to a drop-in center for refugees and asylum seekers in downtown Wrexham. I spent a couple hours talking to people from Ukraine, Libiya, Iraq, Sudan and Pakistan...just getting to know them, and learning two words in Kurdish. (I can only remember one "Spass" which means "thank you.") Then I came home and started taking a book apart to rebind it with some new pages so we can continue using it as prayer journal. See what I mean? If I get bored it's my own fault. There's always something interesting to do!
Other projects this week have included working on a map of the world that is going to go into our prayer room. It's made out of fabric, but will be covered in blackboard paint so that we can write on it. I'm so looking forward to writing on the continents and countries that we're praying for. Also, Sarah and I went and handed out leaflets in Wrexham with a group that's trying to raise awareness of human trafficking in Wrexham, the UK, and around the world. Many people were interested in it, but I spoke with one old man who absolutely refused to believe it happened in the UK, let alone Wrexham. India, perhaps, but slavery certainly didn't happen near his home. How often have I thought that myself?
August 2011 Playlist
You know how you can get songs stuck in your head and they rattle around there for days at a time? Well, these are some songs that I'd love to have echoing in mine.
Holmsted Manor
Even though it was great to have time to myself to think and reflect and settle into my home here in Wrexham, the past week at Holmsted Manor was a welcome time to meet other Ywam people, and to get a bigger picture of DTS. Holmsted Manor is a Ywam location in the country side about half an hour south of London. I was there from Sunday to Friday to gather with others from Western Europe (and Iceland!) who are working with discipleship training schools. Also, two (actually three) friends from the boat are currently working there, so it was fantastic to see them as well.
As a gathering, we spent a lot of time worshiping God and praying together. The times that we did that were such a blessing for me, not just because God spoke to me through those times, but because it was my first time worshiping in English with other believers since I had left home at the beginning of July. I realize now how much of a blessing it is just to sing in my mother tongue. It was something I never expected to miss.
Another part of the gathering was learning more about DTS. We spent time talking about communication, hospitality, and how to effectively lead a dts amongst other things. Some of what we talked about I've heard before, but it was good to hear everything again as I've been out of Ywam for so long. Probably the most helpful for me was talking about dts leadership, as it made a little less mysterious and scary. It still is going to be hard work to be staffing a dts again, but it was good to get grounded and realize just how many resources there are to help me prepare.
The last (and best part for me) of going to Holmsted was just meeting people and getting to know them a little. There were people from America, Great Britain, Holland, France, Belgium, Egypt, Bermuda, Germany, Canada and Brazil, and they were working in Scotland, Wales, England, France, Germany, Holland, France, Italy and Iceland. (I shared a room with a great group of people who work here in the UK at a place called the King's Lodge.) With that many people from so many different places, there's a lot to talk about! And who knows what plans and dreams may come out of the connections made over this past week?
Clywedog Trail
Today I walked the Clywedog (clue-eh-dock) trail, which ends just under a mile away from my house. In the brochure that I found online, it says that the trail is about five miles long. So a six and a half mile hike (including walking to the ending and the from the bus stop back home) was what I was expecting. It turned out to be a 10 mile hike. I discovered along the way that it would've been much better to start at the beginning, as the signage towards the end was rather non-existent. (I was going to say "trailed off" but restrained myself...until now.) The only mishap I had was when I missed a turn (no signs!!!) and ended up in an upscale residential area. I got directions from a man (who kept on chuckling as he talked with me, can't think why) and promptly ignored them and went back the way I came and took the other path. But all in all, it was well worth the trek. The woods between Bersham and Nant Mill were absolutely gorgeous, and as a bonus, I got to hear bells after the end of a wedding as I walked by a church. Thank you to all the kind people who gave me directions along the way! Next time, I'll bring a map. 
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