I'm ba-ack
Hello all! I apologize to y'all who have enjoyed reading my blog and keeping up that way. I have been horrible at keeping this updated for many reasons. One - its difficult to write about mundane stuff but inappropriate at times to tell anyone who could stumble upon my page the fascinating, but difficult and private interworkings of my life. Two - online time has been somewhat limited lately, and I have been struggling to find time to return emails let alone write in my blog. Three - There is so much to catch up on that needs to go up here. I've done so so much over the last few months and its so hard to figure out how to begin to explain or express it on here. But, I shall try. Bit by bit.
~ January ~
Sick Days - It took me ages to recover from tonsilitis. I have never felt more ill in my life. All I wanted was Mom, Saltines and Gatorade (ha - MSG) - none of which I could get. Thank God for the doctor that is a member of our church who made the housecall and gave me the drugs.
Christian Education Project - I spent a day with Rob who works with the local CEP - an organization that works in several of the local schools to support christian youth clubs within schools and have assemblies for the younger kids. Good work's being done there and it was really a different experience to see how church and school fit together here - unlike at home where they are so separate.
Youth Work - Due to volunteer staff changes, I stepped up to find the material and start leading the local youth club (5 churches together). I've really enjoyed it but it really knocks me out every other Monday night.
Dinner for Fellow Texan's Birthday - My friend Jordan, a fellow longhorn and Religious studies student, is studying at King's College here in London and I joined her and some of her friends for a true Texan birthday dinner and salsa dancing night. It was so nice to hang out with wonderful new people, to have Tex-Mex and to just get out of the house and the church for an evening.
~ February ~
Squash - I spent a Saturday learning to play Squash with my friend Kathryn, who was incredibly patient with me. So much fun. Took 3 days for my bum to recover.
Home - Traveled home for a few days. My brother made All-State Band and my parents and I cooked up how to surprise him - I showed up! The All-Sate Band was amazing. I also got to see my great Uncle Shine, who passed away last week. I tried really hard to spend time with everyone, but it just didn't quite work that way, especially since I was only the country for 6 days and one of those was in Tyler visiting my uncle and 2 of them were in San Antonio for Mike's concert.
March -
Tour of the UK with Bethany - Bethany, one of my best friends from UT, came over to visit me and we spent a few days in London, took a train up to Edunburgh, then hired a car and went to Glasgow (got semi-snowed in), then up to Loch Lomond and Stirling, then down to Oxford and stayed with lovely people there. After that we headed to Bath and Stonehenge and then back to London and to Windsor. We had a fabulous and funny time. I'll have to write more about it later for it to get the blog time it diserves.
Healing Prayer School - I went to a week-long conference at a church here. Really a life-changing experience. My eyes have now been opened to one main thing the church should be. Will write more on that later too.
April -
Holy Week - Well, He is risen and it is finished. Thank God. 17 services later. Seventeen - yes, you read that right. Seventeen services over the week. I don't remember the last time I've been this exhausted. All part of the learning experience.
Anyway, I will write more later. This is just the beginning. I hope.
Much love to everyone!
Out Sick
Today is one of those days when I can without a doubt say that I feel the best I've felt in a while. Last Wednesday I started to get a little sore throat, and by Thursday afternoon it was a full-blown fever and I had lost the ability to swallow. Acute Streptococcus Tonsilitis was upon me.
I've never had the pleasure of this lovely little disease before and now that I have I would advise anyone against it. I have not a clue how I got it - I know no one who has it or anything like it, but it is an airborne thing so I could have gotten it from someone on the train who coughed or sneezed. And supposedly its more common here than in good ole Texas. I was told to possibly expect to be hit with some nice English illnesses. Yay.
I must say some positive things about this though --
Thankfully a wonderful woman from our church who is a doctor made a housecall for me and gave me a prescription and now I'm feeling better (minus the nausea from the meds). I'm so glad that I didn't have to go to the local hospital or anything. Things like that in another country (granted I'm not in some third world country but still) - they are really scary and overwhelming.
The other positive - I lost 13 pounds over the last 5 days. This is quite possibly the most effective post-Christmas diet ever and the least recommended one too. So, I'm going to run, well, slowly make my way downstairs and have some chicken broth and toast for lunch. Yay for food and the ability to eat it.
My Simple Short Christmas Morning Sermon
Good morning and Merry Christmas to you all.
When I interviewed to come to Holy Trinity this year, my mom said, "Oh, Shelley - we could come have Christmas in London with you!" Little did I know then how wonderful and important it would be to spend Christmas with my family after being half a world away for four months. My family is more precious to me now than ever. They are my life's tangible example of unconditional love, forgiveness and support.
This Christmas I wanted to share my family with you - so that's why my dad did the reading we just heard from Isaiah, in just a while my mom will sing and after the service as we leave to go celebrate today, my brother will play the saxophone.
Family is a central theme to Christmas - not in the least through the Holy Family. Our reading from Matthew spoke of Joseph adopting Jesus - the angel coming to him and saying - this is your family, name this baby Jesus, Emmanuel, meaning God is with us. God is in your family now.
With any family starting out, as I'm sure many of you can attest to - life is never the same as it once was. I can only imagine how for this family letting God into the center of it, giving their lives up to God - to say that nothing was ever the same for them, is an understatement.
We can learn a lot from this holy family. Joseph and Mary truly opened to hear God speak to them - to tell them what he was doing in their lives and what to do. Where would they be without openly listening? We too are lost without God's word and guidance. Not only did Mary and Joseph listen and be open to what God told them - they let go of all prior notions of what life might be and whatever plans they once had - and opened up for God to truly come into their lives. God's plan, through his ultimate wisdom, is better than what any of us could ever dream up or create for ourselves. If we, like Joseph and Mary, can let go of the seeming control we have over our lives and open to Christ coming in and being born within us, we will know the true beauty of Christmas and the unconditional love, forgiveness, grace and peace of Christ.
As simple as this may all sound - just open and receive - it is incredibly difficult to do. One thing that God gave to help us is family - not only our mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers by blood, but also our family of brothers and sisters in Christ. He gave us each other and the church to be a supportive family - to love and grow as individuals together, to receive God in this world, so that his will may be done.
Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your love and your grace - given to each of us. Please help us to open and fully accept the grace and peace of Christ in our hearts and into our lives - so that you may be at the center of our lives - guiding all we do. Please help us to be a holy family - supporting each other in our walks of faith and working together to love and serve you. Amen.
Hello again
I must set the record straight. Contrary to popular belief --- I have not gotten myself completely lost in London; I have not fallen into the Thames or the English Channel; I have not been gobbled up by Nessie; I have not escaped to Switzerland; I have not joined a convent (I think that was my favorite one actually); and I have definitely not been swept off my feet and taken to Paris by a Frenchman named Jacques. Seriously, where do y'all come up with these things?
So - what has happened to me? Why have I fallen off the online social scene for an entire month?
Well, I could say many things - one being that there are a ton of things to do at a church preparing for Christmas; another thing being that there are a ton of things to do preparing for your family to come spend Christmas with you; yet another being that simply trying to summarize anything blog-worthy and appropriate when you are going through an interesting time of transition and personal reflection is incredibly difficult.
So, my apologies to those who have missed my updates - I have missed you as well. I am attempting to recover and jump back on the blogging bandwagon - and to begin working my way through my lovely little pile of emails to return -- sorry guys. I have updated my pictures - I think the total is about 350 or so now. The link to them is
here.
A quick update on the last month.
Christmas happened. Even though I, both personally and as lay assistant at the church, felt not quite ready for it --- it happened. Many things accompanied Christmas's coming - including six Christmas and Lessons and Carols services, five Christmas meals, four caroling adventures, three Christmas parties, three hours of sleep on Christmas Eve, two nights at the theater, countless Christmas leaflets, countless Christmas cards, countless to-do lists, a musical and a pantomime. I did enjoy the last month, even though it was a bit overwhelming and definitely different than Christmas back home.
It was wonderful to spend time with my Mom and Dad and Michael. They arrived on the Thursday before Christmas - a wonderful woman at the church drove me to pick them up at the airport and we barely crammed the luggage into her car. We spent that day moving into the bungalow that we stayed in for that week. The family that I'm living with has a son who lives just a couple doors away, whose wife is from Romania. They traveled there for Christmas, and let us stay at their house. What a blessing! We also hired a car to get us around during the holidays, so I got to drive. Oh wow - first time driving in months and on the wrong side of the road and with roundabouts - crazy.
Friday during the day we went into London - to Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Leichester Square, Foyles, had dinner in Chinatown and had a quick meeting with Big Ben. That night our church had Caroling in the Pub - where about 70 people from around the parish donned Christmas hats, and sang Christmas carols while drinking pints.
Saturday and Sunday was spent doing church Christmas things. Saturday was Christingle - a unique British children's candlelit service and the Christmas Eve midnight mass. Sunday morning we all rose early for the 8 am mass I led and preached for and each member of my family had a part in as well. That day was filled with wonderful company and more Christmas food than you can imagine and more than I care to enumerate.
Monday - Boxing Day as they have here - Michael and I went with several families from the church on a walk through the forest that is a tradition here. It was about a 3 mile journey over a few hours, with a picnic in the middle. Beautiful forest. That night was a party hosted by another family of the church. Good food, great company.
Tuesday we joined the curate's family on a journey to Cambridge. I have always wanted to see what Cambridge and Oxford are like. I loved it. I went totally camera-happy (as you can see
here.) It snowed off and on that day, but was sunny too. That made some beautifully interesting pictures. We had great dinner and games with their family as well - making the day really nice.
Wednesday we got a wonderful day of nothing really. Just sitting around being a family. We slept in, went to lunch at a pub (Mike had fish n chips), watched movies, straightened up the house and ordered pizza. Good times.
Thursday we went up to Londontown again. We checked into a hotel for that night and we toured the Tower of London and did great touristy shopping. Michael and I walked for forever that afternoon, seeing as much as we could before going out to a wonderful Indian dinner and to the Drury Lane theater to see The Producers.
Friday early in the morning, they left. It was really difficult to let them go, and I think just as difficult for them to leave. Avoiding sounding too sappy - having them here was really the best Christmas gift I could have received.
Christmas Lights to Music
Last night I was visiting another church and the preacher used this video as an example of seeing the light and of horrible neighbors. I loved it - and loved that it was used to open up a sermon.
Check it out -
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/videos/xmaslights.html
Prayers for Scott
Please keep in your prayers Scott and his family as they bury his mom today. Scott's mom, Gayle, was a wonderful woman - an overwhelmingly loving, tell-it-like-it-is person, who battled cancer for 4 years. She supported the church - especially its young adults - in every way she could. She had a real heart for young people.
Thanks to all of you who have written emails and messages asking about Scott and letting me know that you are praying for him. It really means a lot, especially since I am an ocean away. I have now found out the hardest part of being this far away.
Tex Mex Dinner
Last Sunday, I cooked a Tex-Mex meal for our church fundraising dinner and auction. This is a picture of me and Mary about 20 minutes before starting to serve it. Do I look slightly frazzled? It's cause I was. If you ever want an interesting experience, attempt to make a "Texan" meal for 50 Brits, using only local shops for the ingredients and finding substitutions for many of them, and explaining every bit of what's in it, how you cooked it, etc. And - a new experience for me - almost all of it was from scratch. Thank God for Daphne, the mom I live with. She helped with a lot of the finding, the multiplying and the cooking. All went down well. We had fabulous Chicken Tortilla Soup (an excellent recipe courtesy of Aunt Charlotte and Heather) for starters. The main course was tacos - both beef and refried beans and both soft and corn tacos (as seen above). All the fixin's with them. Charro beans and Spanish rice as sides (wonderful recipe courtesy of Dick). Dessert was peach and raspberry cobbler. I fixed up the tacos in a buffet line -- complete with "How to Build your own Taco" instuctions. The instructions didn't help though. I stood behind the table, making taco after taco. Describing to people what guacomole was and assuring them that I made everything mild and that the only hot thing was the jalapenos (which are pronounced "gel-lop-in-nos" and tortillas "tour-till-as" of course).For the tables I made a Fun Texas Facts sheet - complete with the state flag, a map of the US, and a few facts including --
Texas includes 267,339 square miles, or 7.4% of the nation's total area.
The UK could fit into the state of Texas 2.8 times.
The population of Texas is 21 million, not including the 16 million cattle. (That made me think of Ryan. Shelbert misses you, man.)
Rodeo is the official state sport, although High School (American) Football is much more popular.
Waco, Texas, became the birthplace of Dr Pepper soda in 1885. Dr Pepper is the oldest major soft drink available in the United States today.
I also included a few "Texas phrases" - some of which the churchwarden acting as our auctioneer tried to use in an introduction, going something like this -- (you have to read this and hear the British accent in your head) "Howdy, y'all. I don't want to be big hat, no cattle, so let's get this auction started. This ain't my first rodeo, so there won't be any piddin' around - that just gets my gizzard. So, we'll start and get this through lickity split!" Right.
It was an interesting, fun and tiring day. The soup was the biggest hit -- even the old ladies who were the hardest critics were asking for the recipe. I did get a couple "oh, that was interesting, love" comments, but the majority of people seemed to really enjoy it, and enjoyed the experience of eating with their hands. And I enjoyed tasting food that actually tasted a bit like home.
Thanksgiving in London
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Several people that have spent time away from the US told me that thanksgiving could be one of the hardest times away - weird that it's a missing holiday and hard because it's so far away from home... And none of Nana's dressing. Yesterday was alright - yes, hard, but ok.
Jordan and I met at St. Paul's Cathedral for the Thanksgiving Day Service for the American Community in London. Security was tight. We were asked to place our valuables into plastic bags provided. I walked through a metal detector and while Jordan was wanded she was asked if she had packed her bag herself and if it had been in her possession at all times. Never thought walking into a cathedral would be like walking through airport security.
The service was nice. We sang more familiar hymns - Come ye thankful people come, We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing, We plow the fields and scatter, and (I loved this) America the Beautiful. How many people get to say that they sang America the Beautiful in St. Paul's?
The US Ambassador gave a speech about how London was probably the best place in the world to celebrate Thanksgiving outside the US. He read the Presidential Thanksgiving Day address which Jordan and I thought was cool - not at all because we were particularly interested in the address, but because we wondered how many people in the world heard it before we did.
A pastor from Kansas gave the sermon which was on grace and gratitude which was very well done. There were 2 US Marines there who paraded in and out with the American flag. I've never been one for American military pageantry, but this time it felt nice and I truly appreciated it.
The one part that got to me during the service was one of the most trivial. Saying the Lord's Prayer here has been somewhat awkward for me. I'm always the only one in the crowd that pronounces "tresPASSes" instead of "TRESpesses." I've had people turn and look at me during or after the prayer - a reminder of how foreign I am, how far away I am, how different this is, and that I'm just not home. But, yesterday, I said "tresPASSes" and all of St. Paul's did as well. I don't know how it came to be such a big deal, but I started tearing up at that point. That was the most trivial, yet most important feel-like-home moment.
Following the service, we were invited to tour (more like be cattle-prodded through because there were so many of us) the American Memorial Chapel at the front of the building, behind the main altar. It was a nice simple space with a beautiful book in a glass box. The more interesting part for me was the glass case at the entrance of the chapel. The donations to renovate the chapel were collected in the case - and all the money inside was American bills. After 3 months of seeing only UK money, it looked so odd. I liked the concept though - obviously Americans helping to fund it - a small, if not somewhat insignificant example of alliance. (As I've said before - it's the little things for me.)
After leaving St. Paul's, Jordan and I made our way to her campus. We picked up ham, cheese and tomato croissants for our thanksgiving lunch on our way to her lecture - Salvation and Personhood. Fascinating class. We looked at Karl Barth, some of the anti-anthropology movements of the 20th and 21st centuries, and the philosophy of structure versus the philosophy of subject. Two hours of lecture later (with a wonderful break in the middle - a great British concept) we went to the Chaplaincy room. After two cups of tea and an hour of great deep conversation with students and staff, I reluctantly left for the tube back and made my way to Alpha.
Thanksgiving day was a good one this year - definitely not what I would have ever expected really. Though I know today when I call home, I will almost be able to smell Nana's dressing over the phone....
