Last minute details...

We are about a week away from home (which is AWESOME!) I am very excited to see everyone!
So, here is what the next few days look like for me/us here at school.
Tonight (Wed. 10th)- Netball game. We are gonna FREEZE!
Thurs. 11th- Practice for Christmas production.
Fri. 12th- "Work day" that means 1/2 of us are cleaning the castle and grounds and the other 1/2 are in a seminar.
Sat. 13th- Relax, then dress rehearsal for Christmas program (I think)
Sun- 14th- Service in the morning then Christmas program @ night. (All of us roomies will have an advent celebration)
Mon. 15th- Lectures and then Christmas Program @ night again.
Tues. 16th- Christmas banquet. Secret Sister revealing.
Wed. 17th- Room cleaning/packing.
Thurs. 18th- Leave EARLY in the morning- our train leaves at 6:16am! Get home at 6:30ish!!! SEE FAMILY AND EAT MEXICAN FOOD!
Those are the major things going on so I will be pretty busy the next few days.
I may not write till I get home (not sure)
So, if I don't.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Winter Happenings

It snowed yesterday, well first it was a slush of rain, snow and ice. We finished morning lectures and headed to lunch wishing that it would be real snow, one of the staff people made a comment about it not being real snow right before we said the prayer for the meal, then we prayed and literally she said "amen" I looked up and it was snowing! Gentle, big white flakes almost the entire meal. It was a nice winter moment, very like yet unlike our Texas winter moments. It has been icy ever since. The forecast is snow tonight and tomorrow but who knows- it is not that predictable.

Nothing terribly interesting to say right now- I am very excited about our visit home. The advent season is much more meaningful this year because I am actually more aware of the anticipation. Most years it is too busy for real anticipation and reflection but not this time. I am keenly aware of what it means to "wait for Christmas" and its not the gifts that are under the tree that I am waiting for. It is all the thousands of other things that Christmas means- family, traditions, warmth, sights, tastes, smells and the love of people around you. What is most amazing is that CHRIST'S love is what makes all of this possible in the first place but He is the one most forgotten during it all. I have heard people say things like that before but never really understood what they meant- it seemed very "churchy" but I understand more now. When you are separated from it all you start to realize the "why" of what you are missing. So, at the risk of sounding a little "churchy" myself- I hope you too are anxiously anticipating the coming of Jesus' birthday and the wave of love that spread throughout the world because of it.

November 27th

So, it is American Thanksgiving- here at Capernwray you have to clarify so that the Canadians don't get upset ;) Of course the English do not celebrate this day (for reasons that will go unmentioned...something about 1776...) We are having a special harvest celebration tonight which should be interesting. I am missing all that Thanksgiving means at home though. It will make me appreciate it all the more next year. So, all you Americans out there...watch the parade, eat an extra slice of pumpkin pie and THANK GOD for all HIS blessings, not the least of which is that you are an American!

Liverpoole was AWESOME by the way. We went shopping and ate at a nice restaurant before going to the opera. It was a modern opera in 2 acts- one in Italian and one in French. I really enjoyed it. Hopefully it will not be the last time I go to the opera (in my life.) I think I need to go more often at home, Mom you can look forward to that!

Only 22 days till we are home for Christmas!!! I am so excited to see everyone!

Laundry & Liverpool

Nothing much going on today. It is laundry day which is always interesting. Imagine gathering 170 international students ranging in age from 18-42, put them in a laundry room with 5 washers and 6 dryers that you have to pay to use and you pretty much have the idea of what happens here. You never know what you are going to walk in and find- washing powder everywhere, wet clothes on the floor. Its a sight to make any mother cringe! Barb's day to wash is Saturday (so we did laundry together) mine is Monday. The Monday group is better than the Saturday. Anyway, I look forward to doing laundry at home!

I can't believe that it is already November! Christmas will be here before we know it. The school is gearing up for advent. Barbara and I are in the Christmas choir which should be pretty good- I am just excited about singing Christmas songs.
Next weekend we go to Liverpool to an opera at the Liverpool Philharmonic. I am excited about that, it is a french opera called "Secrets" its a farce so that should be brilliant! I am sure we will stock up on all our Beatles memorabilia (or at least take pictures!) I will write more about it after we go.

New Words

Here are few words and phrases that are different...

"Cheers"- thank you
"I rate her/him"- I think they are great.
"lie in"- sleep in
"unlucky"- too bad
"well played"- good job (in sports)
"quid"- pound (like we would say "buck" for a dollar)
"hooter"- nose
"dodgy"- (used the same as the slang word "shady")
"caravan"- mini van
"tea"- dinner
"ice lolly"- Popsicle
"bogie"- booger :(

That is all I can think of right now.

Netball

So as part of an outreach here at the school I am part of a netball team. It is the girls sport of Britain, kind of a mixture between basketball and soccer. (If you would like to know more about the sport you can Google it and find the rules, video etc.) Anyway, we had our first game last week and it was...interesting. We played outdoors, at night, in the rain. Apparently this is how the sport is played- they told us that the games only get canceled if the weather is treacherous; we all assumed that means if we might die they would cancel the game! Because it was our first game we were still learning the rules and how to play together. Only one of us had played before. The neat thing is that after the game someone gives their testimony. Most of the teams are made up of both Christians and non- Christians (with the exception of our Bible school team). The girl who gave her testimony was really good, I enjoyed hearing her story. It was so wild to think that there I was thousands of miles away from home, playing a new sport, surrounded by strangers yet feeling a kinship to girls around me through Christ. I know that has the potential to sound sappy but its how I felt. It was as if I was watching a series of pictures that all culminated into that moment. The girls I play with are brilliant. I look forward to playing and continuing to learn the rules. ;)

Roomates

I just wanted to take a second and write a bit about roommates. The set up here at the castle is basically rooms all around small corridors. The girls are upstairs, parts of the tower and conference hall; the boys are in another part of the castle in two groups the beehive and the tower. I am in room 1 with 5 amazing girls from all over the world. Of course there is me then...
Susanne K from Germany- a doctor who has an addictive laugh and a sweet personality she also has a sister here.
Nicola M. from N.Ireland- a school teacher and an instant friend, she has an amazing accent!
Charity B- Tennessee! I love to here her Southern accent, she is a sweet gal.
Belinda N- Zimbabwe We call her the "wise one" she is quiet but often has profound insights.
So that is our room! Already the Lord has blessed in powerful ways through conversations and time spent together. We are all part of the "older set" which was so great for me b/c I had a little fear that I would be the old woman!

On another note...
Today was interesting. Barbara and I spent a couple hours at the pool this afternoon. I was her "water dummy" she was practicing a few procedures and I was giving her advice. The lifeguard situation is a little different than what we would have in the good ol' U.S of A. I think we both kept hoping no one would walk in and wonder what on earth we were doing.
It has been a good time for us. I feel like we don't get to spend enough time together but I think our friendship is being taken to the next level. I see so much growth and maturity in her even in these last few weeks! I am exited to see what the Lord will continue to do!
Tomorrow is Saturday so we get to sleep in (or "lie in") as they say here. I will have to post all the different things they say soon!

Well, the internet is gonna kick off soon so I gotta go!
Love ya'll

Queen Elizabeth's Revenge?

Not to be outdone by Montezuma- Queen Elizabeth exacted her revenge on about 9 of us here at Capernwray in the form of a stomach bug. I have now recovered but spent the last few days ill and in bed. To make matters worse at one point during my sickness, the fire alarm went off and we all had to head downstairs...so there I go in my sick state and on my way down the stairs another girl (who was sicker than I was) turns to me and says in her Dutch accent "I am going to faint" and then she does! And there I am to catch her (it was oddly reminscent of the last time I gave blood, you can ask about that story later) At the time it was less than funny but it was actually quite hilarious afterward! Anyway, we all escaped the FALSE alarm. My roomates have now taken to calling me the "witch doctor" b/c of my herbal medicine and essential oils but it is all in good fun and thank heavens I had them.

On a completley unrelated note, I realized that I never told the story of actually getting to the station in London. It is well worth remembering so I think I will take the time here to write it. So think back to the Sept. 27th...
Ok, Barbara and I had flown into Gatwick and that meant that we would need to take the Gatwick Express into Victoria Station and then from there we were supposed to go to Victoria Coach Station which is where the charter bus would pick us up and take us to Capernwray. Sounds easy enough right? WRONG, not when I am involved! So getting to Victoria was no problem, but I had made the unhappy assumption that the coach station and the train station would be near one another which is untrue. So Barb and I take off to follow the signs to the coach station. Keep in mind that we bothe have two pieces of luggage and a backpack. After a bit, I start noticing that Barbara is getting further and further behind, I keep encouraging her that we will be there soon and we take breaks every few feet but still she is fading fast and I am hanging on by will power. Finally we stopped at a corner for a rest and I kept pretending that I knew where I was going when who should walk by but John Bird (a guy from Canada who was also going to Capernwray)! Keep in mind that we had only talked on facebook and had never seen eachother in real life but he stopped pulled down his sunglasses and said "Thara?" Oh my goodness, I have never been happier to see someone that I knew (or actually didn't really know) in my whole life! Well, John saved the day and took one of Barbara's bags and we went to the station which I can honestly say I would never have found on my own! We are forever in his debt and I can only thank God that we had talked online before and recognized one another. It turned out to be a funny story! One for the grandkids to hear later!

Love ya'll!

RAIN

Yesterday we went to the Lake District on a little walk/hike through the area. It was really beautiful but it rained ALL day. We were all soaked, except my rain boots worked really well so my feet were dry which was great. We took lots of pictures and looked at the shops and then waited (in the rain) for our bus to come. The bus was about 45 min. late but it actually ended up being a blessing b/c several people got lost and would have been left had the bus gotten there on time.
Barbara and I ate at a little tea shop and it was really tasty.
Today is Sunday and I have outreach tonight, a group of us are going to a local church and I am giving my testimony. Maggie, a friend who I met here is also giving her testimony and another girl is playing some music. It should be a good time. It reminds me of all the stories about the foreign missionaries going to churches and speaking. They were from different places, with different accents ect. It will be neat to see how God works through us.
Thanks for praying!

A little taste of lectures.

Hey,

I thought ya'll might enjoy getting a glimpse into some of our lectures. This is the 2nd part of a series that is ongoing. Rob Whitaker, the principle is giving it. Hope you enjoy...

Prayer: Help us to move this from just an intellectual experience to a heart practice.

Benefits of this series cont.

• for those who may not know Him yet

• for those early on in knowing Him

• for those who are struggling

• well on in knowing Him

• those who want to introduce others to Christ

We are all dysfunctional- but when we try to put on a performance for non-Christians we are doing our faith an injustice. People want to see honesty. ALL of those that Jesus met were dysfunctional.

1 John 2:12

Notice that there are several different categories of people. Not by age, how long we have been a Christian. It is by there spiritual maturity.

Spiritual Qualifications given in this verse:

A child- you know that you are forgiven, you know God as your dad.

A young man (teenager) (vs. 13)- overcome the evil one aka- things that used to trip you up before don't anymore. That doesn't mean that you are perfect and never mess up but that you are growing and improving- working through the temptations.

A father- (vs 14)- you have a deep, intimate relationship/knowledge of God. This is on two levels: intellectual knowledge which involves intimacy “know” in Greek means- to deeply experience.

The people who struggled most with Jesus were religious people. The average “Joe” was drawn to Him.

Examination of Friendship with Jesus in the Bible

The more important a concept is to a culture, the more words for that concept the culture has.

English is rather limited in its words for love.

Two major N.T Greek words for love.

1. Agape (noun:love) Agapeo (verb: to love)

2. Philos (noun:love) Phileo (verb:to love) This is the word used in the text we are examining.

Phileo/Philos love is used many, times w/reference to Jesus especially in relationship to friendship.

Description of Phileo.

• family love- Matt. 10:17

• friendship love- John 11:13

• fond love- Luke 15:20

It indicates attraction to a person or thing. Deals with feelings.

Your concept/understanding of God determines your Christian life and experience.

Is your picture of Jesus Phileo?

Jesus had degrees of friendship:

• With the crowds- Matt 11:18-19

• with the disciples (in a deeper way)- John 15:11-15 (3x uses the word “friend”)

• with a small number of people- John 11:3; 20:1-2; 21:20 (Jesus desires friendship with us)

Dynamics of His friendship:

• the crowds- over 70x the Bible mentions Jesus with crowds, often large. Luke 14:25.

• to men- in an honorable way men were attracted to Jesus. These guys were tough men. (fishermen, tax collectors...) Jesus did not emasculate the men, they didn't become “saps” when they started following him, if that was the case why would other men want to follow him. Matt 14:20-23 This is the only miracle that is recorded in all three gospels.

• To women- in an honorable way women were attracted to Jesus. Jesus was open, vulnerable and sensitive which is attractive to women. He was relational- are you? Luke 8:1-3

• Children- again in an honorable way children were attracted to Jesus, not afraid of Him, children have a very sensitive intuition but they ran to Him.

• To individuals- some of the encounters He has one-on-one are spectacular. “follow me” and they leave everything and come with Him. Mark 2:34;1:16-20.

The greater the range of people you can relate to, the more whole/integrated you are as a person.

days and dinners...

So the jet-lag is starting to wear off and we are starting to get into a routine. Barbara is lifeguarding and my duty is vacuuming the main hall. We begin the day at 7:30am for breakfast, most of the time it is cold & hot cereal, toast, juice and of course tea. Then we go and complete our assigned duty (that's when I vacuuming). At 9am we start lectures which go (with breaks) until lunch @ 1. After lunch we have free time until dinner at 5:30. Dinner is called "tea" here which, as you can imagine has taken some getting used to. Later, after more lectures we have another "tea" but that is just drinking tea and cookies, they sometimes call it "supper" (guess how confused I was?) Anyway, we head to bed at 9-10pm and then start the day all over again. Everything has been lovely. I am enjoying my time and all the people. The staff are wonderful and the lectures have been amazing. We headed into the town of Carnforth on Monday and several of us girls went on a search for hair dryers- there were only two in the whole town (trust me we looked everywhere) It was funny. Thankfully, there are enough dryers to go around and we can go to a bigger Village not far away of we really need one.
We are enjoying the international cell phones! Thank you Allens!!! It has been great to call at our leisure and not have to worry about calling cards and pin numbers.
Well, it is about time for tea.
Love to all,
Thara

Here we go...

So we are here in London! We left yesterday from Houston and after a stop in Atlanta, and then an all night flight we got to our hotel. The hotel is great! (Thanks for the recommendation Gardners) The room is incredibly small but after being up almost 28 hours we LOVE IT! Today has been spent sight seeing and trying to stay awake so that the time change will be easier (Barbara's eyes are drooping as I write.) We took a train to central London and visited Buckingham Palace which, for a Palace, was really hard to locate! :) We ate at a little restaurant called Bella Itallia which was YUMMY! We also went to St. James Court and St. James Park (for all you Pride and Prejudice fans it is the place that Sir William Lucas is always talking about.) On our way back to the hotel we picked up some Cornish pastries from a local bakery that says they are award winning. We will see at dinner. It has been a great day. We even got to talk to Dad! I will attach pics later- the connection is not good right now.
Thanks to everyone who has been a part of this. We love you!
Cheerio!

A step of faith.

So, LOTS of prayer has happened since the last entry. As a family we came together to devote ourselves to seeking God on what we should do. It was so cool, as I was praying (and reading) there was a theme...stepping out in faith. One night after having read about faith I went to sleep still unsure of what we were to do, the next mornings devo was about faith as well so I prayed that God would cause the flight cost to go down if we were supposed to go ahead and buy them and if not then they would stay high. I went directly to the computer and to my amazement- the price had dropped from $1077 to $930 and then to $796!! We have our plane tickets now!! I am more confident than ever that the Lord is going to provide all the money that we need. It will not be in our strength (all the resources I was counting on have not worked) it will be in His. Actually, it is always in His I just don't always come to terms with that. Hmm...there is a sermon for ya!

decision?

Ok, it is getting close and we are still several thousand dollars short. I am still praying but we are getting to the point where a decision will need to be made. I don't want to limit God by any means but I also want to be a good steward of the money He has provided. If you are reading this PRAY that the Lord will make it clear what we are supposed to do.

119, 118, 117....

The countdown is 119 days until school begins.

Still discussing when and where to fly in so it could

actually be less time till we are in England.
That sounds like a long time but really, it's
not that far at all.

You are a blogger?

So, I set this up for the fall... when we get to England I wanted to have a better way to communicate
than just email, been there done that, not the best method. So anyone can come here to find out what is going on with Barb and I. That's it for the reason- I am not really a blogger at the present but I will be.
For those of you who don't know- Barbara and I will heading "across the pond" to the UK for about 6 months. We will be studying the Bible and working. The school is called Capernwray so you can look it up- its legit, we didn't make up some school and tell Mom and Dad we were going. haha!
Right now we are saving every penny we find under the couch. I am praying that we have enough, the Lord will provide- if this is where He wants us then we will be there. (that is what I keep telling myself) Here is a picture of the school, yes it is in a castle! That is where we will be working while we are living there. We will also be doing outreach too. I am pretty stoked!