Back for Term #2!

I didn’t realize how ready I was to return to Capernwray until the day I left Germany and started back to little old Carnforth. When I was at the coach station in London waiting to catch to coach back to school, a lot of people were being reunited with their good friends. I was reunited with a few, but most of my friends were waiting for me back at school already. The ride was long, but endurable because my good friend Kim (the RA) rode with me for a good part of the way. Upon arriving, I was amazed at how good it was to be “home” again and to be welcomed back by my wonderful friends with hugs and a few tears.

My new room is great. One of my roommates is from the same town as the roommate I stayed with over Christmas break! My other roommate is from Canada. This time my window faces the construction on the new lecture hall and the sunset beyond that. It feels much smaller and darker than my first room, but I still like it.

We all waited with anticipation that first week back to find out where our 10-day outreaches would be and who would be on our teams. We finally found out with much patience of enduring the lists being read out one-by-one. I am on the only team going to Wales. They chose me to be my team leader over 5 other people with a “deputy” leader under me, basically to support me. My team consists of Richard from Northern Ireland, Serena from Hawai’i, Jaime from Canada, Lucas from California and Kelsey from Alaska. We don’t know a lot about our outreach yet, but we will be going on a preliminary weekend the first weekend in February to find out more. I really like my team and I’m so excited to serve with them over this term. We did have a short meeting with Carolyn, who is the outreach and missions coordinator here and she told us a little bit about the church we will be serving and the things we will be doing, but not much. The description of the church sounded a lot like Harvest, my home church. I am excited to serve in a place that feels familiar (if it does end up feeling that way). Maybe it will help me to serve better when I get home. Here it is a part of the law in the schools to have a few minutes of Christian teaching in the schools on a daily basis, but a lot of times they will get away with moral teachings instead. One of the things we will be doing those teachings. You can begin praying for us in that way—that we would be obedient to Christ in the things he would have us say to these kids.

Our studies since being back have been on continuing studying Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, the first half of 1 Samuel, lessons in the life of Abraham, and apologetics. I have been enjoying them so much. Our lecturer on 1 Samuel was so good about telling the story of Samuel and Saul and relating it to the context of the times, our lives, and bringing in a beautiful parallel of Jesus and our desperate need for him in each lecture. Our principal, Rob, lectured on the life of Abraham, which is really more like a lot of tangents that are applicable to our lives out of events in the life of Abraham in his early days of struggle and obedience with God.

I think since coming back I have begun to own this place as home much more than before. I have been able to appreciate it more, knowing that it is something I miss when I am away and knowing that time will go by quickly. I am very grateful for that. I don’t know if it’s because of that or something else, but these past couple of weeks have been wonderfully good. I have felt so carefree and have been simply enjoying my time here.