Term One in Retrospect

Hi Everyone!

As incredible as it seems, the first term is almost over and I will be home in roughly two days (a little more with the time change)! There has been so much going on over the past few weeks that I am now completely exhausted and very ready for a nice break. But for all of the craziness, it has been really good. We have studied the Nature and Character of God, Christology and the Trinity over the course of the past 3 weeks. I especially enjoyed the lectures on the Trinity and some of the mind expanding mental grappling that we did. We also have been pushed to express ourselves more creatively and I surprised myself by really enjoying that.

Last night we had our Christmas banquet. (I love how British people actually call the meal a Christmas feast!) Below are a few pictures from last night.

The Americans - Stefanie, Sarah and I

Me and Beverly

This requires some explaining. You see, the girls convinced me to wear some very high heels. I suffered in them for about 15 minutes and then went barefoot for the rest of the night. We decided to go to a pub afterwards and I, without really thinking, told the guys that I would walk with them instead of getting a ride in a car. Yeah, I didn't make it very far. One of the guys was pushing a bike, so they stuck me on it and pushed me the rest of the way. (Yes, I can normally ride a bike by myself, but the seat was too high for me to really reach the pedals.)

So I was thinking back over the past 4 months and a few things stuck out to me:

• I am so glad I am here. It is so hard to believe that I almost didn't come. I am as sure as I have ever been that I am in the right place. I even just remembered last week that when I was about 10 years old, I used to tell people that I was going to go to the Bible College in England that Brother Andrew (my lifelong hero) went to. I think I found out that it had shut down, so I gave up on the idea. I hadn't thought about that for years, but something recently triggered the memory. I wouldn't base my life around things like that, but it is interesting....
• I am feeling more and more at home in the Salt and Light community. A week and a half ago, some of us drove up to a Jason Upton concert at the Salt and Light church in Derby. I was pleasantly surprised to see lots of people there that I knew and to have some nice catch up time. The most important of these people was my friend Abby, who I did know before coming here (She is a friend from DTS and the reason why I am here at KBC in the first place!) But all of the other people are ones which I have met since coming here. It was amazing to realize that I have actual friendships with these people and I suddenly felt so much more at home here.
• England is beautiful. I often don't stop to notice things because I see them every day, but lately I have been appreciating my walks just a little bit more. I love how similar it is to New England and yet how different. It's hard to explain, so sometime I will try to take some pictures of where I walk every day and post them here. Even today I took a bus out to Wantage (the town where I have church placement) and I was enjoying passing sheep grazing in green fields. And Wantage is just the cutest little old English town ever!

Ok, now I really need to go to bed. I still have church placement in the morning and then go have lunch with someone in the church in the afternoon. After that I will probably walk into the center of Oxford to finish up some Christmas shopping and then head over to the guys' house for some controversial theological discussions which have been planned (yes, we are Bible college geeks!)

I'll be seeing a lot of you soon, but in case I don't, Merry Christmas!