Let me sum up...

Okay, it is high time that you lovely people know what has been going on in my life over the last month or so. To quote a certain beloved sword-wielding Spaniard, “Let me esplain. No, it is too much. Let me sum up.” So many random things happen here during a day, that when someone asks me what I have been up to lately, I just end up giving them a blank look as my mind frantically tries to put the disjointed parts into some semblance of order. So because of that, I think I will just sum up.

One of pockets of things that I do comes under the title of “visiting”. Basically that means that I get to go spend time with my friends – mostly Pakistani, Iraqi Kurdish or Iranian women. The ones I go to see the most are young stay-at-home moms with little children who really enjoy having company. I have also been basically adopted into a Kurdish family and sleep over at their house every week or two. These people are from cultures where large extended families live together and they miss that, so they love to have lots of people over.

This also tends to be the time when my English breaks down. You see, when you spend an extended period of time talking to someone who speaks broken English, you not only find yourself slowing down so that they can understand you, you also start to eliminate all unnecessary words – such as articles, prepositions, helping verbs. I also find that I generally end up unconsciously imitating the accent of the person I am speaking to. A Pakistani accent is particularly easy to pick up. It is really only when this happens outside of context that I start to notice that I are even doing it. My housemate Rosanna and I have caught ourselves saying things to each other like, “Home. We go, yes?” At least it keeps us amused…

Another aspect of life here is our church. This probably the first place that I have ever been where I am never tempted to say, “I am going to church.” Because we meet in different places, the church is not really connected with a building. It is the most natural thing in the world to say, “We are having church.” I love how clearly I can see that church is the community of believers.

And I love this group of people. There is so much cultural diversity and acceptance and support. I think little 10 month old Timothy, our church baby, embodies ICC. He is happy to be held by anyone (as long as he isn’t really overtired) and will laugh more easily than any other baby that I have seen. There is nothing better than making a face at Timothy across the room and hearing his little giggle. Timothy brings joy and laughter and cuddles into the life of everyone that he meets. Even first time visitors will often be found having a cuddle with him. I think we all want to be like Timothy – bringing joy and laughter and acceptance into the lives of everyone we meet. And that is why I love ICC.

Last night we had our International Christmas Party. We expected about 60 people and 90 showed up. But there was enough food (barely) and enough room and we all had a lovely time. We did a little nativity play to tell the Christmas story. I loved that we didn’t end up having to make any costumes. Our four wisemen (the Bible never says there were three!) all wore their cultural clothes (Malaysian, Sri Lankan, Indian, and Nigerian/British respectively). We had a very dramatic shepherd dressed in traditional Kurdish clothes. Mary, Joseph and the angel were all the children of the British family that I live with, but they had enough ethnic clothes around them to come up with their own costumes too. I think my favorite moment of the play was when Mary came running out carrying the “manger” and “Jesus” – and without Joseph. He showed up about 5 minutes later without his costume. Memories of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” were flashing through my mind as I struggled not to laugh while I was reading the narration. And the best part was that none of the glitches mattered!

So the party was a great success and wrapped up with an hour of Kurdish, Iranian and Congolese dancing. Off the top of my head, there were people from Iran, Iraqi Kurdistan, the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo), India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Venezuela, Lithuania, Germany, Scotland, of course those boring British people, and me as the token American. I think it was a little taste of what heaven will be like!

There is more, but I think I’ll stop there. Like I said, I am summing up!

In less than a week I will be home for Christmas for 10 days. It will be a good break, but also good to know that I will be coming back. There are so many nice people on both sides of the pond!

~ Hannah

Okay, it's been absolutely donkey's years (that's a really long time in UK-speak) since I've posted anything on here. My sincere apologies. Life has been just a little crazy over the last 7 months.
Here is a speed of light update:
Since my last posting I have visited 2 new countries, been on 3 continents, hiked for 7 days in total, gone to Martha's Vineyard twice, met my new niece, and started 10 IV's.

Here is the photographic evidence (sorry, no pics of me starting IV's):

After three wonderful months back home, I am setting out on a new adventure. I have moved back to the UK, but this time to Derby (in the Midlands). I will be working as an intern with an international church for the next 7 months. Both the community around us and the community within the church is incredibly diverse, so I will be experiencing both the joys and challenges of so many different cultures. There is so much to learn, but I am excited and feel like I'm off to a good start. Please pray that I get settled in quickly.

Okay, sleep is a major key to me coping with all of these new experiences - and I think I still have a teensy bit of jet lag. So it's off to bed for now...

The Devil's Punchbowl

Here are the promised pictures from last Sunday afternoon. Every Sunday we have lunch with a family from the church and this day we got to go to the Bruces - one of the families that we have grown closest to. After lunch, we drove to a nearby village to go for a walk. The village, called Letcombe Basset (as opposed to Letcombe Regis right next door) basically consists of some houses and farms and a little Anglican church. Yep, that's it. I love all of these little English villages! We walked a kind of mini-valley called The Devil's Punchbowl. It really does look kind of like a giant punchbowl with the flat fields curving up the hills in a giant circle. The English are surprisingly creative in their names of places - particularly tiny out of the way places. So here are some pictures from our walk taken by Andy Bruce.

Me, Melody and Beverly - the three KBC students on church placement at Wantage

Hannah Bruce (my little buddy and one of my favorite conversationalists) is on the left and Jen Bruce is on the right

Two horses in a field - one kept biting the other horse's harness and trying to pull it over the fence

farmland

There was this young husky running around trying to catch rabbits. He kept catching a wiff of one and digging like crazy into a hole. He would pop up from the hole, realizing there was no hope from that direction, then sniff for a second before pouncing in a new area to begin the process all over again. We just stood for a while watching and laughing at him.

There was this tiny little park - so small that I originally thought it was someone's yard.

This cottage is called Arabella's Cottage and is apparently featured in a novel by Thomas Hardy called Jude the Obscure, which I have not read or, I must admit, previously heard of - but apparently it is somewhat famous. I looked it up on the internet to find out the name of the book and read that Jonathan Swift also apparently visited Letcombe Basset in 1714 and did some writing in the rectory garden which I guess I would have walked by because we walked through the church yard. Interesting... On another note, I love how most old Anglican churches here are not locked, so you can just wander in and look around. The one in Letcombe Basset isn't particularly old or impressive (the oldest gravestone I saw was from the 1700's), but a few weeks ago we went in a really amazing old one in another little village called Childrey. The original building was built in the last 10th century and it is mentioned in the Domesday Book commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1085. If I remember right, the present day building was begun in the 13th century. It is this amazing big old building with history just busting out of it. The crazy thing is that this church isn't that unique. My housemate was distinctly unimpressed when I came home all excited to tell her about it and informed me that there are hundreds of churches like this. I still think it's exciting!

I will be on spring break for the next two weeks, which I am definitely looking forward to! For the most of the first week I will be going to Prague with a couple of friends and then I will be making the rounds of other friends houses in Gloucester, Worcester and Walsall. I just found out today that I will be finishing up the break by going to be staff for a youth weekend for some of the Salt and Light Churches. It sounds like it's going to be lots of fun! During all this time I still need to work on my major paper which will be due a week after we get back. That might be a challenge, but I will do my best to do lots of reading!

I should have lots of stories to tell when I get back, so get ready...

some illustrations...

Here are some pictures to illustrate the last few months a little. I must confess that all of these have been stolen from other people because I have been woefully delinquent in my picture taking lately.

Mom, Dad, Melody and I in Bath in February

(if we are going in chronological order, this picture should technically be further down, but it ended up at the top and I can't be bothered to redo everything - grr... obnoxious website)

Walking to college along Willow Walk in the beginning of January

A couple of weeks later, we ended up getting the most snow Oxfordshire has seen in something like 18 years.

Willow Walk in the snow

Snowball fight in the car park (parking lot) at college. Mike is getting ready to hit Simon, our principal.

Hanging out at one of the student houses

Wantage town center, where I have my church placement.

The statue of King Alfred in Wantage town center. He supposed to have been born in Wantage.

Walking along the Thames (technically called the Isis in Oxford) with Melody when she, Mom and Dad came out to visit in February.

Carfax Tower in Oxford - This is what everyone uses as a reference point for giving directions around the center of Oxford.

Walking along Willow Walk with Mom and Melody (I am absolutely exhausted after just finishing clearing up after the Salt & Light European Leaders Conference)

Getting an excellent tour of Oxford from my friend Paul

One of the girls at college had a fancy dress party (costume party) for her birthday.
I went as Pebbles Flinstone.

Matty, one of the other KBC students, went as a French skier and amused us all with his drawn-on mustache and sketchy French accent.

*************

COMING SOON - photos from an afternoon stroll around The Devil's Punchbowl

back into blogging

Hello Everyone!

Just when you thought I had drowned in a British puddle, here I am, back from the blogger dead. I thought about writing a blog several times in the past 3 1/2 months (has it really been that long?!?), but have always been too intimidated by the staggering challenge of explaining what is going on here. Also, when I have a little free time, I am usually too knackered (tired) to put any coherent thoughts together. At the moment I am actually in about that place and considered just taking a nap, but I decided to press on, bolstered by the thought of my mother's great joy and the lure of a nice cup of tea while I type. (Incidently, I have already finished that cup of tea. I am debating making another one...)

Many significant changes have taken place since I last wrote. One such change is that I now drink my tea with only milk and no sugar. I started out in September having one teaspoon of sugar, but soon found that I actually prefered 1/2 teaspoon - making me somewhat of a difficult and confusing guest. However, sometime since January (I honestly have no idea when) we ran out of sugar in our house for a few days and so I drank my tea without. By the time we did get sugar again, I found that my fickle tastebuds had once again shifted and I now don't like my tea sweet at all. This apparently is the proper way to drink English tea - or at least that is what all of the people who take their tea with just milk claim. This proof of Britishness is disputed by those who like sugar in their tea. Much like the debate over which you put first on your scones - the clotted cream or the jam...but that is a topic for another blog...

I told you I was having trouble thinking coherently. I'm really quite sorry, but you did say you wanted a blog! So for real now...

Things at college have been really good, but incredibly intense. Every time we don't think it can any more intense, we get proved wrong once again. But the amazing thing is that we do adapt and cope and definitely grow through all of this.

The lectures have generally been focusing in on a specific book or group of books of the Bible each week. The styles vary a lot each week depending on the lecturer. I've had my favorites, but each week has been enjoyable and challenging in its own way. One of the best was last week when we did the Synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) with a guy named Brian Watts who pastors a Salt & Light church in British Columbia. Brian opened up the gospels in incredible depth, but also gave us the tools to study them on that level on our own. Such good stuff!

Our community has also grown even closer together, becoming more and more open and vulnerable with each other. At some point or another, I think each one of us has gone through a time (or multiple times) when God has brought us to a place of being really vulnerable so that He can heal past hurts and help us learn to find our security in Him. It's hard to explain, but God has been doing a lot of deep work in each of us. It's been a privilege to walk through things with other people and a blessing to know that they are there for me when I need someone.

So in some ways this has been a really emotionally stressful time, but it has also been a lot of fun. There is football/soccer every Saturday, rambles in the countryside, and games of Uno and Monopoly. (By the way, the British Monopoly has different names for everything and they wouldn't believe me that the American one is the original. It's difficult for them to accept that EVERYTHING didn't begin in England! ;) We also have good stress-relief giggles in our house. A couple of days ago, we were taking the foam from the dishwater and clapping to make it "snow" all over the kitchen. Try it sometime. It is incredibly amusing.

One thing which I have been enjoying increasingly is the beauty of the British countryside. As spring has been coming, it has just been getting more and more amazing. One of my housemates discovered a new and even more beautiful way to walk to college and I now go that way almost every day. You walk down past a little old stone church and down a narrow side road with tall old stone walls on either side until you turn left onto a winding dirt path. You cross over two bridges during the walk. One is over a lazily moving river with tall trees on either side and grassy green banks. The water under the other bridge moves faster and you can hear it gurgling along. The path cuts between two fields where there are almost always horses grazing. There is one horse who comes right up to the fence and lets us pat him and feed him bits of his own hay (for some reason he seems to think it tastes better if we pick it up and hand it to him). We have named him Mr. Darcy - but to tell you the truth, Mr. Darcy could very well be a girl since we haven't been able to decide satisfactorily. Are you getting a feel for why I love this place? It has been sunny for most of this week and every day I am blown away by how beautiful it is. And this is just one little corner of Botley which is just one little corner of Oxford which is just part of Oxfordshire...yeah, you get the point.

Well I could go on, but I think I've written enough for now. I am aiming to get back on the blogging bandwagon. We shall see.... Goodbye for now!