Sometime

Sometime, when all life's lessons have been learned,
     And sun and stars forever more have set,
The things which our weak judgements have spurned,
     The things o'er which we grieved with lashes wet,
Will flash before us out of life's dark night,
    As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue;
And we shall see how all God's plans are right,
    And how what seemed reproof was love most true.
Then be content poor heart,
     God's plan, like lilies pure and white, unfold;
          We must not teat the close-shut leaves apart,
Time will reveal the chalices of gold.
    And if, through patient toil, we reach the land
Where tierd feet, with sandels loosened, may rest,
    When we shall clearly see and understand,
I think that we will say, "God knew the best".

- May Riley Smith

in a nutshell

So I realise I've been back at school for like 3 weeks now, and I've posted nothing on here which informs you of what I've actually been up to. Well, for those of you who were wondering, this is what the past 3 weeks here has looked for me in a nutshell...

- New room, new room mates
- New duty: dinner dishes (...my fave duty by far, we're an efficient team!!)
- Numerous runs around the German countryside (we'll see how long this lasts!)
- Lectures on John
- New seat for lectures - Party Paradise Desk, THE best desk in the lecture hall this time!
- Walks to the lake
- Flea market visit
- Crossing planning
- Paper on a Christian Classic
- Paper on the poetic books
- Games of Settlers
- Saunas
- Movie making social night
- Kgroup 80s v nerds bowling
- Journal making
- Lectues on Acts
- Lectures on minor prophets
- Letter writing
- Sharing my Bible Study Project in front of the whole school (!!!)
- Getting a cold
- Recovering from a cold
- Coffee in town with cool people
- School film night of Cool Runnings... "Jamaica, we have a bobsled team..."

And there you go; my life here so far second term. Next time I'll try not to leave it so long in blogging properly, it was hard to remember all that!

loved

You are loved. Not because of who you are, but in spite of who you are.
And not because of what you do, but because of who He is.

3:16

For God ... the greatest person

So loved ... the greatest motive

The world ... the greatest need

That he gave ... the greatest gift

His only Son ... the greatest sacrifice

That whoever ... the greatest opportunity

Believes ... the greatest decision

In him ... the greatest security

Shall no perish ... the greatest tragedy

But ... the greatest interruption

Have ... the greatest possession

Eternal life ... the greatest destiny

Turbulence

After a ridicules 12 hour journey I’m finally back to the Bode. OK, so my journey here was quite epic, I feel the need to share it haha!

So myself and Erin travelled back together. Erin is another girl from school who was in London the few days before Bode started, so she decided to come up north so see me and travel back together which was really nice.

We got the airport in plenty of time, but the website I booked my tickets through this time were totally crap and basically the flight ended up way more expensive than they should have been. Anyways, we sorted that out, got all checked in and boarded the plane. We get the majority of the way, I’ve read about 30 odd psalms trying to catch up on the bible reading that I seem to have got way behind on during the Christmas holls, and suddenly we get some turbulence.

OK, so a little bit of turbulence I can handle. But I have never experience turbulence like there was on this flight. For what seemed like forever the place was bouncing around all over the place. I tried to put my bible back into my bag and even that turned into a bit of a challenge because of the turbulence. Seriously, it felt as though we were on a rollercoaster. I remember turning to look at the air hostess (...do you call male air hostesses that?! Or are they male hosts?! ...anyways...) sat at the back of the plane behind us and he was sat on this like crate this sorting out the rubbish bags and he literally nearly fell of this stool, he laughed, and then a door swung open and pretty much hit him in the face. Because he was laughing at the situation my nerves kind of calmed, but I really hope I never have a flight where it’s that bad again! The captain then came on the speakers, sounding rather stressed I might add, and said we were going to start the descent into Zurich, and I was like THANK GOODNESS!!

We do safely get our feet onto solid ground, find our bags, and head to the train station. We had around 40 minutes until our train left so we sat and grabbed a drink and chocolate bar. 10 minutes before our train came we head down onto the platforms. It’s getting minutes before our train should arrive and I’m looking around and see this number 4 on our platform! “Wait, we are on platform 4, we need to be on platform 1!” I look over at platform 1 and there is a train sitting there! So we start heading over to the right platform, are going down the escalator and Erin says, “Wouldn’t it be funny if that train that’s leaving is ours!” It was. And it actually wasn’t that funny. Luckily there was another train going in an hour, so we wait for that one on the right platform and finally we are on the move again, one step closer in getting to Friedrichshafen.

We get off at Konstanz, were we are due to catch a ferry across the lake. OK, so we are each carrying a significant amount of luggage with us, and we have 3 minutes to get to the ferry, which out train ticket said would take a 6 minute walk. We are running towards the harbour, scanning the boats to see where ours is. More than 3 minutes goes by and we don’t find it. Ferry = missed. One hour later again we get the next one. And FINALLY we reach our second home. After a 20 minute walk to our hostel, we get changed and head out for some much needed pizza.

It was quite the journey, but totally worth it. I’m now back at school, in my bottom bunk (...ooohhhhh yeahhh) and it’s great to see everyone again and catch up. I’ve missed these guys so much over the holidays.

Let term two commence....

new dreams

You are more

Can you believe its 2012! Christmas has been and gone for another year!

I'm so glad that I chose to come home for Christmas this year! Yeah, OK I was pretty jealous of people travelling around Europe for the 3 weeks we have off at first, and did kind of wish I was going to be going on adventures with them. And I have really missed people from the Bode. But now in hindsight, I'm very glad I opted for coming home, and for many reasons. It's been really refreshing to be home again; being with my family, seeing old friends, enjoying my home comforts. Also, I know I wouldn't have been able to afford to travel around, and it would have made this next term all the more stressful in terms of my finances. And its been nice to have been in one place over Christmas; in my own country, my own home, my own bed!!

And I'm getting very excited to go back to Germany again now! I'm looking forward to seeing what God has in store for me. Not going to lie, knowing I only have 3 months of Bible School left does kind of scare me. I think now that we are actually in 2012, the year that we finish, it's hit home that I only have until March there. And then what?!

Part of me is terrified because I've not a clue what I'll do. Where I'll find a job. What that job will be. But a bigger part of me is confident that He has it all under control already, so I don't need to panic...though this can be easier said than done at times!

I got the new Hillsong CD off a friend for Christmas, and its honestly one of my fave prezzies this year. I LOVE IT. I've been listening to it in my car for every journey that I've had since I got it! There is one some which I love. Its called 'You Are More' ...

On the day I called
You answered me
And the hope in my soul increased
I lift my hands
And turn my eyes
To the God who heals my heart
And gives me peace

You are more than
My words could ever say
You are Lord over all
Over all my days
I will see this season through
I will fix my eyes on You
Only You
Only You

I worship You
And lift You high
God forever let Your name be glorified
I lift my voice
And sing Your name
For you gave Your life to cleanse my sin
And took away my shame

You are more than
My words could ever say
You are Lord over all
Over all my days
I will see this season through
I will fix my eyes on You
Only You
Only You

Hallelujah
The earth will sing
May Your name be glorified
Hallelujah
The earth will sing
May Your name be glorified

You are more than
My words could ever say
You are Lord over all
Over all my days
I will see this season through
I will fix my eyes on You
Only You
Only You

This year I'm going to try to fix my eyes on Him more, in every season of my life, and just keep trusting in Him. Because ONLY HE gives me peace, heals my heart, and is Lord over all my days.