I'm in a studio composition module. This sounds much cooler than it actually is.
Actually, I'm sitting here analyzing the sounds of clanging pots and aluminum bars--electroacoustic "music," my friends. I feel like I'm in the middle of Star Wars.
This has been a great week. Thanks, as always, for praying for me, because I've felt really encouraged lately. Patrick went surfing with some University friends this weekend, and Josh, Aubri, and I hung out with different people all weekend...just genuinely had a really good time. Club on Friday night, bowling on Sunday (a really typical Americanized bowling alley--chili cheese fries and all). Sunday morning I was able to sing with Kevin and another friend from Pavilion (the church), Mark, for worship, and that, as you can all probably guess, did wonders for me.
It's why I can sit in studio composition (or the Italian opera Puccini-Berio module) and appreciate (to whatever extent) what's going on. Music aligns me with something undeniably holy in a really physical way and becomes this working metaphor for life. I shouldn't probably go into it further than that or I'll never shut up and get on to things y'all actually want to hear about...anyway, I'm really, really thankful that I got to sing on Sunday.
On to Monday. The first person I met and really got to have a conversation with here in Brum was a girl named Becca. We just had an good time talking, really got along well. Put her number in my phone--only to realize later I hadn't actually saved it. Idiot. So I've been praying I'd run into her again on campus and it hadn't happened...until Monday! Saw her in the lounge in the arts building and we got to chat for a minute. Tomorrow night we'll be at the Soak for open mic night and I'll get to meet some of her friends. Excellent!
On Monday I also jumped in on an Introduction to Christianity module, for which I am now registered. Actually took notes on things like: "the Trinity is one God manifested in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."
About 12 people around a table. How cool is this?? I sat and prayed like crazy for the prof as he lectured (and he taught well, very objectively, encouraging questions) and just enjoyed hearing truth spoken out loud on campus. The people in the class seem really nice, too, particularly compared to the typical melodramatic, clique-ish music students that drive me crazy and completely shut me out. About half the class are Muslims, so I'll get a chance to learn more about Islam, which is definitely exciting. I see potential for real friendship.
So Mondays 2-4 my time, 8-10 am Chicago/Nashville time--pray for this class! For the professor, for the other students, for sensitivity and wisdom on my part when it comes to taking part in any dialog.
It's the end of another dark evening, so that's about all I've got...sorry it's not wittier or more insightful. I'm coming down with a cold, too, if you don't mind lifting that up. Still obvious how God is taking care of me, though, and my attitude in general is settling into a steady, peaceful contentment as I'm trying to keep this conversation with Him continual and love Him back.
I've never been more aware before of just how much I need Him. Good thing He tends to be reliable. :)
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Moved In! (home sweet curry home...)
Bristol Road is the main north-south drag that runs in front of campus, where lots of shops and pubs are located. A half-mile away from the south entrance to the university is a Thai-Chinese-Indian buffet called The Royal Orchid...and above this little restaurant is a flat inhabited now by 5 Americans, which is currently being transformed into the magnificent Canvas House.
We are moved in! No longer a train/bus-ride from campus, no longer in the way of the wonderful people from our church who opened their homes to us, no longer scattered about King's Norton. This flat is the ideal hide-and-seek space. We're actually occupying 2 flats that connect, so it's basically an unending maze of narrow hallways and low doorways and many, many rooms. Closest to the street entrance up a staircase is the kitchen and piles of donated dishes; up another nearby staircase is Josh and Patrick's room and a Globalscope office. Also nearby is a front room of sorts. Down the hallway: a dining room and couple other spare rooms; up another staircase is Aubri and I's bedroom and Natalie's bedroom. Plus a few other unexpected small rooms, plus a really trashy back porch with awesome potential for being a smoking patio (smoking indoors was made illegal here in July, much to the chagrin of 75% of citizens here, so if we fix it up this could be a big draw). All of this is up above the restaurant. Sometimes the skinny double-decker buses drive by and fake you out, as you and the top bus passengers can pretty much see eye to eye. So far, no curry smells seeping through the ceiling.
Still deep cleaning and painting. Natalie's really artistic and has creative plans for fixing up the place so we can turn it into a central hang-out location. The intention is to have a game room (we're looking for a cheap or free pool table) and a cafe of sorts, with coffee going 24/7. Along the way, maybe some open mic nights, movie nights, definitely some American food extravaganzas, middle of the night breakfasts (no pancakes here, so this should be a big hit for post-clubbing!!).
Everything takes longer here, though, so we haven't had internet all week. Nat bribed our neighbors last night to let us use their wifi for awhile. :) So I'm back.
Settling into a house has worked wonders for my spirit. Through your prayers (which I always sense being lifted...it's uncanny), God has seriously refreshed me. It's so great to feel a little more permanent now, unpack the suitcases! And best of all...yesterday we bought a keyboard for the house! (And then I wrote a song.)
Pray like crazy for relationships. We're still going out all the time, meeting people. I thought it'd be easier to meet students once I started class...and I'm finding that people aren't really interested. They want to do their own thing. It's not exactly a confidence boost, especially since I'm on this campus by myself...though I do feel a really silly sense of accomplishment each time I figure something else out, like the fitness center or music library. (The latter was today. NOTHING here is centrally located!!)
The boys are much better at meeting people, playing pool or watching football or whatever it is. They're doing a really great job, so pray that those aquaintances develop into friendships. I had lunch with a really cool girl I met at an open mic recently, and she lives with 4 other girls, so that could be great, especially once we can have people over to hang out. That's pretty much all I can speak of, though. So I'm keeping at it, but it's hard.
Another really bright spot in my week: I'm singing at church on Sunday. You probably know how overjoyed this makes me. Completely ecstatic inside. Kevin Miller, one of the Globalscope team members, used to lead worship at a church on the north side of Indianapolis, so he's leading this weekend and is letting me join him. He and his wife Leah are the ones who took me yesterday to the city center to find a keyboard (and got it home by bus).
So that's where things are at right now...thank you again and again for your prayers. As I was walking here to the Arts building just now, I was struck again by the fact that it's possible for us to talk to God all day long--and how insane that is. Encouragement and power, this realm outside of ours, and we can tap into it at any time.
I read Ezekiel 37 yesterday...revisiting the creepy valley of dry bones story. God, you're the master of object lessons, but don't you think this was a little extreme? Seriously, gross! :) I love, however, what it represents. "I will put my Spirit in you and you will live." Doesn't matter if you're a corpse (and there are a lot of those walking around)--I can and will bring you back to life. I'm holding on to that, God, asking you to please, breathe life into this valley and bring all of us back to life! No place is to desolate to be revived. No person is too far gone to be saved. You always trump our expectations and turn ashes, ruins, into something beautiful, and I believe you can and want to do that here. Invade Birmingham, God.
We are moved in! No longer a train/bus-ride from campus, no longer in the way of the wonderful people from our church who opened their homes to us, no longer scattered about King's Norton. This flat is the ideal hide-and-seek space. We're actually occupying 2 flats that connect, so it's basically an unending maze of narrow hallways and low doorways and many, many rooms. Closest to the street entrance up a staircase is the kitchen and piles of donated dishes; up another nearby staircase is Josh and Patrick's room and a Globalscope office. Also nearby is a front room of sorts. Down the hallway: a dining room and couple other spare rooms; up another staircase is Aubri and I's bedroom and Natalie's bedroom. Plus a few other unexpected small rooms, plus a really trashy back porch with awesome potential for being a smoking patio (smoking indoors was made illegal here in July, much to the chagrin of 75% of citizens here, so if we fix it up this could be a big draw). All of this is up above the restaurant. Sometimes the skinny double-decker buses drive by and fake you out, as you and the top bus passengers can pretty much see eye to eye. So far, no curry smells seeping through the ceiling.
Still deep cleaning and painting. Natalie's really artistic and has creative plans for fixing up the place so we can turn it into a central hang-out location. The intention is to have a game room (we're looking for a cheap or free pool table) and a cafe of sorts, with coffee going 24/7. Along the way, maybe some open mic nights, movie nights, definitely some American food extravaganzas, middle of the night breakfasts (no pancakes here, so this should be a big hit for post-clubbing!!).
Everything takes longer here, though, so we haven't had internet all week. Nat bribed our neighbors last night to let us use their wifi for awhile. :) So I'm back.
Settling into a house has worked wonders for my spirit. Through your prayers (which I always sense being lifted...it's uncanny), God has seriously refreshed me. It's so great to feel a little more permanent now, unpack the suitcases! And best of all...yesterday we bought a keyboard for the house! (And then I wrote a song.)
Pray like crazy for relationships. We're still going out all the time, meeting people. I thought it'd be easier to meet students once I started class...and I'm finding that people aren't really interested. They want to do their own thing. It's not exactly a confidence boost, especially since I'm on this campus by myself...though I do feel a really silly sense of accomplishment each time I figure something else out, like the fitness center or music library. (The latter was today. NOTHING here is centrally located!!)
The boys are much better at meeting people, playing pool or watching football or whatever it is. They're doing a really great job, so pray that those aquaintances develop into friendships. I had lunch with a really cool girl I met at an open mic recently, and she lives with 4 other girls, so that could be great, especially once we can have people over to hang out. That's pretty much all I can speak of, though. So I'm keeping at it, but it's hard.
Another really bright spot in my week: I'm singing at church on Sunday. You probably know how overjoyed this makes me. Completely ecstatic inside. Kevin Miller, one of the Globalscope team members, used to lead worship at a church on the north side of Indianapolis, so he's leading this weekend and is letting me join him. He and his wife Leah are the ones who took me yesterday to the city center to find a keyboard (and got it home by bus).
So that's where things are at right now...thank you again and again for your prayers. As I was walking here to the Arts building just now, I was struck again by the fact that it's possible for us to talk to God all day long--and how insane that is. Encouragement and power, this realm outside of ours, and we can tap into it at any time.
I read Ezekiel 37 yesterday...revisiting the creepy valley of dry bones story. God, you're the master of object lessons, but don't you think this was a little extreme? Seriously, gross! :) I love, however, what it represents. "I will put my Spirit in you and you will live." Doesn't matter if you're a corpse (and there are a lot of those walking around)--I can and will bring you back to life. I'm holding on to that, God, asking you to please, breathe life into this valley and bring all of us back to life! No place is to desolate to be revived. No person is too far gone to be saved. You always trump our expectations and turn ashes, ruins, into something beautiful, and I believe you can and want to do that here. Invade Birmingham, God.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
The Shins and Shakespeare
One night at an indie rock club--fun, actually, and there seems to be more unwritten codes of etiquette here when it comes to interacting with strangers. Interesting. Not really the place to meet people, but we hung out with some guys Patrick had already spent some time with.
One night at an open mic at The Soak--this is more my thing, and Aubri and I invited 3 girls we saw to join us at our table. They turned out to be incredibly cool; we chatted about an hour and a half. Really, really uplifting.
One day in Stratford-upon-Avon--Shakespeare's town! We toured his house and stood in the room where he was born! A pilgrimage of sorts for any aspiring writer...it was refreshing to take the day off and just do something on our own.
School is maddening. Everything is so lax; I've managed to piece a schedule together, but nothing's really set until the week is up, I'm guessing. I'm grasping for some structure.
Personal growth is such fun! Right...
Monday we move into our campus house. This is so huge; right now we're pretty far from campus, so it takes time and money to get anywhere, not to mention that we're in the way of the family who lives here. They've been wonderful, but it's at that point where we're all ready for some space.
It gets dark around 4 here. The rain can show up at any point during the day. The wind is pretty cold most of the time. It's really hard not to get depressed in the seemingly unending darkness! Especially without any friends here. The team's all growing closer, of course, but there is just no network yet. It's second semester, so even the first-years and exchange students know each other by now. I really feel on the fringe.
I can't really pretend to be optimistic right now; I hope that's okay. I trust in God's provision just like I trust the ground under my feet not to disappear, even though I don't feel a strong sense of His presence. Persistence. All the external sources of joy and comfort in my life are pretty much stripped away: no family or close friends, no easy keyboard access right now to write or sing, no easy gym access since we're far from campus, no pretty Nashville weather, no familiar social customs or accents, no obvious academic plan or schedule to lean on, no home to escape to.
Don't get me wrong; I'm definitely comfortably set up here...this isn't a third-world country, obviously. I just don't see a lot of joy in the world around me and I feel a real lack of it in my own heart. Am I giving God room to be that, to fill every gap in me where an artificial substitute used to be, or am I jumping online at every opportunity because I feel so lonely?
These are the sorts of questions I'm turning over in my mind.
Because if God isn't big or beautiful enough to meet these needs in me, then why the heck am I here trying to introduce others to Him?
I believe with my head that He is. You Are. Just trying to deal with this whole "being human" thing...
One night at an open mic at The Soak--this is more my thing, and Aubri and I invited 3 girls we saw to join us at our table. They turned out to be incredibly cool; we chatted about an hour and a half. Really, really uplifting.
One day in Stratford-upon-Avon--Shakespeare's town! We toured his house and stood in the room where he was born! A pilgrimage of sorts for any aspiring writer...it was refreshing to take the day off and just do something on our own.
School is maddening. Everything is so lax; I've managed to piece a schedule together, but nothing's really set until the week is up, I'm guessing. I'm grasping for some structure.
Personal growth is such fun! Right...
Monday we move into our campus house. This is so huge; right now we're pretty far from campus, so it takes time and money to get anywhere, not to mention that we're in the way of the family who lives here. They've been wonderful, but it's at that point where we're all ready for some space.
It gets dark around 4 here. The rain can show up at any point during the day. The wind is pretty cold most of the time. It's really hard not to get depressed in the seemingly unending darkness! Especially without any friends here. The team's all growing closer, of course, but there is just no network yet. It's second semester, so even the first-years and exchange students know each other by now. I really feel on the fringe.
I can't really pretend to be optimistic right now; I hope that's okay. I trust in God's provision just like I trust the ground under my feet not to disappear, even though I don't feel a strong sense of His presence. Persistence. All the external sources of joy and comfort in my life are pretty much stripped away: no family or close friends, no easy keyboard access right now to write or sing, no easy gym access since we're far from campus, no pretty Nashville weather, no familiar social customs or accents, no obvious academic plan or schedule to lean on, no home to escape to.
Don't get me wrong; I'm definitely comfortably set up here...this isn't a third-world country, obviously. I just don't see a lot of joy in the world around me and I feel a real lack of it in my own heart. Am I giving God room to be that, to fill every gap in me where an artificial substitute used to be, or am I jumping online at every opportunity because I feel so lonely?
These are the sorts of questions I'm turning over in my mind.
Because if God isn't big or beautiful enough to meet these needs in me, then why the heck am I here trying to introduce others to Him?
I believe with my head that He is. You Are. Just trying to deal with this whole "being human" thing...
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
School has started
School has begun! Students are back from holiday, and Josh, Patrick, Aubri, and I are working on getting aquainted with the systems here. (Bewildering…just a little.) Looks like I’ve got most of my schedule ironed out, but it’ll be a few more days before things are really solidified. Everything is so laid back.
It freaks me out. :)
I met a girl in the gild (student center) on Monday night—a first-year named Becca. We hit it off pretty well and exchanged contact info; she lives in a campus flat with some other girls. Please pray for her and our potential friendship! When it comes to hanging out here, people actually follow through with texts/calls…it’s hard to get used to, really, since people are so flaky about that in the States. Not only is it surprising to receive from people I meet, but my entire agenda is to initiate it.
My sole responsibility right now is to awkwardly initiate conversations with people on campus/in pubs and get invited out. Can I just be honest and admit that this scares the crap out of me? I’m a fairly assertive person and never mind public speaking, but it is so hard to walk up to someone and, from the get-go, advertise the fact that I’m an American (which doesn’t always warm British hearts, you know…) and politely butt in on their conversation. Incidentally, once I break through that first wall, people have been incredibly friendly and glad to chat…but it is so nerve-wracking.
The other part of this is that our days have been pretty exhausting, still trying to get used to everything, figure out modules and credits, figure out public transportation (or walk an hour when we don’t have correct change)…so it gets to the end of the day and I’m usually thinking…hey, wouldn’t it be wonderful to go back to the house, get a cup of tea, and watch another episode of The Office (British version, of course!)…
No way. We go to Gunny’s or The Soak or some other university hot spot and we hang out with people.
So at the end of the day, I’m spent, and it’s easy in those moments to feel incredibly discouraged and think—dang, I have the wrong personality for this. I am the wrong person for the job! I trust God to keep providing everything I need…courage, energy, positive attitude, wit ;) …and I know that He has orchestrated this, but I need lots of prayer. I really do feel the effect of prayers lifted on my behalf, and I don’t have the words to express how grateful I am.
Thank you for being in on this, for every single prayer lifted. The only thing that matters is more people seeing the love of Jesus in me and the team…the expansion of God’s kingdom. He wants His children reunited with Him. If I can let go of whatever insignificant insecurities and fears I have and just give myself to Him to use, He just might be able to accomplish part of that mission through me!
What a crazy, overwhelming privilege.
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