A much belated update

Hiya. Thank you all so much for your prayers! They are much needed! I am feeling better, but and not back to full strength. I can hear out of both ears!!! That is a HUGE victory in my book. I still have a smoker's cough and laugh from my congestion. That may be because for the last several days I have been a little hectic and gotten like only 6 hours of sleep and accidentally skipping meals, so basically blatantly defying Jessie's advice. But other than that I have been trying to take care of myself and did get some good sleep last night.

The insurance issue still isn't sorted. It would cost 900 pounds to put me on the insurance plan this year. We haven't got that kind of money. So I need to look around and see if there is another option. So, please, keep praying about this situation. I'd like a miracle here.

So, we have a few potential ladies who want to move in the house. One is older and from Newport the other is homeless and we haven't met her yet. The one from Newport really seems like she is keen on moving here soon, so please pray that she would be able to. She needs to sort out some issues with her previous living situation before she can move in, so please pray that God intercedes there and has it all just be taken care of swiftly. This woman could really use a lot of prayer, so pray for her safety and her peace and self-control and whatnot.

The other lady I may have the opportunity to meet on Friday. So be praying for that meeting. From what I have heard she is very introverted and withdrawn, so be praying that God would help me to find out a passion of hers and be able to ask her about it. I really feel like that is a beautiful way to help get someone out of their shell and to help built trust. So yeah, she seems to be in a dire situation too. I believe she may be homeless. So be praying for her and her situation.

Let's see. Other than than I have started going to Rhiwbina Baptist Church. It is really far away and kind of a hassle to get there, but the people there seem to be very giving in that I have gotten rides to and from there ever since the first time I went and arrived 30 minutes late because I missed the bus. After church on Sunday some lovely girls invited me to go on a picnic with them and I did. They seemed really nice and really interesting. One of them did like an internship or something with Jackie Pullinger, which I just think is WAY awesome.

Last Thursday I went to Swansea again. Didn't find Libby but got some good praying in, listened to several sermons on my iPod, started writing in the journal I bought for her, and got to have lunch with John Derek Rees. After I came home from that Jess really wanted to go to bingo, so I went with her to that. It was fun bonding with her, but bingo is a serious drag. It is just some dude quickly saying numbers in monotone and you looking for them, and if you talk you get shushed. Not my idea of a fun night out of the house.

Friday, of course was Jamie's wedding. It was beautiful! Then a bunch of the girls hung out at the bay to chill out after all of the wedding prep and tear down stuff. It was really fun and Becky and Kerrie got feisty and stated daring one another to be obnoxious, which was fun to watch.

Saturday Kerrie, Rachel, Jess, Mel, Leona, and I all went to the beach. That was fun. Leona gets really excited about the beach. So does Jess.

Jess and I are going to maybe get more into cooking and cook something a little more extreme or complicated once a week or so. I think it will be fun. Tonight is roast Turkey breast. Jess is going to teach me how she makes it.

Sinus angerment

Hiya, sorry it has been a while. I am going to start out this time with prayer requests.

As I have mentioned earlier, I left the US in June 8th. The plane made the situation much worse, and unfortunately even now have sinus pressure, fatigue, chest congestion, way too much mucus, and cannot hear out of my left ear. Please pray for healing. I have been taking antibiotics, decongestants, and just recently starting taking allergy and hayfever meds. Because I wasn't responding very well to the decongestants and antiboitics, I thought maybe I came here with weakened health, but am allergic to the allergens here and thus things have spiraled out of control. I started my first round of antibiotics the day before I came over. After waiting a few day and my congestion getting worse I realized that even if my sinus infection had healed I probably had one again so I put myself on a second round. I am sure I am a doctor's worse nightmare for my self-treatment, but I don't have international insurance, so I don't know exactly what will happen if I go to a doctor here but I think it will cost me an arm and a leg.

Another prayer request is for me to be covered cheaply with car insurance for the firstfruits car. IT turns out I am not covered by the current insurance plan because I am not 25 or older. This means that there is no one currently living in the house that can drive the firstfruits car. After meeting with a potential mommy to move in the house, we decided that I need to go up to Newport by train and taxi once or twice a week to create a bond with her so when she moves in she will feel comfortable. This would be a thousand times easier if I had a car I could use. So please pray for this need. We are contacting our current and other insurance agencies to see our options.

Okay, I actually have to go, but I will update you later! Thanks for your prayers!

Meetings, Wanderment, and First Trip to Swansea

Hiya!

Honestly, I feel like a day in Wales is the equivalent to 2 or 3 in Oklahoma. They are so packed.

So, Monday morning we had the Glenwood staff meeting. That was lovely. Then Cerys (a delightful woman from Glenwood who has a baby who is about half a year old) picked me up and took me to the bay where we met up with her parents and another mother and all went on a tour of a Tall Boat. We then ate on a different boat. It was lovely and she is lovely.

She drove me home but I didn't have a key and no one was home so I texted Jamie to tell me when she got home and set off to see if I could find my way to town. I did. It was good to get my bearings and do some exploring. I wandered about for about 2 hours. It was good exercise and good fun and I do feel like I made at least one or 2 divine appointments, even if they did seem trivial. I also checked in on a gym about a block away from my house and I think I might join. I have really bad hips and knees and really need to elliptical in order to keep building cartilage and strengthen my ligaments. While I kinda feel bad spending the last of my graduation money on gym membership while I don't yet have enough sponsorship to cover my stay yet... I need to just get over that and try to be a good steward of my body. I am a pretty bad steward of my body and can use prayer for it.

Speaking of spending money, I spent some while I was out. Another ought-not-feel-guilty pleasure: I bought some canvas, paintbrushes and 3 colors of paint. I really prayed about it before buying it and really felt like I ought. Painting is really a blessing to me. I do it when I am stress and it really calms me down and while I paint I usually do some deep praying. And I know God is a creative God and delights when I use the gifts He has given me. Dunno what I will paint yet... maybe a dragon for Wales... Maybe not.

I came home and recouped and helped cooked dinner and then we all went to a meeting to draw up a legal support document for Jess's stuff. It was in a coffee shop and the World Cup game was playing so we had to talk over it. It was a relaxed environment and it was great brainstorming together. I think we drew up quite a blessed document. Then it was home and then to bed.

TODAY - That is Tuesday

Today I got a late start... partially because I prayed longer than I had expected, which is a real testament to the Holy Spirit, because I am AWFUL at setting out time for the LORD and really focusing on HIM. So I took the train to Swansea and got there and settled by about noon. As I mentioned in my last blog. My goal for the day was to sit and pray for Libby and pray that she would come.

I called Derek when I got there. He was with 2 of the girls from his church so after I prayed and waited for an hour I went and had lunch with them. For those of you who don't know, Derek is a 23 year old pastor who founded a new Welsh Baptist Church in Swansea about 9 months ago. So he and the ladies came down and we had lunch for about 4an hour or so. It was lovely. We also were able to get some business done. By that I mean Derek was able to fill me in on some information my dad needs for the Mission trip HHBC is doing next month.

So, after a lovely lunch, I went back to my spot and prayed some more. I called mum and dad and filled them in on the Missions info for a bit, while keeping an ever watchful eye for Libby. After a couple hours I listened to a sermon on my ipod whilst praying and watching. IT was lovely listening to a sermon while literally on the mission field. IT was one of those sermons that gets you fired up and makes you want to act, and here I was but a glimpse of a face away from pouncing into action.

She never came, but I did get several hours with the Lord and several hours of prayer in for her. I think that if I do this vigil again I will bring a journal with me and write in it to her about how much I love her and God loves her so that when I do find her I can give it to her and she can really see how much time I have spent on actively loving her even though she hasn't been able to see it, and maybe that can be a picture God's love. I dunno, we'll see. Maybe next time I will try to make Derek go with me and see if we can find out how to get where she lives.

At about 5:20 Derek picked me up and drove me back to Cardiff because he was going to go there anyways. As soon as I got back we went to Mel's and she had made curry for us. then she had to run. So we tidied up.

Then Rachel came over and she and I had our first little check in meeting. It was so delightful!!! She is really an amazing woman! I cannot speak highly enough of her.

Everyone agrees that is seems like I have been here much longer than I have been. I really do feel like I belong here. Huzzah for God's plans!!!

First Half-Week

Hiya!
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers! And comments! I love comments!!!
There isn't much of a story about the cream. The girl just had half a cup of cream and was holding it out to get coffee or something and she just accidentally overturned it on me (she was window seat and I was aisle seat). And if you skype me I'll tell you about the bruise. It was out of a fool-hearty concern for my cat that I bodyslammed the corner of the kitchen table.

Anyways, so I told you about Wednesday. Thursday was rather chill. I went with Jamie to the GoingPublic gap year Christian Leadership Academy that was from like 9-1 or so. IT was really good and refreshing The lesson was about the church and leadership styles in the church and being culturally appropriate. Some fun stats I learned was that 3% of Wales is Christian. Out of the teen to 24 demographic only 2% are Christian. Also, 2 of the students gave presentations and one of them was about spending time alone with the Lord that was quite inspiring. I must admit that spending time alone in the Word has not been my strong suit lately.

Then Jamie took me home where I lay around hoping my luggage would come and trying to recover physically. Got to Talk to mum, dad, and Jasper on Skype which was great. I called about the luggage but never got to talk to any humans, and in the end the luggage didn't come. That night at dinner Jess and Mel's older sister Penny came and ate with us, which was very amusing and interesting. She has got a fair amount of sass in her.

Friday my luggage came at 10:30, which was almost exactly the time I woke up. I unpacked (words cannot describe how great that was) and showered. Then Jamie and I met up with Troy for lunch (whom we have worked with in the past, especially dad). Then we went on errands including getting me a local simcard for my cell phone and a bank account. It took forever to get a bank account. about an hour. But I think I made a new friend in the process. My bank teller was a dear.

Then I met up with Derek at Starbucks. That was swell. Then we came home and had dinner. That night it was just Me, Jamie, and Jess staying home so we went out to Blockbuster and rented some movies and looked around for stuff to do facials. We couldn't find any but Mel bought us some so when Becky came home we all did them. Later when just about everyone had gone to bed, Jess hung out with me in my room and we talked for a long time. It was delightful.

Saturday we had to be in Haverford by 9 for the Crisis Pregnancy course. IT was from 9-4 with a 30 minute lunch break. It is really intense and I think I am going to learn a lot and I like the people there. I have loads of homework from it. Becky went to so we may have a homework party later in the week. That night was the World Cup game between England and the US. So, we went over to Cath's and watched it. She had cooked a lovely dinner so we ate and watched. For those who are totally out of the loop, it was a tie 1-1. Most people around here were rooting for USA because the hate the English so, but out of the girls watching they were not as anti-English. Then we played the boardgame the Big Taboo. It was a delight. It was good to get to know some of the girls from Church on Saturday both through the course and watching the game.

Today we went to Glenwood Baptist. It is a delightful church. I was made to go on stage though, which was quite a surprise to me. They were doing an announcement about the changes and Firstfruits and they mentioned I was new and taking Jamie's place and the next thing I know they ask me to come up there and in short time I am talking in Russian to the audience. Kinda surreal when looking back on it. they prayed for me, which was swell.

After church we arte sandwiches in the park and then I cam home had such a long sleep I guess you could call it a mini-coma. Then it was time for dinner to we went to wetherspoons.

So, that is my week!

Things you might pray about: Pray for Jess very hard this week. She is a dear!
On Tuesday I am planning on going to Swansea and sitting in City Center and praying and hoping that Libby will come. Pray that she comes, and that she remembers me and that we are safe and able to talk and that I am able to feed her. Pray for Libby in general.

For those who don't know, I met Libby last year on mission to Swansea. She is a heroin addict who is forced by her abusive boyfriend to sell herself to make money for both of their habits. Please pray for her. She is so sweet and maybe more than anyother heroin addict I have ever met she seems to have a decent head on her shoulders. She really needs love. From what she has told me about her life, I don't know that anyone has ever really looked as anything beyond an object that they can use. Pray that God's selfless love really shows through me and that His truth reaches her. And that I get to meet her! Okay, that is all for now!

I live in Cardiff, Wales

Hey all! By the grace of God I have arrived. This is of course despite many technical difficulties both on the part of the airlines and 2 of the 3 planes I rode on. Also despite getting cream poured on me on my long flight and then having my luggage not arrive in Amsterdam.

It has been an interesting 30 or so hours. On the sweet side, I had just about the most wonderful send off ever. I had a little family goodbye thing the night before, and then Jasper, Caroline, and my parents saw me off at the airport Tuesday morning. Back to the unsweet side I have a bruise the size of my fist on my thigh and I rode on planes for about 15 hours with constantly changing cabin pressures, with a pretty bad sinus infection that was quite painful and I have not fully recovered my hearing over 9 hours later.

Jamie picked me up. We called the luggage people to give them my address since I had forgotten it. then drove home. Here at Firstfruits was the whole gang pretty much, including Jess, Melanie, and Melanie's little daughter, Leona, who is probably the cutest kid in the entire world. I would post a video or photo, but I think you would just have to meet her to grasp her full cuteness. Also, Jess had made a welcome sign for me! Made me so happy! It was very sweet.

Today was busy, we ate lunch, dropped Jess off, did some errands (including money exchange) and then Jamie and I hung out and talked at Starbucks. Then we came home and the above mentioned gals plus Becky and Rachel all ate dinner. They are an ABSOLUTE DELIGHT! Then we went to a Glenwood Baptist praise event. By that time I almost fell asleep during the sermon (though it was a good service) just out of sheer sleep deprivation.

Pray that they send my suitcase tomorrow! I am sleepy! I am sleepward bound!

GOD IS GOOD! I HAVE SUCH PEACE.