Monday, January 4, 2010

That wasn't so bad

Hello All,

Today was first day of classes and it went great. We left the house at 8 in the morning, stopped at the co-op (grocery store) to pick up some biscuits, and arrived at the school around 9ish.
Devotions started with a very happy and excited Jane Perrott, a fellow student. She started with just a few testimonies that happened during the break, followed by a few others who shared testimonies as well. We did some praying and worshipping until 10ish.
Michael Newman, who is from South Africa, started teaching around ten and did so for the next thirty minutes. He is a very engaging, very fast talking lecturer and I really enjoyed him. I can't remember quite what he talked about right at the moment because I'm currently sleep-typing, so I'm sorry if this blog is extremely boring. I just wanted to let you all in on my day before I hit the sack.
At 10:30 everyday we have "coffee and tea break" where basically we all go out into this freezing cold hallway, grab some coffee/tea, munch on some biscuits, stretch out legs, and try to wake up a bit before returning for more hours of teaching.
Elevenish is when we're due back into the classroom (or lecture room. Lydia think it sounds too childish to call it a classroom, so she corrects us when we do.) Michael continued on about many good, lecturey type things. Don't worry everyone, I took notes!
There was a five minute standup/bathroom/drink break at noon ish, but after that we carried on with lectures until we finished around one in the afternoon.
I think most days we'd have assignments to be working on, or some meetings to be going to, but today being the first day back, we were free for the rest of the day. A group of us walked home together, stopping at Meatmarket and ALDI to grab some last minute things for dinner. Yes, I said ALDI. They have ALDI here. I don't know why that amuses me so much, but it does.

Michael Newman was/did come to our house for dinner. I really admire how he really strives to get to know the students. This is his fourth consecutive year that he has come from South Africa and he only comes for a week, but every night he asks to go to a student house for dinner so he can get to know the students better. In his lecture today he went on some rant about how much he loves Thai food, so for dinner we of course had to make him Thai food. It was the first time I have ever had homemade Thai curry and it wad AMAZING to say the least. We finished dinner off with some super good dessert Loralie made, Apple Crumble. It was really cool being able to have Michael over and to just be able to pick his brain about different things. We talked about things ranging from cricket, to the effects of horror movies, to what the "new heaven" and "new earth" actually mean.

"We got along like a house on fire."

One story I particularly enjoyed from him was one about himself. He said that God told him to stop reading his Bible. Other people around him were telling him he needed to read his Bible, but God had told him, for one month, to stop reading his bible. "You're getting too weird Michael", God had said. Michael listened and he didn't read his Bible for one month, even when people were judging him or disagreeing with him. When the month came to an end, and he picked up the Bible for the first time in a month, he said that the new freshness of the Bible, and just the new way he looked at it was just amazing and something he'll never forget.
I didn't like it because God told him to stop reading his Bible, but I just liked it because I really admired just how confident Michael was in how he heard and perceived God.

Another thing he said was, "Christians aren't supposed to live ethically, they're supposed to live by the Spirit." This evolved into a very in-depth conversation about living by the Spirit decision by decision, but how it becomes so familiar that it becomes like second nature. Almost like how a husband and wife can just look at each other and know exactly what they're both thinking. That is how I want my relationship to be with God. Not familiar in the sense of it being dull, but familiar in the sense of it being second nature, and where I'm confident that I've heard him, and I have the grace to carry out anything and everything He asks of me. No matter how crazy it sounds..

I'm going to stop now, I'm literally falling asleep at the desk.

More to come soon....

11 comments:

  1. Fascinating. Glad you had a good day!

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  2. Yay! I'm glad you had such a great 1st day, I prayed you would. Oh, and I think Aldi actually came from somewhere over there:) Not 100% sure, but I think so. I guess I should look it up:) Love ya, Sarah

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  3. Yes, I just looked it up, Aldi comes from Germany:) ~Sarah

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  4. Okay- what exactly are biscuits? Are they cookies, shortcakes or American type biscuits, like the kind you have with gravy (I doubt it's that kind!)
    -So, do tell, what were the highlights about the effects of horror movies conversation?
    - Sounds like there is definitely a lot of God conversation and stimulation of thoughts and ideas on growing in God! Have you considered starting to journal again, or does the blog fill that for you? Love you Good night

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  5. I guess I have my nerdy side too, Monica;)

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  6. I was about to say that Aldi is German and for the record, there is also Wal-Mart in England under the name ASDA...enjoy.

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  7. Hey, I think this is working now!! So glad to hear things are going well there. Love the stories and pictures. Everything is so interesting and exciting! So. Cool. We are praying for you and missing having you over for coffee and conversations. Love you!!

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  8. OMG!!! That actually worked!!!

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  9. I'm going to try to answer all your unanswered questions mom :)
    Biscuits are cookies, any type of cookie..
    And the horror movie conversation, I don't really remember it, but the basics of what Michael was saying is that they aren't all evil and shoudln't be dubbed "bad" movies because they are horror films. But Michael is very good at not putting black and whites. Obviously somethings are black and white, but He is all about being lead by the Holy Spirit and you letting Him determine what is right and wrong for you.

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