Hello from Holland! These few pictures are sample of my last few days although not exactly in order : ) To view the whole album click the link above.
Happy Christmas everyone, Merry New Year! : )
What a beautiful, simple statement. “He also made the stars.” Five words dedicated to something so spectacular. And an entire book to tell the story of mankind! Maybe an indication of God’s heart towards us… I think that’s cool.
I want to write about so much here. But time is against me. Sometime I will write more about the stars but here is just a taste. The night sky is enormous here. Deep black and endless. Stars shoot around so often it looks like they are chasing each other. I’ve developed a habit lately of sneaking away on late night walks all alone through the pastures. It’s just pure open space where nobody can see or hear any singing or dancing that takes place (a good thing on both accounts!). Last night was one of those perfect evenings; singing, dancing, the whole bit and then I realized someone else had the same idea. Ran right into one of my best friends, Corine. We scared each other to death so the whole thing was pretty funny. She had been pacing up and down the path talking to herself… practicing a talk she’s preparing for Sunday. In Dutch though, so I couldn’t exactly listen in. We are jumpin on a plane together tomorrow for Amsterdam. I’ll spend four days in Holland then carry on to Germany for Christmas with another friend and her family. Exploring Germany should fill up the next few weeks. Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Mainz, and on from there…
So, back to the stars… they are beautiful.
The weeks fly by- it’s incredible. Two noteworthy events in the last few days…
Wednesday night four of us hijacked a car and hit the road. As a school we are involved in the community quite a bit. It’s really cool seeing everyday life in England; great to meet people, hear their stories and get to know them. There is a youth club downtown where kids hang out after school and in the evenings. They needed some extra hands one afternoon so a few of us piled in the car and spent a day out with the chillen. Oh man it was so fun. After an entertaining hour of wrong turns and “denied lostness” (boy drivers!) a kind stranger pointed us in the right direction. We set off once again, successful this time, soon reaching our destination and settling into an evening of table tennis, music, talking and laughing with a crowd of 14ish-year-olds. So cute, the accent is adorable! Conversation was light and random from cowboys to movie stars in America, castles, fish and chips (!), funny cultural stuff… just lots of laughs and good times hanging out together. A nice escape into the real world.
Good times continued Saturday as cavemen, hippies, zombies, pirates (like me- arrrrg), and a wide variety of unidentified creatures invaded campus! School wide costume party… no particular reason… just breaking up the studies. Really, the pictures tell the story. Maybe I’ll get a few up here soon. Here’s to hoping…
…is hopelessly slow! So far no luck uploading pictures. But no giving up. Hopefully some soon… stay tuned
Welcome to England! Where the sheep are blue and plentiful… yes blue… British graphitti… or so I thought at first until I learned how things work…! ; )
Quite a lot has changed in my world. It’s coming up on two months now. I can hardly believe that! Here is the quick run down. I recently resigned from my flying job, moved to England and am now studying the Bible. This is all pretty surprising, even to me. I had no intention of doing such a thing until only a few months ago. The whole story starts quite a while back.
My parents love Jesus and I grew up learning why and what that means to them. As the years passed the Christian beliefs became my own and very important to me. My passion for all-things-airplanes also sprung up during this time and I ended up moving to Phoenix to flight school. These were good times. No regrets, except perhaps one:
In all the good times and adventures, the beliefs which were once so important to me slipped from the front seat in my life to the back. I was losing interest. Christianity seemed to have less and less of an impact on my everyday life and although the thought bothered me, it was pretty easy to ignore. As I lived in the real world some things just didn’t seem to add up. I wish I could say I seriously looked for the answers but I was preoccupied with work, school and a busy schedule in general. This load of questions eventually grew into full-blown doubt in my heart that Christian beliefs held water and were relevant in this day and age. So… what changed?
At a point last winter I ran straight into a brick wall. Basically all my doubts from the last few years accumulated into one great big mountain that landed on my head when I absolutely least expected it. I can’t explain it. I felt smothered by some overwhelming need to know, Is Christianity true or is it not? I knew I could not keep going straight ahead in the middle of the road, not caring. I wanted to be convinced one way or the other. So I made a personal commitment to study and find out if answers existed. Not just quick, easy answers to tough questions- but real, legitimate answers… Pretty quickly it turned into some kind of adventure. I called it (with a grin) “my quest.” But seriously, the more I read and talked with people, the intrigue and my fascination grew. Capernwray Bible School came to mind one day, and after a summer that totally flew by, here I am!
The summer’s anticipation became reality in September when an Air New Zealand 747 successfully delivered me to London Heathrow. I spent a few days at a cool place near Buckingham Palace recovering from jet lag and exploring the city before catching a bus up north on Saturday. Those first few weeks were hectic, but things have settled into a pretty good routine now. Mornings consist of COFFEE (but that was a given, right), reading and sweet solitude before everybody else wakes up. Six 1-hour lectures are broken up between morning and evening sessions with a bit of time in the middle for homework, random trips into town and any variety of shenanigans which tend to vary from day to day. Each weekend a few friends and I always try to escape somewhere. So far we’ve made it to Liverpool, hiking in the Lake District, Scotland- Edinburgh and Loch Ness (!), and few others… all stories for another time… : )
It’s amazing- the whole thing. “Campus” is actually a castle in the countryside of northwest of England just south of the Lake District where I live and study with 179 other international students. The studies are far more than I’d even dared to hope… feels like drinking from a fire hose at times, in the best of ways. Just trying to absorb as much as possible and make the most of every day. Some instructors are resident and others are guest professors so there is quite a lot of variety in style and content which is cool. And hearing the different perspectives is definitely helpful. The course content all pertains to the Bible- history, a particular issue, passage, etc- with the emphasis on Jesus and how this all relates to our world today. I’m fascinated… and completely loving this. Learning so much.
So wrapping this up… I really miss airplanes, all the airplane talk, and most of all, my pilot friends. If anybody has flyin stories or pictures send them this way if you get a chance!
I hope you all are great and flying safe out there. Send an email sometime. I’d really like to keep in touch ~ Hope to talk soon,
Maria
Oh p.s. the Blue Sheep thing… those are the pregnant ones! We’ll have bunches of little lambs running around in a few months, ah cute : )
