Basking in the Sunshine

So I’m sitting outside in my t-shirt and Jeans, watching my neighbor hang up his wet wash and thinking that it is way to beautiful to be winter. Spring here starts on the 1st of Sept, right around my birthday, which I think is the beginning of fall back in the Sates, but I’m not sure.

As I sit here, I’m struck by the sheer essence of the moment. The beauty in being alone, at least once in a while. We didn’t get to go to church yesterday, because we went to a wildlife sanctuary instead. In ways it reminded of the “church service” that I had at Massade in Israel. You don’t always have to be with other believers in a building to worship God, but the wildlife sanctuary just wasn’t it for me. It was hard to find the ability to worship in the fact that we, humans, took animals out of the wild for our own enjoyment. Not only did we take them away from their home but we further enslaved them to our domestic lifestyle by giving them names like “Bernice the Bird”. I can’t really explain why I had such a problem with this, but I did. I think it has to do with the contrasting motives behind Shaver’s Creek in PA, which rescues animals, and Helysville, here, just taking them. It seems so unjust, so ungodly. I’ve been struggling with the idea of dominion over creation the last couple of days, especially as I read for History and Lit about the explorers claiming land. What ever gave us the right to claim land for our country and kill one another over it? It would seem that wasn’t the plan in the Bible, but maybe I’m wrong. We went from looking at nature and being awe-stuck and saying “This is God’s and it’s a reflection of Him” to “This is for the Queen”. Does this really make any sense at all? It’s like we are claiming for ourselves what is God’s.

I’ve been feeling very drained, emotionally and physically, the last couple of days. It took getting up this morning, after attempting to sleep in, to realize that I haven’t been taking anywhere near enough “me” time. As I want to bond with this group of 21+ other people, I’ve given up what I need. Shame on me. I’ve still be doing devotions in the morning, but it is when the other girls are in a rush to get ready and are running around. It’s not the same as taking the time I need to go off by myself and just have a safe place to sit and enjoy life, and freely think. It’s felt so good to do that. I had a chance to let my fingers grace a piano today which felt amazing, the expression you can get out through a familiar song. I also found an amazing spot in the library to read and journal. Please, keep me in your prayers, specifically that I remember to take the time I need to be connected and re-charged.

As I said, the last couple of days have been crazy and I haven’t had any time to myself. On Saturday we went to our first Footy game. I guess the best way to describe it is American football-ish as the basis, then you can hit the ball like a volleyball, meets rugby, with basketball thrown in there too. My new buddy, Leda, and I just sat there dumbfounded, trying to figure out what’s going on. It was made even more difficult in that there are no time outs or fouls, just continuous play per-quarter. It isn’t like anything I’ve ever really seen; maybe if I was more versed in sports as a whole. Haha. Anyway, what struck me was how absolutely violent the game is. Pretty much the premise is to get the ball by any means necessary. Leda and I were spellbound by the fact that no one died. She best described the game as “Our Barbarian, or primal, instincts coming out. To win by any means necessary.”
At the game I was surprised by how quiet the fans were. There was cheering, but it was respectful most of the time. Nothing like my familiar Pitt football where fans fall out of the stands and the drunk people next to you try to throw things at the other fans. In fact, another HDU, Ruth, next to me, had to be the loudest person in our section. (Leigh if you’re reading this, Ruth looks so much like you and has most of your mannerisms. It’s crazy!)

After the game the real adventure began. There were 29,000 ish people in a stadium that fits about 80-100,000 so you didn’t realize how many people were there until you tried to leave. Wow. It was seriously a sea of people. Most of the HDU kids got separated as we walked to the train station, only to meet up again and realize that we had no idea what platform to be on to get home. So we stood there, mouths a gape trying starring at the screens and trying to find the familiar Upfield train. Finally, Shane had the brilliant idea to tell everyone just to move and we’ll figure it out somewhere else. It was another shining moment of example for why dislike traveling in large groups of Americans. We stick out like a sore thumb and cannot be decisive. I think that’s part of what traveling in a foreign country is all about, making mistakes. Before I left I told Jenn, in reference to something else, that you need to be willing to make mistakes, because God uses those too. Nothing is beyond redemption. We cannot be so paralyzed by the fear of being wrong that we don’t move. Move towards a platform and get on a train, if it’s the wrong one, get off. Walk around and explore, and get back on a different train.

In many ways, I’m also trying to break away from the “heard mentality”. It’s hard to do things with a group our size because we insist on being close to one another. I’m not really sure why, but we insist anyway. It’s sort of funny to watch. For example during this train adventure, we finally got on a train only to have 15 of us try to shove into one car and consequently have to squash other people as we stood. Becky and I walked two cars forward instead of getting on with everyone else and ended up getting a seat, which was great for us because it gave us time to just sit. Or last night, when instead of trying to get everyone to come to our flat for games, we invited over one other flat and played catch phrase for two hours, laughing almost the entire time. I think group bonding is important for dynamics, which on the whole we are most definitely lacking, but you also need to have moments to move beyond the group and become more intimate with one another. I believe that communities are not built on shallow, surface bonds, but rather deep interpersonal bonds that stretch and connect everyone in. It’s like the ‘domino effect of love’ story that some of you have heard me tell.

I think I’m going to continue sitting outside for a while, reading in the sunshine.
I apologize once again for not having any pictures up. Shane and I hope to go the state library on Wed and use wireless to actually communicate with people at home. I may (*cross your fingers*) be on IM around 8pm Tuesday night your time. We’ll see what happens. I would love to talk to some of you *coughMattandJenncough*). Haha. I’ll also hopefully have some more news for all of you about the whereabouts of my three week vacation on Wednesday. Love you all.

Prayer Requests:
- Group and individual unity issues with the HDU kids
- Ability to move outside of our comfort zones
- Personal time for me