General Update 24Apr05

So, the last few days have been amazing. I have seen so many beautiful things, and the lectures have been awesome.
Hans Peter's lectures on Revelation were amazing and we have only got half way through them. One bit I found fascinating was hte parallels drwan from Abraham's offering of Isaac to the Lord and Jesus' crucifixion. Here is a copy and paste jobby from my notes.\//• Gen22: God told Abraham to take Isaac to Moriah (which is Temple Mount in Jerusalem) where there was already a city, because Melchizadek was ruler of Salem. So Abraham took Isaac outside the city to a place called Golgotha (where Jesus was crucified) and when Isaac asked where the lamb for sacrifice was, Abe said, ‘God will provide a lamb’). Other parallels, are that it was on the third day, in v4, that Abraham saw the place where God wanted him, i.e. when Jesus rose from the grave. Abraham carried the wood up the mountain for the sacrifice of his son, just as Jesus carried the cross up the same mountain for God’s only Son. Also, Abraham named the mountain “On this mountain it shall be seen” which is future tense, which was acting out the future prophecy.//
Anyways, so I've been on two awesome hikes in the last two days, and I have seen some beautiful scenery. On Friday, 5 of us lads went up the Planai which is this mountain close by and we were surrounded by snow-capped mountains and amazing colour. Then, yesterday, we hada school hike up this huge mountain, which was great because it was such a sunny day, and so warm, yet since we were so high up, there was so much snow/ice all around and we had loads of snowball fights in t-shirts and shorts. Then at the top, there was this level which had this lake which was half ice and half open water, and a bunch of us stripped and went for a swim in it. It was soo cold, and there was ice all around us as we swam. When we got out, it was so warm that we dried off soon enough. I have great photos, and great memories of my time in Austria already, and I have only been here one week.

General Update 19Apr05

So last night we had our first family group meeting. My family is awesome, and I'm brothers with BJ! and Janell is my sister again! but the two guys (dads) running our family group are like best mates from Oregon and Austria who met at Capernwray Hall, England a few years ago as students. They're 25 and 21, so they're more like big brothers than parents. We spent the intro night talking about accidents and injuries we've had and those two have had soo many crazy stories.
Then this morning, we had our first 3 real lectures...with Hans Peter Royer! Yeah, he's speaking on the book of Revelation, and he has so many awesome things to say. Then, this afternoon, I went to town with one of my roomies, Jon, from Nova Scotia, and we walked around town, which was so dead. Little did we know that in Austria, the workers go home for like 2 hours in the middle of the day for a sleep. It's called a siesta break. How weird is that! But yah, I'm enjoying myself and I'm having a lot of fun.

In Austria

The travel went really well. At Stansted my luggage was 1kg overweight but my handluggage was over a kilo under the limit, so the guy told me to transfer some stuff. So i took out my shoes, and put them in my handluggage and went through customs. However, I ended up getting frisked (bcos of my stoopid steel-toe capped boots) and then I got pulled aside cos my bag wasn't kosher.
it turns out that I packed my pencil case in one of my shoes, which had an exacto knife and 2 pairs of scissors in it. 1 of which was my hairdressing scissors! They confiscated them and I was totally gutted.
Then at the airport, I bumped into Josh Vaisanen and we ended up being on the same flight to Salzburg and sat next to each other on the plane. Then we lugged our luggage through Salzburg, which was absolutely B-E-A-Utiful. We then got on a train to Schladming, the town I will be living in for the next couple of months. The train was soo nice, it was more like a living room than a carriage. And the view on each side was amazing. On either side of the train there was snow-capped mountains, and at one point we drove throught the mountain! It was the best train journey I've ever been on.
Anyway, I'm at Tauernhof Bible School now and I share a room with 5 other guys, 2 of which are Brent and Jimmy! Two of my good friends from Capernwray. Also, a Canadian from Nova Scotia, a German, and a crazy American from near Chicago.
I'll speak more about what it's like once I get more settled in, but it's been cool so far. There are 17 guys and 53 girls. 2 other English guys (from Cambridge and Brighton), Germans, Swiss, Austrians, Australians, and a lot of Canadians and Americans.
It's beautiful here. We are located between 2 mountain ranges and they are still pretty white from the snow. The weather has been mild so far (only 1 and a half days) but i've been told they're expecting it to get hot starting next week.
Anyways, just to let you all know that I'm doing well, and having fun!

Leaving The Country

It's 1.40am and I can't get to sleep. I'm all packed and ready to go. Mum and Dad are waking up to drive me to the airport at about 4am, but they're asleep at the moment. I think I am unable to sleep due to excitement, although, it's not hyperactive excitement, but rather more subdued or even sedated excitement if that's possible. My 15kg luggage limit for the next 6 months was less of a struggle to meet than I expected. My suitcase seems tiny compared to what I'm used to. Standing up tall, it reaches my knees.
I'm not totally sure if I'm ready to leave the country or not. I mean, I don't have a problem going, it's more that I feel like I haven't quite tied up all the loose ends. Oh well!

Regents Interview

Went up to Crewe by train, via London, which took ages. But I got a lot of reading done. The interview went well. It wasn't great but I answered all the questions ok. The interviewer knew I'd be out of the country for the next 6 months so he told me there and then that I'd pretty much got it, so long as my references didn't say that I was an axe murderer or wuteva. So that's me sorted for the next 3 years. I've travelled for 10 hours today with a one hour stop in the middle for an interview. Which was nice.

General Update 13Apr05

So I have my interview tomorrow which I am quite confident about. Probably too confident. But I don't know. Maybe I'm just confident that this is where God wants me for the next 3 years. If so, then it's not so much complacency, but rather, faith in God's path for me. It's gonna be good spending time with just God, as I have to travel 5 hours up to Nantwich and 5 hours back, just for a 45 minute interview. I feel that doing this interview is somehow only going through the motions, but to be honest with you, if I don't get accepted, then I have no idea what I'll be doing for the next year or 3. Once again, some would say that is stupidity, and others, faith.
Many things have been passing through my mind since I got back, but I still seem to be sitting here doing little about those thoughts. I want to share what I have learnt at Capernwray with friends here at home, but I feel that they aren't prepared to listen to what they can learn from me, (sounds arrogant I know, but feel like i'm overflowing with new things I've learnt). I don't think they can distinguish between the time they've spent at Uni and the time I've spent at Bible School.
Having said that, I met up with Laura Diamond yesterday, for a coffee and wotnot in town. It was cool talking to her, but at the same time I didn't want to talk at her. I tried to encourage her to set a standard higher than the other Christians were settling for, and to encourage others to do the same. I hope things work out that way.
I spoke to my sister, Jessica a moment ago, and I probably won't get to speak to her again until September when I'm back in England. She's doing fine and is off to Warsaw, Poland tomorrow for some conference. She's done so much travelling in the last 3 years to conferences like this. It's pretty cool, and I'm proud of her and the work she's been doing.
Things at home are ok. could be better, but could be a lot worse. I just have to make sure I leave on Sunday in good relation with my rents, otherwise, ...well I don't want to think about that.
Oh, man, I'm really annoyed that there isn't a Mac version of Hello and Picasa, because until I find a substitute, I can't upload photos onto this here blog of mine.

The Last 3 Months Or So

So, man, it's been a while.
I've finished Capernwray Winter School and I'm moving to Tauernhof Spring School in a week's time. So much has happened in the last term that I'll keep the memories in my head rather than on here. (Also cos I'll miss loads of important stuff out.)
So it was the hardest thing ever to say goodbye to everyone at Capernwray, although I will see 30 of them next week in Austria.
God has taught me so much in the last 6 months. Stuff about myself and my realtionship with Him and others. Stuff about the Bible and stuff about working hard. Ok, maybe not so much the last one. I've discovered a lot about myself, met some amazing people from all around the world, and had some unforgettable experiences along the way. This truly has been the best 6 months of my life. I mean, I've had some real struggles and found things really hard at times, but overall I can safely say that God has really blessed me this year, and I've changed more han I think I realise.
Other things that have happened are that I have a new iBook, i have an interview for Regents Theological College on Thursday, and i got a job this summer working at a Christian Camp called Forest Home for 3 months in California. Sweet huh.
I have so much stuff to sort out in the next few days, it's kinda bowling me over.
Now that I have a laptop (with wireless) I will no doubt be writing more stuff on here.
Peace out.