I Just Could Not Stay Home

Greetings, dear reader!

I can't believe it's the end of another incredibly awesome weekend (it does seem like I'm having a lot of those types of weekends, these days). Don't get me wrong, I love ministry, and what the LMD has been doing since the school started. I must say that I've enjoyed working with the King's Kids children the most (I just don't like teaching). It's just that YWAM Urban Key's day and a half off (yesterday afternoon and today) have been really crazy good. Yeah, a moment of bad grammar there, I know, but it's true. I have sore feet and legs now, even though I was wearing flat boots. Now before I muddle you up further with my ramblings, I should explain in better detail what I've been up to over the last few days.

Yesterday (Sunday) evening was the Life Line church, at the pub at Notting Hill. I really enjoyed it, despite being quite tired. It was drizzling a little when I left the Dartmouth house and, because I was traveling alone (the other girls were biking), I went with the Tube (I blipped the above picture), and returned afterwards with one of the LMD staff. The discussions were interesting and I really enjoyed listening to what the others had to say and occasionally giving my opinion. I like knowing what others opinions are about the question that's been asked, and some of these questions have a number of different answers, also other people have grown up in different environments than I have and have experience in other areas, so by listening, I've been able to pick up a lot. Sometimes, I'm just quiet because I'm tired after a busy week. Another thing that made my weekend was that last night I was also able to have a really good chat with a British friend of mine, without having to worry about my internet being totally drained by the call (even without webcams).

Yesterday afternoon, I decided that I really should enjoy living in London and see what I can. So I crawled out of my nice warm bed and went sightseeing. Yes, we went on a LMD tour of London when the school first started, but today I took advantage of my day off and went to the Tower of London. It's one of the oldest buildings here and has strong historical sagnificance. It's somewhere I've really wanted to go to for a while now. I've had a deep love of history, which has been passed down to me from my parents, who used to take us to castles and manor houses whenever we were back in England and the Netherlsnds as a family. So I spent about three hours there and I was also able to pay the student fee, which was about £4 off the adult fee. It was amazing!

I then went to the National Art Gallery, which was free. However the exhibit I wanted to see was closed. They were hanging a painting and thus the general public weren't aloud in. So I wondered around and then left. I then decided to go and see Buckingham Palace. It was quite a walk, there and back, but I had my iPod. Though sadly, I missed the changing of the guards at the Palace. You see, they change in the morning, not in the evening. I'm still new in London, so I don't really know where places are, so I do find it quite amusing that people ask me where places are and then give me weird looks when I tell them, in my very English accent, that I have absolutely no idea how to get there from Buckingham Palace.

Despite the fact that I'm totally exhausted, I'm thrilled that I was able to do what I did today. It was so worth every penny I spent and every footstep I took. It was well worth the early start and the sleep I could have had, but didn't end up getting (I went to bed too late last night because I just couldn't fall asleep and ended up watching a documentary on BBC iplayer about South Africa and writing some stuff). I want to quickly progress through the photograph captions, as I'm suddenly quite tired and my iPad battery's about to die. The first photograph is of the famous Traitor's Gate, the imfoumous gate through which traitors to the crown were taken to the tower and, usually, to their deaths (Traitor's Gate is no longer accessible to the river but as you can see there is still water there); the Bloody Tower, in this tower a lot of the tortures took place; The Tower of London, taken from outside the tunnel to Tower Hill Underground Station; Buckingham Palace in her splendor; and, on the right, the angel monument that stands in front of Buckingham Palace.

Saturday... Not The Weekend Just Yet

It's almost the end of another week for us, and our day off is just around the corner. This last week has been better than the week before, in terms of energy levels, on my part. Also some of the things we were involved in were really good. For example, Tuesday evening's time with God was really awesome. We went over to the Station Road house to join the DTS for a time of worship. For me, personally, God was confirming to me, again, what He's gifted me with, and as I've stepped out in that, He's opened the door to allow me to grow more in that. This particular gift is something that has been coming up in my life a few times over the last year or so. Yet, each time The Lord confirms it to me, it catches me by surprise. This is because each time it happens I don't expect it to happen the way it does, or even that it's gonna happen like that at all. The Lord does work in mysterious ways.

Wednesday evening saw us in Harlesden again, working with the Salvation Army. We with the DTS and a table of sandwiches, pastries and hot drinks, which was placed under the clock that stands on an island surrounded by roads, near the Station Road house (where the DTS students live). I went on a prayer walk through the area with one of the other LMD students, Melissa. We decided to soak the area in prayer so spent about an hour or so praying a blessing and asking that God would give those in conversations with people to have the right words to give the person. There were a few people we stopped to invite to go to the table under the clock for a hot drink, because it was drizzling. After that we decided to have fried chicken and chips, which is a big favourite amongst the Dartmouth Road house. About a year ago, after my own DTS, I chose to cut carbohydrate, (so all types of potatoes, rice, all wheat products (bread, lasagna, piazza, cakes etc)), also deep fat fried foods, out of my diet, for health reasons. Since I made that choice I've found that when I have eaten carbs I've not felt totally well afterwards, it's hard to explain because it's not really wheat intolerance, but it sure does feel a bit like that. So I was given some money to get some soup, we then went home by bus. So whilst everyone else was enjoying their chicken and chips I was quite happily eating my tinned tomato soup (which I heated up in a bowl) and honey yogart.

Then on Thursday we went to Wembley to do a long prayer walk through Wembley area and to pray for different things that are based there. Then after lunch we walked through the Indian area and went into a Hindu temple. Almost as soon as we set foot in the Indian area a heaviness descended on me and it got worse when we went into the temple, and because of this I chose not to enter the building. I then felt I needed to get off the compound, so stood outside, praying. I then began to get a headache. This headache progressed and got worse as we headed to Station Road for the community meeting. We'd arrived quite early, and I had wanted to update my blog then, but the headache was so strong by this point that I had be totally motionless for it to left. It decided the moment I moved my head. I took some medication and then thought I wouldn't join the community meeting, even though the headache was starting to lift a little, however just as the meeting was starting I felt that I had to join in and worship God. By the end of the meeting the headache was totally gone.

On Friday, we had a values exam, to see how many of the eighteen YWAM values we remembered. Some of the students had done loads of revision for it, but because of the dramas we'd done during my DTS, I didn't find it all that difficult to remember them all. I think it well reasonably well. We also prayed for the DTS and the lecture they were having that morning. We also talked about some ideas for a business project we're going to be working on during the LMD's lecture phase. There are a few really good ideas on the table, we just need to see what happens with these ideas. We also prepared for King's Kids, and had a lesson on how to best work with children. We also looked at the values of King's Kids. It was very insightful. One of the staff is leaving next week to go to the US. So we had a lovely meal, as a school, on Friday evening. We'd just received the largest donation that YWAM Urban Key has had, to date. We had a lovely curry for dinner and there was two types of desert as one of the staff is a vegan, so there was a special desert for her. We then spent some time playing card games and whilst some of the guys played football (American: soccer) on PlaySation.

Today we were with King's Kids all day and then in the early afternoon we went to a shopping mall (the name I have forgotten) to play a game called "Where's Wally". One of the guys, Joël, was dressed like Wally in big glasses, a red, bobble hat and stripped red and white shirt and went walked round the shopping mall. The two teams then had to find him, and try to get a number of cards. The team with the most cards from Wally were the winners. It was good, and included me taking off my shoes, thus walking round bare footed, because my feet were so sore from the ankle boots I was wearing. I'd thought we were coming back to the house, but we didn't have the time.

Photograph captions: Friday lunch in Wimbley, (from left to right) Lindy, Amy, Alina, Melissa, Joël, Niko and Ezequel; a church in Harlesden, near where we had the table; Wimbley National Stadium; Joël and Ezequel, practicing worship for King's Kids; and the guys enjoying some down time in front of a PlayStation, playing football (American: soccer).

Until next time, and thanks for taking the time to read this post!

Easter Weekend

Where can I begin? Ah, I should probably say that I've had a slight change of location, though it was only for yesterday afternoon and today. I spent the morning travelling by Underground and by National Rail. I'll explain why, before you get suspicious about the location change at the bottom of this post. So as you can see, I'm not in London at the moment, I've actually spent last night with my mum's sister and brother-in-law in the Suffolk countryside. My cousins, who I was with a few weeks ago, had come down a few days before (they left last night) and so we had a lovely pub lunch together. Then I got back and had a lot of fun with my cousin, Lindsey. We watched a bit of the play, Sound of Music (from what I saw, it's very different from the play), which was showing on TV, before we went swimming in my aunt's indoor pool. It was a lot of fun. Lindsey and I knocked a ball about and she won. She's a real water baby, and loves being in the water. She's also very talkative, so I enjoyed chattering with her about a whole hoast of things, even when we were playing cards, which we did after being in the swimming pool.

You're also probably wondering what the LMD have been doing since I last posted. So on Good Friday we caught the Tube to Wembley, and as we stepped out of the station we were welcomed by the sight of the Wembley National Stadium. So we had to stop to takes some photos (which you've probably seen on Facebook or Instagram), before heading off to the church we were going to do evangelism with. When we got there we had a really beautiful service. When that ended, we had lunch and then broke into small groups and headed onto the streets. We then went the different streets near the church and knocked on the doors of the houses. It was something that I've never really done before, but it was good. A lot of people didn't answer the door, and some only opened the door a crack, afraid we were going to try to sell things to them, but we quickly assured them that all we wanted to do was ask them a few questions and invite them to the church's Sunday service. A number said they didn't want to answer any questions or told us they weren't interested in knowing anything about the service. A few said they were cooking. However, we had quite a few REALLY good talks and answers from a number of people. A few even said they might come to the service. I do hope they did. After that we went up to the stadium, so that we knew where the Wembley library was and the Brent council, before heading back to the house.

Then on Saturday we went out to join the April DTS (who live in another house) and the Salvation Army in Harlesden, where we had been handing teas, coffees, sandwiches and desserts out earlier in the week. Like the other night, we had teas and coffees for the people who walked past, hot cross buns were also being handed out. We also had face painting and balloons for the kids (due to the English laws, I haven't posted any pictures). There were a number of homeless people came by, drawn by the teas and coffees. We had a few people handing out pamphlets and chocolates, as well a few of the students had a drum and a guitar, so were singing songs. I had been given someone's camera and was walking around taking photographs of the different activities the YWAMers were involved in, though when it came to the children, I had to angle the camera at the face painter not at the face being painted. It was a nice challenge for me, because when I was team photographer in Brazil I always use to angle the children's faces rather than the adults involved, however, as I mentioned previously, there's a law in the UK regarding photographing children. You have to have the parents' consent before you start taking pictures of their kids.

Saturday afternoon, after we got back from helping the Salvation Army with the last of what they needed our help with and, after we had lunch, we hung around the DTS house on Station Road, during this time I was able to Skype my parents. We then went out to play games, as a group of friends, in the park. It was a lot of fun and a good opportunity to be destracted, by the games, from my tiredness, because I'm still adjusting to the busy schedule, and, on Saturday, I was very tired. We had a lot of fun at the park. We then went back to the LMD house, where we had dinner and I packed for my trip to see my aunt and uncle. I left for their place yesterday morning when most of the people in my class were in church celebrating Christ rising from the dead. I've never actually done that before.

The photographs: all the photographs were taken yesterday,in my aunt and uncle's woods, when we were walking the dogs. The last one of my cousin Lindsey looking out over the flowers in search of Ellie, their spaniel, who had gone after a deer.

I'm travelling back to the base this afternoon. So I'll write again in the next few days.

All In The Hecticness

It's been very hectic since the school started six and half days ago. We've had activities through out the day, everyday, except some of Sunday and all of Monday, which were out days off. Since my last post we've been doing quite a few things, though it's mostly been sitting through some very interesting lectures. Tuesday was the start of YWAM Urban Key's week and we spent the entire day working in a project for the media class. It was very intense as we were doing a lot of brainstorming about how the project was going to go and what was going to happen, who the project was for, who could do what, mediawise, and the normal things like that. It was a lot of fun. Whilst we were sitting through the media lecture, the kids of two of the staff, who were giving the lecture, were running around and having fun. Their fun was mostly just a background noise, though one point there was a bowl of chocolate biscuits (American: cookies) on the table and the two children kept trying to commandeer biscuits without being seen by anyone. That was funny to watch as well. Though, for those who are interested in the media project, just be pacient, more will come about that in the weeks ahead. We're still in the ideas and planning stage.

Yesterday was a long day, we had lectures and workduties before heading onto the streets to work with Salvation Army. For this month alone, they're closed during, so we brought a table and set it up with food and hot drinks, as well as sandwiches and cakes. Alina and I went around looking for people to ask before we got back to the table. For some reason, I ended up handing out sandwiches. It was great seeing those who came, taking food and then talking to one of the DTS students or their staff, or by the LMD students or their staff. Even though we do got back very late and I'm still tired now, I enjoyed it tremendously. I'm definately looking forwards to next Thursday night.

Tomorrow's Good Friday, and as we approach another Easter, I can't help but marvel at the cost that Jesus paid so I could be brought into the family of God. It's really incredible that He died, and rose again, so I could live in relationship with Him. He made me holy, like our Heavenly Father's holy. It's an incredible gift!

It Has Started!!

Greetings from the beautiful city of London!

The School of Leadership and Ministry Development had officially begun! The school induction evening was last week Thursday, and the lessons started on Friday morning. It's really amazing being here again and being part of a YWAM base again. This house is so different from the YWAM base I was part of in the Netherlands. The school is very small. Currently there's only five of us, from four different countries (or seven given that I could represent three). However, there are two girls who are supposed to be coming. One girl, from United States of America, is arriving next week, and no one knows what's happening to the other girl, who's from Kenya, as she hasn't gotten back to the emails the staff have sent her.

The group is made up, currently, of three girls and two guys. The three girls are Alina, from Germany; Malissa, from Ecuador; and me, and the guys are Joel and Ezequel, who are both from Argentina. The staff are all from the Americas, or England. It's a very international group, which is nice, but a big change from my DTS, where the main body of the students and staff were Dutch. As the LDM as progressed into its fourth day, we've had a lot of fun together already.

Friday morning was made up of lectures. Then after that, we got a tour of both the house and London city centre, which was a lot of fun. We also found out what our work duties are, well, for the next two weeks, then it changes to something else. So by the end of the lecture phase we should have rotated through the entire house. I'm on kitchen clean up, which isn't too bad, and at least I'm not doing it on my own.

Then on Saturday, we had six little kids running around for several hours, from King's Kings, through out the morning and into the afternoon. It was intense and exhausting as having looking after kids involves a lot of energy, even when there's a number of adults about. It will take some getting used to, well, having to use a lot of energy with those dear little kids. Then in the evening we went to the park and had a flour bomb fight, which was a huge amount of fun. I've never had a flour fight before, but now the clothes I was wearing is covered with flour, and I had it in my hair. We're going to be going to the park on a weekly basis to do things with the teenagers who're there, to play games and have fun with them.

Yesterday I went to church with Alina, which was really nice. I'll be going again with her next week. In the evening a number of us met a stuff member from one of the other houses at this pub. The aim of meeting at the pub was to have a place where non-Christians can come without feeling condemned by the church for what they've done. It's a place where they can come to ask questions about Christianity. Alina had gone to meet someone near there, so we'd left early. I ended up doing something I don't usually do, buy a pair of shoes because the ankle boots I was wearing had given me some really sore feet. So I got a nice pair of flat boots for a good price (considering that boots can be VERY expensive). I'm not usually the type of person who'd randomly go out and buy boots or clothes unless I really need them, like I did with these boots. Hopefully they'll last a while before they totally fall apart.

The photographs: the April 2014 LDM (this photo was taken by Amy Lucas), Ezequel, Alina, Melissa, me and Joel; Alina and Melissa, preparing for the King's Kids; the material we used for the King's Kids, and me after the flour bomb wars.

I'll write again soon. So watch this space!

Adventures Of An LDM Student

I'm not sure where to begin! The last few days have been amazing and the BLS (Basic Leadership School) hasn't even started yet! I arrived at one of YWAM London Urban Key's three houses on Monday and immediately welcomed into the YWAM family. The particular house I'm staying is where the BLS students live. One of the other houses is for the DTS and the third is for the YWAM arts department. One of the BLS students had already arrived at Dartmouth Road and it was nice being able to spend time relaxing with her and one of the DTS students who had come over to spend time with her sister (the sister has now gone on outreach, so the girl will be returning to the YWAM house that's the accommodation for the DTS students). The students have been arriving since Monday. I discovered yesterday that the material we're going to be doing too advanced to be called a Basic Leadership School, so the name has been changed to School of Leadership and Ministry Developement (or LMD for short). So from now on, I'll be referring to LMD, instead of BLS.

I'm sharing a bedroom with five other girls. It's a small room, with three sets of bunk beds and two closets in the room and one closet/wardrobe on the landing. I'm a little used to sharing a room with so many people because when I was on outreach there were times when there was six of us in a room, all the DTS girls (including the staff) and the translator. To be honest, I'm glad I arrived early because I've been able to choose my bed and unpack my many bags (I brought two suitcases and a duffle with my bedroll and sleeping bag in it). The LMD group isn't very big, there's only about eight of us, including staff, and a rather international group, with students from as far away as Ecuador. I'm going to write more about the group when I've met everyone properly, as some of the group still haven't arrived yet. It's gonna be a bit strange being in a smaller group after my large DTS (there was thirty-three of us, including staff).

On Tuesday, I went to see more of my mum's family, mum's niece, Amanda, and Amanda's boyfriend, Jason and mum's great nephew, Taylor. It's great being so central, in London, because now I'm able to see my English family more, and not having to pay more as I'm not having to travel through London. Amanda, Taylor and I went ice skating together, we went with some of Amanda's friends. I've done it once before, about four years ago, and really enjoyed it. So we went again on Tuesday. Taylor (Amanda's son) finished school last Friday and is now enjoying his Easter holidays, so I was able to see him as well. He's a lot like my brother, Caleb, though he's about a few years younger. I still remember when he was born, all those years ago. Then we had dinner out, before Jason brought me back to the LMD house. Jason knows London quite well because he drives through London in his truck, and thus he took me past a lot of London's sights, like the Eye, which was all light up, the Tower of London and Big Ben. I really enjoyed it, and kept gasping when I'd see different things. I guess you get used to seeing things, but when you see something for the first time it's a novelty.

I love traveling, partly because I get to see people. I love observing what they do and how they act. You have the business men in their suites and ties, many looking a bit aloft as they walk with their take away coffee cups from Costa's or Starbucks. There's the young working women, in business skirts or trousers, talking on their smartphones. There's the mums, sometimes with prams, sometimes without, and towing young children. Then you have the teenagers, some are in uniform and some aren't, with earphones in, wearing the latest fashions and, in some cases, with hair dyed crazy shades. Then you have those in between, the older ladies off to see their children, or those who have migrated to England. So many people these days have smartphones, I've grown up overseas, where the cellular advances are several years behind that of England. So every time I'm back here I'm shocked at the technology people are using. Smartphones that are so smart they really should be called mini-computers with the ability to send and receive text messages and phone calls.

I'm ever so excited about the start of the school. The official start is this evening but the information, the schedules and that kind of stuff we're going to be getting tomorrow. So I don't know what the lecture phase looks like, as in what we're going to be doing each week, but I have discovered that the weekends are different. Instead of having Saturday and Sunday off, we sometimes have Sunday afternoon and (as far as I know) all of Monday off, as we're going to be doing activities on Saturday and sometimes on Sunday, as well. There are a few things I'm going to have to asked to be excused from, so I can be involved with what's happening in my extended family. Some of the students are also going to arrive later today. It's all very exciting. It have also brought back some memories of my DTS and those first few weeks at the start of the lecture phase. I would never have imagined that I was going to be going into YWAM long term and that I was going to be in London, doing a secondary course. I wonder, if I'd known that I would have ended up here, what would I have done? I honestly don't know. I think it's a good think we don't know what the future holds. On that note, I'm gonna ask you to watch this space, if you want to know what's going to happen next in my life, and what the next few months hold for me.

The photographs. Here are the photos from the beginning. London Bridge, from the train; the London Eye, taken from Jason's car; Big Ben, also taken from Jason's car; my ice skating boots, from when I went ice skating on Thursday; and Teger (produced with a long e) and Iger; Amanda and Jason's Bengal cats (Teger's the spotted Bengal and Iger's the marble Bengal).

Four Days To Go

Sometimes we'd rather forget something or someone because of something that happened to us or those we love. Yet, sometimes we need to remember something so that we can learn from it and that it won't happen again. For me, that year in South Africa was, well, eleven months I'd rather forget. Yes, I met some awesomely incredible people, but only a handful of people in the world actually realized that the eleven months I spent in Hoedspruit were my wilderness. The Lord led the Israelites through the wilderness for forty years. Yet, even though my time in the dry and barren place was nothing compared to what the Israelites had to go through, I found my strength in The Lord and His Word. He has promised me something and I've clung to His promises. He's always with me and always has. He taught me so much when I was in South Africa and sometimes it wasn't always easy listening to what He had to say, but it was needed. Whilst I was in Hoedspruit I was fortunate enough to have some housekeeping lessons from my incredible mum. I knew quite a bit already but they were just sharpened up a bit, and were some of things I learnt whilst I was there. I also learnt how to do the ironing and using a washing machine (though don't ask me how a tumble dryer works because I have no clue in that area, we didn't have one is South Africa). I think you might be aware that I already did a counseling course whilst I was there.

A bit of depressing start to a blog post, I know. It's just something I've been thinking about and I kinda ended up writing about what was on my mind. I want to remember the past, but not to the point where I'm lost there. I've done that before, when I used to be a person of extremes, I'd either be living in the past or living in the future. My emotions were also in the extremes and with the flip of a coin. Some dear friends prayed for me with this issue when we were in a team meeting on outreach in Brazil. With God the impossible is possible and thus this hasn't bothered me since. Now, as the BLS (Basic Leadership School) approaches I'm in that place of expectation. I know that great things are going to happen over the next few months and I'm really looking forwards to that. I'm already praying about what's going to happen after that, but it's in God's hands. He'll confirm the way ahead in the right time. Thus I'm able to be fully focused on what's happening now and to prepare for what's going to be happening in the next few days (which I'll get to later on in the post). I can't believe how fast time is moving. I can't belive that I've already been in the UK three weeks and three days and that in four days time the BLS will be starting!

The nice thing about me living in England is that I'm going to be able to see my mum's relatives more that I ever have before now. Growing up in Africa means that the extended family don't live just around the corner, or within a few hour radius by train. It'll take about eight hours by plane to get from Uganda to England and flying out of East Africa isn't as cheap as flying from Southern Africa. For us, coming back to England and the Netherlands were usually two or three years apart (right up until 2010, when I was in England every summer until 2012). So, because of that, we've never been able to get to know our extended family well. However, that's about to change for me. Thankfully I've been able to get a rail card, which takes off a good amount off the train ticket prices, so travelling to see them on weekends shouldn't be too big a problem, cost wise (I just need to make sure I'm on the right trains and stuff). I used to be ever so apprehensive of traveling in Europe by train, simply because I wasn't used to doing it on my own, and I didn't know what to do. When I was last in the Netherlands, about a year ago, I wanted to see friends (from my DTS) before I left for South Africa and had to deal with what I thought of traveling by train on my own. You see, I think Now it's not a problem. So I'll be ice skating with my mum's niece, Amanda and her boyfriend, Jason and my mum's great nephew, Taylor. I'm really looking forwards to seeing them!

Over the weekend some friends of my host family were getting married and I was able to go along. We spent a good part of Friday afternoon and evening as well as Saturday morning helping with the decoration. The photo on the right is one of the rooms (for the meal) in the process of being finished. You see, the bride and groom were having a meal with their families and close friends at the church (on the right) and then later on there was a party for those who'd been able to attend the wedding ceremony at the church. The bride's favourite color is purple and she loves pinguins, so that was the theme through both the decoration sessions. Each table also had its own sub-theme, as well. So there characters from different movies, like the Hobbit and the Avengers, she also had a pinguin and a camper van themed tables. Even one of the wedding cakes was a camper van! It was an incredible day! I was able to wear my lovely Arapapa dress! I'm so happy I could model a bit of Africa in England and that the weather was nice enough for me to do it. I'm guessing you've seen the photos on Facebook and Instagram. Sadly I wasn't able to get one of the bride and groom. They were both radiantly in love with each other. What was unusual with this wedding is the tune that was playing when the bride walked into the church. Usually it's something along the lines of "Here Comes The Bride" but today that was different. The tune playing was called "Conserning Hobbits." Yes, it's from two of my favorite trilogies, The Lord Of The Rings and the Hobbit (the last one comes out on December 17!).

Here are some dates that you might want to keep a hold of. The next few days are going to be a little bit hectic for me. When the wedding finished, yesterday afternoon, I came back and did a few things towards this blog (write a blog post isn't as easy as you might thing, especially when it comes to trying to persuade the photos and the text to behave themselves and not jump about) and towards leaving tomorrow. This afternoon I'm go to finish my packing, and try to get as much of it done as I can before tonight, otherwise I'll be up, packing and I don't want to do that. Thankfully I'm been able to make a bit of a dent on that and now I've only got a few things left to put in the cases. Tomorrow, Monday, I'm bring dropped off at the YWAM base in London. I know the school doesn't start until Thursday but they've said that us students can arrive from Monday, so I'm going a bit early to settle in and unpack. Then on Tuesday I'm planning to go and see Amanda, Jason and Taylor. Wednesday I'm probably going to stay at the base and get a feel for the area and then on Thursday, the 10th of April 2014, the April 2014 Basic Leadership School starts at Youth With A Mission Urban Key, London! Can't believe that this adventure is coming on so fast! The BLS ends on Friday, the 5th of September, 2014.

The words for the pictures. The reason I'm writing my captions down here is because the layout of the whole blog will go down the drain if I tried to put the caption under the photo (in order of appearance on this post): me, all dressed and ready to go to the wedding (you've probably seen this photo on Facebook and Blip); a love heart decoration, one of the bits of decoration I helped put up; Lucy, she was sitting under the table in the kitchen whilst dinner being prepared with the hope someone who purposefully, on accident drop something for her to eat  the rooms in the church, in the process of being decorated; then we have the campervan cake, which was cut at the church with the family and friends, and finally, the cake at the hall. Sorry about get cling film on the cake. I took it this morning on the way out and I didn't want to touch such a beautiful cake. As you can see, the bride's love of purple (the purple ribbons) and penguins (the cake decoration on top of this cake are a bride penguin and a groom penguin) were taken into account when the cake was being decorated. I'm really glad I was able to attend the wedding.

I'll write again towards the end of the week about life at YWAM Urban Key and being a BLS student!

A BLS Student In One Week

Greetings, my dear reader, from the beautiful and, at the moment, sunny Kentish Coast and the town of Broadstairs.

I'm aware this post is really long, the reason for this is last few days have had plenty of drama in them, not only for me but also in the lives of those around me! There has been excitement and drama in my family, and in my host family, both of which I've felt I need to include in this post. Towards the end of this post I'm also going to be looking forwards to what the next few weeks and months will probably be looking like for me. You've probably already gathered that my BLS starts in a whole week from today (if you want the starting date, it's Thursday, the 10th of April). I can't begin to describe how every excited I am about that. However, before I get totally carried away with all I want to say, I'll start the drama that my dear parents had on their arrival in South Africa, between arriving at the guesthouse and leaving for home (don't worry, they didn't have an accident, nor did anyone else involved). Then I'll move on with the post from there.

My parents got back to South Africa on Tuesday (I think it was) to find that they couldn't get their car because the keys had been locked in the office and the people with the key had gone, literally.  My parents had left the car at guest house near the airport when they left South Africa, the keys were then left in the office. All the people who had keys to get into the office had gone to a meeting two and a half hours away from Johannesburg. No one had thought to leave a key behind. So my poor parents didn't know what to do. Unlike in Uganda with Kampala (where we used to live before my parents and Caleb moved to South Africa and Hannah and I came to Europe) and Entebbe (where the only international airport is) being relatively close together Hoedspruit and Johannesburg are a good five and half to six hours apart. Thankfully one of the ladies had left her office key at home and was able to get it to my parents, who were then able to get the car keys. It was a long drive back for them but they're safely in Hoedspruit, safely getting over the exhaustion of travelling long hours, across continents. Caleb's also thrilled they're home, I think he's also happy that's he's been able to upgrade his bedroom. He's gone from having the loft room to having the big room with a double bed that used to belong to Hannah and me.

Yesterday morning, Alison (the lady I'm staying with until Monday), Mik (a friend of Alison's) and I went to an exhibit where they were displaying different aspect of what life was like in the Bible times. We weren't there very long, but for someone like me, who loves historical and Biblical things, it was a plenty long enough. There was also a talk about the tabernacle and the temples. It was absolutely fascinating, as I've been to the only part of the Temple that was left standing after the Romans destroyed it along with the rest of Jerusalem in AD 70 (74 years after Herod's death). The photo above what the tabernacle would have looked like (but on a larger scale), the photo on the right is a miniature of Solomon's Temple and the photo below is of the Second Temple, which was built in the book of Nehemiah and was later refurbished by Herod the Great. I'm not going to start spooling information here because you're probably not here to read pages and pages about the temples and those involved in building them. If you are interested, I'd recommend you ask someone who's better at explaining this sort of thing than I am. Before the talk started we had a good walk around and thus I was able to take a few pictures with my phone (which is why they're slightly blurred).

Here's a quick note of interest for you, my readers. The organization, called Shalom (Shalom is Hebrew for peace), is running the excibit on what life is like in during the time of the Bible and when Jesus lived, is in the Thanet area between 1st and the 5th of April, so we went again earlier this evening. The excibit is called "The Bible Comes Alive" and it's something I found quite interesting, despite being a bit tired from my excursion in to Canterbury today (which I'll get to later on, so do stay with me here). I think, for those who aren't familiar with how people dressed in Jesus time, this sort of excibit is really insightful into those times as one of the two men who started the travelling excibit "The Bible Comes Alive" likes to dress in the costume of those days (or so I've heard and read). When we were there yesterday he was dressed in in the style of what the men would have worn when Jesus was alive, what Jesus himself would have warn. There's a Roman armor costume standing on a frame, as well as a Priest's costume. They also have the style of dress that the women wore, in Jesus' day, on display.

Yesterday evening, we went to the cinema, which is a very rare occasion for me, as the last time I went to the cinema was before Christmas (thanks to Hoedspruit not having a cinema, so the nearest one is two and half hours away). The movie we went to see was really nice, and it had one of my friend's favorite actors in it (I gave up having one ages ago). We had dinner at this nice Italian restaurant afterward the film. It was during dinner that we were given a reason to celebrate and to go out. Before I tell you the reason why we ended up  celebrating with a meal out, I'd better do some explaining and give some background here, otherwise it won't make a whole lot of sense to you, my dear readers. In July of this year, Alison is being ordained as a minister, she's been going to Spergeons College in London. Yesterday evening she got the call to say that the church where she's been working with, for the last three years, want her to stay on with them as their minister. The vote was unanimous. There were twenty eight votes and all twenty eight voted in favor of Alison staying on. So we decided that the meal was definitely to celebrate the church's decision. Alison's thrilled about this! Though, I do think that we're all very pleased about this.

Today I went to Canterbury for much of the day. Canterbury is a very old cathedral city and world heritage site. It predates the Romans' occupation of England in the first century. I made a pilgrimage there today, well in some sence. I'll explain why I've called it thus. On the 29th of December 1170, Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral, whilst preparing a sermon, and because of this the cathedral became a place of pilgrimage for Christians from across the world. Thomas Becket's body isn't in the cathedral because in the time of King Henry VIII, a purge of the Catholic Church's monasteries and church buildings took place. Henry was in disagreement with the Pope because the church had refused to dissolve Henry's first marriage, to Catharine of Aragon. No one's found where Thomas Becket's Whilst I'm writing about a bit of history, I'll also give a bit of background. In about 597 the Kingdom of Kent converted to Christianity and St. Augustine (who later became the first Archbishop of Canterbury) founded an episcopal see in the city. This position that now heads the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion (however the Province of Canterbury covers the entire south of England).

Almost every time we visit the UK we end up staying in Canterbury, however we've never visited the cathedral itself, probably because of the whole time element. Family furloughs are usually hectic affairs when we're traveling all over England and Holland visiting friends and family, and what little free time we have left will go into shopping (the clothes you find in Europe are generally better quality than the stuff we find in Africa). However, every time we've come to England we've done our fair share of castle visits. It's been something that I've always looked forwards to whenever my parents have told us that we're going to be coming to England and Holland. I'm a history nut and have been for years. Ive loved reading history novels, and have been known to read my IGCSE history text book just for the fun of it. So last night, when we were on our way to the cinema Alison and Alan (Alison's husband) suggested I go to Canterbury for the day. Straight away I decided that a visit to the cathedral was in order. So that's where I went as soon as I got off the train at Canterbury West (that's the name of the station that the trains from Broadstairs and Ramsgate stop at), and shopped on the way back.

After I spend almost an hour in and around the cathedral, as I was enjoying looking around and talking to one of the curators about Thomas Becket, I needed to leave. I needed to do some shopping, both towards my BLS, though that's more or less done, and for Saturday. You see, on Saturday I'm going to a wedding, and I wanted, or you could say, I needed a hair piece. I'm in the early stages of growing my hair, so it's barely long enough to put into a ponytail and nowhere near close enough to being French braided, so I had no idea what I was going to do with my hair. Thankfully I already have the dress (with thanks to my dear friend, Santa Anzo, and her amazing clothing line, Arapapa) and the shoes. Alan and Alison know the bride and groom. It's the first English wedding I'm attending and Alison is also conducting the ceremony. I'm used to Ugandan timing at weddings (having been a flower girl three times and a bridesmaid once), when people are often late. Please don't take offense with this. So I'm looking forwards to seeing how this wedding is going to go.

Alison and Alan are dropping me off in London, at the YWAM base, on Monday. You're probably wondering why I'm going three days before the start. The reason is that I'd like to get settled in a little bit before it starts, not to add I'm going to see my dear cousins on Tuesday. Then on Thursday, the Basic Leadership School begins. The lecture phase lasts three months. We should be getting our schedules next week, so that's when I'll start making plans as what's going to be happening in my weekends. The BLS outreach should start in July at some point and lasts two months. With the whole course lasting, in total, five months. I'm not totally sure what's happening when the BLS ends, but I'm praying about it already and what The Lord wants me to do. I'll keep you posted!

The Photographs (in order of appearance): Lucy, the spaniel who's ever hungry; The Tabernacle, in miniature; Solomon's Temple, in miniature; The Second Temple, in miniature; the set from the film "Miracle Maker", these houses are smaller than you'd think and they were actually used in the film (look it up if you don't know it); the sight of Thomes Becket's murder, I took this from a postcard I bought; the steple of Canterbury Cathedral; a postcard image and, lastly, a photo to prove that there's still a lot of water lying around after all that rain England's had over the last few months.