21 Days Till I'm home!

Hey everyone!
well... another week has passed and now, as in today, it is three weeks till I get home.... 19 days till I leave Capernwray Hall for who knows how long. Its kinda sad, but honestly, I'm really excited to come home... to have a room to myself, to see my family and friends, and everything that comes with home... good food, nice smelling laudry, and ALOT of unknowns, but thats all ok. This week our lecturer was Ridge Burns, and he lectured on.... well, I don't really know what his topic was... but it was a procedure of figuring out who you are in Christ. So we did things like personality tests, spiritual gifting tests, listening style tests and self evaluations. At the end of the week, as in yesterday, we had a half an hour of refection time and we were to answer some questions in wich we would find our mission statement for our lives. I was quite frustrated with it at first, untill I talked with my friend Sallie, who put everything into perspective. Then we were supposed to write down our dream. The one that God gave us. It took a while to dig out, but then we were to see how it aligned with our mission statement, and then Ridge challenged us to go with it, and pursue it, because God wants to see that happen... I am still working through some of that, but hey... when I get home in 3 weeks, ask me about it and I'll share with you what God has revealed to me. Oh, but my spiritual gifts were (don't get too surprised here), Exhortation (aka encouragement), Hospitaltiy, Service, Prayer and (?) Pastoring. My personality, when described by Ridge was 'party animal', but in reality was the most outgoing personality, that is really good at procrastonating. The downfall of it is that we build alot of really shallow friendships and often don't have deep relationships for a long span. My listening style is that of personal, I relate to people and emotions rather than facts and data, or time. Its kinda hard to describe all of these... but I'd say that most of the tests we took were accurate. This week we also had a book report due, which I procrastonated as long as I could and barely managed to get it done on time, but I did. This next week we have three assignments due, and I haven't started one of them, and I'm a bit stressed about that, especially since I don't have ANY time today to do it at all. OH! today is open day, where we open the school up to the public and have activities and tours available for them. We also will have an international display... at which I am in charge of the canada booth. its gonna be a lot of fun. We are serving pancakes with maple syrup and timmy ho's coffee. I have a slideshow of 110 pictures, and some canadian music to play. Its gonna be fun.Next weekend is our last weekend here.... and I'll have to start packing. AH! you have no idea how stressed I am about that. I have to leave some stuff here, and that makes me so sad. some of it I will be glad to be rid of. It makes me think of all the stuff that I haven't even used sinceI've been here for spring school. I've used it all for winter school... but I could have sent ALOT more stuff home. I am getting so excited to come home. I need ot make sure that my focus is still here and that I am getting the most out of my last three weeks, so if you could pray for that, that would be great!
I love you guys!
Laurel

May 22, 2007 Post (for lack of a better title... sorry)

Hello Friends!
What a week its been, since I've last updated you!Jesus has made my rooms increasingly difficult this year, and this last week, my new room mates really just pushed some of my limits when it came to mothering them. Finally, I realized that within my room there were some trust issues as well as some problems with judging eachother without really knowing each other. So I organised a room night where we ate some real food, and shared all of our testimonies. That was really good. I learned that some of my room mates come from the picture perfect christian homes, while others came from really difficult backgrounds. Its like Jesus took every level of background- perfect to terrible, and put us together to see how we'd get along. Since then, many problems have been solved- although many of them are above my head, and some of which I felt I needed to go to someone with more authority than me to deal with them.... Last week was also prayer day, on thursday. It was my third and final prayer day here at capernwray, and it was very good. I know it wasn't all that it could have been because I took the time that should have been spent praying to have a two hour nap in the afternoon. I don't feel I need to justify it, because I think Jesus just really wanted to give me that as a gift, after my especially hard week. But the time that I actually used to pray was so unbelievably good. If you remember, at the begining of the year God told me that he would teach me how much he loved me, well this prayer day he told me that now I know, and now I need to show other people, but I needed to do one more thing first- give him my WHOLE heart, and keep nothing for myself. So in the evening, when we had the opportunity to leave sins, or situations at the cross with Jesus, I took my heart, and left it there, on the cross for Jesus to have.All week, the worship song has been stuck in my head- Lord you have my heart, and I will search for yours. Wow. how powerful is that? I love that. I feel so empty now... but so free... like there is so much for Jesus to tell me, so many ways he can use me, so many places he can send me. I had a great break, and much needed, this weekend from school where I went down to Norwich (pronounced NOr-riCH) to visit my Grandma's Cousins. They were wonderful to me, and in my family style, completly nutty, and it was wonderful. It truely made me homesick for home, especially family. This week we have a great speaker, Ridge Burns, who is speaking on Living The Christian life, or something like that. He is extremely funny and interactive, and I think I'll get alot out of his lectures, as he is making it personal, and applicable.
I am dead tired now, so I'm going to retire!
I miss you all! its only 26 days now!
Love,Laurel

A Bad week with a few perks!

This week has been a struggle. its seemed to go on forever.
The week started out with Jesus telling me I needed an attitude adjustment.... again. So I worked on my pride, my judgemental attitude, and how often I tend to gossip. Not easy. But it feels good to flush that out of my life.... and I'm still working on it.
Then later this week, issues with my room mates arised. I have one room mate who is physically sick, due to a failed pregnency that was caused by rape a year ago. She doesn't know that I know this, but it was not hard to guess at all. But as you can guess this is embarassing for her, and she is not willing to take back her pride and go to a doctor, so she continues to hide that she has a fever that is caused by infection. AH!
And then... to make my week even better, last night one of my other room mates came back to our room an hour after lock up, stinking like smoke (perhaps a mixture of tobacco, and Pot) and drunk out of her mind. within 15 minutes she had puked 3 times. I DON'T WANT TO DEAL WITH THIS!
oh... and the cherry on the ice cream is..... (drum roll please) I have a cold!
All was not lost this week though. I went shopping on tuesday and got a few new shirts and a new pair of shoes. and I got a new pair of shoes again today, when Itook the saturday trip into Kendel... which is not far from here.
I have made plans for our travel weekend- next weekend to visit my relatives (My grandma's cousins) in Norfolk. I am kinda excited, as Edwina, my cousin, seems to be very fun and hospitable! The trip takes 7 hours, but I will be glad for the solitude and the scenery.
I have to run off now, because we are having a talent show tonight, and I will be dancing in it, and I need to arrange my music so that it can be played... after all the fuss that my mom went to to get it to me!
I hope that you all are still well!
Love,
Laurel

Another week gone...

Wow, Sitting here, in my room with my roommates, all replying to emails sent to them has made me think about comming home, and communicating with people. Leaving the country makes you really know who is your real friends.
Anyways..... This last week has been... quite usual, if I was to put a word to it.
I threw up for the first time in 14 years, becasue of my anti-malaria medication, and then stopped taking it altogether.... I'm tired of feeling sick and nausious all the time... and I figure either I'll get malaria or I won't, and I'll just deal with it when and if the time comes.
I walked into carnforth for the first time with two of my room mates, had an awesome time, and got an unreal amount of blisters on my feet.
I had to say goodbye to Jeremy, when he left to head home for Canada. That made me sad, cause I don' know the next time I'll see him, but we had a great time together! I miss him alot already, and am looking forward to seeing him next!
I went on many night walks, and admired the stars here in England. I told a few people about the Northern Lights, and really realized that I have taken them for granted, and miss them quite alot... as wierd as that is.
Lectures this week were amazing, well... one of the lecturers was amazing. His name was Peter Reid, and he is the Director of Bodenseehof- the German Torchbearer's School. He was so passionate and emotional, and it was just really good. He spoke on the book of Joshua. We also had a return guest- Graham Stanford, who lectured during winter school and is known for his terrible grammer and an accent so thick that even some english students can't understand him! He Lectured on Ephesians, and as usual went off on far too many tangents and random stories.
I guess in General this week was a really good week. The sun shone all week. Today was cloudy, but to be honest, I'm kinda craving a rainy day. I miss the typical english weather. but its alright.
I don't really know what next week holds for me. more of the same, I guess. nothing exciting that I'm aware of.
I truely hope that the cliques here at school get less..... exclusive. There are deffinate groups, adn its hard to get into one, so sadly, I am exclusively part of the winter school group, and trying so hard to befriend some of the new kids, but its not working so well. I don't know what I think of this new envirionment. But I'll get over it, and still smile and say hello to the new kids.
Anyways, this has already gotten too long.
I hope everyone is doing well! I miss you all so much! I'm so excited to come home and see you all!
With Love,
Laurel