Frolicking in the snow...

This weekend I was away up north with my wonderful college group from church, on a retreat. What a great weekend of fun and games and teaching.
Here we are on the bus before it broke down!

Yes, you've guessed it, the bus broke down in the middle of nowhere, and we were without heat for a couple of hours as we waited in thick snow to be rescued..ohh the memories!

Danielle and Marielle and I sometimes get a bit giddy together...but it always makes for a great time!

Here is the crew, a combination of 3 churches, standing in front of Ontario Camp for the Deaf (I think it was the cheapest place to go?!)

My new favourite hobbies include:
Tackling boys in the snow
Being tackled by boys in the snow
Stealing boys 6-packs of coke that they hide in the snow
Hiding underneath cars in the game of capture the flag

On a more serious note, It was a great time, and just what I needed. Those STARS...incredible!! I was so happy to be surrounded by natural beauty. I get so claustrophobic in my city apartment sometimes. God was very faithful to me this weekend as well, and he brought me back to him in such a wonderful way.
And as for the capture the flag game...that could merit an entire blog...

I bought you to set you free.

I heard this story last week, and found it really powerful. I don't think I need to make any comments, it says it all.


Back in the 1800s, a young Englishmen traveled to California in search of
gold. After several months of prospecting he struck it rich. On his way home
he stopped in New Orleans. Not long into his visit, he came upon a crowd of
people all looking in the same direction. Approaching the crowd, he realized
they were gathering for a slave auction. Slavery had been outlawed in
England for years, so this young man’s curiosity drew him to watch as a
person became someone else’s property. He heard “sold” just as he joined the
crowd. A middle-aged black man was taken away.
Next a beautiful young black girl was pushed up on the platform and made to
walk around so everyone could see her. The bidding began.
Soon the bids surpassed what most slaveholders would pay. As the bidding
continued higher and higher, it was apparent that two slave owners wanted
her. The miner stood silent as anger welled up inside him. Finally, one man
bid a price that was beyond the reach of the other. The girl looked down.
The auctioneer called out, “Going once! Going twice!”
Just before the final call, the miner called out a price that was exactly
twice the previous bid. An amount that exceeded the worth of any man. The
crowd laughed, thinking the miner was only joking. The auctioneer motioned
to the miner to come forward and show his money. The miner opened up the bag
of gold he had brought for the trip. The auctioneer shook his head in
disbelief as he waved the girl over to him.
The girl walked down the steps of the platform until she was eye to eye with
the miner. She spat straight in his face and said through clenched teeth, “I
hate you!” The miner, without a word, wiped his face, paid the auctioneer,
took the girl by the hand, and walked away from the still-laughing crowd.
He seemed to be looking for something in particular as they walked up one
street and down the other. Finally they stopped in front of some sort of
store, though the slave girl did not know what kind of store it was. She
waited outside as the dirty-faced miner went inside and started talking to
an elderly man. She couldn’t make out what they were talking about. At one
point voices got louder, and she overheard the store clerk say, “But it’s
the law! It’s the law!” Peering in, she saw the miner pull out his bag of
gold and pour what was left on the table.
With what seemed like a look of disgust, the clerk picked up the gold and
went into a back room. He came out with a piece of paper and both he and the
miner signed it. The young girl looked away as the miner came out the door. Stretching out his hand, he said to the girl, “Here are your manumission papers. You are free.”The girl didn’t look up.
He tried again. “Here. These are papers that say you are free. Take them.”
“I hate you!” the girl said, refusing to look up. “Why do you make fun of me?”
“No, listen,” he pleaded. “These are your freedom papers. You are a free person.”
The girl looked at the papers then looked at him, and looked at the papers
again. “You just bought me… and now you’re setting me free?”
“That’s why I bought you. I bought you to set you free.”
The beautiful girl fell to her knees in front of the miner, tears streaming
down her face.“You bought me to set me free! You bought me to set me free!” she said over and over.The miner said nothing.
Clutching his muddy boots the girl looked up at the miner and said,

“All I want to do is serve you- because you bought me to set me free.”

Olympic Pride.

I have really been enjoying the Olympics. Fortunately, I am home for reading week, and my mother is a sports FANATIC, so she makes a rule that involves us not being allowed to watch anything else on the television for the two weeks it is on. (the same goes for wimbledon) My favourite has to be the figure skating, and I always start dreaming about if we had left England earlier and I had grown up here in Canada...then I would be standing on that podium in Torino this week for SURE.
Ok well maybe not but I would have loved to have the chance to figure skate, since I did a lot of ballet, and it can't be that much harder...right??
I also love watching the snowboarding and ski-ing tricks. I just watched the "ariel" where they do about 17 flips in the air on skis and land back on the hill.....imagine the adrenaline rush?!?!

All that being said though, I find it very interesting, how some guy from Toronto skating around the ice in Italy and being rewarded a chunk of metal around his neck, can make us feel so good, while sitting on our couches here in Canada. It's like we had something to do with his win, like we are talented. The whole patriotism thing just goes again to show how much each of us long to be in community...to be a part of something much greater than just ourselves as individuals. That's what the Olympics is about. We take pride in associating ourselves with certain countries, in joining together as one..its very strange once you start dissecting it...
Yet it leads me to understand that God made us for community, it's ingrained in our very essence, and the Olympics is just one manifestation of our need to belong to a community; ultimately, the community which we were created to belong to: the body of Christ.

Oh England.

I have been craving England for the past couple of months. Just really aching to go home.

It's been about 16 months since I was last there, and during that time I have lost two grandparents, which makes me want to go back even more.

This is Capernwray Hall, where I grew up. It's a bible school in the North of England. My house was just beside where the picture was taken, across the field of sheep and cows (I am being totally literal)

Today my wonderful father, who understands my plight, handed me a ticket to go back to England for 10 days as soon as my exams are done, so I am leaving April 25th to go home.

I am so happy.

Dancing Roommates.

It's 2:20am. I have a test in the morning, and a paper due, all for my 8:30am class. That's 6 hours and 10 minutes. I haven't gone to bed yet. I wonder if I will...
Hey, here is something cool...me and my room mates attempting to learn the dance to "You got served" That's me, Amanda in the middle, and April on the other side. Elea was taking the picture...good excuse Elea.

Actually, we love to dance, which is why we frequent the country bar "Nashville North" all the time! Here are some pictures of our home away from home...ohh good times.

A thought.

"It's Ok to admit that you're not Ok."