Thanksgiving

It has been about 3 weeks since I last wrote this blog so again I am apologising for a lack of commitment. So I am hoping that this little section will redeem me, but even if it doesn’t I’ll be honest and say that I probably won’t loose much sleep on it, after all I will be home in a little over 3 weeks so we can all sit down and talk about it then.

So now it’s the informational part filling you all in on the events that have taken place over the last little while. My tray of malteser squares have been devoured completely all except a few crumbs on the base of the tray. There is a huge dent in my chocolate stash but I think there is still enough to see me through to the end. And finally, Phillipe, our pet mouse!! I never ever seen him or heard him so I’m guessing that he left my room and moved onto greener pastures. But, Chris heard a noise one evening, a mouse was stuck in his trap and screaming his little lungs out in desperation to escape, well to be fair I would be too. But he never got free, Chris broke the little guys neck and tossed it in the bin. Goodnight Mr Mousey.

So enough about that, it time for thanksgiving, Chris and I were invited to spend the break at our friend Danielle’s house and to share our first thanksgiving experience with her family. It was awesome, a really fun time had by all. We played a massive amount of Dutch Blitz, a card game invented by the Dutch Amish in the . . . well a long time ago. Have any of you ever played it? I know mum, dad and my family have we may even own the game. But anyway, the point of it was; that it was fun. We also just hung out with the family and had fun sharing stories about one another and we watched a colossal amount of movies. We went shopping on Saturday, longest day ever but I got all my families Christmas presents sorted for 50% off in the after turkey day sales ☺
And last, but not least we had GOOD food, I mean, awesome turkey. The potatoes and yams were ok but I was just interested in the deep fried turkey and freshly roasted turkey and the stuffing. Was so good, especially eating canteen food all semester, it was nothing short of bliss ☺ It made me really look forward to Mrs A’s immense Christmas dinner when I arrive back on the better side of the pond ☺

Also, I got my camera back from Sony, its working like a treat, its pretty much brand new again and I didn’t have to spend one cent ☺ so I think I’ll wait until I get home to show you all my photos as I cant be bothered uploading them now haha. There are probably like 400 or so, so please understand. Thanks, I knew you would.

So three weeks left of Moody, I cant believe it, its flown in so fast and I feel like I have been away for an age, but it has been great, I would recommend this sort of experience to anyone, well worth it.

Laura Kate and a Truckload of Chocolate :)

Its Monday evening, Laura and Kate have gone home again and I’m back to the usual routine of wake up, go to class, work, play football, eat, do homework, hangout with the peeps and go to bed. That sounds so boring doesn’t it!

So Laura, my precious little sister and Kate my mate (thanks for that little nickname jenny, I stole it from you) were here and it was Soooo much fun, I just loved it. Do you like that girls, woohoo inside joke, haha.

Wow, I veer off topic a lot and I feel like this blog is always disjointed so I’m sorry for that. See what I mean I’m off topic again. So back to the real reason for writing this, Laura and Kate came here for a few days and to be honest with you all I really enjoyed it, it was very refreshing and I loved seeing my little sister ☺

When I first heard they were coming over I was thinking to myself, is there any point its only going to be for 4 days you will be jet lagged the whole time, but oh how I was wrong, they seemed to get round more of the city in one day than I have since I have been here. Infact I don’t think I would ever have went up the Sears Tower if they hadn’t come over, so thanks guys. So, while I am thanking you, I suppose I would have to direct another deep thanks and gratitude to my dear mother for the colossal amount of tea and chocolate you sent with the girls, it is AWESOME!!!!!! I never thought chocolate tasted so good until last Wednesday, I missed it so but now I have a tonne so it will last me until I have to leave, I hope.

So on Saturday when Chris and I came back from leaving Laura and Kate to the airport we went to my room to watch a DVD, The Pagemaster, what a classic!! But that’s not what I was going to talk about, I fell asleep after about 15minutes and Chris woke me up to say there was a mouse under the table, yes that’s right we have a mouse in my room, haha I’m a slob. Well actually I’m not I don’t know why there is a mouse in there, my room is tidy and clean and I have mine and Bens food in a sealed drawer or the fridge. So Chris and I got a little trap and hoped when I woke up next morning that the mouse would be stuck to it, but nope, little Phillipe is still roaming around my room.

It’s almost midnight, I’m away to make a cuppa tea and go to my bed.

Spuds!!! Oh how i miss you

I am sitting here once again in my room and I thought it was about that time again that I updated my blog. So here I am friends ☺ I have missed you.

I suppose what has been on my mind a lot lately and playing on my mind is the distinct lack of spuds in this place, in the SDR where I work all they serve is rice or pasta and when they do “potatoes” its instant mix, just-add-water muck. I hate mash at the best of times but mash made with water is almost sinful. Makes me sick. So one of the things I’m most looking forward to when I set foot back into the glorious island of Ireland is a nice big plate of boiled spuds and half a pound of nice butter and pint of ice cold Full Fat milk to wash it down, none of this slim milk or 2 percent stuff, if I wanted water id take my drink from the tap thank you very much America.

So another thing I miss is chocolate and maltesers, I was watching a film the other night, it was set in London and there was a scene in a super market where all of the good old British and U.K. foods were all on display to see, it made me so hungry for maltesers and corn flakes. But its ok Kate Hanna and my dear Sister Laura are going to be arriving here in 2 days so I’m really excited to see them and as far as I’m aware they are bringing me a little stash of chocolate and sweets so im banking on that to get me thru until December.

OK I finished Lost and WOW what a show, I may even go as far as to say that it is better than 24, shot me if you like Craig or Jenny and whoever would disagree but I do think its better. Two totally amazing shows but if I had to go with just one im afraid it would have to be Lost. What are your thoughts?? Please leave a comment in my suggestion box (just write comment on blog posting)

Alright I have to head on to a work meeting here so this post is a little shorter than usual but I hope it brings you, my faithful readers, a little entertainment.

Missions Conference

Ok so its been like a week and a half since my last post (this sentence is becoming a regular appearance, well sentences of apology for how awful I am at keeping this up to date) Missions Conference and the study/reading days have come and gone, I have suffered from a severe lack of sleep and now im back to classes again, its all go once again here on the campus of Moody Bible Institute, Chicago. Midterms and final paper deadlines are beginning to enlarge on the horizon of the near future and all people seem to be doing is reading or studying or both (myself included), so this has been a good relief from the stress of cramming information into my already overheating brain.

So missions conference was pretty average to be honest. There was a procession on the first night when all the international students marched up to the front of the auditorium carrying their nations flag, it was pretty awesome but I was annoyed as they didn’t have a flag for wee Norn Iron, the coordinator of this whole event actually asked me to carry a tricolour. I kindly refused and then I just laughed at how people are so ignorant to the fact we are two separate countries in Ireland. But the thing that really grinds my gears is that some of the “typical, dumb Americans” will argue that it’s the same country. I have learnt to just let it go there is just no changing some people. So that’s my rant over. I have kind of gotten off the track here. Sorry!

So back to missions conference, the main speaker was pretty bad so the first night didn’t go down so well but the next few days as I went to my required seminars it seemed to be a little better. I think that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have because I heard this conference was supposed to be really good so my hopes and expectations were pretty high and after the first night I was just disappointed.

But don’t worry, the first day had its up-side, I got my social security number so now I can get all the pay that I am owed for working, so im waiting on a nice fat paycheck next week ☺

So in my last blog I wrote about how I was looking forward to watching lost again, and man I can see why I missed it so much, I have flown through the first half of the series on the days I was off and not attending the conference, it is immense. For all the people who haven’t been bitten by the bug of Lost, or 24 for that matter, WHY NOT?? Get it sorted.

Ok another think that’s been on my heart since I have been here is the simple question why? Not like why am I here or what on earth have I let myself in for. Just simply why? I have talked to a lot of different people and heard a lot of different testimonies over that last few months and some of the stuff that has been shared just makes me wonder WHY?
I have heard a few cases of people who have been molested, raped and abused (not mentioning any names) When I hear of this it makes me so angry, it makes me boil up inside and ask the question: Why are people so twisted, sick and corrupt?

Why…?
…Is the world SO corrupt?
…Do people hate Humanity?
…Is there no love? But so much hatred despair and dehumanizing?
…Will there be an end to all this suffering?
…Are people so twisted? So depraved?

Will we ever see an end to this, will there ever be a radical change?

We Need…
…A Revival
…A Revolution
…An Army
…A Generation

We need a generation of people, young and old, who are going to reach out to the unloved, who are going to stretch out their loving hands. Show love to those who don’t know it. Show compassion to those who are in desperate need of it. Who will draw near to the broken. Heal the hurting. Feed and water the hungry and thirsty.

“I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” Matthew 25v45

We need this revival, this revolution; we need to put into a forward motion so we can start making a change for the better. WE NEED IT NOW. We have to raise an army so we can fight with the battle of brokenness, depravity and corruption of this world. We cant st back any longer and hum and ha at the News reports of the devastation going on in front of our very noses, we need to put this into action and do something.

IT STARTS WITH US we cant just let others do it all.

Swamped!!! So much work!!!

So this has been the longest most mentally tiring few days ever. On Monday I have a mid-term, and 3 papers to hand in. One paper is an evaluation about how fit I am and how fit I’d like to be in my senior year? (I wont even be in Moody in 4 years), one is for College writing, a descriptive paper about a friend. And finally a book report about the Case for Christ. I quite enjoyed the book report, the book has taught me a few things and it was quite an enjoyable read (I did only skim over the main points though) Its Saturday night and I now have just finished my report and I have half of my fitness assessment completed as well, so I feel like I have achieved quite a lot so I can have a well earned rest tonight when I finally turn in to my pit in about half an hour.

Next week is missions conference, I’m not totally sure what all this entails but I do know that after Monday I have no classes until the following Wednesday. Also another well earned bonus is that I don’t have to work either so I have a whole week off to relax and start preparing for my next assignments that will be due very shortly (its like a vicious cycle of mental exhaustion) oh well I’m here to learn aren’t I. the only thing I have to do this week is attend the missions conference sessions so it will be a little more relaxing than what I have yet to get used to, everything over here is at break neck pace, I don’t know how some people keep up with it, my friend is double majoring, that’s just nuts, I can hardly find time to relax and I do 6 credit hours less than her each week. Americans eh?

I cant wait until Monday night when I can finally have a little more freedom after I hand all this work in, its going to feel so good ☺ infact I have already made a date with my computer and season 3 of Lost (I’m downloading it off itunes as I write this) for that evening.

So this week I went to get my social security number (I can finally get paid for work), I wish I could have avoided doing it because I had to wit for like 2 hours in a sweaty waiting room for the stupid woman to inform me that all I could do was make an appointment for next Tuesday to apply for it, I was pretty enraged with anger at this stage but it was ok, I got a good part of my paper written while I waited in the disgusting room. The paper I was writing was one of the best assignment titles I have ever written about, I thoroughly enjoyed writing it. The title was “Is lifestyle/friendship evangelism more effective than having a strong apologetic approach?” When I first read that title I was like “what the heck” but then I looked up what it mean by “having a strong apologetic” and it basically just means “to defend something.”

I learnt a lot from this because I always thought that the lifestyle approach and friendship approach was much easier and assumed that it was more effective but in reality we need to have a firm grasp of both approaches. A testimony about how God has changed a persons life says a lot and can be very effective for witnessing but if we don’t have a firm grasp of the scripture proving why there has been a change in our lives then how are we going to answer the question put to us about how God works through us, about why we have decided to put faith in God and have a relationship with Christ. I think that both are vital. We build up relationships and friendships with people but that can only take us so far, once we have a strong relationship with the people we are trying to win they will eventually begin to ask deeper questions and we need to be ready to deal with that, we need to have a grasp of the scripture so we can answer their question and show them how to have a relationship with Christ. It was summed up using a great picture of two football fans arguing whether or not it is more important to score goals or to defend their own net. The conclusion is that we need a combination of both.

Oh look at that perfect timing; Lost has just finished downloading ☺ so long for now my friends.

'Joy'nt Blogging...

Do you like the title? I wrote it like that because the person who is writing it with me is called Joy. I know I’m a comical genius. I’ll be here all week, if you want an autograph.

So Joy and I decided that we would write this Joynt blog because we are bored and both have recently started blogging, it’s a cool fad you should try it sometime if you don’t already do it.

Actually, its not just Joy and myself, another person called Hawaii is here too, she is a Native American (Indian) and so cool, she can outrun a reindeer. She recently beat Rudolph in the 100meter sprint, got gold in the winter Olympics. Haha.

****WAITING ON INSPIRATION****

I cant think of anything to write right now so I’ll give the computer over to Joy, I’m very wary of this as she uses a dreaded PC and I’m afraid she will get confused with the superior operating system on my MacBook and totally blow it up…

Joys turn to write now:

Tyrrell is letting me use his MacBook, and I feel very privileged to be undertaking this honourable position. Sitting in the tunnels, trying to think of something useful to write…angry voices down the hall…
Tyrrell!!!! I won’t blow up your MacBook!!!! Joy’s feet are officially off limits now.
Ups, I think they just locked us in. Oh, well, Tyrrell, I guess the tunnels are our new home for a while…
What do you think of Calvinism? Or Armenianism? Or however you spell it? I had a man totally attack me today, trying to figure out what I believe, whether I’m a Calvinist or an Armeniest…I was entirely put off and rather offended that he tried to put me in such a box so quickly…he would ask me a question about eternal security and from the answer I gave, he would ascribe to me some foolish name that I didn’t even understand…makes me wonder why as Christians we’re so apt to stick a label to everything. Tyrrell, what do you think?

To be honest with you I don’t fully understand the whole Calvin I haven’t read enough about it yet. I also know that we shouldn’t follow the Doctrine of what a mere mortal says in his books and theories. Scripture, the word of God, is the only authoritative Doctrine, which we should follow earnestly and be faithful to. So, predestination, that’s another part of Calvinism, who are we to say that God only selects certain people, that he has a “specific elect.” It says, after all, in the Scriptures that Christ came for every man, its up to us to choose whether or not we follow Him or not. But, then some of you reading this will put across the argument that the “elect” are the people who God draws to Him. I believe that God draw us to Him, I have no doubt about that, but I also believe that we have to make the final decision to follow Christ. God gave us free wills didn’t he? If he wanted robots to worship Him he would have made them. But He chose to make a race of idiots instead. Like think about it human beings are retarded we continually sin and smack God in the face and reject Him. How must he feel?? Imagine how Christ felt when he heard Peter, his best mate, swearing that he didn’t know Him, Luke 22: 61 “the Lord turned and looked at Peter” imagine the tears welling in His eyes, imagine the hurt in his heart. Well that’s what this race, we, you and I, put him through daily. But here is a nicer thought for you all His grace abounds. Awesome ☺

(Joys turn again)

I’m going to change the subject now, because it’s what I do. Be prepared. This world hasn’t enough Joy in it, I am convinced. Haha, just kidding, I’m sure there’s far too much of me and my noise in this world, but then again, that’s how God made me, loud. I wonder what His face looks like…? You know? How perfect He is…
Moving on to a new subject again. This weekend we’re all going to my house for two days, more like one day with all the travel and whatnot involved, but it will still be a good time, I think we girls are going to sleep in tents just for the crack of it. ☺ Tyrrell, is Evan coming or no? Just so that you can tell him when we’re leaving, if he is.
Tyrrell’s curled up on a shelf, sleeping, or at least about to, and it’s so funny, I never thought that he was as small as all that until just here now.
I wonder what Europe is like to someone like me—an American who has never ventured past Mexico, not because she didn’t want to, but simply because she didn’t have the opportunity, and yet has always been interested in European culture, and been attracted to it, as little as she knows/knew about it…I wonder what it’s like experiencing American culture for the first time. Sometimes I forget that most of my friends aren’t from around here and they don’t always know what I’m talking about…more times than not, though, I just don’t get what they’re talking about…that’s when I listen to try to figure it out.
Steal the jeans, Tyrrell. Steal them right now. And then I’ll make a bag out of them.

(Don’t really steal the jeans.)

I’d like a pair of bowling shoes, I think they’d be absolutely amazing. I love the bowling shoes in Rochelle. So old and retro, probably as dirty as sin, but they’re so awesome-looking.
Wonderful jazz band was at Joe’s tonight. Convinced that jazz is God’s favourite genre of music.
Tyrrell’s church, I’d like to visit yous sometime. ☺

(Right, Tyrrell’s turn.)
Nice use of the word ‘yous’ that’s awesome, Chris and I have taught you well you wee eejit. Haha

Joy I’m from Northern Ireland we have integrity and honour so I am not going to steal the jeans.

Ok so my first experience of American culture was basically that over here people eat a lot, they have annoying accents (blablabla) and that everything is so fast moving, not the cars I mean the pace of living. But I was naïve and I actually love it here, totally different to Belfast Bible College but I love it all the same ☺

I hope I get accepted back in next September. So people I really would appreciate your prayers for this. I am considering coming back next September to do a full degree, after I graduate from Belfast. I can transfer my credits from my classes I think so I will be here for like 2 and ½ years, its crazy I know but I would like to do it, so please pray for me, I want God to reveal to me whether it is in His will for my Life or not.

It’s like 1 in the morning and I think Joy and I have babbled on enough to last a lifetime, well it feels like that to me anyway. So I think I am going to call it a night. So Joy good-night, we can finish this tomorrow or something.

Emmm, “tomorrow came and went and we never got round to writing this again so woops, haha.

Woops

I forgot that I hadn’t posted my blog that Joy and I wrote last wee, a silly mistake I know, aw well I’ll post it now… enjoy :)