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 :)

Sorry

Ok, my blog-writing has kind of died out in the last couple of weeks, and I want to apologise for that. So here goes…I’m Sorry.

Now to my blog. It’s been almost a week again since I was sitting in Joes writing my previous entry, and here I am again, in Joes with Chris. We have just taken another quiz and I am getting the funny feeling of Déjà vu, like I have done all this before. Oh yea, I have. Lol

I’m sitting looking out the giant windows into the plaza watching the wonderful world of Moody go by before my eyes. Its quite cold today and a little dull, it reminds me of home in the middle of October, makes me think of being curled up on the settee watching TV in front of the fire drinking a nice big cup of Knox’s tea, brewed by my mothers fair hands ☺ (probably because I am actually drinking Knox’s tea, thanks mum) So yea my package finally arrived it took like two weeks to get here and I was so grateful for it ☺ real chocolate, thanks Mum, Laura and Dad (you probably paid for the postage fee lol) I have put the lid of the teabag box on my wall, it is looking beautiful, another little memento of home.
I finally got to watch some football this week and it was a great game. United all the way! Take that you Chelsea scum; I hope your reading this Stoddo. Haha. We went to an Irish Pub to watch it. The guy who took me goes there every week for his PCM to witness to the ‘Pub Goers’ its so cool, I met so many people from the UK, one guy was from Belfast, he lives here now and Aaron has been speaking to him lately and the guy has professed that he is an Atheist so can you all pray for him.


I feel like I have written enough for this entry. I will maybe come back on later and write a new one, I think a few of us are going to get together and write a “joint blog” so be prepared to read a whole load of rubbish.

Joes on Saturday Night.

OK so its Saturday night once again, the weeks here seem to fly in at a massive rate of knots. But it’s all good. I am sitting here in Joes Coffee Shop studying for a test I have on Monday. The studying kind of started to diminish after about an hour though because… Well, I got bored learning about fitness and physical strength and all the other topics related to my LF100, Physical Education class.

Chris is sitting next to me buying a shed load of music from itunes (he has just bought a MacBook within the last 2 weeks so he is still distracted by its sheer awesomeness and wastes most of his time playing around with it, I know the feeling so I wont judge him for it.) Joy is lying on the ground, basically under the table, reading a book and listening to music. Tomas is also reading his book and studying for his OT Quiz, and David is lying on the couch sleeping. Jessica and Sarah have just left and I believe that they are returning in a little while with some freshly baked sugar cookies, AWESOME!!! (we are all such model scholars, haha) I love my friends here, they are all so cool, I have truly been blessed. But don’t worry guys I haven’t forgotten about you back home, I miss you all and I’m looking forward to seeing you when I get back at Christmas and I would like to hear from you now and then via my CPO Box (Central Post Office, my box is Number 96 HaHa) A package of Cadburys chocolate would really touch my heart and id be eternally grateful ☺

Ooooh the Cookies are here… See ya

Trust & Obey

Over the last week I have felt God teaching me even more, I have felt Him telling me to be totally trusting in Him. Everything I read and studied in my devotional times was about “Trust & Obey”

It really hit me that, although I do trust God and I am a Christian, do I trust God with my ENTIRE life, with my everything? How much of my life do I trust Him with. Jesus is my best friend, what do you do with your best mate?? You hang out all the time; you share what’s bothering you, what you are going through and what you like. Tell him or her how you are getting on, you ask them for advice. I don’t treat Jesus like this often enough. I don’t hang out with Him as much as I should. I don’t ask his advice often enough. I don’t tell Him what is on my heart or what’s bothering me as much as I should. He loves me so much, he wants nothing more than a personal relationship where I share my secrets, where I tell him my desires, I tell him my worries, I tell Him I love Him and where we just hang out together.

If I just trust Him more and obey Him in his entirety, I will be satisfied completely. I will know my purpose; I will know what He wants from me and what He wants to do with my life. I pray that God will reveal to me what I am supposed to do and where he wants me to go, all I need to do is obey the words of one of my favourite verses in Scripture, Psalm 37:4.

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

When God says to delight in Him all He means is that you trust and obey Him fully.


"This is what I feel life is about. To live a life following Christ so close that the very dirt he stirred up as he walked will cover my feet. I attempt to do my best to follow him and when the day is done...hopefully, my feet are in need of a major washing."

I read this quote this morning on my friend’s facebook and I thought to myself, “that’s how I want my life to be, I want dirty feet ☺

Work, work, work!

It’s Friday morning and my class has been cancelled because there is an FYT retreat that my prof is away on. So I thought id take this gap in my schedule to do a spot of homework but then I thought to my self,
“Writing my blog would be more beneficial for me and all of you who are going to read it”
I’m a nice guy so I felt that over a week was too long enough without a new post and I was overcome by the temptation of avoiding the homework for that little bit longer.
And besides, the homework is for College writing so this is, kind of, still training for that class. So to make myself feel a little better and that I wasn’t just wasting time I thought id take my laptop down to the basement and do my washing while I’m writing this. How awesome am I?? Answer: VERY!

So now that my whites and colours are all separated and spinning about in the noisiest washing machines in the world I am poised and ready to write.
This week has been a little more hectic, classes are all well on there way. Reading has all started to pile up and it is so easy to fall behind. My PCM has started, work schedule is finalised, and on top of all the reading I am studying already, I have taken a grand total of 3 tests already; 2 for Church and Its Doctrine and the third was a verse quiz in Intro to Disciple making. (I passed them all) Then to add even more into the busy equation I love to socialise, haha!

My PCM (Practical Christian Ministry)

I have to do this once a week, like what I did when I was in Belfast. I did it for the first time last night, Thursday night. I really enjoyed it, myself and a few others go to the local YMCA centre and feed homeless people.

At first I was nervous but I really enjoyed it, I got to talk, haha, my favourite thing to do. It was so interesting to hear all the different stories of each person. The guy I spoke to was called Errol, he was a nutjob, but so cool. He used to be in the RAF and was based in Ipswich for 2 years in the Seventies, it’s a small world.

I am really looking forward to see how I get along in it as the time goes on.

How am i doing?

Well I figured I have bored you all with the facts and details about what life is like over here in an American college, so now I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about how I have, already, felt myself grow deeper and more mature in my faith.

OK, since I have got here I have had this awesome experience and feeling of Gods Holy Spirit about the place, I love it, I pure love it and I have never felt more on fire for ministry, or have had such a burning desire to serve God than right now.

God is blessing me, continually, and I praise and thank Him for that. He motivates me, keeps me attentive in class and is really opening my eyes and heart to learn more of Him.

Living here in such a diverse community has been amazing, we are all learning little things about a lot of different cultures world wide but at the same time we are all similar, we all have a desire to serve God with our lives, and I am so thankful for that.

God works in so many ways. That is something that has been on my heart lately. For example, just last night Chris, myself and a few other friends whom we have met over here decided to go for a wee walk to the shop for an ice-cream. We were halfway there and Chris said he needed to go to the bathroom, so we stopped at McDonalds so he could use the toilet in there. While I was waiting for Chris this homeless guy asked me about what time the church service starts at on Sunday. My first thought was, “oh no, I’m going to be hounded for money again” but I was so wrong, God had scheduled a Devine appointment for that time between us. So I thought to myself maybe we can minister to this guy and share our faith with Him, but instead he ministered to us, for about an Hour and a half. He told us his entire life story, and man; it would make an awesome film. He has been through a lot! He humbled me so much, I mean he had nothing, but he was totally content with that. I have basically everything I could want and I complain that the food, which I have in an almost infinite supply, isn’t tasty enough!

It was so encouraging to be there at that time, infact I loved it so much that we stayed and talked for ages and I didn’t even go get my ice-cream, we had to go back to campus as I was just about to break Curfew.

Another great encouragement to me is the people, my friends here, they are all on fire for God and so passionate, the other night we all met for a prayer meeting and it was the most, intense, passionate and truly amazing thing I have experienced in a long time, God is really working in the lives and hearts of these people, so my request is that you all pray for myself, and this school. Pray that we will start to make a difference in this world. Little by little we can all work together and make a massive impact for Christ across this world. We can all do this (I am talking to every member of WPC as well) if we really want to make the difference we have to start right now!

So lets go out and make that impact, live a life totally sold out for Christ!!

God Bless

Classes Start

I’m not going to bore you all with the details of my classes so this section of my blog is going to be exceptionally short. All I am going to tell you is the name of each class and if you are interested in what they entail and what is involved then email me and I will be more than happy to fill you in.

I have to take 12credit hours per week; each different class has got a different amount of hours so that pretty much means I can choose whatever I want after I have picked my 2 core classes.

My core classes are The Church and its Doctrine, and Church History. Both very interesting classes and I have amazing, passionate Profs who take them, which is also very encouraging.

My other classes are, College Writing, Introduction to ministry, Introduction to Disciple Making and Physical and Lifetime Fitness (P.E.)

Ok so I thought I was going to have it easy since I’m only in class for 12 hours each week, but man, was I wrong! I have like a million different books and textbooks to read for the classes, which are also a clean ripp-off, so, my savings account that I opened took a bit of a blow when it came to the book sale. Haha. Then on top of all the homework, I have to study for weekly quizzes on what we are learning. Then…I have a job to attend to as well, and then…(yes even more) I have a PCM, which I do weekly.

PCM is Practical Christian Ministry, kind of like my weekly placement that I did back in Belfast, I do it on a Thursday night, I go to the local YMCA and help feed the homeless people and share the Gospel with them, I am so excited for this to start ☺

So, that pretty much sums up what I am going to do all semester, but don’t fret! I will continue to post articles on this blog as regularly as I can.

Photos

I have tried Posting photos up but the pictures i have are much too big and im not sure how to resize them. SO, when i figure out how to resize them il post them on for your viewing pleasure :)

Week one, Orientation

OK, first I would like to say sorry for not posting anything to this for like a week. But aw well there is nothing I can do now. I probably will only do one post each week actually. You know what to expect now.

So far my time here in Moody has been awesome, even better than I expected ☺ it. The orientation week was last week and it was so cool to meet all the different M.K’s (Missionary Kids) and international students like myself, from 22 different countries. It is so humbling to be in such a diverse community of people. There are people from Brazil, Korea, Romania, Russia, Guatemala, Canada, India, Honduras, Japan, Morocco, Haiti, Russia and Ukraine, Kenya, South Africa, Scotland, Norn Iron, and England. (I know that’s not 22 I just can’t remember the rest)

The different things which we have been doing are just classes showing us how to use the library, computer system, where to go if you need certain things etc, quite boring sessions really, but they ended at lunch time and then we could do whatever we wanted. Little trips to the beach became a regular occurrence for us. Its so awesome how large the lake is, you cant see the other side, it actually feels like you are on the beach of the ocean, and best about it is, there’s no salt water ☺

On Wednesday Night we all went to Navy Pier to watch a fireworks display, it was pretty cool. But sadly, I hadn’t purchased my camera yet so I couldn’t get a picture of them, too bad I suppose because it was a really calm night and the sky was so clear, until about 10. That’s when it clouded over, we were walking back and the biggest storm I have ever witnessed began above our heads, it was lethal, the rain was bouncing so high off the ground. Then the thunder and lightning started, it was so loud, and the lightning was shooting off everywhere. By the time we got back we looked as if we’d been thrown into the lake in our clothes, it was terrible, but a little fun too. On the Thursday morning we heard that there had been a tornado out in the suburbs so that’s why there was such a massive thunderstorm.

I finally bought a camera on the Thursday so I will get some of the photos up as soon as possible, I have magnificent view of the city from my floor, I have taken some photos of it, so you can get a wee glimpse of what its like. I will endeavour to go to the top of Sears Tower to take some photographs from there. I expect they will be good from there.

All of the returning students returned at the weekend and boy it is so much different now, there are people everywhere, I had gotten used to our small group of internationals and M.K’s that’s it just felt weird going to the SDR (student dining room) and all the tables were full, in contrast to the 2 middle ones, like it had been for the past few days. But it is cool to meet all of the people and find out their opinion of the place since they have already been here for at least a year already.

This past week has felt like a little bit of a holiday but I’m sure that feeling will soon diminish when I have to start classes and my workload piles up.

Moving Day - Saturday 18th August

Right, its Saturday now and I feel like I have been here for about 3 weeks, not just three days. I’m so tired but that’s only because I’ve been walking all over the city, up and down to Moody for cheap lunches (even cheaper again, its class!) and just dandering about to get my bearings.

Ok so today was the day myself, Chris and all of the other international students could move in. I’ll be honest, I was quite excited! I went to the front desk and collected my lift key, room key, and the “Welcome to Moody, you are an international student, pack” Like I said I was on Culby 19, the highest floor, so thank goodness there are lifts, haha. The guys who I met last autumn, who came to Belfast for the exchange, pulled a few strings for Chris and I so we could all be on the same floor! But, something went wrong and Chris got put on floor 10, which kind of sucks, but I think he can get moved up if he really wants to.

Ok so I’m sure you are all dying to hear what my new home is like so I’ll tell you. Well I’ll keep you in a little bit of suspense actually…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………(I think that is enough, anymore and it will loose what ever shred of comical value it had)

So my room, its small, smaller than my bedroom at home and it is just for me, I have to share this one!! But it’s pretty cool they have utilised what space there is in it very efficiently. The two beds have been raised up and there are desks and chests of drawers underneath them, this saves a lot of space and makes that area of the room a little more private and ‘your own.’ (When I finally get round to buying my camera I will take pictures and post them (if I can figure out how to do that, I’m finding it difficult. Haha)

Jet Lag

Ok so I have never really experienced jet lag before until my journey here and like I said at the tail end of my last post, it is a pain!! What’s worse though, is your body clock not being used to the change in time zones, (maybe that is also called jet lag, I dunno) but man is that annoying?? Every morning I have woke up at like 4am and felt totally awake, lay there for about half an hour until I fell back to sleep but then not even an hour later I wake again thinking,
“It must be time to get up now.” But nope it isn’t time for that yet its only 5:20am. Dangit!!! (Say with a Napoleon Dynamite voice, haha). This vicious cycle goes on and on and on!!! Then at about 8 in the evening all of a sudden I just feel exhausted and think to myself, “Yesss! Maybe if I don’t go to bed until like 11 or 12 I’ll be able to sleep on for a while in the morning.” But nope its 4am again and I’m up, AGAIN!!

Will this ever stop??

Tour - Day 1 (August 15th)

Hey y’all (see what I have done there) lol
I have just finished my 1st day of my adventure and boy am I tired but, I thought id take this opportunity to write the first part of my blog, which has been named by Craig McKeown as ‘T-Dawg on Tour’

So here we go then:

It started at 4 45am whenever mum came into my room to tell me dad had phoned from Kenya to say cheerio. So, very bleary eyed and croaky voiced I took it (I cant remember how the call went though because I went straight back to sleep for another hour)
Next thing I remember was the familiar sound of my hideous alarm ringing in my ears wakening me, yet again, from a lovely deep sleep.

After my farewells to the family mum and I left for Dublin airport at about 6 39am or so (I thought id be accurate, lol). Everything went well for us and was running like clockwork up until the point where I arrived at the airport to find I had misread my ticket and was departing at 11 50am rather than 10 50am, like I had originally thought. Ok so that wasn’t really much of a problem, but it did cost me 23 euros because I treated myself and mum to a breakfast of bacon and tomato relish toasty, was very tasty I might add ☺

Check – in was next on the agenda and that was a very speedy transaction because i did it all on a computer rather than waiting in a queue. This was the part where I had to say farewell to mum, then after a long, emotionally charged goodbye hug we parted ways.

I got to customs and was thinking to myself, “this is going well,” but then disaster struck…
The customs officer spoke:
“Have you got your passport and visa there?”
I handed them over the desk after she had scanned my fingerprints. She then spoke again “Have you got an I-20 form?”
I thought to myself, “This cannot be happening, only me, why is it always me?”
I didn’t have a notion where the form was I didn’t even realise that I needed it after I had already got a valid visa and passport.
“You aren’t going to America today, son!”
My heart sank, was an awful feeling, here’s me stuck in Dublin, on my own being told I cant fly to America, what was I going to do, I didn’t know where the form was.
Then I remembered all of my forms for Moody and my visa etc. are in my suitcase (not much use to me there)
She called the baggage man to try and hunt my suitcase down. He came back and was very optimistic about being able to find my case quickly so I felt a little bit better but still felt as though I was just about to have a panic attack.

“Go and wait over there by the door and we will be with you as soon as possible, sir.”
I dandered over and after a few panicky prayers a man came out of the door and said,
“Arnold?” (I didn’t feel like correcting him at this stage so I held my tongue) “Come with me”
I followed him round to the doors, which lead out to the runway, and I saw the baggage lorry driving towards me. Finally a little light at the end of the tunnel. My bags were pretty much on the top so I was only outside for about 5minutes hoking for the forms. Went back in and showed the forms, passport and visa to the officer again.
Yes, you guessed it, the I-20 wasn’t there. That awful feeling sank down upon me again and I panicked a little more this time because I knew I had all of the forms packed and if it wasn’t there then it was lost. He sent me away to try and organise a flight for a different day.

At this point a man I know from Bible College, Johnny Pollock, showed up (he and his wife were flying to Mexico) He saw I wasn’t in the best of moods and was a little upset and asked what was wrong. And to cut a long story short he helped me out and we eventually found the form, folded up inside an envelope that I had received a few months ago so that I could order my bed linen for my room. We handed it over the desk again and I got approved for departure, PHEWWWWWW!!!!

Now, to the flight. I would say that it was pretty average; you get about the same amount of legroom as you would on an Easyjet flight to London for the day. Infact I had to sit by the emergency exit the day I was flying over to get my visa so I had more legroom. The food (beef lasagne) was ok, could have been better but it also could have been a whole lot worse.

Got to Chicago O’Hare airport in one piece so that was good I suppose. Went straight to baggage reclaim and yes my bad luck in airports had kicked in again, mine was the very last bag to arrive out of the chute (I think that may be because I had to hoke it out of all the rest just before take off though)

Went through customs on this side but this time, to my surprise and relief there ere no question asked. Finally I was in Chicago!!! Met three people at the airport who drove me to Moody where I could meet Josh, the guy whose house I’m staying in for the 1st three nights. He was running a little late and I had half an hour to punch in so the guys who drove me from the airport decided it would be a nice time to take me on a tour of the campus, its massive, I’m tired, and its like 25degrees so reluctantly I said “Yea that would be great” so off we went. The place is massive and its like right bang in the middle of the city. The building I am staying in is 19 floors high and I’m in the top floor, Culby 19.

Evening time now and I’m absolutely starving so Josh his mate, Nathan, and myself all went to an all you can eat buffet, man, there was a lot of food! There were about a million different types of prawns, crabs legs as long as my arm, chicken, steak, lamb, rice, potatoes, sushi (its quite nice actually), noodles, curry, chips (fries)…I could go on but cant be bothered! And best of all free refills on your drink as well as your food plate. About 4 helpings and 3 glasses of coke later I was about finished eating but then we spotted the dessert cart (the Americans know how to eat I can tell ya). We left the place about an hour later feeling like we had eaten our entire body weight haha.

That was pretty much the end of my day because we just went home and went to bed, thank goodness, jet lag is a pain!!!!