College life

We moved into our room at All Nations on 1st September and had two weeks to settle in to our new surroundings and see some friends and family before term started this week.  Here are a few pics...



Mark in our college room

All Nations Christian College

Mark went up in a microlight and took this pic of All Nations from the air!

At a local pub with the girls who came to see me on my birthday

Mark is taking it all in his stride but this has not been an easy week for me...I feel that a lot of control over my own life has been relinquished and pray that I'll quickly get used to the routine.  I am the kind of person who loves being with people but loves to withdraw and have my own space and privacy and community life is a new experience for me. There are some lovely people here from all over the world and it's been great to meet them all but I am finding it hard to share a bathroom with 12 people, eat all our meals in the canteen (I miss cooking!) and just be around people all the time.   I have been feeling poorly this week with some bad headaches which has meant I have missed some of the introductory sessions which hasn't helped.  I'm sure the headaches have been brought on by the stress of all the new stuff!

Next Monday the term starts properly and we are starting module 1 looking at ourselves - where we come from, our own cultures, how we feel about ourselves, how we relate to others, how we learn, listening skills, personality types and working in teams as well as developing learning goals for our time here - it all looks very interesting and hopefully will help me come to terms with some of the big changes in our lives at the moment. 

I recently read a book called 'Less is More' and found a really helpful quote in it:

We can learn from any situation whether we have control over it or not and we have the freedom to change through it for the better.  We have freedom to act in grace and to respond in love wherever we find ourselves. 

My prayer is that this will be true for me in the coming weeks at college.

I close this post with a prayer someone gave me by Thomas Merton:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going

I do not see the road ahead of me

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,

and the fact that I think that I am following your will

does not mean that I am actually doing so.  But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you

And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this

You will lead me by the right road

Though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore I will trust you always.

Though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me

and will never leave me to face my perils alone.