Hello all! Merry Christmas! I hope the season is treating you well. Here is a quick update of what I have been up to in the last month or so.

On November 5th we celebrated Guy Fawkes day. This is a British holiday commemorating the failed gunpowder plot by Guy Fawkes and others to blow up the parliament building in attempt to get a Catholic monarch back on the throne. A lot of people may be familiar with Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot from the movie V for Vendetta, which is not about Guy Fawkes but a man fighting against the government wearing a Guy Fawkes mask for symbolism. It is also known as bonfire night and they also light off fireworks. 

This is outside the youth club lighting off fireworks.

Also in November was Remembrance Day or Armistice Day. This day marks the end of World War I and day the British remember those who gave their lives for such a tragic and pointless war. This year was the 100th anniversary of World War I. Poppies are placed over graves and at memorials around the UK because the poppies symbolize the blood shed and also the hope of new life after tragedy and death.

I was put in charge of making new bulletin boards for the two children's clubs I work with during the week, Get Set and Adventurers. These are some pics of the kids working on the boards.

For the older group we decided to do a space theme and make planets. We used shaving cream, paint, and plastic wrap to make cool spacey like designs for the planets.

Some of the planets drying.

The finished product! 

I made eggs and toast one Sunday afternoon. At home we make eggs or pancakes sometimes for Sunday brunch so it helped me feel less homesick. :)

This is another product of my attempts at cooking for myself. Veggie soup. Not too bad for my first time.

One Saturday toward the end of November I visited the famous Oxford University! (My favorite place so far). It is a beautiful and old campus. Full of tradition, the University has been around since the 1200's.

The mysterious heads of Oxford. No one knows where these heads came from or why they were put there. They are often targets of many well mannered pranksters who put lipstick or traffic cones on the figures.

This building, among being a historic place for student exams, interviews, and ceremonies, is also the building where several scenes from Harry Potter were filmed.

This college at Oxford was the first to accept women. Yay!

This building is the history building and is the most photographed building in Oxford because of its unique architectural features like its circular shape. 

This Oxford college is the most selective college in the world. Only seven students are admitted every year and only those who are students of this college have actually seen inside it.

This pub was where C.S. Lewis got his inspiration for the Chronicles of Narnia. If you look at the "lion-like" face on the front door it may remind you of a character from the book. Also, if you look at the "half human, half fawn" figures on the sides of the door you may see another famous character inspiration from the books.

And if you look to the right of this door you see the lamp post itself that marks the entrance to Narnia from the wardrobe. 

Hi everyone! Hoorah I've officially been in the UK for almost two and a half months now. My first bi-monthly newsletter will be out soon to highlight my first few months here. In the meantime, I thought I would share some pictures of what I've been up to.

This is one of the crafts we did with the kids learning about the Bible. This is edible baby Moses in a basket. Yum!

The Olympic Stadium from the 2012 Olympics in London

TFG volunteers left to right; Mwa, Johann, Torben, and Nora

Eating brownies on the river Thames

Watching classic English themed movies in England #Mary Poppins

Witnessing an Anglican confirmation service

Running into Occupy London in front of the Parliament building

Making some Ohio state pride Buckeyes for my English friends

Visiting Ed's American cuisine diner with my host family. Burgers and fries baby!

Spending time in the countryside with my YAGM loves and then some :)

Getting to see amazing places like this! (Chatsworth House is it's official name. Also known as Pemberly or Mr. Darcy's house from the movie Pride and Prejudice)

...and this. 

Experiencing faith growing moments like this (this is a Cairn made of shoes. A Cairn is a Scottish word for a man made pile of stones put on paths as a memorial or land markers. Our Cairn is a mile marker of our journey together in faith. "We dedicate ourselves to the journey.")

Time with these people is always a good time #YAGM UK

Friday October 10th. I've been having a nostalgic day today. When I woke up this morning I was thinking about Ohio University and Athens. This weekend is Homecoming , maybe that's why it was on my mind, but as the day has progressed I continue looking back into my past and the last few years. One thing that I have found recently, is since being here the last two months, I have started going back and looking at old pictures from my life, from the last two or so years, and where I was a year ago today. It's really refreshing to go back and look at where you were and how far you have come. It really gives you perspective. The perspective I have been gaining from doing this is becoming more and more emotional. I realize as I am looking at my pictures from a year ago, I was happy...but I really wasn't. I look into the eyes of the person that looks like me standing in pictures and that person is not me anymore. And I am glad of it. I don't mean that I have really changed who I am. I'm not saying who I was or who I am today are a total 180 from each other and my one year younger self was someone I hated. By no means do I mean that.It has just become more and more clear to me that a year ago I was miserable and I knew it.

 It makes me start to cry when I look at those pictures and then think about me sitting here a year later and just how much my life has changed. I think about how much I forced my life to change, how I fought my way out because I knew I was the only one who was going to make it happen. I am proud of myself for that. I made myself get away from the way I was living before, and I knew a small change here or there wasn't going to be enough. So when the opportunity came in April to join the YAGM Program, I dropped it all and ran full speed ahead to follow my dreams and do 1.what would get me moving in a different direction than the one I was heading, 2. what I had wanted to do my whole life which was A. Visit London, B. Live in another country for a year, and C. Finally pick up the phone and answer the call from Jesus Christ that had been ringing in the background of my life for the last two years. Even sitting here now I am crying because I am just so happy at the decision I made to leave a life that wasn't right for me. I mean I had a good job at a prestigious company that paid well and had great benefits. I had a solid group of friends that I spent lots of time with in the evenings and on weekends. I had a boyfriend, and a nice apartment I could afford, and I was volunteering for a good cause in my spare time. I was living a fairly carefree life in the city with endless possibilities but it wasn't right for me.

In a matter of months, I quit my job, left my friends, gave up a life I was familiar with,  left most of my wardrobe, my bed, and other belongings behind, left my family and packed whatever I could fit in a suitcase and a carry-on for a year and jumped on a plane to start over. And that's what I have been doing since I have been here. Starting over. I left an ideal life at home to find a life that was ideal for me and for God. To find the life that was meaningful to me. I can't explain to you the feelings I feel looking at those pictures from a year ago today and the progression of pictures that I see coming after them. I look at the year 2014 and where I started out this year and what has happened to me in the last 10 months. I already feel like a different person and I'm still changing. I am not changing into a new person, I am changing into me. Instead of warping my identity this year as I thought would happen, I am pealing back layers of distraction that have been the cause of my misery the last few years. I am finally remembering, finding, and discovering the original parts of me that God made me to be and his plan for me. Somewhere in the midst of things, life transitions, changes, life decisions, and figuring life out as an adult, I lost sight of that. Like many of us do. I forgot that who I am and how I want to live is the way God created me to be. I started to believe that in order to help people I had to stop being who I was and live differently to conform to the way I thought others wanted me to live so that I could better understand them and therefore help them. I forgot that the way God had helped me to help others all these years was by being who I was. For me that's going out and meeting people in the world and helping them find themselves like God has for me.
"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain." 1 Corinthians 15:10 

Last week I visited my friend Nora in London. Also, this week England celebrated Harvest Festival. Giving thanks for the Harvest and all the food we have to eat. Below are pictures from the food drive we did in a local school and all the food that was donated to the Food Bank from the school. Give thanks for food, friends, and Fall!

Celebrating Nora's Birthday with some Nutella and waffles

Toffee and Banana tea

Canal In Paddington

Coffee shop on a boat

Paddington Bear

Found me my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season

Bangers and Mash

The church where I work

Donations from the school to the local food bank

Decorating the windows in church for Harvest Sunday