Hi everyone! I hope March has signaled the end of an icky winter. Apparently the states have had quite a bit of snow this year so I hope everyone has been safe and warm. Though there hasn't been hardly any snow here in London this winter, it has been overcast and cold (a bit of a downer on my mood). I am definitely looking forward to some sunshine.

I am writing to you on the other side of an amazing pilgrimage to Israel. I feel so revived and refreshed from the journey. I have been awakened to the amazing land of Jesus Christ and his ministry. Israel has a gorgeous landscape and the country is both tragic and inspiring. This trip to Israel has opened my eyes both to the biblical and political history of this land. I will post some pictures soon of my trip. However, there are just far too many to put in a blog so I will try to stick to my biggest highlights. If you have a Facebook I have posted more there.

It has been a bit of a struggle to condense my experience of Israel into words, much like it has been this entire experience serving in England. Though recently, someone asked me what stood out to me most during my trip so I think that works as a good starting point.

#1. One of the things that stood out to me most when I was in Israel was the conflict. It wasn't as noticeable in Jerusalem and Nazareth because those areas are occupied by Israelis. In Bethlehem however, which is located inside Palestinian territory, you really get a sense of where you are and what the Palestinians are going through. The tension is palpable in the air. You can see in clear expression from the graffiti-ed walls surrounding Palestine, the desperation and desire for peace. There is no easy answer for this peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Each group with its own reasons for hating the other. Before I go too big into a rant here, I will sum up by saying the conflict in the Holy Land is much worse than I thought and the Palestinians face an almost certain extinction in this land if something isn't done. It seems that this would be good news to a lot of people but I tell you no act of hatred should ever be condoned as a good thing. No matter where you sit in the conflict the Palestinian people are being treated like dirt. What stood out to me most about the conflict was how much it has made its way into heart and increased my desire to help.

#2. As this was a pilgrimage after all, what also stood out to me most was being in the land of the Bible. The amazing holy sites we visited during our ten day trip brought life back to the Bible for me. It revived me in how I hear passages in the Bible. Being able to see the places and put names to them, to understand how it all makes sense geographically, and being able to understand more about the culture and time period that shaped the Bible, made it become less like a story and more of a living breathing documentation of the most important events in human history. Hearing about the same events over and over your whole life can cause you to become somewhat jaded to them and being able to see first hand where these events took place breathed new understanding and belief into my faith. I am so glad I have had this experience because it has served as an amazing jumping off point for my future exploration of my faith and the Bible. I highly recommend visiting the Holy Land to anyone who can go during their lifetime. It really does change you.

Today marks the sixth month anniversary of my arrival in the United Kingdom through the YAGM program. I am officially halfway through my year of service. It feels very bizarre to think I have lived in another country for six months. I feel like I have learned a lot about the UK, myself, my faith, and what is important to me. Also the fact that I have six months more to go is also bizarre because I know if it is anything like the first half, I have a lot more growing, changing, and learning to do. It is weird to think I am neither closer to my arrival date in the UK or to my return date back home. I am really missing my family and familiar life at home but am also soaking up each and every day spent in a foreign environment.

There are days when I wake up and my everyday life here feels completely normal and ordinary. I feel used to the scenery around me, the old brick buildings, the double decker buses, the overcast grey skies, and the accents I constantly hear around me. Then there are days where I look out the window and go holy cow I am in London, England!! The accents are different, the side of the road we drive on is different, the lifestyles, currency, cooking, outlets, words, manners, worship styles, opinions, education system, history, and background are different.  Every day is either a day that I feel so incredibly blessed to have this opportunity and can never thank God enough for it or I wake up feeling alone,  inadequate, and very different from the people around me in my behaviors, ideas, and upbringing. This year hasn't quite been what I expected and it is taking me places I never quite expected to go but it has all been an incredible ride that is just hitting its stride point. I can’t wait to see what the rest of this year brings because I know for sure it won’t be like anything I've experienced before.

Well the Lenten season is upon us. As we delve into another season of Lent preparing ourselves for the resurrection of Christ, I wanted to share with you my upcoming Lenten journey. This past Sunday at Sunday school, we talked about Lent and what the Lenten season is really about. In England, Lent kicks off the day before Ash Wednesday with Shrove Tuesday. Some of you may be familiar with this holiday but for those who are not, it is traditionally the day people empty out their pantries and feast in preparation for the 40 day fast. In England, Shrove Tuesday is celebrated with making pancakes. In the States this day is also known as Fat Tuesday. In my Sunday school class, we continued talking about Lent by discussing what we can give up for Lent, how hard different items would be to give up, and what young people had given up in the past. To my surprise, when I asked the question why do we give things up for Lent, no one knew. So I explained to the youth that when we give things up for Lent whether we fast, give up sweets or other items, we do so not to make ourselves miserable or to challenge ourselves. We do it because when we remove something from our daily lives, we replace it with time spent with God. We use that time to pray, to read the Bible, and reflect of the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross.

This is something I have really taken to heart this year. For me, this Lenten season will be different from years past. Besides the obvious reasons that I am in a different country working in a church of a different denomination, Lent is different for me now because of how my faith has grown and how I realize now just how important my faith is to my life. Lent will also be different for me this year because for two weeks in March, I will be traveling with my host church to Israel. This year has been an incredible journey in my faith development and I feel immensely transformed by it. Being able to go to Israel after everything I have learned so far and am still learning is an incredible blessing. When I came to England in August I was aware that my host church would be going to Israel during my year of service, but I didn't give it much thought other than that. After spending time in my year of service however, and growing in my knowledge and understanding of my faith, the chance to visit the Holy Land with my host church became an impossible opportunity to miss. I am so thankful and so appreciative of this opportunity. I am also so appreciative of those back home who are supporting me throughout this journey. It has been an amazing experience so far in the UK discovering where God is taking me this year. I hope this Lenten season will also be a growing time for you and a reflection time for your relationship with God. I look forward to sharing my pilgrimage to Israel with you all when I return home and through upcoming blog posts and a feature in an upcoming newsletter. God Bless you all and Happy Lent.

Hello everyone! Now that I've managed to get the holiday pics up I wanted give an update on my 2015 so far. Well, before the new year began I went and visited two fellow YAGMs at their placements. Pics below, and then brought in the new year with beautiful sights, some mud, and many more new experiences. Already I feel like the new year has given me a fresh outlook on my time in England. Now that I have reached the curve in my year where I'm not just adjusting to life here, I finally feel that I am really embracing and absorbing what this year is teaching me. I feel so blessed to be on this journey and every day I feel that my relationship with God is growing stronger and stronger. (A quick note that some pictures were provided by Time for God and other volunteers and not just me).

Before new year during the holiday break I went and visited fellow YAGM volunteer Elise. We dog-sat a beautiful golden retriever and spent some much needed downtime catching up on movies.

Waiting for the train

A few days before new year I hopped over to see YAGM volunteer Ashlyn. 

Where Ashlyn lives in the beautiful country

We spent new years with Ashlyn's supervisor and his wife where we watched A Christmas Story and rang in the new year with Big Ben in London. It was a really bizarre and wonderful experience watching Big Ben chime in the new year with fireworks around the London Eye instead of the ball dropping in New York City. Also five hours ahead of everyone else at home. Definitely a new years I will always remember. 

Happy 2015!

Hiking up to Bunker hill the next day with Ashlyn

It was a little muddy. Luckily we ran into some members of Ashlyn's church who helped us down the hill.

Later in the month my host family took me to Kingston

where I knocked over a bunch of red telephone booths ;)

Another Saturday was spent with other TFG volunteers walking in the park where we met some curious new friends.

Who were very curious indeed.

Fellow TFG volunteers Nora, Aliescha, and Hanna and I at the Natural History Museum 

This month all the Time for God volunteers got together for our midyear conference in Wales

YAY TfG

All 88 volunteers together at last!

Our week included hiking up a snowy hill complete with fog

also snow angels

These are the moments I treasure. A game of spoons played with friends from at least eight different countries. What could be better than that!

there was more fun and fellowship

also worship

and workshops

At the end of the week we held a talent show where different countries and groups gave some wonderful performances

German group leading us in the German program theme song

also there was dancing..

our YAGM group performed church appropriate dance moves inspired by a YouTube video found by our fellow YAGM Justin. Here is the link if you want to check out the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6VjTwaWJEU 

#resurrection 

YAGM UK love #favorite dance move

This year Time for God also celebrated its 50th anniversary! 

Congrats TfG

Christmas adventures continued...

I was fortunate enough to spend a weekend with my fellow YAGMs celebrating Thanksmas (Thanksgiving/Christmas).

And what else do you have to eat on Thanksmas than hamburgers, coleslaw, and pumpkin cookies!

Good eats

Yay food and fellowship! Merry Christmas!

The whole team together including Ashlyn who couldn't be there physically but was able to skype in.

Christmas party with co-workers Torben, Beth, and Daisey

Silly pose 

Playing Mary twice in one Christmas season is hard work. Sometimes Mary needs a coffee break too.

I got to pet a real reindeer!

Baby reindeer!!!

Had Chestnuts roasting on an open fire for the first time. Quite nice. Oddly enough tastes like a mix between a potato and popcorn.

Ice skating with my host family

Christmas Eve dinner...tacos!!

Christmas Eve at church

Christmas Day dinner

After presents my host sister prepared a Christmas quiz. It was neck in neck until the last round where host mom Claire took the lead and won.

Watching the Queens annual Christmas speech.

Hi everyone! Happy New Year! Here is are some pictures of my adventures in the month of December.

Going to get the Christmas tree with my host family

deciding on the tree

putting the star on my host families tree this year

Playing Mary in Christmas Through the Keyhole 

Nativity selfie

Joseph and the wiseman on their coffee break

One of our churches held a walk through nativity for school children called Christmas Through the Keyhole. The children came to the church and decorated biscuits, did a craft and then followed a star on a journey through the Nativity story. They started out in this room, on a modern day Christmas Eve in a living room with presents and the family snoring loudly upstairs. They were asked what Christmas was really about?

The keyhole biscuits for children to decorated

Next the children followed a star

Their first stop was Mary's house but she wasn't there. An angels voice appeared and told the children the great news that Mary was to have a son who would become the savior of the world and she had gone to Bethlehem with soon to be husband Joseph. 

Next the children found the shepherds fields and even though you could hear the sheep in the fields, the shepherds weren't there either. It was really strange because the Shepherd handbook says the #1 rule of being a shepherd is not to leave your sheep! Where could the shepherds have gone?

Then the children found the wise men's observatory where the wise men had spotted a star prophesied in their ancient scrolls that would mean a king was born. The children just missed them as the wise men were on their way to see where the star would lead them.

The children also came across Josephs carpentry shop where they found a note saying why Joseph had to take Mary and the baby to Bethlehem. 

After a really long journey where the children had to stop for food, rest because the donkey was tired, and other problems of a long journey, they came to Bethlehem to the Inn where they thought their journey had ended. Unfortunately, as the grumpy innkeeper told them, there was no room in the Inn and if the children wanted to stay they would have to sleep outside in the stable with the other couple who arrived a few days ago.

Finally the children found Mary and Joseph, the Shepherds, and the Wise Men and they had all found the baby Jesus who had been born and was lying in the manger.

My first mulled wine and mince pie.

Seeing the Christmas lights in London with friends David and Marianne.

                                                       Keeping warm with some hot coco

Christmas carnival in Leicester Square (pronounced Lester)

Mince pies everywhere!

Found a Five Guys in central London!!

Covent Garden

Big tree from far away...

...from close up. (me hugging the tree)

Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square donated each year by Norway

haha I've only seen signs like this in movies