In The Land Of Anna

I hate the US embassy. It seems they do everything to make your life complicated, and they make you pay £1.20 per minute of that service. They have made me growl more than once in frustration today. I called and after about 2 minutes (£2.40), they said that they don't take many types of credit or debit cards. Which means they don't take mine, and probably not yours either. So I called dad and he gave me his debit card details, as well as the gossip and news of the church, ie who's going out, who's engaged, who's having a baby, how so and so is. Good chat. Then I called the embassy back and they took all my personal details and then said that they need to be able to speak to the person who owns the card. So I said, well, you can't, he's in Paris right now. (this call must have cost me about £10) So they've asked me to email the consulate in Belfast who will tell what to do next and arrange an interview where I can pay by cashier (wouldn't the world be a simpler and cheaper place if everyone just paid by cashier???). This had better work. Apart from that, all is good. Work has been good this week, after all that fuss, it feels like not much has changed at all. God is faithful. I've started my revision for the wonderful course that is Oceanography. I'll be glad when that one's over!! I made a pavlova and a lasagna last night, quite the domestic goddess. I really enjoy cooking and baking, and sometimes go overboard, cook too much and then it goes off before anyone gets the chance to eat it. But I restrained myself this time, and didn't make the fudge and wholemeal bread that I was going to make as well as the rest of it. :o) Tonight I'm having dinner at Dave's with Jonah and Miriam which should be fun. I feel like I haven't seen them in ages, though I did go to the cinema with Miriam last night, but never got to speak to her, seeing as there was about 7 people between her and I!! And they were on holiday last week. I saw Dave on Sunday but that was a long time ago, especially as I'm used to seeing him more than I have this week. I bought a pair of jeans today and a beautiful dress/top. This is my birthday present from mum and dad. I'm going to get my hair cut next week as well. Best present ever!!!! Eeeee! And I watched Coach Carter a couple of nights ago. Arpita got scared cause she's never seen me so excited. Nathan and Joe have this fictional character called Karl Baxter. If you've seen Napoleon Dynamite, he's like Rex who teaches Rex Kwon Do. And one of the things he says is "I don't think so" in the same way Coach Carter does. Each time I go home dad asks me if I've seen it and when I say no he says I must because it's such a good film. And now I've seen it. It's awesome! I need to take a shower before going out tonight, so I shall leave it at that, suffice it to say I'm doing a lot better than this time last week :o)

I will help you

Hmmm... so I started the previous post on Sunday the 18th but finished it on Thursday. I got confused by the date, and then realised it never updated it. “I will help you, says the Lord.” Isaiah 41:14 “This morning listen to the voice of the Lord Jesus speak, ‘I will help you. It is a small thing for me, your God, to help you. Consider what I have already done. What! Not help you! I bought you with My blood. What! Not help you! I died for you. Since I have done the greater, will I not do less? Your requests are nothing compared with what I am willing to give. You need much, but it is nothing for me to grant your needs. Help you? Fear not! I will help you.'" - Charles Spurgeon I'm glad God's here, because I couldn't get through this without Him. He knows how serious it is. He knows my future. Yay.

Aie, Aie, Aie...

Crazy busy times. Last Tuesday SVQ (childcare course). Last ever practical. To David N's to bake cakes for Chris and Jen in our homegroup because they're going back to California this week. To homegroup with Leanne and Charles in Charles' fiancée's car since she was (until Friday) in Nigeria. Wednesday Meeting at my work's office. Work. Dave (french Dave) came over, put his stuff down, and left again. I went babysitting and he went to uni for the evening. Dave met me and he stayed over while a friend of a friend stayed in his room because he was up from London for interviews. Thursday uni. work. Dave and Annette came over for raclette. Dave stayed over again. Friday Work. To Brittany's for lasagne and champagne with her, her flatmate Julie and two of their friends from church. Dave stayed the night. Saturday Foundations in the morning, which was really good. I chilled by myself for the first time of the week. Nadia came round for dinner in the evening and we went to see Becoming Jane. Sunday Church. chill. Index. Q & A with the pastors. It was really good. Interesting and encouraging. Monday Work, nothing special. Tuesday SVQ and was given lots of work to do. It's in my hands as to when I finish it. So I'm planning, not long now. Prayer meeting in the evening was good, but I wasn't too concentrated because I have a cold. Satan will just use anything eh? And then yesterday I got a letter from work. I won't go into the details because I don't know if I'm aloud to. But it's serious, so I went to see someone (I won't say who) last night for advice. I got advice, and Nadia was a great support and help. I slept over at hers. I prayed and started reading Luke 12. I came accross these verses: "And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say." Luke 12:11-12. That was such a great comfort. God is amazing. Right. I'd better go to work. Went to my penultimate lecture this morning. It was nothing special. This seems like a huge pile of uninteresting information, and nothing of any beauty or poetry. That's what you get sometimes.

Trusting, bowling, captivating.

Trusting God is a lesson I'm going to have to learn over and over. I actually really don't like to trust anyone other than myself, even if it is God and He's never let me down. But it's something I have to do. This month looks like it's going to be a daily thing. I could just take things into my own hands and cut corners on things that, to me, don't seem essential, but in fact are, because they are things that put God first. Like, if I have loads to do one day, I'll skip the quiet time. Not the way to do it. Jump first, fear later.

A few friends and I went bowling this past Thursday (it may become a tradition to some of us) so here are a few pictures to keep you entertained and my blog colourful, due to Annette's green top and my pink one.





Present, were (top to bottom, left to right) Vickie, Laura, Annette, me, David (aka French Dave, aka Ahouley) and Michael.

Captivated
Vicky Beeching

Your laughter it echoes like a joyous thunder
Your whisper it warms me like a summer breeze
Your anger is fiercer than the sun in its splendor
You're close and yet full of mystery
and ever since the day that I saw Your face
try as I may I cannot look away
I cannot look away

Captivated by You
I am captivated by You
May my life be one unbroken gaze
fixed upon the beauty of Your face

Beholding is becoming so as You fill my gaze
I become more like You and my heart is changed
Beholding is becoming so as You fill my view
transform me into the likeness of You
this is what I ask for all my days
that I may never look away
never look away

No other could ever be as beautiful
No other could ever steal my heart away
No other could ever be as beautiful
No other could ever steal my heart away
I just can't look away

This is what my inspiration wall looks like now...

A Little Bit Of Inspiration

A few pictures I found that have inspired me today and made me want to create something.







And loads of this lady's stuff is absolutely gorgeous and makes me want to try to do something similar!
Joleen's art
Joleen's studio
Just so you know what I was up to this evening, and will be up to the next couple of days...

Bowling, travelling and learning

Those are probably the best three words to sum up the past couple of weeks or so. I was reprimanded (kind of) by my mother on the phone because she got back from a trip and I STILL hadn't updated. Ops! Sorry!

Let's start off with a couple of pictures to show how well I faired when a group of us went bowling last week...

"What am I meant to do with this thing?"

Jonah celebrating his millionth strike.

So yeah... I did good! But it was so much fun, in spite of my arriving last out of 8 people. That's about the bowling.

When it comes to travelling, I have booked a lot of trains. On the 9th April, I'm going to Birmingham for a couple of days to stay with Gillian, my godmother and her family, seeing them probably for the last time before they head off to New Zealand for an unannounced period of time. Then I'm going just down the road, to Coventry, to see my friend Ruthie who I haven't seen since she got married, at least 4 years ago, who already has one 21 month old wee boy and is expecting her second. So that should be interesting, seeing as I get to meet her husband and son and see her again after such a long time. And then I'm going to London with the primary purpose of saying goodbye to my godfather and his wife who are now retired and are going to live on a barge. Wow. But I'm also going to see my friend Cecily who now lives in Wimbledon, and possibly some other friends from Edinburgh who now live further south. And then I'm going to Paris for 5 days while my friend Janelle from the USA and my friend Colin from Australia will be there. How exciting!!

Learning has been a rather huge thing the past couple of weeks, with uni, my SVQ in Childcare, and various things going on at church, both sermons during the services, books that have been recommended to me, Foundations, a discipleship course I do and today a little "index extra" on a variety of topics mainly touching on the source of our faith and the condition of our will, so basically God's sovereignty in relation to our salvation. It was very interesting but has messed with my head quite alot. I guess the key is that no one deserves to be saved, and God has chosen to give some us (chosen not because of anything we have done or not done compared to others - so He has not shown favoritism) salvation. In a sense it doesn't matter who He chose, because His purpose was to glorify Himself. It occurred to me that we as human beings are all the same, because when Adam and Eve sinned, we were all them sinners. And it is nothing to do with us that we have been saved. God chose us. It's such a difficult thing to understand or even accept. *sigh*. Grace.

I was thinking today as I looked at jobs offered by Edinburgh City Council that being a Parks and Greenspaces Manager could be quite cool. Unfortunately the job is going now. Maybe next time.