USA is AOK: Superbowl, Peanut Butter, and University!

The past couple months have also brought some big American moments for me. The first clear one was the Superbowl! Brandon threw a fabulous party complete with all the fixin's! We had an explanation of American Football (most of the audience was from around Europe), chips and dip, pretzles, PB&J Sandwiches, pigs in a blanket, betting games, and the good ol' standby, beer. I was really excited about the explanation part because I have never understood it that well. Plus, it was late at night (it sarted at 11 pm over here).

The next of the American moments has been my recent obession with peanut butter. PB is not that popular over here, and the PB&J sandwich is certainly controversial. Now, I have never been a huge fan, but lately, it's all I crave! My Mom sent little JIF to-go pots, SPEC has some generic PB, and I was given some delicious natural PB for Christmas in Scotland. In one week, I may have consumed 2 small jars of peanut butter - eating it like ice cream! I introduced Annika and Anthony to it and we had a grand time as you can tell :)

PB&J Sandwiches were my food of choice as I headed off to my most American event of all - going to America! I made a trip back for 2 weeks to see family and to check out and audition at the 3 universities I am looking at for next fall. I had a fabulous trip! I got to celebrate my sister Megan's 17th birthday and see the whole family, went to PLU on a surprise visit to see Daniel and all the PLU lovelies, had a day with Dad and a day with Mom - both of which included visiting my favourite Bellingham parks, taking walks, catching up, and just being together. I have missed spending this time with them so much - even just car rides are always fun and enlightening. I got to see Megan in her Sound of Music rehearsal - boy has she got pipes these days! "I am 16 going on 17" was sung absolutely beautifully! The rest of my Washington stay was catching up with friends, visiting Western Washington University, and preparing to audition at the other 2 schools in the mid-west.

Those visits were grand fun - I fulfilled my long standing dream of going to Minnesota (because of the movie Drop Dead Gorgeous) and stayed with a friend from camp when I visited Concordia where we visited the Mall of America (my reaction: HUGE), and hung out with Aaron, who I haven't seen for a good year and a half! Aaron came with me to Illinois Wesleyan and kept me sane through the interviews and auditions. Then we went back to St. Louis (where he lives) and participated in a talent show fundraiser at his church. It was such fun to perform with him again! Homecoming came way too soon, but I really missed my friends back here at SPEC - we really form a family.

There were 4 stores devoted to Minnesota!

(Mall of America)

So - The main reason for this visit was to check out schools! My current ranking is as follows: 1:Illinois Wesleyan University, 2: Western Washington University, and 3: Concordia University, St. Paul. I don't think Concordia and I are a great match - It's a little too small, and the city a little too big. But the people were absolutely lovely - I felt very welcome the whole time. They have created a great community. Western was a really fun visit. Both the music and theatre departments had a real family atmosphere, while still obviously working hard for quality rehearsals and performances. Plus, it's in Bellingham, which is very possibly my favorite city so far! The only drawback is that it is so close to home (Love you Mom and Dad!) and I'm not sure if I could continue the great growth that has begun this year in a place where I have already established a bit of a different life than the one I'm living now. Maybe I could, though - It would be an adventure. Illinois Wesleyan was my favorite! Again - great family atmosphere in both music and theatre, and a theatre program and faculty to die for! I really would like to be a part of their BA program, which encourages a well rounded theatre education with a self-created emphasis. Basically - work on what you love and what you want to learn - without losing any performance opportunity. It really fits me. Unfortunately, this is also the audition I feel went the worst, so I guess we'll see what happens... I'm working hard to keep positive and open to wherever I am called for next year, but it's hard sometimes!

Aaron and I had a lot of fun in IWU's gorgeous Ames Library
but who couldn't with a Beauty and the Beast ladder!?

Coming back to SPEC has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. I was initially really excited to see everyone, give hugs, tell stories, and enjoy England. That subsided pretty quickly as I became rapidly tired and have been working every day since my arrival. I am having bit of an identity struggle. I was just beginning to feel 'English' ish when I hopped back to my old location and self. But when I got there, I felt more English than American, and then coming back, the same. It's a crazy process, but I'm getting there. I'm excited to return to England with new eyes - refreshed with an American perspective so that I can truly appreciate all the little intricacies of the English culture that are so subtle I wouldn't notice till I left. i.e. tea breaks - I didn't like them at first, but found myself missing them in the states.

Continued prayer for patience, strength and perspective are always welcome. And thank you all so much for the plethora of post that was waiting for me upon return from the states. Post is still one of my favorite things to get! It's so exciting! Keep me posted on your lives - I love and miss you all!

For more pictures of the Superbowl party and other SPEC events, click here.

For more pictures of the first week in the USA, click here.

For more pictures of USA week 2, click here.

Young People in the Church

Hello! It has been over a month since my last proper blog post, so I'm going to try and catch up in a few posts :)

Since the new year, the SPEC team has been doing a lot of team building. This has included doing the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment, going to M&S (a posh grocery/department store) for coffee, and doing some communication training with our sister project, SPECEast (The one I went on the primary school mission with). This has been great for the team as we learn more about who we are - especially in a work context. The Myers-Briggs assessment points out 4 different areas of personality and we explored which ends of each of these preferences we fell into. Our conversations about frustrations, differences, and problems have become much smoother now that we have that language to use as a team.

This is a 'Friends' poster with the faces of members of

our living area cleverly replacing the originals. Can you find me?

Our training at SPECEast included some communication tools, as well as training on confirmation groups. We spend a lot of time discussing what our confirmations were like and what confirmation is like for the young people we see week after week. As we have chatted, it has come to my attention that, even though I griped about my own confirmation, in all reality, my experience was pretty darn good. That got me thinking on the idea of choosing our attitude and having perspective about life. Especially our church lives.

Young people here have a much different experience of the church than those in the United States. Though certainly not all churches, many US churches typically have some form of youth group, an excited team of adults that knows and wants something to happen for young people - even if they can't quite figure out 'what' or 'how'. Young people are encouraged to get involved and be a part of the church in their own ways. Youth services, praise bands, church choirs etc. The larger expresses this as well through youth gatherings, conferences, and retreats.

That's very much not the case here. Young people are kind of expected to just fit into the adult life of the church and go with it. But as many have discovered, young people are in a different place in life. When they don't enjoy church, they tend to leave.

So I wrote a letter to my home congregation here it is:

Dear CTS, Please be thankful for CTS. Please be thankful for the community
and family. For the passion of so many members. For the offerings of time,
talents, money, ad love. For the openness, for the care of all. For your
thriving ministries for young and old. For the life that all people bring - even
though it may cause strife, it creates movement, and displays the care and
passion and love you all bring. For the support you have for each other - the
excitement for each life. For the intellect balanced with spirituality and the
diversity in music, worship, prayer, opinions... That all of this can happen is
a great testament to the world. You are a living, breathing, dynamic body of
Christ that moves and grooves and responds and lives. Please be thankful and
joyous in the fact that you have evaded the trap of static apathy and have
embraced the movement of your dynamic community. We are all so blessed to play a role. I am so thankful.

Continue to be blessed, Allison

This all puts a whole new spin on my work here at SPEC. It explains why only 20% of our confirmation candidates want to do their confirmation for faith related reasons and why I haven't been able to relate as well to their experience. It does open the window for me to listen to their experiences and have some insight as to where to go next. I have gone through all of the name games that every young christian in America plays ad naseum, and seen programs go from start to finish. There is an opportunity for me to be a resource and different perspective. This has taken the form of passing on song titles, teaching games, and just letting young people know that they CAN and DO have a place and a responsibility in this world to own their faith, their talents, their gifts, and go for it!

Excitement!

A Quiet SPEC in the snow :)

A quick update on the last few days

Our heat stopped working on Friday.

We HAD 2 groups scheduled for the weekend, but since the heating in much of the project wasn't working- including our main kitchen, one had to cancel.

The group that DID come slept in warmth, but of our meeting rooms, only one had heat - we used little space heaters for the rest, which helped a bit.

Come Friday night, we realize that most of the team do not have heating in their rooms, and there is no hot water in our living area either.

Saturday is the same.

Then it began to snow.

We now have about 2 inches or more.



Rebekah (from New Zealand) was really excited for 'soft snow' and made her first snow angel! I'm excited because it's beautiful outside and since I don't work today, it sort of feels like Christmas! Many school children are excited for a snow day.
Many drivers are not. Driving in London in the snow would NOT be a pretty sight.

Now, this experience could be... really bad. But what I love about SPEC is that they make things work. Each team member with a cold room got a space heater. They have made sure that we know where to go for hot water, and have even arranged other areas to sleep if we need it.

It's times like these when I like to throw back my head and laugh. How easy would it be to be grumpy this weekend? Quite easy. But this can be another new and exciting adventure. It's certainly not an expected, normal day, but that's it's beauty. In this day lies ample opportunity to get creative, see new things, and enjoy the spontaneity of creation.

In other news: I have been accepted to Western Washington University and Concordia University St. Paul. I am still waiting for news from Illinois Wesleyan, which is frustrating, because at this moment in time, it is my number 1 choice... Ah well, we shall see what happens.

More to come soon - just wanted to share snow day fun!

Snow Fun!!
Cheers!