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!

TFG BIG conference 2009

Hello All!

I just arrived back from the Time for God BIG conference. This is the time of year when all of the TFG volunteers serving in the UK get together to learn, share experiences, and have a lot of fun! To reflect on our year so far, we were split into small groups - I was in the Arts and Crafts group, so to process what we have done and learned so far, we made books. These books could be anything from our imagination with the theme of 'My year so far...' (and the year yet to come). On the right is a picture of Me, Sara K., Elin, and Alpar with our books. My book turned into a scrapbook of sorts, with a page devoted to new foods, another to memories, some pages about SPEC, and some about me - it's a pretty fun book! I never knew how much fun arts and crafts could be, but I found it very meditative. I hope to make another one at the end of my year, with all of the pictures I am accumulating!





The other highlight of the conference was 'The Fringe'. A multi-cultural talent show! We saw performances of songs and dances from South Korea, Scotland, Hungary, America, Germany, and Sweden, among other silly performances of Little Mermaid re-enactments and an 'Air Band' (that was from the Americans :) ) We saw some tradition dress from both Germany and South Korea. Below is me with Martin and Annika in traditional Bavarian dress. The will still wear this dress to special occasions such as 21st birthdays and weddings!

Our other neat opportunity at this conference was to watch the inauguration of President Obama in Wales with young people from all over the globe. I have never been so 'American' in my life. There were 11 Americans at the conference, and we all stood when the people on t.v. stood, we sang the National anthem with the choir, and said 'Amen' at the end of the final prayer (a prayer which made us all smile). The British commentators were funny - as George W. left the white house for the last time, the commentator referred to him as 'A lovely man, though I know some don't quite agree with his politics'. :)

During this, a good portion of the other volunteers watched, and said that we were more interesting than the actual speech itself! But we were not the only excited ones. Obama's presidency has excited the world. There have been large posters of him in the tube, and when young people hear that I'm American, they always ask if I support Obama. It's nice to have Europeans seeing good in the US. I worry for him - he has a lot on his plate with a lot of people expecting great things. It seems to me,though, that he's got a good head on his shoulders, and isn't too cocky about the challenges ahead. These next few years will certainly be interesting!

Current prayer requests include TFG Volunteers heading back into their placements, Anthony visiting Zimbabwe, The new USA administration, and SPEC's young people, volunteers, and staff.

That's the quick update for now!

Cheers!

Picture links!!

Planting flowers with community and London trip with the girls, Click Here

TFG BIG Conference, Click Here

Horses!

On Wednesday, SPEC had some unexpected visitors. We were patienly awaiting the arrival of a retreat group, but instead of young people, 15 horses showed up on our fields! They were beautiful - brown and white - but we were slightly confused as to how and why they were there. Turns out, there is a traveling community that takes these horses to different fields. The reason they do this is due to some funny English laws. If a herd of horses ends up in an enclosed field, then the owner of the field is then responsible for the well being of the horses, as well as any damage they might cause (i.e. running out onto a road and causing an accident). There are ways to get a court order to sort things out which costs thousands of pounds and takes about 2 weeks. What the traveling community does is take the horses to another field on day 13. So we potentially had 15 horses to feed, take care of, and keep safe for a couple of weeks.

Here's the cool part. This traveling community also comes to SPEC to collect scrap metals. So we called up our contact through that, and 5 people were in our fields taking the horses away within 30 minutes. One of the guys remembered coming to SPEC on a retreat as a youngster. The thought is floating arond that because we respect this community for who they are and give them our scrap metals and such, it wasn't a problem to take the horses right away. Amazing what acceptance can do.

Christmas!

Well, I'm back at SPEC now. We all returned to 140 people at our home (which it is now - our home. yay!). We hosted the Volunteers conference - so all of the volunteers in England came to stay, and we went on retreat together. It was a grand time, and we had Sister Judith speak, and boy is she a story teller - 280 eyes were glued on her the whole time.

To be honest it was a little crazy coming back to that type of atmosphere when all we wanted to do was see each other again and catch up. We weren't all in the mood to meet a whole load of new people. So my earlier sense of energy and hope for the new year was a little bit dampened. But it picked right back up as the conference went on - and my joy really picked back up when we were able to gather together as a community again. The atmosphere around here is different. There is so much energy, so much hope, so much joy. Much more than was there last term. It's as if the break was what everybody needed to realize the potential there is in this place and in each other. We are so much more a family now - I am very hopeful.

Hope is a word that came to me over Christmas. I was contemplating the 'true meaning of Christmas', which comes up every year, and the answer is usually 'Jesus'. To be honest, my answer would always be 'family' in the past, but this year challenged that, as I was far from Mom, Dad, Meg, Dan, Grama, Nona, Scott, The Mark Suttons, and so many other close family and friends.

I'm going to give an excerpt from my journal, as it shows the thought process:

I have experienced the true meaning of Christmas. I'm quite sure, actually, that I experience this every year. Family getting together. I mean, I know the answer is supposed to be Jesus, but maybe it's a matter of a morphing meaning through the years - can you ever define what the meaning of a day is? When you're 4, it is about presents for you, so how can one define it as 'wrong' when that is what it is? Anyway, this beautiful famil took us in and treated us as their own. God provided through tem. How does that connect to Jesus' birth? The homelessness bit? The family part I suppose... Sometimes its hard for me to separate Jesus's birth from his death. I suppose Easter is more about forgivness of sins, the proof of unconditional love, and everlasting life. But what meaning does Jesus's birth have? What's the focal point? Hope? Jesus the saviour is born. Good times are near... an epiphany comes soon. Yea, that's it. Hope.

There's certainly more thought process since, but it's the beginning of a fun exploration :)

As that hinted at, Scotland was a HUGE blessing. The Haldane family reminded me a lot of my own, and truly took Annika, Anthony, and I in as their own children. It was wonderful to be in a family again. Anna's brothers were so much fun to play music with, study an atlas with, and just hang around with. We walked on beaches (The one in St. Andrews is featured in Chariots of Fire! yes, we ran!), saw cathedrals, and met a lot of great family. The Christmas traditions were fun - an Advent song as we lit candles leading up to Christmas, Christmas Crakers that have prizes in them and leaving Rudolph a carrot, and for Santa a cookie and a beer. We spent a lot of time with family friends just playing games! It was impressed upon me the importance of friends. The Haldanes were so welcoming to anyone who called or stopped by. There was always a bowl of soup or a quick cup of tea. Nothing too huge, but such a comfort to those who were struggling or stressed - a sense of normality, hospitality, and family. Scotland is my new favourite place, and I am going to move there. Currently, my list is 14 items long. Here we go:

1. Royal Bank of Scotland (the one we are all with)

2. Anna and the Haldane Family

3. A store entitled: "Thistle Do Nicely" (that one's for you dad!)

4. Scottish Accent

5. Friendly People

6. Hills and the Highlands

7. Dancing

8. Kilts and Tartan

9. Natural Beauty

10. Castles!

11. Cobblestone

12. Local feel

13. Beaches

14. Walking

The list continues to grow :)

Other quick business not really related to Christmas... It has been a while...

I have gotten an acceptance letter from Concordia, St. Paul in Minnesota! 1 down, 2 to go!

Just finished a fabulous retreat with 29 16 year old boys who had the perfect balance of rowdy and respectful. During every break they had, they were playing dodgeball in our living room with a designated referee and everything! They were surprisingly open about faith and God, and had TONS of questions during 'quiz the priest' including: what if there is no afterlife? and If God knows all of our days, do we really have free will?'. I was blessed to be able to work with them.

Lutherwood keeps providing fun songs and games to share with the community. I have had a request for 'the birdie song' to wake up a fellow team member in the morning :)

General prayers for the world. Specifically Gaza and Zimbabwe. I am continually surprised at how much more globally aware I am here. Maybe it's europe, maybe it's living with people from all over the world, maybe it's just me becoming more aware. Also the Whatcom County area, as the weather has been insane - flooding, power outages, rain... It's all over the place, people have been evacuated from homes. For some hope and some improvement.

I love you all and pray that you are safe, happy, and getting challenged at some point in your days!

Cheers m'dears!

For more Pictures of Christmas Adventures at SPEC, click here
For pictures of the Christmas Party dinner, click here
For pictures of White Elephant at the Christmas Party, click here
For More Scotland picures, click here
For even More Scotland pictures, click here

Recent Blessings

So, I know this blog isn't too up-to-date on my calendar of events, but I think the big event lately has been Mission Week. The SPEC team is going into a high school every day this week. It's similar to the mission I was on with SPECEast, but that was a very small primary school. This is a high school with 1000 boys (and a handful of girls). It's quite different - but I still love it!

We have been doing sessions in classrooms, a social justice rotation, and the advent program. The advent program has probably been the largest project we have taken on. We as a team came up with an outline of a modern nativity story. Mary and Joseph in modern day London. Herod is represented by Mary's overbearing father, the shepherds are a group of dancer/singer/rappers, and Jesus is born in a tube station (Angel station to be exact :) ). My part in this program is directing the band. I was expecting to be either playing piano, or watching and teaching students to play traditional carols. Boy was I wrong. I have a combo of 4 boys - all phenomenal musicians that know what they are doing. The pianist plays beautifully, and he and the guitar player can look at each other and change the feel of the song at the drop of a hat. I say "how about we do this in a different style" and the bass player starts playing a riff and the rest jump in. No planning time at all. It has been such a blessing to be able to work with such positive, competent musicians. They are truly showing the world what they can do with their gifts - way to go guys! The performance is tomorrow night - they are going to rock it! I am so excited!

On a personal level, I'm just excited to be putting on a show! I have missed rehearsing and the preparation for a performance. The adrenaline and focus and anticipation for such a grand event is something I have always loved and cherished. Now that it's missing from my life on a regular basis - I notice - big time. These are the times when I feel alive. (I suppose it's good that I'm heading into theatre :) )

This preparation has been a big topic around here during this Advent season. I'm not sure I've ever been so immersed in the Advent season. We talk about waiting and preparing all the time - and it's been very relevant as we have prepared for mission week. Now it's here, and all of the preparation is coming together - all of the waiting is coming to a climactic end - and I wonder how much of this translates to the religious side of things. Do I ever get this excited about Jesus being born? Or does it usually just pass me by? There's a big difference between showing up to watch a concert and being a part of the preparation for three months in advance. The performance always means more when we've had that personal investment. Shouldn't it be the same for Jesus? Is there a way to infuse this much excitement into the preparation for Jesus? I suppose during my life, we have had an advent calendar at home, we've gotten a Christmas tree, and decorated the house... but how do I prepare for Jesus personally - in my own heart?

I feel as if it is happening this season. Just hearing about it SO much - I can't help but have it on my mind. This year Christmas is going to be different for me - spending it with another family in a different country - on a different continent! So my usual preparations fall away. They are replaced, though, by a preparation of my heart. How will I feel spending Christmas away from home? My family will be on my mind and in my heart, but they will be far away, so what can I keep close to my heart that will be physically close as well? I can keep the miracle of Jesus extra close this year - and get my heart excited for his big performance - I'm getting involved in the rehearsal now.

But certainly - the English Christmas has been celebrated since October! But recently I have gotten the pleasure of trying mince pies, mulled wine, and Christmas pudding (Figgy pudding - like from 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas!') I have gotten the chance to attend English Christmas parties where we sit around and sing carols by a fire! We had Christmas dinner with parsnips, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, cranberry stuffing, and Christmas crackers with presents inside. That particular dinner also included a Swedish treat of a Santa Lucia performance! We were very lucky to experience their traditions as well.

I pray that your preparations and traditions are going well this Advent and Christmas season - You are all in my thoughts and prayers - keep me posted on your lives as well! I love you all!