Day 35/252. Light shines in darkness

Today was a different day again, especially as I ended up in A&E last night with severe stomach cramps. I'm fine now just have a constant sickness which they think us to do with food and my digestion.
Anyway, managed to get to lectures tonight. We traced the book of Acts from Jerusalem, one big candle = Jesus, to Judea, Samaria and finally Rome..the ends of the earth! As well as everything in between.
Was impacting to see how the light was spread and how in one book of the Bible all this is recorded.
We ended by praying that the lights in those places would re kindle and in many nations that have divides, that they wild be opened.

Day 34/252. A different day.

Today I went to a Christian radio and TV studios to look around. Then back to my horizontal this eve!

Day 33/252. Moving rocks out the way

Today was tough felt ill again but had good lectures and managed to get some work done. Although felt like moving mountains today!
So blessed by the people on my course and at TKL really blessed to have so many people who support me no matter what.
Excited to do my maps of pauls missionary journeys.
Trying to not be anxious, like Mary, it's going to take time with this one!

Day 32/252. Book 5: Acts.

Everything is better with a good nights sleep! Woke up ready to go again today...just thank you for that Jesus!
Acts its seriously amazing, so many fun God stories, sad stories, outrageous stories, crazy stories, disgusting stories and much travelling on the ocean in ships!
I'm loving it, like watching a TV drama.
I'm excited about all the sailing Paul is doing and is making all the Ports I've been in (most of them) come so alive...
This week has got to be the best week, we get to make maps!
I'm away Wednesday so I'm worried I won't get to enjoy it and have to rush everything.
God I need your help.
Worship was great today we sang one of my favourites..I'm Christ alone.
Time for sleep!

Day 31/252. Overwhelmed.

So much to do, so tired.
I tried to apply what I've been learning from Luke to my life. I wanted to try modelling how Mary sat a Jesus feet as Martha strived and worried her way. Unfortunately I didn't do a terribly good job at it and feel more stressed than ever. Honeymoon is defiantly over.
I love you Jesus, I want to be here, but help!

Day 30/252. Finding my place.

Although most days I struggle to keep my head above water with so much new happening, I am keeping my head up and doing well. It just means I don't have a lot or any time for extra things like communicating well with family and friends outside.I think this will get better but right now its tough.
Today I needed some time for Grace, so I got a ride to town and did my own thing. I didn't feel so well today with bad throat so came back and finished off work.
Had a girlie night tonight watched sense  and sensibility....loved it! :)

Day 29/252. Yay for epic brain focus.

I really tried hard today to get my head down and blitz the assignments...and yay I finished 95% by Friday night. So pleased. So many themes came out through the interpretations that I wouldn't have seen before! Amazing stuff.
Had lots of talking day too with new people here who are becoming fast friends <3

Day 28/252. Autumn days.

Amazing stories in Luke show Gods heart... Did three charts tonight with three interpretations each, really want to finish tomorrow so I can take Saturday off.
On another note...
I love my TKL family. So blessed x

Day 27/252. Understanding myself.

Today was better. I'm finding my pace, finding what slows me, distracts me, frustrates me, finding how hard I can work and how to work. Basically finding out what I'm capable of and when I need to stop.
this is very helpful!
what's shocking is that I'm finding I can do more than I think I can if I really focus.
The other shocking thing is that if I slip into comparison then I'm way less productive and pretty miserable.
I'm working on this and today was better!
Sometimes I want to hide because people are everywhere. I realised the only time I'm not with people its when I am on the toilet (!)
I wish I had a curtain on my bunk I can pull round if only to be quiet with my thoughts and God.
But its ok and I'm thankful, so thankful I have this opportunity.

Day 26/252. Bazillion Paragraph Title Day!

Today was a struggle again with feeling not good ....but I'm almost finished with horizontal (even though I stayed up an hour and a half longer than I do normally tonight..I hate doing that).
I miss my staff friends today, seeing them but not really seeing them. But I know why I'm doing this and that's my focus. He is my focus, my reason!
And the guys on SBS are incredibly awesome, like really really. I couldn't have imagined better people to spend 9 months with.
<3

Day 25/252. Tough.

Today was a challenge to even be myself, I am so tired and not feeling well... But, tomorrow is a new day.
And Luke is now clothed in a rainbow, ready for the next step!

Day 24/252. Cheesecake and Luke.

Had an lovely lie in today, hurrah, and journalled with God. Beautiful.
Then just before I was about to start my with work when Georgie came and kidnaped me and took me out for a coffee and cheesecake. She is amazing. I miss living with her.
We met someone familiar whilst there who treated us! big smiles.
Then got back and stuck into reading Luke.
Bring on the new week, God you are so good!

Day 23/252. Another full on day.

Worked on finishing my work for the book of Mark from 8am in the classroom til 8pm. Loved the revelation God gave me and really felt him with me today showing me stuff, not for the sake of the work but for me and him! I love that.
Proper exhausted now though, I think this course is already more than I did at university...at least it feels like more.
I just pray I don't dream about vertical charts...
Tomorrow I start Luke.

Day 22/252. One word:Vikings.

We concluded the last three weeks of seminar today, was amazing we got to hear how God had given us personal revelation it was inspiring. I already know I'm praying differently to Jesus thinking of Mark, and to God thinking of Ephesians...its amazing how you can learn something and be changed. Once you know something you can't un know it, you know!
Oh and casually...we have Vikings visit us today. More random amazing things that happen on a YWAM base! Love it.

Day 21/252. Jesus: this is your life.

Today Andy gave a great talk about Jesus walking in the water. Apparently in the ancient world the sea was regarded as evil and dangerous and chaos. For Jesus to walk on water basically he's saying he is able to walk over evil. There are many references in the Bible about the sea and when you read them in this light its pretty fascinating! Especially when you get to revelation, the sea of glass and the frozen sea like crystal..God brings order to chaos!!!
I love this.
I wish I'd known this when I lived on a boat!
Carried on charting for Mark, Jesus life is incredible, such boldness, power but also humanness and suffering. Extremely humbling and heart wrenching.
Must get more sleep! Only 20 hours more work to do...

Day 20/252. How to survive an SBS

Today began with worship in our own ways, I went outside :) then we wrote on the board everything we thank God for..
Continued with history of Mark, his relationship with Peter and the background of Neros fire/Christian persecution. Interesting!
We learnt about how to survive an  SBS = self discipline and time management!
I finished my horizontal chart, prepared my BRI and vertical charts.
Our staff surprised us with drinks and snacks this evening...was so lush!
Had a great game of table tennis and pool..now bed.

Day 19/252. Emotional journey!

More history, this time focusing in the gospels..fascinating as always. The four gospels were different because they had different audiences, plus the writers were  different people! So it's like Jesus sitting in the middle of a room and four people drawing him, they will all get a different perspective.
A lot of stuff cleared up for me today, I love getting to understand all the history! Andy makes the lectures so fun and we laugh about things like Monty python and how he always tells us we'll finish class early.
Observed the whole of Mark today, I have serious colour coding overload, at times I felt like I was going to die a painful death with coloured pencils coming out of my ears.
I got to the end of Mark and was so tired I got pretty emotional when Jesus died. Even though I knew it was coming! I gave up perfect today. I didn't get around to paragraph titles, I've decided to value my sleep instead. Goodnight!

Day 18/252. Acquainted with Mark.

My friend Sarah on the SBS wrote this yesterday on her Facebook status which I think sums up our morning better than I could! 'History! Exile, Prophecy, Medes and the Persians, Return, Temple, Walls, more prophecies, Macedonians, Alexander the Great, Rome, Antiochus, Antiochus humiliated, hellenization of Jews, Maccabees, Independence, Roman empire .... Jesus-the perfect storm.' Brain = full! but brilliantly so.

We read Mark through yesterday in one reading, it took 1.5 hours! Thought that was pretty epic but I don't think we've seen anything yet!

Amazing evening worship with the whole campus, love love love. 

Day 17/252. Surprise!

My Dad surprised me today with a spontaneous visit...was so nice, we caught up, chatted about the Bible, went for a hot chocolate and then he beat me at table tennis (only by one point I might add!). Lovely day!

Day 16/252. The Longest day...

...or so it feels, I'm sure there will be other days longer in the near future! Today I started working on finishing my Ephesians segment charts and Application, and I finished by dinner time hurray! the deadline was midnight so this means I get the night off. Well, after I do my work duty. So tired and in serious need of a shoulder massage but it is so worth it. There is so much God has shown me in this book today that I didn't even see all week. I'm so on fire now about unity in the Church and God's heart for love sacrifice throughout his body. I want to live this out and make a difference telling people about this!! Awesome book... time to clean the toilets.

Day 15/252. Stand firm and Unify.

Today we became a Roman Battle formation, literally. We all stood in equal rows one behind the other and held onto the shoulder in front of us whilst holding our shield with the other. We learnt how the Romans worked as one unit to fight the enemy and how they became the most successful empire. It was fascinating! The interesting thing was that in Ephesians 6 it doesn't mention anything about fighting it just asks the Church to stand!
For the rest of the day we worked on our vertical charts and BRI (Basic Required Info - mostly historical stuff) in the classroom.  I'm still loving being here and blessed to have this opportunity. It's amazing to be able to look into God's word so detailed and find all the hidden gems that are the rarest and most beautiful - such a great course!It's been a good day but a long day.

Day 14/252. History lesson.

Went back in time again to the first century..we looked at Greco-Roman families and how they would have looked very different to our western 2.4 families. More like the an extended community, where not only was there a head honcho to rule the family but he was also the head of their religion or what they believed. In Ephesians Paul tells the believers this family structure gets a new way of doing things (Chapter 5). The structure stays the same but husbands are told to love their wives as Christ loves the church. So all their relationships get an extreme makeover, they are loving one another as one, doing good by each other, even to the slaves! I'm sure this would have had a major ripple in the wider community and caused questions. I love the thought that if you change one person, you can change society. Imagine if this head honcho became a believer, his whole household and extended family would be effected by this in an incredible way.
There is more revelation but my brain just shut down. It seems to do that a lot these days.....but I love this stuff and I'm so happy to be here!
On another note, this base is amazing. It really is geared up for schools, I never truly appreciated that before. The food is amazing and the staff are just brilliant. At random moments I was thanking God of that today!

Day 13/ 252. Time to input.

Our devotion this morning was about how awesome our God is. Andy showed us this through science.... and Brian Cox. It was so cool we saw lots of diagrams of space, how big our planet is and where it is in relation to others, our solar system, our galaxy and all the other stars and asteroid belts in between.

It was funny because the other day Jo was reminding us to think of who we are praying to before we pray because that effects our prayers. I had a revelation then that my God is the God that made the stars! So for this devotion to be about space was spot on, good one God.
Also made me think of the silly things that occupy our minds...
I was reminded of a picture my friend drew years ago at uni, will attach it here! :)
It was input day so we got to take all of our paragraph titles, segments, sections and divisions and put them into a computer program that creates something called a horizontal chart!
Had more fascinating lectures tonight digging deeper into first century lands...I can picture it in my head and almost wish there was a way to walk down those streets and see, smell and hear it all for real. But I almost can.
We looked at the longest verse in the Bible and what on earth it's taking about....it's not about me, but to Paul and the recipients. Who knew! Got to get out of individualistic thinking :)
Although tired, Great day, im glad im here.

Day 12/252. Beethoven.

As part of class Andy played us Beethoven's 9th symphony, it was a beautiful escape in a difficult day. The point was to show the layers that make up the piece of music and relate that to writers in the same way.
The music made me want to go and sit in a field with God. I did get to do that later, we walked and I found some shiny conkers and kicked some leaves.
Interesting lectures as always but tonight was some serious thinking past 8pm which doesn't seem to work very well for me. Let's hope God increases my brain capacity soon!

Day 11/252. Welcome to Ephesus.

This morning we went back in time to the first century city of Ephesus. Complete with Roman soldiers, female temple workers, mystic men, Nero, idol Sellers, believers, etc. Our staff surprised us with this, not telling us what was happening and we had to figure out who everyone was. It really gave a good picture of how crazy the city must have been and put a good context into the letter to the Ephesians! Not to mention pretty overwhelming and loud, very loud.
We then had a history lesson for more background, I can tell I am going to become firm friends with the Bible dictionaries.
Then the rest of the day was spent observing the whole book, finding repetition, contrasts, themes etc. I hope I did my observations right, we'll soon find out tomorrow... Now sleep!

Day 10/252. Ephesians.

So today I made a fond farewell for Philemon. I love that book. So much packed into such a short letter, but after all, we know it's true - that the best things come in small packages.
And so onto Ephesians. We read it together this afternoon, this should be an interesting week!

Day 9/252. Coventry Cathedral.

Today we went to Coventry Cathedral tying in nicely with Philemon. When the cathedral was bombed in the 1940's they vowed they would rebuild to demonstrate reconciliation worldwide. The place is packed with symbolism and we found some really cool stuff. We also went to primark and ate a lot at Cosmo's, great day!