So why is life so great? Because I get to do things like (1) go to the botanical gardens, (2) go on night runs, (3) have FHE in King's College Chapel, and (4) hold conspiracy theory parties.
From the beginning then.
(1) Yesterday (who here is impressed I didn't wait an entire week to write this?), Devon, Jenessa, and I went to the botanical gardens. It was sufficiently beautiful. Although there were a few too many dead roses. Fortunately, we had a noteworthy encounter with an Asian couple, that I cannot wait to tell you about.
As we were walking through the garden, we saw this Asian couple. Let's assume they were married to make the story easier to tell. So the husband is taking a picture of the wife, and Jenessa, being the humanitarian that she is, offers to take one of both of them. They readily accept, she takes the picture, everything is fine. Next, the wife seems to indicate she wants to take one for us. She sort of gestures at Jenessa, and pulls her over to a perfect backdrop. Only, before Devon and I get in the picture, we realize this lady is posing with Jenessa, and the husband starts snapping pics. Ok, that's weird. Will they take one of all three of us now? Nope, I'm next. Apparently the deal is "one by one, then all three." Devon takes her turn. Ok, finally, all three of us. But wait, why won't they take our camera? Wait, why is the wife in the picture with us? Why are we being photographed by this guy? I dunno, but it was a whole lotta fun.
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| Our new friends. So glad I captured this moment. |
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| Had to navigate through that flora to get to that seat. |
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| Jenessa, Devon, Me |
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| We blend in. |
(2) Night run 3.0!
I cannot express to you how much I'm mclovin these night runs. First, let's talk about the fact that I can officially run miles. That is to say, I'm no longer limited to 100 meters... That's a great feeling. Second, I'm so thrilled by the company of our little running group. Third, I'd like to share with you a little miracle:
As we're coming up on the 3.5 mile mark, Jenessa accidentally drops her key card, and proceeds to kick it... to an unknown location... Fortunately, she noticed right away, but the thing about night runs is that you don't always have the best lighting for finding key cards. The worst part was that we were running next to a little creek, so there was definitely a concern that the card could have fallen in. We spread out and did a sweep of the area, but no dice. After a few minutes, Kelsey suggested we say a prayer, so we did. Did we find it? No. But I'll tell you what did happen.
This car pulls up, and out comes this wonderful girl who saw us looking and thought she might be able to lend us a hand. Mind you, this was literally within the first minute of the conclusion of our prayer. And what does she do but spot it right off! "Oh, is this it?" she says. What a gem of a person. I mean, it's about 11:00 PM, so there are not a ton of cars driving by. Add to that the probability that any given car would pull over to help us, and it makes the whole thing even more miraculous. And she just finds it! What an absolute blessing. We also had the privilege to talk with her for a few minutes. She even taught us some Tai Chi. I hope to high heaven we get to see her again. She was great.
I have been fortunate enough to feel the very real power of prayer many times in my life. And what a blessing it is! To be able to have a direct line of communication with my Father in Heaven strikes me as one of the most incredible tender mercies available to me. Through prayer I have had the opportunity to develop a very real relationship with Him, and to gain an understanding of Heavenly Father's plan for me and His awareness of me. Whether it's helping me find something that I've lost, helping me with my homework, or giving me strength through a trial, Heavenly Father has always been there for me. I am so grateful for this privilege and blessing.
(3) FHE at King's College Chapel
As a reminder, this is what the chapel looks like:
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| I took this off the Internet... can you tell? |
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| Ditto. |
Also, this is where Evensong takes place, featuring the world renowned King's College Choir. So take a minute to digest what the acoustics must be like in this place. Yes, it's as good as you are imagining it to be. Now picture this.... hymns, in the chapel. Several beautiful hymns. It is a powerful thing to hear voices lifted in song, sharing their mutual testimonies of Christ and His Gospel. Next, picture this... a testimony meeting, in the chapel. And make sure you are picturing a testimony meeting with 45 of the best people you have ever met, who each have a unique contribution to make to the spirit of the meeting. To be clear, not everybody was able to stand and bear their testimony, but the power of the Spirit emanating from each individual in that Chapel was powerful, and it was beautiful.
So you may be asking yourselves how we were able to hold our Family Home Evening in a Church of England Chapel. Dr. Kerry (our program director), said it best. It all comes down to love. We were blessed to be able to share our testimonies in a beautiful place of worship because the Chaplain chose to go out of his way to extend an offering of love and fellowship. And for that I am very grateful.
(4) The natural course of action after this spiritual experience was to go back to Market Hostel to discuss conspiracy theories. We managed to draw a substantial crowd under the guise of root beer floats. But apparently England isn't on that bandwagon. They don't sell root beer (what?). Yeah, that's a weird thing. So we had Dr. Pepper, Coke, and Fanta floats. The Fanta was un. believable. It tasted like a dreamsicle. Or a creamsicle, depending on how you want to look at it.
Anyway the crowd petered out relatively quickly, which left a few of us to dig in to those conspiracy theories. The consensus (used in its loosest form), is that Tupac isn't dead, there were no airplanes on 9/11, just missiles, the government ran a mind-control program in the 1960's called mk-ultra, and there were no missiles during the cuban missile crisis. The hook: they used the missing cuban missiles during 9/11, and managed to brainwash the entire city of New York (in an effort to make them believe they saw airplanes) using mk-ultra. And Tupac is hanging out in Cuba. So.
That's all for tonight. Catch ya on the flip-side.
two thumbs up!!
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