A Belle in Boston

I said I wouldn’t wait as long to update a few weeks ago…well, this time it turns out I waited even longer. I don’t really know who reads this and who doesn’t or if in fact anyone does read it anymore. I’m toying with going back to Blogspot. I find it easier to navigate and easier to post pics, etc…hmm

Christmas came and went and it was a pleasant time w/my fam. I’ve had a great time here in Jax, but I must admit that I miss my Gordon-Conwell family. A lot. My friend Melissa and I have been texting back and forth a/b how much we miss everyone and I’m excited that tomorrow I have a phone date w/my friend April. Truly these are some of the most special friends in my life!

Speaking of special friends, check out my friend Sam’s blog here: http://arkansaninnewengland.blogspot.com/2010/12/jesus-vs-santa-modest-proposal.html

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Tomorrow about 10 of us are headed over to Lexington to celebrate Thanksgiving together. We were the few and the proud that couldn’t make it home due to expensive and long flights. We decided what better way than to get together and celebrate as a GCTS family!

The dining hall closed after lunch today and so we decided to hit up Nick’s Roast Beef for dinner. Roast beef is a big deal here in these parts…I’m just assuming it’s due to all the Irish here. After dinner, we headed to Stop and Shop (no Publix or Piggly Wiggly’s up here!) to get our Thanksgiving items for tomorrow. On the menu will be:
Turkey
Dressing (or stuffing..whatever you choose to call it)
Macaroni & Cheese (Southern Style!)
Green Bean Casserole
Corn & Bacon Casserole
Salad
Cornbread
Rolls
Apple Pie

When we got through grocery shopping, we went through Dunkin Donuts (or The Dunk or Dunks as we call it here) for some coffee (I recommend their Blueberry…that’s right, Blueberry!) and then back to the dorms for a movie night. We watched Christmas Vacation and then played Rock Band. Now, I’m ready for bed & excited about celebrating with my sweet friends tomorrow.

Happy Turkey Day!

and I didn’t even realize it because I’ve been so busy.

We had Reading Week last week and I was able to catch up on some Systematic Theology reading and read more of the Old Testament to prepare for the upcoming final exam. My first semester ends in about 3 1/2 weeks. Crazy.

My friends here are truly amazing. Can I just say that? I am having more fun than I’ve had in a long time. That’s another reason I haven’t updated is that if I’m not studying, I’m out with friends. Such a blessing!! I’m also discovering this gift I have of organizing events. I hope that’s part of what I do in ministry one day. Youth + Event Planning + Europe would = something so much fun!!!!

I don’t know if anyone reads this anymore, but if you do, I encourage you to also read the book of Habakkuk. Yes, you read that right. An amazing, but short, read. So full of goodness!!!

It’s now dark at 4:30pm and there’s no need to wear flip flops anymore. My dad got me a pair of oversized Miami sweatpants that are being put to great use these days.

Trying to think of any last words, but I just woke up from a nap and am still trying to get out of the sleep zone.

Hope you have had a great last month. I hope I don’t wait this long again to update!

Alli

In the last month, God has really been doing something in my heart. In the last few days, I’ve really started to feel myself changing…for the better. I heard this passage from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis years ago and only now does it really make sense to me. It has to do w/the character of “Eustace” and the fact that he was this despicable, greedy, character and was turned into a dragon. He desperately wants to get the scales off of him and tries hard to do it by himself. I’ll be quiet and let you read for yourself. It’s a bit lengthy, but I promise it won’t disappoint:

“The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. but the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I dont know if he said any words out loud or not.

I was just going to say that I couldn’t undress because I hadn’t any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that’s what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and , instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I jsut stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe.

But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that’s all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I’ll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.

Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.

The the lion said – but I don’t know if it spoke – ‘You will have to let me undress you.’ I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.

The very first tear he made was do deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know – if you’ve ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.

Well, he peele the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt – and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was Ias smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me – I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on – and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again. You’d think me simply phoney if I told you how I felt about my own arms. I know they’ve no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian’s, but I was so glad to see them.

After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me – (with his paws?) – Well, I don’t exactly remember that bit. But he did somehow or other: in new clothes – the same I’ve got on now, as a matter of fact. and then suddenly I was back here. Which is what makes me think it must have been a dream.”

When we come to the end of ourselves….when we can no longer peel the layers off by ourselves, we have to take it to the only one who can properly “dress” us. It is going to hurt. But in the end, it’s going to be for our good and the better.

My friends and I went into Boston on Friday night to celebrate my B-Day! I have to say it was probably the best birthday party I’ve had in a long time. We started off the evening at my favorite restaurant, Wagamama, which is a Japanese noodle bar. My friend Linz first told me a/b this restaurant 10 yrs ago when she was studying abroad in London. Boston is the only place in the US where you can find this restaurant other than Canada or Europe or South Africa. I LOVE IT! After dinner, we split into 2 groups and walked around the city taking pictures for a picture scavenger hunt. SO much fun!

I am so blessed to be at GCTS & even more blessed with the friends God has placed in my life. It was definitely a great start to a new birthday year!

My friend Joel thought it would be a fun idea to create a blog all about dreams at night. It’s been quite interesting to find out what we’re all dreaming about there on campus! If you’re looking for a laugh or even something a bit introspective, check it out! The link is on the right along with….

Awkward Christianity. This is a book my friend Jonathan is working on to be published. The blog has to do w/the book but it’s also a great blog a/b life as a seminarian (if I’m not giving you enough insight on that topic!) The link is also on the right.

Also, if any of you know how to work this link thing on here, please let me know. I’m getting really irritated w/it!

It’s late. I haven’t posted in a few days. A lot going on. I had a Greek exam today. I hope that I got at least a C.

I just read my sweet friend, Cathy’s blog. I’d give you the link to click on but wordpress and I still have issues. You can link it on the right of the page b/c it’s an excellent blog! Anyways, she was speaking a/b how Savannah is her home so much that she can feel it in her bones. When people ask me where I’m from I respond “I grew up in Savannah but I live in Jacksonville” b/c I don’t feel like going into all those years of “We lived here and then we moved and we lived there and then we moved…” It takes too long unless I’m sitting down at dinner or a pub and in a conversation that allows for it. Anyways, so as I was reading Cathy’s post, I immediately thought a/b the fact that I really don’t have a hometown. I say that Savannah is my hometown but only because I lived there for 10 years and that’s the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere. There are three cities in the States that stick out as “potential” hometowns. Rome, GA, Savannah, GA, and Jacksonville, FL. These are three of the cities where I feel I have the most “roots.” I guess i could also say West Palm Beach but I feel like life and time there was so sporadic that I can’t justify calling it “home”…it’s simply where I went to college and where I spent a year of life while God prepared me for seminary.

I often wonder after seminary if I will ever put roots of my own down somewhere. Should God bless me with kids, I’d like them to have a “hometown” of their own. I don’t want to move around the rest of my life. I guess I can wonder about that later.

It’s late and I definitely need some good sleep tonight.

For the first time in 3 years, I’m finally getting to see TRUE fall!!! It’s my favorite season and one that I have truly missed since coming back from Germany. The leaves are already turning up here in New England and the air is crisp with the promise of many cooler days ahead. I’m trying to prepare my Florida blood for what is coming after fall. I haven’t had a truly frigid winter since ’08 and I’ve heard that up here, winter lasts longer than it did in Germany. For now, there’s my favorite season to look forward to! Although there’s no Herbstmesse here, there is the Topsfield Fair that I’ve heard terrific things about and I hope that we can get a group of GCTSers and head over there for that.

I think I did OK on my Greek quiz, although there’s another one coming up next Monday, followed by an exam the following Monday….Oy vey. No, that’s not Greek..that’s Yiddish, but I don’t know the term for “AUGH!” in Greek just yet.

Graduate school is different in so many ways from undergrad. To begin with, in undergrad, I don’t think I ever opened a book. And if I did, it was probably a play I had to read or a script I had to memorize. And I certainly never studied on a Friday night.

We have a large amount of homework in Greek due on Monday. I’ve decided that Sundays are truly going to be a day of rest–which means that I will have to do studying on Fridays & Saturdays. That tradition began tonight with Devon and me sitting in our dorm lounge, Greek books opened, and asking questions like “So a Greek question mark looks like the English semi-colon, right?” (Right!) We wrote the alphabet, the vowels, talked about the two different sigmas, did a plethora of Greek vocab, and finally at 10:30pm, we had to stop. Our brains were fried and it was getting to the point where we knew if we continued, it would be painful…or more painful. Instead, we popped in “Madea’s Class Reunion” and watched with Stephani & Stephani’s roommate, Brittanie.

It really does feel like we are one big family here at GCTS and I love it. I am going to soak up as much as I can of graduate school because I know that in 3 years when I’m done, I’ll be longing for the days of living in one place with all of my friends.

Tomorrow will involve more studying and an at-home Greek quiz and then more Greek homework for Monday. Did I mention I DO have 3 other classes to prepare for? Pacing. That’s really what it’s all about.

Anyways, it’s now 1am and I’m getting up at 8 to go to the gym w/Stephani & Devon so we can get a head start on studying asap.

Goodnight 🙂

In the last week, I have been introduced to some pretty amazing new friends. I was a bit worried that there really wouldn’t be anyone here my age, but there are a lot of 27-30 somethings here and living in the dorms, too! A group of us–Lizzie (roomie), April, Devon, & Stephani–have formed a prayer group that meets in me & Lizzie’s room on Sunday night’s at 9. We have come to find out that all of us have had quite the journey getting to where we are. I never, ever thought that what happened to me almost 2 years ago would be used here at school. But it just goes to show you that God will use and can use anything to get us where He wants us.

I don’t know how to summarize the last 6 days other than to say that I am overwhelmed with the wonderful friendships and bonds that have formed in merely a week’s time. In fact, I still can’t believe it’s only been a week. I feel like I’ve known these people forever.

Of course, a lot of this is a little reminiscent of under grad being in the dorms. It’s so nice to take a study break and wander down the hall to a friend’s room or sit on my bed and laugh heartily while hearing about the day’s events.

And living here in this area is out of this world!! I don’t live so close to Boston, really. When we go off campus, it’s usually to Beverly or Salem. Today we ventured over to Rockport which is probably the cutest little town I’ve seen this side of the US! We got coffee and studied at a little German cafe that overlooked the harbor (or harbah as it’s so commonly called here!!).

Financially, it has been rough. God provides and He’s not taken aback by any of this and I know I was brought here for a reason and that He will provide what I need.

Oh yeah–Greek. Well, I’ve just started, but I was able to translate the word “elder” from Greek to English. It spells “Presboteros” which is where Presbyterian comes from. Yeah!!!

Ok, now I must get back to reading.

Until next time!