A Very Capernwray Christmas

‘Twas the week before Christmas break and all through the Castle

Not a creature was stirring… ok so that would be a hassle

The garlands were wrapped on the staircases with care

Only some of the students got to decorate which wasn’t quite fair

The students were bundled all snug in their scarves

While they walked to class and thought “was it always this far?”

And Rob on the stage and I in my seat

Had just settled in with our normal routine

When out from the students arose such a clamor

I turned to my friends to see what’s the matter

They turned and said to me “we have so many plans to make

Because it’s almost time for winter break!”

The internet here is shoddy and slow

While we try to book our tickets before the first snow

When what to my wondering eyes did appear

The first flakes of snow, oh my oh dear!

With the scoffs of all the Canadians near

I ran to the snow without a thought or fear

“That’s not snow that’s sleet that came”

But I don’t really mind it looks like snow all the same

Now cider, now cookies, now fires appear

Boosting the sense of holiday cheer

Crowds in the library and crowds in the lounge

Students chattering on, not a seat can you scrounge

As the week boils down there is still so much to be done

But don’t worry, almost all of its fun

So to the laptops and bus stops the students flew

Doing last minute shopping they knew they must do

And the printers queued up with assignments galore

From students who thought “I hope there’s not more”

Portfolios were finished at the end of the beds

As we all turned our minds to the fun things ahead

The choir is practicing high notes and low

And getting all ready for more than one show

The girls got their hats out for afternoon tea

For the girls night planned by the kitchen staff employees

Then all the guys and the girls began to worry

Because the Christmas banquet was coming in a hurry

The boys pulled their ties out from who knows where

And the girls planned what to do with their hair

The pigeon holes began filling up with letters

And apparently I’m expecting a Christmas pepper…

As the countdown continues on our advent calendar

And the food is getting blander and blander

We think it’s both bitter and sweet

That the year is halfway over, what a feat!

But refusing to think of these sad tidings

We smile and eat our all of our Christmas puddings

And sing carols and dance

Like we are all in some kind of a cheery trance

From the high hills of England speckled with sheep

You might hear us in Capernwray as we shout and leap

And smile and wave with all of our might

“Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!”

Cara and I made this Christmas tree using branches from a bush and lots of tape

Christmas decorating  madness, this might be a fire hazard..  

Tea and Crumpets while making cookies!

Extra Notes: Rob is Rob Whittaker the principal of Capernwray, I joined the school choir, and my dad’s friend bought some sort of pepper that is being shipped to me so I can bring it home for him. I’ll see you all in about a week!

its raining, its pouring..

At Edinburgh Castle

Off to a Ceilidh

Haggis...mmm?

So after the many guilt trips I am back to writing my blog on a rainy day here in England. Haha and so much has happened since the last time I wrote anything. First off I should say that we went to Edinburgh and it was amazing! We stayed at a pretty nice hostel, but because Katrina was only 17 she couldn’t stay with us so she stayed at a hotel with other girls from Capernwray and we would meet up in the day time. The first time this happened to us however, she changed the meeting place on us so we spent about 2 hours trying to catch up with her! But after that it was a great day, we went to Edinburgh Castle and then went to a Ceilidh in the evening, complete with Capernwray boys in kilts, and then being the teenagers we are we were starving at 11:00 when the dance was over so we all pooled our cash and bought pizza to eat as we walked back to our hostels.  Then on Sunday we went to mass in a huge catholic cathedral where all the songs were sung in Latin by a choir, it was different, but so cool to experience worshiping God in a way different than I’m used to. We only had three days there so after Church we went shopping, ate some haggis, and then hit the road back to Capernwray.  Since getting back from our travel weekend break it’s been nose to the grindstone hard work! But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been great. So far with all my school work I’ve read the book Alive in Christ then wrote an essay on it, wrote an essay on First Samuel, wrote and shared my testimony (which I can post later if people want it), came up with a personal mission statement, and made a tract. So a booklet on converting people basically. What was mine about, reading, naturally and how the Bible is the ultimate book with the ultimate love story. It might be cheesy but it got the job done.  And we have had some amazing lectures on the book of Revelations, the Sermon on the Mount, Colossians, and now we are talking about the father heart of God, servant leadership, and what it means to be the church. I have loved these lectures and I am continually surprised about the stuff I don’t know, like the book of revelations, I knew none of that! And it’s so interesting! I have also loved going through the Sermon on the Mount because I thought I knew most of what Jesus was trying to teach us from it, boy was I wrong. Things that I already knew, I found to have other meanings or a different angle was taken on these subjects that I hadn’t considered before. But along with all of our lectures and classes we have also done some other amazing worship and prayer activities. First off we have had a Korean service so all of the Korean students taught us what it means to be Christian in Korea, and they taught us some songs and dances, and we prayed a huge group prayer where everyone prayed out loud all at the same time.  It was to my surprise a very emotional prayer time that left quite a few people in tears, and then at the end we all went outside to get our shoes and found that all of our laces had been tied together to form a huge chain of shoes!  And now this Friday night is German night, whatever that means…haha we have also had a day of prayer where we focused on the gifts of the spirit and had time to pray and reflect and just talk to God all day about the areas that we need his help.  It was truly an amazing day. And now we are approaching the holidays,  we have a big thanksgiving dinner planed, that’s the rumour at least, and we have a “special evening” where we all get to show off all of the dances we have been learning in our spare time which now equates to the waltz, tango, swing, and salsa, as well as Ceilidh dancing. And in the times where I’m not on my outreach I participate in Capernwray’s holiday choir, where I feature, actually where I blend in to the Soprano section. Anyway I think that’s all that has happened this past month, sorry for the lack of updates but the internet doesn’t work the best here, and I’m lazy and don’t get around to writing very often, it seems like there is always something to do here, someone’s planning something or we are going somewhere!  Anyway I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving, and all of Capernwray is praying for you Pat! 

week 2 3/4

“If you are cold,

Tea will warm you.

If you are too heated,

It will cool you.

If you are depressed,

It will cheer you.

If you are excited,

It will calm you.”

-          Gladstone

I think this should be my motto here at Capernwray because you just can’t seem to escape the tea, not that I would want to of course!  Another week (well more like two now) has flown by here in the UK and I seem to be becoming a dance master now, but this time we did interpretive dance. Ok so not really. I just attended a walk through the bible series. For those of you who don’t know, walk through the bible is a tool you can use to basically remember the story line of the bible; this time around it was the Old Testament, with important phrases and hand signs that correspond with the important events.  So in about five minutes I can sum up the Old Testament, complete with actions.  I am also attending an optional lecture series called “Sacrilization in Pop Culture,” which basically talks about religion in movies and books, and how people make up their own religions based on Pop Culture. For instance we are going to talk about the Lord of The Rings series, Star Wars, and the Matrix (we even started watching it).  I am so excited for these lectures, they are so much fun! Today we also received our outreach groups and I am going to be involved in the Salvation Army group, not the second hand goods part, but the ministry part. In the little town of Carnforth a pastor has opened up an after school drop in for elementary school kids. These kids may or may not be Christian and they come from all kinds of backgrounds. It’s so small that only two students from Capernwray are going at a time to go and hang out with the kids who show up.  Here’s hoping that God has a plan for this because I sure don’t, and as nervous as I am for this I’m also excited.  

The roommates at the Lake District

This big brick castle is starting to feel more like home to me now although it is still strange to think that I’m in England while the rest of my family is across the ocean! Now it is a normal thing for me to walk in the sheep fields in the rain at night, or to expect a biscuit and hot chocolate before bed, and I’m learning new things to thank God for. Such as the cows in the morning, instead of getting upset about the must be constipated cow outside my window, I can thank God that it’s a new sound to wake up to as I frantically realize that I’ll be late for breakfast if it weren’t for that cow.  Haha I have also become the local hero for having Cholula hot sauce (mom you might want to send the Costco size) it seems to be everyone’s favorite even though they brought Tabasco! In other unrelated news this past Friday’s activity was a big bonfire by the lake where we sat around and sang camp songs/ praise songs/ anything songs, to sum it up the comradery here is just amazing! You can just sit and talk to whoever you want to, hang out, and watch movies during our free time, like the other day a group of us went and watched Braveheart. Maybe not the most church appropriate movie but hey we are going to Scotland at the end of the month!  Cheers!

Cara and me at a cafe in Carnforth. I had a banana smoothie yum!

Welcome to Capernwray

Well it has officially been one week at Capernwray! If you have seen any pictures of Capernwray Hall you will notice that it is a big beautiful manor house, sadly I don’t get to stay there, I’m in a smaller building called the Conference Hall which doesn’t look nearly as cool, but does get better Wi-Fi (yay) so I can post updates more often (that is if I ever get around to writing them).  I have 5 roommates, and four of them are from Canada, I just might come home with a Canadian accent rather than an English one! Hahaha, but all together there are about 174 students here, ranging from Canada, USA, Germany, Belgium, Romania, Denmark, South Korea, Japan, Scotland, Ireland, England, and Switzerland. What an international group! And yet we all get along through some of the hilarious culture clash moments, and our lectures without any problems.  My day here at Capernwray consists of breakfast (generally toast. Lots and lots of toast) then I go and clean our bathroom for my daily duty, and then we have two 45 minute lectures. We just finished a great lecture on prayer by one of the staff members named Kim. She highlighted for us the role of the Holy Spirit in prayer, that when we feel like we can’t pray for ourselves or aren’t doing a “good job” the Holy Spirit intervenes and prays for us.  I also learned about the different forms of prayer and while I might just like having conversations with God when I feel like it, prayer also needs to be a discipline, something that I need to work at daily to build my relationship with Christ.  Then after our two lectures we have a coffee break, meaning we get a biscuit and a cup of tea or coffee, and then we have two more lectures and then lunch. The funny thing about lunch here is that it is what we would normally call dinner. Our first lunch here was roast beef, potatoes, gravy, and Yorkshire pudding followed by a desert of apple crumble with custard, Jamie Oliver style (thank goodness they have a fitness course!) basically the equivalent of my Christmas dinner. But then tea, what we would call dinner, is a light meal of leftovers or soup and salads.  Something to get used to.  Let’s see some of the other stuff I’ve done, well we went on a beautiful hike in the Lake District near Ambleside on Saturday which was then followed by a Scottish Ceilidh, which is basically square dancing to upbeat bagpipe music, which was so much fun, and I have been learning how to ballroom dance, courtesy of my roommate and one of the students here. I now know how to waltz, and do the rumba! Oh the things you learn at Bible school!