Spainnn

Sooooo here I am! Sorry I haven't been keeping up very well on here. Spain is loverly. It has suddenl;y warmed up to a ridiculous extend. I am boiling over. we have been having a pretty intense outreach, especially spiritually. Yesterday we spent the day praying and worshipping etc. in Alburquerque, about an hour and 15 minutes from Caceres, where we are staying. We found out after getting there that every year the have a Rennaissance fair, at which they make sacrifices to Satan... The last one was just last August. Wow. Heavy. Me and a few others on the team really felt the spirits of the area intensly. I was grumpy and frustrated with everything, even though the topwn was sooo beautiful, even though my team is great and I am blessed beyond my imagination. Seriously, I am in Spain, in the beautiful sun, with people that I adore, hanging out in castle ruins that overlook several miles of the gorgeous Spanish countryside. What right do I have to be grumpy or frustrated? So on the way home in the evening I prayed for a team mate and I, that the spirits of Alburquerque would leave us, and stay behind because they have no rights to us. We are protected by the creator of the earth, and the devil and his spirits have no hold whatsoever on us. It was a quick prayer, but suddenly the crushing headache that I had had all afternoon was just gone, and my friend who had previously been really upset and frustrated suddenly felt happy. I LOVE JESUS. Seriously, being a Christian is the best. It is soooo wonderful. My God is soo faithful to all of his children. If only we could recognize this more often... I wish that I was better at seeing Him in my every day life. I am definitely going to be working on that. *sigh* God is soo good. Seriously, if anyone wants to ask me about my beliefs or whatever, I would love to chat. Time to go I am afraid. Later :-)

Abibi

Back in the Land of Eng.

Hola, Bonjour, Friendly World Wide Web! I am, and have been for about two weeks, back from my mad adventures in Spain and Belgium. Sooo, last week in debrief we had to think about how we could tell someone about our whole time in 2 minutes, so I'm going to try to write that here... NOW!

So, you know the Youth With A Mission base I live on? We run this school called the Discipleship Training School, that's got about 3 months of lectures, and then 2 months of practical outreach in another country somewhere in the world. My dad was staffing the one that started in September last year, so when outreach came, I decided, hey! I want to go with them! So about two weeks before we left I started collecting pennies, and somehow God provided me with all the money I needed for 2 months of outreach in Europe :-). So first we went to Spain, which was reallly super amazing. We got to help with the opening of the base in Caceres, and see some of the local churches unite. In Spain a lot of our ministry was prayer, and I believe we made a huge difference in the spiritual atmosphere of Spain.

Then, after about 6 weeks, we left for Brussels! The base there was much different, because they were already very well established. Brussels is definitely one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to, the architecture is breathtaking. In Belgium we did a lot of moving around, apart from Brussels we also spent some time in Kortrijk and Genk, in the Flanders half of the country. In our time there we got to prayer walk, work in a school for a week, do some street evangelism, help with a food distribution group and lots of other stuff. After 4 weeks in Belgium, we finally few back to England! This was the best outreach I've ever been on in my life. The team was really, really amazing, and let me fit right into the group even though I wasn't a student. They all mean soo much to me now, and I will value their friendships, hopefully for the rest of my life.

Last week was debrief from outreach, and then on Friday night was commissioning them all off into the real world. Most of them left the next day, and I miss them all like crazy :-( . Yepp! That was my outreach this year!

Oh my, that may have gone over two minutes... Oh well. So yeah, then this week I've just been really ill, sitting at home, doing nothing, feeling like I'm in solitary confinement. So much fun. I guess that's all for now, I should go get dressed, just in case on the off chance something actually happens today. Talk to you later, blog! See ya! Have a lovely day!

-Abbbbbey

Ah! I am so unfaithful!

Ah! I can't believe that I haven't posted anything on here since the 10th of December! Mah! I am in Brussels, Belgium at the moment. We left for Spain at the end of December, stayed for about 2ish months, and then came over here about 2 weeks ago! Brussels is soooooo amazing. Unfortunately, I have no time right at the moment. I must go do some preparation for an art workshop I'm helping the lovely Catherine Evans with next week. I will be back though, to describe the ancient poetic city. Au revoir!

-Abrussels

Two Extra Hours of Reception;

So now what...? I've been on reception since two, and I was supposed to be off half an hour ago, but then I found out that the other person who was going to take over actually isn't around today... so I guess I have to stay here for an extra two hours... yippee. I have a headache and some Ibuprofen, but no water... shoot. What should I do?

I read Les Miserables for the first hour and a half, but I don't really feel like doing that anymore. Humm. This is a list of random names that I like.

1. Tempest; is my favourite. Love it.

2. Forest; is beautiful.

3. Revelin;

4. Marius; makes me happy.

5. Tanzania; Tanzie

6. Emmerson; beautifully classic, yet not very used.

7. Emery; not like the band.

8. Cayenne; like the pepper.

I am drinking very stale water; yum.

9. Declan;

10. Maeve; very Irish.

11. Horizon; who cares if it's cheesy?

12. Jasper; very underused.

13. Africa; as in the continent.

14. Isabella; not because of Twilight.

15. Ankara; as in the capital of Turkey

Enough nameness for the time being.

Now what? I still have an hour to go. Shoot, I feel like I've typed this exact same thing before... Don't get me wrong, I love doing reception, it's just that it starts to draaaaag a little after two or three hours...

SO, weird, I'm leaving for Spain in like, two and a half (ish) weeks! Bizzarro,...,...,... ...

I still haven't gotten my head around that. T'will be my first time out of an airport in mainland Europe! Yay! I have been on the ground in Europe, but only inside of airport grounds. So it doesn't really count. I've been to the airports in

The Netherlands four times

Germany once

and Denmark once

But YAY I get to leave the airport! In Spain AND Belgium! Yippee! I'm slightly excited. I'm also very excited because I get to go with some of my favourite people ever :-) Our team at the moment consists of 9 DTSers (Cheryl, Kati, Ashleigh, Stephanie, Catherine, Hester, Rach(a?)el, Sam and Josh), three staff members (Taryn, Matt and my dad) and Me. And, hopefully my mom and brother will be visiting sometime for a few weeks at least. Maybe the whole second half. Sweet.

You know what, I really love that tree right in the middle of the hedgeness. It's really beautiful. Especially without any leaves on it.

Wow, if I keep on typing on here for the next hour until I'm done with reception, this post is going to get reaalllly long.

Yay! I finished almost all of my Christmas shopping. I adore amazon. Amazon is officially my second best friend.

I am getting increasingly more tired.

We're having a Christmas party tonight! Yay! Going to hang out in reception, listen to Christmas music, eat cookies, drink hot chocolate, hang out and decorate the Christmas tree. Yippee! I'm very excited. And we have a fire place with fire in it, which makes the whole world a better place :-D

Did you know that Stephen Fry is my absolute hero? He's probably actually one of my favourite people on the planet. Other than the people that I actually know. He is an absolute legend in every possible way. Hey, there's only 40 minutes of reception left! Yay!

Maybe I willl read another chapter of Les Mis. So should you. In fact, everyone should. Here-

http://www.arcamax.com/fiction/b-1565

There you go; happy birthday.

Yay! Alex is going to refill my now cold hot water bottle for me. I love you dearest brother!

Except when he came back with it he tried to keep it. But he did eventually give it back, so I still love him.

Finished the eleventh chapter of Les Miserables. Only 15 minutes more. I think I will finish this now, so I don't end up counting down to the second I can go. Awesome well, have a lovely life my dear fellow human beings. The end. Fin. Au Revoir...

Bye.