Current City: Glasgow, Scotland
Well. I'm in Scotland! I feel like I've been here a year. The fact that it's actually only been a week is mind boggling.
Since arriving to this wonderful city on Sunday life has been a total whirlwind. In 9 days I have flown from New York to Dublin to Glasgow, moved into a flat, met and bonded with my wonderful roommate Brianna (also from Duke--we all get put together as roommates through our public policy program), created a new sort of family with the 8 other Duke students studying abroad with me, done international student orientation, registered for classes, gone grocery shopping every. single. day., done a walking tour of the city centers of Glasgow, gone "pubbing and clubbing," taken a day trip to a marvelously beautiful castle on the coast of Scotland called Culzean (pronounced kuh-lane...I don't get it either), taken another day trip up north to watch some Highland Games (a.k.a. men in kilts throwing things), and come down with a terrible cold that kept me bed ridden these past couple days. Not to mention that tomorrow, the Dukies will be embarking on a 5 day trip to London for the politics seminar we are all taking together!
I bet it's tiring just reading that paragraph! As you can see I haven't had a chance to really sit down and write an in depth blog post. Especially after being sick the past couple of days I pretty exhausted. The "initial euphoria" of being in a new place is easily tempered when your body crashes. This makes sense. I am at once filled with awe and gratitude at this amazing opportunity but at the same point humbled by its costs. Though I already love it here in Scotland, I can also already see that studying abroad is not easy--physically, socially, emotionally, and especially spiritually.
Amidst the chaos it has been easy to be distracted from the Lord and completely forget about spending time in the Word or in prayer, especially without being really plugged into a fellowship and church yet. But what I love (and, okay, sometimes don't love so much) is that He is always ready to remind me just how dependent I am on Him. He has taught me lesson after lesson in humility these past days: for instance, I lost an important train ticket. I was so overwhelmed and sleep deprived when I first arrived that all I wanted was to go home. I spent this past weekend feeling too weak to leave my flat. But the flip side of these bad experiences has to do with that moment of crystallization, the "oh, duh!" that comes out of my mouth when God shows me exactly what He is doing and why. After all, when I say, completely broken down, "I can't do this," I suddenly realize that that, of course, is the point: of course I can't do this. Only HE can do this! How absurd of me to think otherwise.
Fittingly my quiet time has lately been bringing me back this concept of my weakness, my failings, my brokenness and the beautiful way they serve to reveal God's glory. In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul reflects on the "thorn in his side" and God's response to his cries for relief. How humbling to hear the Lord say, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness," (v. 9). And how mind blowing that Paul, in turn, can express gratitude for a weakness that clearly causes him severe torment! In Philippians 4:11-13 Paul recognizes his weakness in all circumstances--not only when he is starving and imprisoned, but when he is well fed and thriving. It is sobering to realize that we are just as hopeless on our own whether we are poor or rich, sick or healthy. Paul recognizes that we have something to face even in times of plenty and abundance, and the only means by which we can do so is by fully relying on God for our strength. Psalm 73 sums it up wonderfully:
"Whom have I in Heaven besides you? And there is nothing in earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart my fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
My prayer for this semester is to keep my eyes fixed on God amidst all the distractions and challenges of studying abroad, and to rely on Him fully as my strength. In the end, my contentment in Glasgow will have more to do with my heart for the Lord than anything else. So, as I embark on all these trips and make new friends and step out of my comfort zone, I hope to do it all with an eternal perspective. And, hopefully, without getting sick again!
Wish me luck as I head to London! Hopefully once I return my posts will become more regular.
Rachel
Monday, September 13, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
A Reprise
Here's the first email update I sent from my summer project with Campus Crusade for Christ in Sweden! It is crazy to look back on those first few days and the see how quickly I fell in love with Sweden and gained a burdened heart for its people. I hope that with my reflections on that trip, even if they are from the past, you all can gain a heart for this country too and join me and my teammates in ceaseless prayer for the long term team there.
May 17, 2010:
"Hey all!! This is just a quick email update since I've only been in Sweden for a few days, but I thought you all might be interested in what I've been up to so far!
I arrived in Upsalla, Sweden on May 14th after a day of travel (we left on May 12th in the afternoon and arrived in the afternoon in Sweden, flying from Raleigh to Charlotte, Charlotte to Munich, Munich to Stockholm, and a quick drive to Upsalla). Needless to say I'm jetlagged, since I myself flew into Raleigh on the 11th from California! But on the whole, I've had a good amount of energy and I've had no trouble sleeping...probably all the walking we do!
Sweden is beautiful! I love the architecture, and we've been blessed with beautiful and warm weather since we got here which is nothing short of a miracle. Student staffers from last year's team have reminded us repeatedly that their experience was nothing like this--they were freezing and wet the entire 6 weeks! So we're cherishing the sun while we have it!
We spent the first few days in Upsalla getting acclimated, eating yummy Swedish food (my favorite dish so far is the cheese quiche I had for lunch yesterday...and don't get me started on the coffee here-I'll probably never like coffee in America ever again!), and building community as a team. I have especially bonded with the 4 girls who I share an apartment with (we are all staying at a hostel in rooms or apartment suites...conditions are tight but definitely manageable!), but everyone on the team is wonderful and we have been having so much fun.
Today (Monday the 18th) was our first full day of ministry and it went amazingly well! For us, a typical weekday consists of a morning spent with prayer, devotionals, etc. as a team. Then we split up in pairs and go to Nation Lunches. Nations are kind of like eating clubs--each student at the University here selects a Nation (i.e. Stockholm) and this is where they primarily spend there time eating, hanging out at night, etc. and every day these different buildings serve lunch. Anyways, each day we all attend lunch and essentially sit down with students who are eating and try to get to know them We usually ask if we can sit with them, letting them know that we're Americans here for the month to work with the on-campus Christian ministry, called Agape. Then we just engage in regular old conversation, although we do try to ask questions about God, faith and Swedish culture. Really, though, we're just trying to make friends. Often we'll make a "fika" appointment with someone we've had a good conversation with or who wants to talk more. Fika is a staple in Swedish culture: you go to a cafe, meet a friend, and talk for a couple hours over coffee and pastry. Our fika appointments are simply one way we seek to create meaningful friendships with the students we meet, and to hopefully converse with them about their beliefs and our beliefs, to try to answer their tough questions (and learn in the process), and of course to hear what they have to say about Christ or faith or life. On afternoons when we aren't hanging out with our Swedish friends, we might head down to a park or river and do art surveys and worldview surveys with people we approach who are willing to take 15 minutes and talk with us. We use this time to better understand the Swedish culture and in turn how they understand life, God, etc. as well as to meet more people and engage in spiritual conversations. In fact, today I did just that with my teammate Whitney: we met a really nice, interesting girl named Emelie who is new to Upsalla. She was incredibly interested in the art image survey we did with her and really excited to get fika with Whitney and myself, which we'll be doing on Wednesday.
What I love most about our ministry so far is that it's real and up front. We don't pretend that we are here for some purpose other than engaging in ministry and evangelism--yet at the same time it's about more than just showing someone a tract or reciting the Gospel to them and leaving it at that. Our evangelism is relational. And more often than not, we spend time with students here in Upsalla who are very intellectual and quite opinionated when it comes to religion--which many if not most of them reject outright. In seeking to show students the idea of Christianity as more than a religion but a relationship with a true and living Christ and God as something more than a fiction or distant abstract entity, we almost always experience challenging conversations and frustrating ministry. However, while this means that we aren't leading hundreds of people into a relationship with God Church revivial-style, it does mean that those students who do choose to follow Christ--and they do exist!--have a serious foundation for their new faith. This is what we are seeking to foster here, and though this is probably a process so long that I will see only a glimpse of it, I am so excited to see what God is doing in this country--because I believe it is something big and probably downright miraculous. Please pray for our team as we complete this first full week of ministry!
Much love,
Rachel"
May 17, 2010:
"Hey all!! This is just a quick email update since I've only been in Sweden for a few days, but I thought you all might be interested in what I've been up to so far!
I arrived in Upsalla, Sweden on May 14th after a day of travel (we left on May 12th in the afternoon and arrived in the afternoon in Sweden, flying from Raleigh to Charlotte, Charlotte to Munich, Munich to Stockholm, and a quick drive to Upsalla). Needless to say I'm jetlagged, since I myself flew into Raleigh on the 11th from California! But on the whole, I've had a good amount of energy and I've had no trouble sleeping...probably all the walking we do!
Sweden is beautiful! I love the architecture, and we've been blessed with beautiful and warm weather since we got here which is nothing short of a miracle. Student staffers from last year's team have reminded us repeatedly that their experience was nothing like this--they were freezing and wet the entire 6 weeks! So we're cherishing the sun while we have it!
We spent the first few days in Upsalla getting acclimated, eating yummy Swedish food (my favorite dish so far is the cheese quiche I had for lunch yesterday...and don't get me started on the coffee here-I'll probably never like coffee in America ever again!), and building community as a team. I have especially bonded with the 4 girls who I share an apartment with (we are all staying at a hostel in rooms or apartment suites...conditions are tight but definitely manageable!), but everyone on the team is wonderful and we have been having so much fun.
Today (Monday the 18th) was our first full day of ministry and it went amazingly well! For us, a typical weekday consists of a morning spent with prayer, devotionals, etc. as a team. Then we split up in pairs and go to Nation Lunches. Nations are kind of like eating clubs--each student at the University here selects a Nation (i.e. Stockholm) and this is where they primarily spend there time eating, hanging out at night, etc. and every day these different buildings serve lunch. Anyways, each day we all attend lunch and essentially sit down with students who are eating and try to get to know them We usually ask if we can sit with them, letting them know that we're Americans here for the month to work with the on-campus Christian ministry, called Agape. Then we just engage in regular old conversation, although we do try to ask questions about God, faith and Swedish culture. Really, though, we're just trying to make friends. Often we'll make a "fika" appointment with someone we've had a good conversation with or who wants to talk more. Fika is a staple in Swedish culture: you go to a cafe, meet a friend, and talk for a couple hours over coffee and pastry. Our fika appointments are simply one way we seek to create meaningful friendships with the students we meet, and to hopefully converse with them about their beliefs and our beliefs, to try to answer their tough questions (and learn in the process), and of course to hear what they have to say about Christ or faith or life. On afternoons when we aren't hanging out with our Swedish friends, we might head down to a park or river and do art surveys and worldview surveys with people we approach who are willing to take 15 minutes and talk with us. We use this time to better understand the Swedish culture and in turn how they understand life, God, etc. as well as to meet more people and engage in spiritual conversations. In fact, today I did just that with my teammate Whitney: we met a really nice, interesting girl named Emelie who is new to Upsalla. She was incredibly interested in the art image survey we did with her and really excited to get fika with Whitney and myself, which we'll be doing on Wednesday.
What I love most about our ministry so far is that it's real and up front. We don't pretend that we are here for some purpose other than engaging in ministry and evangelism--yet at the same time it's about more than just showing someone a tract or reciting the Gospel to them and leaving it at that. Our evangelism is relational. And more often than not, we spend time with students here in Upsalla who are very intellectual and quite opinionated when it comes to religion--which many if not most of them reject outright. In seeking to show students the idea of Christianity as more than a religion but a relationship with a true and living Christ and God as something more than a fiction or distant abstract entity, we almost always experience challenging conversations and frustrating ministry. However, while this means that we aren't leading hundreds of people into a relationship with God Church revivial-style, it does mean that those students who do choose to follow Christ--and they do exist!--have a serious foundation for their new faith. This is what we are seeking to foster here, and though this is probably a process so long that I will see only a glimpse of it, I am so excited to see what God is doing in this country--because I believe it is something big and probably downright miraculous. Please pray for our team as we complete this first full week of ministry!
Much love,
Rachel"
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Postcards From Far Away
Welcome to my blog! This is an account of my adventures across Europe and the U.S. so that family and friends can keep up with what me during this crazy 8 month season of travel. Four of those months--and the first big part of my trek across Europe, 6 weeks spent living in Uppsala, Sweden doing ministry with college students through Campus Crusade for Christ--have already passed. Because non-staff couldn’t bring computers on my summer project, I decided to wait until after returning to the states to start my blog. As a result I’ll be sprinkling stories and reflections about that trip amongst my other posts. I'll also write a bit about my experience spending my first real chunk of time at my family's new home in Oakland, California, where we moved from Long Island, New York last summer.
Another way you can get some details about Uppsala is by reading the emails that I sent out to a couple dozen people during my time there. My Gmail was being funky and so I was actually unable to send them out to everyone I’d hoped, so I figure I’ll post them here to give ya’ll an idea of how my trip was structured. And in case you are looking curiously at my use of “ya’ll” just now, you can thank the, like, 24 Southerners I just spent half of my summer with. I did not, however, inherit their love for country music…thank goodness.
So here’s the thing about my blog. I kind of wish I didn’t need to keep one. Part of me would love to simply be able to send out postcards from obscure places and have old beat-up payphones and snail mail be my primary means of communication. To fall off the face of the earth in a way—at least the earth that is Duke, home, etc.—and become completely immersed in my new environments, forced to make new and deep connections with complete strangers.
But, uh, postcards are really expensive. Seriously, international stamps are pricey. In fact, I’m pretty sure that half the people I promised Swedish postcards to didn’t get one…oops! But even more importantly, I think it would be selfish (not to mention lonely) to adopt such a blasé out of sight, out of mind perspective about my relationships. If I change as I continue to travel (and as I definitely did after the insanely self-refining, emotionally and spiritually charged experience that is Campus Crusade summer project), I want the people in my life to walk through that me. So please read, comment, and pray for me as I reflect on my travels and how they play into my walk with the Lord!
In 2 days I'll embark on the next leg of my journey and board a plane to Glasgow, Scotland, where I'll be spending my fall semester studying at the University of Glasgow through Duke's public policy department. So for now I'm off to get ready for my trip (a.k.a. eat as much real pizza and bagels as I can...Oh, how I miss New York.) Wish me luck!
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