The big word. Future.

Do you ever have those moments where you think "what am I doing with my life?"

I think I am having one of those.

I know I am supposed to be here, in England, but I can't help wonder what comes after this. I'm bad at this. I'm somewhat of a planner and right now my only plan is England. Which is scary for me. And lately I find myself worrying a lot. Worrying about money. My family. Making an impact. My future. Purpose.

I feel like I have all these things on my to do list and hardly anything is getting crossed off.

Graduate.
Get a paying job.
Move out of my parents house.
Support myself completely.
Write again (for real).

See what I mean?

And I know what most of you are thinking...I'm young, I'm in a foreign country and I just need to embrace it and live. I have my whole life ahead of me.

I totally get that. But I still can't help but wonder what can be said of my 21 (almost 22) years of existence on this earth. I know the only thing I need to be worrying about though is the now. I need to be making the most out of things otherwise I'm going to look back and say that I spent a lot of time worrying and not enough time living.

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, 

but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."

Proverbs 19:21

Movies and more movies!

Yesterday I met up with another Texan, Ben, in town for lunch and then we caught a film. The cinema here is weird and only offers a few showtimes a day and some times are only for the weekends so we ended up seeing Contagion. Wouldn't highly recommend it. It was somewhat long and shot almost like a documentary. Afterwards we met up with another Texan and a girl I went to UMHB with, Heather, and her friends who had decided to sneak into Footloose (we are such rebels). It was so good! Definitely not the original, but it was better than I expected. Made me miss home and my cowboy boots! 

Today I invited the girls (Mell, Evie, Jade, Lois, Katherine and Sophie) that I do bible study and Friday night youth club with over to the house for a fun and informal movie time. I told them to bring over some chick flicks and we would just hang out and have fun. We ate yummy sweets, chips and popcorn and watched two films: Bride Wars and The Holiday. Excellent choices if I do say so myself. We laughed, giggled, sighed and even boohooed! It was really great to hang out with them without the boys and have some quality girl time. They are all so much fun and I hope we get to do it again soon! 

Nunthorpe Village

After a nice lie in this morning I got up and decided to go for a walk. I went the normal route up to the church, but then found another footpath to the old side of Nunthorpe, Nunthorpe Village. I just love the footpaths (they usually cut through pastures) so I spent a good hour trekking through the area. The village was so quaint and cute.

My new friends.

While I was walking I kept seeing this peak. I thought it was another church so I got really excited. Once I made it to a clearing though I saw this:

 Isn't is absolutely beautiful???

I did some research and discovered that the house's name is Grey Towers. It was built by William Innes Hopkins in 1865. His second wife came from a landed family and he built Grey Towers to reflect her status. He was elected Mayor of Middlesbrough in both 1867 and 1868. He was also General Manager of the iron and steel firm of Hopkins, Gilkes and Co. who built the Tay Bridge, then the longest bridge in Europe and an engineering marvel of the time.  In 1879, the bridge collapsed during a bad storm just as a train was passing over it, killing 75 persons. Hopkins took most of the blame and as a result his firm was finished. In 1880, bankrupt and publicly ruined, the family. 

Sir Arthur Dorman became the owner in 1895, chairman of Dorman Long & Co Ltd, the renowned iron and steel makers. After his death the house went up for sale and was bought by 

Lieut.-Col T Gibson Poole who planned to use it as a 

s a sanatorium for consumptives (people suffering from Tuberculosis). Now the mansion is filled with apartments. So cool to find this gem just a couple miles down the road from me!

  

T is for tea

Today was such a good day. We had Christian Union at the senior school and one of our girls Lauren shared her testimony with the students and how she has felt the Holy Spirit in her life. She did so well. I was so proud of her. I could have never shared like she did at that age, especially around people I barely knew. So nice to see God shining in the students here!

Afterwards I headed off to town to see my friend Emillie! She has been working with Soul Survivor in London and popped down for a visit. We went to the cute little tea house in town. We tried strawberry kiwi tea this time and it was so yummy. Then we did some shopping. It was so fun to catch up with her and just have some girl time. Next time she comes down will be for her birthday, which is the day after mine! 

Loved this tea strainer!

Weekend Away

Just got back from a really fun weekend away with Ste's childhood youth group from St. Barnabas church in Linthorpe. We got invited to come and speak at their trip and I loved getting to meet some awesome new kids (aged 11-13). We left Friday evening and arrived at Wydale Hall. We actually stayed in another wing called the Emmaus Centre which has dorm like rooms. I bunked with four girls: Kirsty, Marybeth, Helen and another leader named Abbie. Kirsty told me I was the coolest American she had ever met...she assured me she has met quite a few. The weekend's theme was Journey to the Center of the Earth and was filled with songs, food, games, challenges and just overall fun. We were split into two teams Yellow and Red. I was in Yellow and we ended up winning, scoring just one point ahead of the Red team in all the challenges!

Ste and I had four talks to do between us so we decided to speak on the 4 points (www.the4points.com) which are God loves me, I have sinned, Jesus died for me and I have to decide to live for Him. I did the first and last talk and Ste covered the two in the middle. I was a little nervous about it, but it all flowed so well. I pray that God really spoke through us and the kids got reaffirmed in their faith or that things really hit home for the first time. Below is a piece of scripture I used from each of my talks. 

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."- Romans 8:38-39

"This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." -Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Below are some pictures from the weekend (see Facebook for more):

A ladybird (English name for ladybug).

Mom you would have loved this greenhouse on the grounds!

Me in the prayer garden.

Wydale Hall.

The view from the backside of the Hall. Beautiful. The dots in the background are grazing sheep. 

The front of the Hall.

Another view from the back.

And for a laugh...the teams were challenged to make love letters to me the first night (God is love) out of newspapers and magazines. Then they had to read them to me. 

Yellow

"I am falling in love with the perfect woman. You look hot. It is too late for love? You're a slice of heaven. You have the wow factor. Marry me Lauren!"

Red

"Wow, my hero! Take me to heaven. You look great. You're really hot. So good to know you. I'm in love. Waiting for you to call. I love you. Marry me Lauren? X"

The x "kiss" (with sound effect) won me over so Red team got a point!

Just another manic Monday

Last night I went to bed at a normal time despite not waking up until 5pm only to realize I couldn't sleep. Needless to say I am exhausted because I didn't fall asleep until 6am this morning. And Mondays are our busiest days with three youth groups to run. Miraculously I made it through the day and it ended up way better than I expected for the following reasons:

1. Fall is here.

2. I got to hang out with my adorable 3-year-old friend Abbie.

Isn't she precious?

On the space hopper: "This is quite difficult."

In the car when her granddad forgot to turn off the hand brake she chimed: "Hand brake. I'm bored at yelling at you to remember that."

At the church after discovering the prayer bench and deciding she wanted to pray: "Thank you God for the world. The world likes me and I love the world because it is so beautiful."

Did I mention she is only three? :)



3. God showed me again why I am called here.

Youth groups were crazy and chaotic with the kids misbehaving, but in Lightning Bolts we had a time for them to submit anonymous questions and they were awesome!

How do we comprehend God?
How do we know He has answered our prayers?
If we don't believe then will we have a good after life?
Who invented church?
What is the point in church?
Why do we have to sing in church?
Why do we only worship one god instead of a few?
Can anyone become a Christian?

I was so moved by the great questions they had. Feeling so blessed by my work here!

Home sweet home

For the last week and half or so I went home to TEXAS! I just got back in the UK last night and haven't done much since I passed out and didn't wake up until 5pm. Yeah... my sleeping pattern is going to be all messed up. Anyways, just thought I would fill everyone in on my awesome time back in the states!

I landed in Houston the 27th of September and my first stop was Rancho Grande for some good old Mexican food. Best decision ever. The next day me and my mama headed to Belton and Salado for a fun day of shopping and hanging out (disguised by my need to pick up Becca's wedding present). Also got to see the lovely Andra while I was in town. Miss that girl! Then Thursday kicked off the wedding festivities. We had the bachelorette party, got our nails done, had the rehearsal dinner and then Saturday was the big day! Rebecca looked beautiful and I was so blessed to be a part of her and Cody's day!

Getting our nails done!

Hanging out after the rehearsal dinner. 

Before the wedding. 

Me catching the bouquet. 

Line dancing to Copperhead Road. 

The beautiful bride and groom! 

It was a great wedding and a fun week, but I passed out right when I got home that night. I was beat. The rest of the week I was on dog duty. My parents decided to get Abby's ears clipped while I was gone so she went from this:

To this:

Poor baby! We eventually took the cone off because she could barely lay down with it on, but that meant we had to keep an even closer eye on her so she wouldn't scratch. Mom spent the first night sleeping with her and me the second. So exhausting. She decided to sleep mostly on top of me. Mom and dad tried to convince me that she is getting my bed while I am gone. Very funny! Spent the rest of my time visiting with friends, family and shopping. My mom insisted I stock up for the harsh English winter. Therefore I am now a proud owner of pink thermals :) 

I had a great time at home and I am going to miss being away from everyone since it will be 9 months before I see most of them again. All I can say is thank goodness for technology otherwise I probably wouldn't survive!

"Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word."

 –John Steinbeck