Hello Brugge!!

Friday Night, 7:30 pm:

            In our attempts to spend up as much time off of Feltwell Base as possible, we went and got pizza at Lakenheath. Nine girls, 2 large pizzas, and 4 orders of cheesy bread! Awesome! However we did have to wait about an hour for our pizza, but… none of us really complained!

Friday Night, 11 pm:

            Waiting. Our coach (aka bus) for Belgium left at 2:15 in the morning so we had time to kill on base waiting for it. I slept in 2 chairs pushed together….

Friday Night, 11:45 pm:

            I am rudely awakened by a man who told me I can’t sleep in the chairs. I was not very polite (who really is after be awoken so abruptly) but came around to him when he found us couches we could sleep on J

Saturday Morning, 1:50 am:

            We woke up (a little sluggishly) so that we could meet up with our coach to leave for Belgium. It was raining so I was a little mopey moving around.

Saturday Morning, 2:25 am:

            After waiting for what seemed like forever in the rain, we finally found our seats on the coach and I fell asleep immediately! Luckily, I had my sleeping mask from Mrs. Pendleton to help me sleep despite the crying baby!

Saturday Morning, 5 am:

            I woke up to find our coach driving onto a ferry! This was a huge boat! This ferry left from Dover, England and was going to port in Calais, France. We had to get off the coach and go find places to sit on the boat since you are not allowed to sit in your cars while the ferry is going. I honestly didn’t even see much of the boat because I was so focused on finding a place to lay down. I found a nice little spot to go to sleep and slept the whole way (I am so grateful that I have such a wonderful ability so sleep anytime, anywhere)!

Saturday Morning, 7 am (France is one hour ahead of England):

            Again, I had to drag myself from where I had been peacefully sleeping back down to the coach. I was getting tired of it! But after we hopped back on the coach, I fell asleep again quickly enough.

Saturday Morning, 10 am:

            I woke up (this time on purpose) to find us pulling into a chocolate factory in Belgium (still raining)! We went inside and found all of these different types of chocolates! Unfortunately, no one was making chocolate while we were there but it was still fun to see the chocolate molds and see the finished product.

Saturday 11 am:

            We arrived in Brugge! We step out into the rain (shocking) and make our way into the beautiful city. What I loved about Brugge is that it still feels and looks like it would have back 600 years ago. The town is exactly what I would have expected a Belgian town to look like. It was so gorgeous!

Saturday 11:20 am- 4:30 pm:

            Belgium is known for its lace and so we went in many lace shops, ate some waffles, shopped in the local stores, and went into the Church of our Lady where Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child was housed. This was one of his few works not in Italy. It was absolutely beautiful! There were horse drawn carriages and really big mugs of hot chocolate! What I loved about the hot chocolate is that they will bring you out hot milk and give you chocolate chips to stir into the milk. It was yummy! There aren’t many cute pictures from here because it was rainy and windy the entire time.

Saturday Evening 5:30 pm:

            We meandered back towards to coach but unfortunately this time, while I was tired, I could not get to sleep. The baby behind me made sure of that!

Saturday Evening 7:30- 9:00 pm (England time):

            We got back onto the ferry this time and I made sure to actually see what the ferry was like. It actually reminded me of a cruise ship lounge area. The rocking of the boat didn’t help my stomach but we made it across the English Channel just fine. However, when we go to immigration/ customs there was a problem. 5 of the 9 student teachers got through just fine by saying we were volunteers at RAF Feltwell and that we are not getting paid (In England, if you say you are a student teacher, they assume that you are getting paid to do this. If that were the case, we would all need VISAS which we don’t have. So we were advised to tell them that we are “volunteering” in a classroom as a part of our studies and that we were not getting paid). This worked just fine for us when we landed in Heathrow. However, when it was MY turn, she asks me what I was doing in Engalnd and I gave her the answer we were told we should give by the Air Force. She looked at me, and then started asking really intense questions about why I was here for so long and what type of students I was teaching. I was really frustrated that I was getting stopped because they had let 5 other girls with the same story as me go through! She told me and 3 other student teachers to wait for her to talk to her Chief Immagration Officer…. Great.

Long story short, we told her that we are students at OSU and are doing our internship with a DODDs school. We told her we were not getting paid and that we are leaving on April 30. She told us that the stamp we got in Heathrow said we were visiting and so our “volunteering” story made her question us. She said that we now should always say we are “short term students” in England. Luckily we made it through, but I really think they should teach people what they are really supposed to say when going through immigration.

Saturday 11:50 pm:

            We finally made it back to our beds. While this trip was so fun, it was exhausting. We were in 3 countries in less that 24 hours. It was a whirlwind! But…very worth it!

I dare you...

I almost considered not writing this post. But after I continued to pray about it, I felt Christ say "Don't keep this to yourself". So I shared it with 2 close friends. But this blog post kept popping up in the back of my mind. So I am sharing this with all of you in the faith that Christ wants to use this in your life...

I have been listening to this sermon on podcast for the past couple days and I have truly been challenged like never before. I have definitely found myself living the “Christian Life” on my terms and not on Christ’s terms. It was really hard for me to listen to these sermons because it really challenged my view on my Christian Life. I dare you to allow the Spirit to use these sermons to transform your lives. 

Radical Series

We took a "wee" trip to Scotland....

When reading this post, go find some bagpipes on youtube and play it in the background! It makes this post much more authentic.

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Waking up early at 4:30 am was not necessarily my choice, but was necessary if we wanted to get a full trip in Edinburgh. I decided to suck it up and wake up. And I just kept hearing the song “This is the day the Lord has made” in my head. It made the 25 minute walk to the base’s gate in the freezing cold much more bearable. Even the fact that the train tracks stopped working half way through our train ride didn’t seem so bad. But when we had to get off the train and wait for a bus, I started to get cranky. We were waiting in an hour and a half line in the cold rain and I was just about to start complaining when God gave me the opportunity to turn around and realize he has taken care of everything. I didn’t need to worry and whine about my circumstances. In fact, I felt like he was telling me to serve, to stop thinking about only my discomfort. A man was standing next to me in line without an umbrella. I shared mine with him. A man didn’t have enough money for a cab and I was lucky enough to help him. My attitude really improved after giving to others. Our train rides all worked out after I changed my attitude.

We made it into Edinburgh (Edd-in-bra in Scottish) smoothly and found our way to our guesthouse. We had the apartment and it was absolutely fantastic! We got into Edinburgh around 4 and decided to go on the Whisky Experience. It was an “interactive” tour that informed us how their malt whisky was made. We got to taste 4 different kinds and they were tough to drink. After our toast, we all were very surprised by how strong the taste was. But the tour was very fun and interesting. We then went down to the street full of restaurants and ate at a cute Italian place. On our way, a young man was sitting on the side of the road. He had a blanket but looked very cold. And I walked straight past him. But all during dinner I couldn’t get him out of my mind. When we walked back onto the street I literally heard God tell me “Serve him”. The voice was as clear as day. I am not lying. I looked into my purse and had a ten pound note, and a couple pound coins. What was I supposed to give?  I went to grab the coins and I heard Nope Callie. I have given you so much. Give more.  My 10 pounds, God? The whole thing? Yes, give. I walked up to the young man and put the ten pounds in his hand. He looked at the money, then at me, and then back at the money. He said “Oh my goodness. Thank you!” I don’t know what he did with the money, but I believe that he really needed it. I know ten pounds doesn’t sound like much but if you could have heard the way he said it, you would have known that he was really grateful for it. I know as Christians this seems like no big deal. But I have heard myself along with other Christians say, “Yeah, I don’t give money to people on the side of the road because I don’t know what they are going to do with it. Probably just buy alcohol or cigarettes”. But I think all of those times I have been listening to the selfish side of me. And maybe everyone else does this but I heard God speak very clearly to me and what he decided to tell me was to give. I think it is really interesting that God chose to speak words about service to me. Hmmmm He’s doing something there!!

The next day we woke up early and walked to the Castle of Edinburgh. This is where many monarchs were born as well as the National War Museum, and the crown jewels of Scotland. The castle is very high up on a steep cliff and had a beautiful view of the city. We had dinner at the “most haunted café in Edinburgh”. I don’t know how haunted it was, but it had great food and tea! We toured the castle and then went shopping! We obviously had to get a couple of plaid scarves! We made our way down the royal mile and heard many bagpipes playing, took a picture with William Wallace (and got flashed by William Wallace), and toured the Palace! This palace is where the Queen of England stays when she is in Scotland and Mary, Queen of Scots also lived there. I was able to see Mary’s room as well as many rooms inside the Palace. I unfortunately was not able to take pictures inside. But Sarah and I marveled at the fact that we opened the same front door that she would walk through! Weird!!

At lunch time, we were trying to find a place to eat and happened to stumble upon the Elephant Room. It looked like a cute little deli but it didn’t really reel us in until we saw “Birthplace of Harry Potter” written on the front window. This deli is where J. K. Rowling began writing Harry Potter! She is English and had just divorced her husband. She moved to Scotland and was living on welfare. She went to this deli often and one day felt inspired to start jotting down an idea for a new story! It was so cool to sit down and pretend we were writing Harry Potter. This was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip.

What I really loved about Edinburgh was the people. The town is beautiful but the people there are SO nice (Well and the men are all tall and good looking but that is beside the point)! They were very hospitable to tourists. Several people stopped by just to find out where we were from and find out about us. I really loved this trip and it is my favorite place to visit in Europe so far!

Something Heavenly...

The young man was ready to follow Jesus. He knew he had kept all of the commandments. And he wanted eternal life. Surely, since he had followed all the rules, he was a candidate for heaven. He prayed regularly. He even believed that Jesus could do miracles. He believed that Jesus had the answers he was looking for: How can I have eternal life?

When he saw Jesus coming, he walked straight up to him and said “Father, what must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus stopped, looked at him and said, “If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”Jackpot, the young man thought. I’ve done that! Jesus continued saying “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, ¹⁹ honor your father and mother, and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Check. Check. Double check. “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

 Jesus answered, “Go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

At that, the young man turned, completely heartbroken, because he was not ready to give up his comfort…

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I knew God was calling me to England. I felt from the very first moment of hearing about someone student teaching abroad that Christ had that in store for me. I wasn’t sure of what the plan was, but I just knew I was supposed to go.

God let me in on a little bit of His plan 2 days ago. The second graders were all at specials and I was working on homework for OSU. I heard a “Miss Callie?” behind me. I turned around and there was one of my students about to burst into tears. Earlier, she had gotten “in trouble” for excluding some of the other girls (Think Mean Girls… “you can’t sit with us!”). When I confronted her about it, she just started crying. Really crying. I didn’t know if it was because she was confronted or if it was something else. Her mom is deployed right now so I thought that might have had something to do with it. So that was my first thought when I saw her about to cry again alone in our classroom. She came up to me and said “I’m not crying this time about friends or even about my mom being gone” and then she shared sad news with me. I won’t go into details but this little girl is hurting. She really started crying when she said “Daddys don’t even know how to braid hair!” Girl, I know! That made me chuckle thinking of my dad trying to dress me and do my hair all by himself. So I told her that if she wants to come in early before school I will brush and do her hair every day. So that has been our new routine. It’s pretty fun for me because it is like having a doll again that I can play with and do their hair. But I am realizing that, today, I am needed here. She chose me to share her pain with. She felt comfortable telling me.  I am needed today to be present and aware of my student’s joys and my student’s pains.

I am also starting to realize that God is using this experience- getting me out of my comfort zone, taking me into the unknown, leaving my family, trusting in Him- to prepare me for something else. God has really been using Matthew 19 to show me that to be a TRUE follower of Christ, we must sacrifice it all to him. We have to be uncomfortable. This can look very different. This could mean dropping everything, everyone, and moving to Uganda at the age of 18 to start an orphanage/school and adopt 14 Ugandan girls like she did. It could mean loving the women in your neighborhood, the ones that are not easy to love like she does. It could be choosing to love your spouse daily so that you can learn more of the love of Christ and the church like they do. It could mean a lot of things. All I know is that I think God is introducing me to this life of “being uncomfortable”, of being pushed to get out of my comfort zone, of relying solely on the only One who matters.

Yikes.

God used one of my all time favorite songs to encourage me in this:

There's a wave that's crashing over me
And all I can do is surrender

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
But I'm giving in to something Heavenly

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but I believe
You're up to something bigger than me
Larger than life, something Heavenly

-       Whatever You’re Doing, Sanctus Real

Ultimate act of LOVE

Today is Valentine’s Day. While most people are thinking about their loved ones I was thinking about my second graders. How could I make them feel loved today? Many of them have a parent who is deployed overseas and are probably feeling lonely. I went into school today to make sure that each one of them felt loved. Isn’t that what God asks of us, to make others see God’s love for them through our actions?

We made Valentine’s for our loved ones, a Valentine candy gram, and read several Valentine stories. We had a party in which we all shared our valentine’s with each other and ate our candy. Then these adorable second graders put on a Valentine’s concert for their parents and sang their little hearts out to songs like “Your Heart is Home” and “Viva Valentine”. They then proceeded to gorge on the cookies that were provided.

The students all brought me valentines and drew me pictures and I ended up feeling loved and valued. It was such a great feeling to know that my students care about me being in their class, even the ones that I struggle with daily. Isn’t it cool that while I went to encourage my students, they in turn gave more encouragement to me. I am so blessed to be in this profession. Thank you God for this opportunity!

1 Thessalonians 3:12- May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you

John 15:12- My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Leviticus 19:18- " 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD."

Isaiah 54:10- "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you."

John 10:17- "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again".

1 Corinthians 16:14- " Do everything in love."

And the ultimate act of LOVE: " For God so LOVED the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life in Christ Jesus!"- John 3:16


And my favorite: "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."- 1 John 4:7-12

My inner self can be harsh at times

Today was the first day I have felt homesick. I was sitting in a taxi on my way back to base when the cab driver decided to turn on country music. Haha of course Lady Antebellum would make anyone want to be home, especially when NEVER ALONE came on and all I thought about was Kappa Delta. It hit me that I am missing my last semester in college with all of my friends. I was thinking to myself “Self, why did you even want to do this in the first place? This isn’t your personality! It would have been way better for you to stay home where it is comfortable and familiar. Where everyone loves you and wants to spend time with you. Why would you leave that, dumb dumb?” (My inner self can be very hostile sometimes). And for a few minutes I let myself wallow in the dread and fear that I made a mistake.

Since I haven’t been able to make it to a regular church service (it’s on a different base) I have been listening to as many podcasts as I can. I listened to Lifechurch.tv’s podcast recently and the sermon was on living in fear. Craig said something that hit me. It wasn’t one of those sermons in which I nod and think “oh yeah, that makes sense I should do that” but then leave and not change anything. It was a sermon that rocked my world. I would say that I live in fear that things won’t go the way I plan. Exhibit A: I am fearful that I will never get married. Lame, I know. Hopefully I am not alone in this fear, however unsound it may be. Exhibit B: I am fearful that I may have made the wrong decision about coming to England. But Craig said something that gut-punched me. He said that whatever we fear, is the area that we trust God the least. Plain and simple. Duh. Obviously, whatever I worry about is what I trust God with the least. If I am worrying about something, it is the same as me saying “God I don’t trust you with this area of my life”. When I realized that Craig was talking directly to me, he said something that will help me overcome these fears. He suggested to just close your eyes, and say right then and there to God, “God, I know that you are still on the throne. You have never left. You haven’t changed. You are still in control of what happens in my life and you have been there in the good and the not so good. You remain the same and I can take comfort in that.”

So, in my taxi ride, I said that prayer. And I literally felt calmer and more at peace. Now, am I completely worry free? No. But I am learning how to solely find my assurance through Him and not through my own planning.

“I have never known more than fifteen minutes of anxiety or fear. Whenever I feel fearful emotions overtaking me I just close my eyes and thank God that He is still on the throne reigning over everything and I take comfort in His control over all the affairs of my life.” ~ John Wesley

"You know you don't go to Cambridge University when you have to ask how to spell 'Nobel Peace Prize' '

I was very lucky this past weekend to be able to visit TWO different cities in England. On Friday, we traveled to Bury St. Edmunds. This quaint little town has a beautiful church, St. Edmund’s Cathedral, with ruins from the original building which was around in the 13 century. It was absolutely breath-taking! It also had adorable little shops and cobble stone walkways. It was a great little getaway trip for us. It was very windy and overcast, but that is becoming the norm around here.

It was like our entrance into the "Secret Garden"

These ruins were absolutely beautiful

St. Edmund's Cathedral

Obviously, I needed a picture of this store

How cute and adorable is this?

On Sunday, we went to Cambridge. I love love love love Cambridge! It was exactly what I imagined a British town to look like. It had cobblestone roads and alleyways with high buildings. Many people were riding bikes. It just was exactly what I pictured. The shopping was great in Cambridge (I may have made a few purchases) and we ate at a pub called “The Eagle” where the founders of DNA, Watson and Crick, celebrated after making their discovery with their colleagues. But my favorite part of the trip was the punting trip. A punt is a type of flat boat and they take these boats down the river Cam to give a tour of the colleges in Cambridge. Kings college is absolutely beautiful but my favorite college was Clare’s College. It was paid for by Catherine DeBourgh (ring any bells from Pride and Prejudice??) and was stunning. Our tour guide even mentioned that there were several rivalries between the colleges. They fight over who put the first clock tower up and who has the most Nobel peace prize winners! I don't think that is why OSU's rival is OU.  I would definitely like to go back to Cambridge whenever we have a free weekend!

 Our cute little punts

 My friends Nikki and Sarah

 Beautiful Clare's College

The Sigh Brdge

The winding streets of Cambridge

Second graders...

List of things I said to my second graders today:

“Boys, stop playing in the bathroom!” This happens literally every day. They boys have a routine to go into the bathroom after lunch/recess and splash each other with water and get into “other mischief” before going to class. They are very loud and rowdy (as all boys are). Today I heard that they were acting up in the bathroom and so I decided to wait outside of the bathroom door for them all to come out and talk to them as a group. So needless to say they came out, one by one, and stood horrified that a teacher was right there waiting for them! When they were all together, I used all of my background knowledge that I gleaned from OSU and said “I have noticed that every day after recess the four of you go into the bathroom and mess around. I can hear you all yelling and screaming and this disrupts the other classes and delays our class. How can we fix this?” I think all my teachers would agree that this was a great argument because it starts with “I have noticed” which isn’t to condescending and it also causes students to assume responsibility in fixing the problem. The response I got was “I wasn’t making any noise!” “Joe Bob (names have been changed lol) followed us in here!” Or my favorite, “We didn’t know you were listening!” Those were not the responses we were taught to handle. Long story short, I ended up saying that from now on they will have to ask me before they can go to the bathroom until I can see them being more responsible with their time in there. They all walked away like I had taken away their lunch and forced them to watch me eat it!! We will see tomorrow if it works.

“If it is not your turn to stick your tongue out, keep your tongue in your mouth.” Okay, this was part of a game called “Frogger” in which you stick your tongue out at people. Still, an odd sentence to say in class.

“Can you please stop tapping your head with the pencil?” This one kid has a habit of hitting his head with a pencil and it looks painful. I just wanted him to stop.

Things my second graders said to me:

“Miss Callie, I ripped my pants. Can I go to the nurse?” hahah poor kid. He ripped his pants on the playground. How humiliating! Only as a kid would that not phase you.

“Can you please tell him to stop picking his nose?” Yes. Yes, I can do that for you. Gross.

“Why did the hamburger cross the road? Because it was in the Chicken’s pocket” or “Why did the hippopotamus cross the road? Because the chicken had the hippopotamus as a pet” …. What? I told a joke today (Why did the gum cross the road? Because it was stuck to the chicken’s foot! Hahaha) and they came up with every variation of this possible! The comedic gene has not fully developed in second graders yet.

“Miss Callie, Joe Bob cut in line!!” I literally here this 8 times a day. But with any student’s name inserted into the sentence. They tattle SO MUCH in second grade. They are constantly blaming someone else and rarely take responsibility for any part in the problem.

“Miss Callie, I made a friendship bracelet for you”. Isn’t that so sweet! I guess they can be cute sometimes….