Mars Hill and Rob Bell

 One of the places that we went to on our road trip was the Grand Rapids, Michigan to Mars Hill. Mars Hill is the church that Rob Bell is the pastor of. Leigh has been listening to Mars Hill podcasts for many years and it has been one of her dreams to get to go to a service there. I'm excited to say that we accomplished that dream. She was so excited and I was really happy to get to see her that happy! 
There is also a Mennonite connection- Shane Hipps is a new pastor there and he grew up Mennonite and spoke at the convention last month. Unfortunately we did not get to speak to him...
We got there extra early. I was having trouble finding a seat...

After the sermon we went up to talk to Rob Bell. Leigh was able to tell him about the project "Love Wins" that she was doing in Bradford as a reflection of his book. He said that he was inspired! 

A tribute to the class of 4M

 Over this past year, I have spent most of my time in 4M. The "4" represents year 4, which are kids that are 8-9 years old, and the "M" that represents Linda Mitchell, the teacher. I have been what is called a "teacher's assistant" in England, but my job description is a little harder to define... My days sometime seemed like a whirlwind of craziness trying to get things done, but I always loved them.  I wanted to write this as a celebration and a thank you for everything that I have experienced in the last year.  I know that this class was the right place for me and it really affirms to me that God knows what he is doing.

4M- do you remember all of the fun we have had over the last year. I know that you all remember the Alice in Wonderland Maths week and all of the fun things we did then. I mean, anytime that you get to lay on a table and measure yourself or try to build towers with huge playing cards can be considered a fun day. I will always remember how we dressed up for the occasion. You all looked ACE with your playing card fancy dress costumes on! I know that you remember that Miss Sulc and I were actual aces and Miss Wilkinson and Miss Mitchell were the jokers. Nothing new there!  What a fun week and I'm pretty sure that you realized that math doesn't have to be boring, but can be really fun too!

I will also remember all of your mad hula-hoopin' skills... I was never that good at hula-hooping. Most of you are way better than I ever was...But when it comes to skipping rope...
Red Nose Day is another day at school that I will not forget. We don't have this exact day in America, but it was really fun to take part in it in England. What a great cause. How generous of you all to bring in money for other kids that weren't as fortunate to have what they needed. I had a lot of fun dressing up and as you all remember, all the year 4 teachers had Mr. Pope on the front of our shirts. Do you think he thought that was funny? I'm not so sure... :)



Our golden times days will be remembered too. Uzair, I think that now is a good time to tell you that the song is actually "Eye of the Tiger" not "I am the Tiger". And by the way...hearing that song over and over again will not be one of my finest memories! 
I enjoyed dancing with you all as you challenged me in Dance Dance Revolution. If I remember correctly...most of you lost to me too! :) Anyways, I know that Zishaan was feeling the luck when he challenged me in checkers. Little did you know Zishaan, I was the checker champion on my primary school. There was even a tournament and I got a trophy. Now you all know how much of a nerd I was back in the days. 
And as most of you wrote in your letters to me, I do remember teaching you how to play basketball. That was really special to me because the game of basketball has been very special to me for most of my life. It was great to show you some of the skills. You guys even got pretty good at the game, shoot-out! 

 As much as some of those big events mean something to me, all of the regular time in the classroom almost mean more! You guys have taught me so much, and Miss Mitchell, you have taught me so much. What better way to learn about England and British culture than to learn it from the real "Brits". You guys not only taught me British culture, but also Asian culture and things about the Muslim faith. I must say, that was important to me because to be honest I was a little nervous about coming to England and whether or not it would be any different than America... But I soon found out it was and Bradford especially if much different than where I am from.
 To the giggle girls in enrichment- you should know who you are. At times you (in your own words) "did my head in", but looking back I am just so happy that you had fun with what you are doing. I'm glad that we all got to make beads together and talk about girl things...

I owe you all a big "THANK YOU" for putting in so much work for the Flat Stanley project. I hope so much that you really enjoyed learning about different places around the word, because if you think about it, that is what I have spent this last year doing: learning about Bradford and England. I know that the people that wrote back to you really enjoyed sending you things and sharing about their home. I hope that that is something that you will remember for a long time. It was amazing how you all learned the haka and performed it in front of so many people. AND the fact that you did so well with all of your lines (with some of you even memorizing them) that was impressive. Shumrez the way you carried on when things didn't go quite perfectly. I'm so proud of you! Germany group- absolutely perfect!

I will always cherish and remember all of the special non-special times. All of the "regular" days that you made me smile. I will never forget you guys, and I pray and wish you all the happiness in the future! I hope that we can somehow stay in touch because I would love to see the people that you grow up to be!

The sight of you guys linking on to Ayub as a train just melted my heart
shows the spirit that you all have. 

My first driving experience...

I wanted to share my thoughts from the other day with you all...


"So... today I got into the front seat of my car for the first time in almost a year. I got into the left side of the car, which seemed weird. I thought that I was doing well as I drove down the single lane alley behind my brothers house, but then as we reached the road, I had a "wobbly moment". I just sat there for about 30 seconds trying to decide which side of the road I would turn out onto. I chose the right side..."

Chicago- Reorientation

After flying back from England we spent 4 days in Chicago for the reorientation portion of the Radical Journey. We stayed at a hostel near Millennium Park in downtown Chicago. It was a weird feeling to be back in Chicago again. As we were flying in, I looked at the window and saw all the buildings and finally it sunk in. I started to cry. I didn't have as many tears as I thought I would while in England, but that didn't mean I wasn't sad to leave everybody there. It just hadn't sunk in yet. As I spent time in Chicago and even now when I am in South Bend I keep thinking that I am on a vacation away from Bradford and that I will be going "home" to our house in Bradford. I'm guessing as time goes on, it will continue to hit me that I am not going back. I have to come up with a plan eventually for my life...
During orientation we talked about possible challenges, problems, and feelings that will arise in a reverse culture shock situation. I'd be lying if I said that the future didn't make me nervous. I have plans for the next few months, but after that point- open space. All those worries aside, it was great to get to catch up with the other teams and hear stories from Bolivia and China. 

Preparing to Leave...

I wanted to compile a list of things that I will miss when I leave Bradford, and the things that I am looking forward to about America. I have very mixed feeling about leaving. It's not that I don't want to see the people in the States because I do, I just find it hard to leave my people here...

Things I will miss about Bradford and England....

1) The Lidget Green staff and kids- I really feel like part of a family there, and I find it such a weird feeling that I may never see most of those kids ever again. I've spent the last year teaching them, playing with them, listening to secrets, smiling, and hopefully bringing a bit of joy to them. I'll miss most things about all of them, but mostly I'll miss their smiles...

2) St. Wilfrid's and Great Horton Churches. Wow, it is amazing to go to the other side of the world and find amazing generous people who care about complete strangers. We have had so many fun times and great memories made with these people. They will be dearly missed, and I hope one day I will make it back to visit them all!

3) The stone walls- It's really indescribable the amount of work that has gone into building these walls in the dales over the last 1000 years. I will miss the comforting feeling of looking out and seeing the history of it all. England's history is so much older than ours in America and it was easy to picture people centuries ago doing similar stuff to us. I'll miss that...

4) Fish and Chips- Not gonna lie, I wasn't a big fan of the British food in general, but there are a few things that will be missed. One of them is Fish and Chips because there is no way that I will be eating fish and chips in Kansas. 

5) Asian food- Specifically: Samosas, Korma, and Naan. I didn't realize that I would miss this until recently. At first I had a big issue with the spice level, but I've been doing much better with it and I have realized that I will miss that kind of food. Who knew?

6) Kid's Club Kids- What a challenge, but what a blessing. These kids could just drive you absolutely mad, but they still were so special to us. We weren't able to tell some of our favorites "bye" before we left, and I'm still extremely sad about that.

7) Friday walks with Angie, Malcolm and Nellie- Amazing memories have been made of Fridays in England. This was a great time to see the countryside, hang out with some cool Brits and exercise all at the same time. These days meant more to me than they will ever know or understand.

8) My friends- You know who you are. I can't say anything to describe how much you mean to me but all I can say is that I'm sad without you guys here.

Things I'm looking forward to about the States:

1) My family and friends: Looking forward to seeing everyone that I've missed over this last year.

2) Driving my car: It's been so long and once I realize that I'm driving on the other side of the road, I think that it will go smoothly...

3) Stars: I'm looking forward to being about to see the stars, and the best place to see them are at my house in Kansas. No light pollution.

4) Proper thunderstorms with lightning: England has no idea was a thunderstorm in and I am looking forward to thunder, lightening, and very heavy rain!

5) Food: pretty much everything...this could be dangerous!

Iram's Wedding...

We've been so fortunate this year to be invited to a Muslim wedding. What a great way to soak up the culture and spend our last week in Bradford. I'd been searching all over town for a showacameze for absolute ages. Finally a couple of weeks ago I found one to wear that I liked a lot. Not only though, did we have to find the dress, but we had to find the rest of the outfit. This included, BLING…so earrings, shoes, bangles, hair accessories, and a giant ring. What a huge undertaking. We found ourselves in the last week panicking about the things that we didn't have yet. 

On Thursday night we went the mendhi night. We didn't realize that if the invitation says that it starts at 5 o'clock, NO ONE would show up for over an hour later. As we were told, "We're Asian! It's Asian time!" Once everyone showed up it was a real treat and culture experience. Typically, the Thursday night is a fun party night with drums, music, mendhi and dancing, but the bride- Iram- had had a death in her family during the same week so they were mourning. Thus, there were no drums, but they still had the traditional mendhi service, and of course- amazing food. 

As the evening progressed we learned that we would be taking part in the ceremony. Iram was sitting on a swing type thing at the front and after many other things took place that I didn't fully understand, they said that we would be going on stage to sit with her and take part. We went up in our group and we all individually put henna (with a peacock brush) onto a leave that Iram was holding in her palm of her hand. Then we rubbed a bit of oil into her hair. After that we fed her a piece of fruit and gave her a smooch! All the family and friends did this. I felt of Iram though. I'm sure she felt like an over-stuffed oily-haired girl who was holding a leaf. During this process she didn't show much emotion. This turned out to be a theme of the week.

Then on Friday we had a local girl, Zaara do our mend for the wedding. She "doesn't really do it" as she said, but she did a fantastic job. She said that if she enjoyed doing it more that she would do it more. I was so impressed! 

And then on Saturday, the big wedding part happened. This was the day that Iram had the most Bling on and boy, did she look dazzling! Her dress must have been soooo heavy because it was full of jewels! This time, we showed up over an hour and a half late and we appeared to be right on time. When the groom arrived, there was drumming and as he approached the stage, Iram's girl cousins were asking money from the groom before he could sit by his wife. We heard that a groom could pay thousands at this point. Just depends on how pushy the sisters/ cousins are. 

A few other teachers from school were there so we ended up sitting all together. We ate more amazing food there. (I have really gotten much better at handling the spiciness.) And they had serious intimidating lights and camera/ videocamera that videoed us eating and looking like confused Americans. I guess this is so Iram can remember the week and how awkward we looked.

After we ate we went up on the stage and gave Iram the gift that we had given her.  Then lots of family went up and everyone was handing over lots of money to both the bride and the groom. I think the groom may have made back his money that he had spent earlier. Lots of pictures were taken. In most though, I think that the bride is meant to look sad because this is her last time with her family. She still looked beautiful! 

The whole week was an amazing experience and one that I will never forget. Iram was so kind to invite us and let us be a part of this important day.  

Showing off our outfits!

Iram and Me

The yummy food that they served...

Good fun with the Cuz....

We actually found each other in London with VERY limited information- Long story!

I introduced Kristen to the Anglican service with a night service at St. Paul's cathedral.
It is quite high with lots of rituals so she got to see all the "good stuff".

We went to Salisbury church and a wedding of someone important was going on....

Stonehenge with a Druid service going on inside of it...

We pulled a "Marie&Kristen" and spent hours taking night photography of Big Ben! Whoops!

I introduced Kristen to the stone walls of Yorkshire. Pretty Impressive

She was here on one of the hottest days all year. This is what happens when the sun comes out!
People sunbathe with the cow. Poor Cows...

Angie took us on to Bolton Abbey. I thought that Kristen needed to see at least one
Abbey ruin while she was here.

Angie let us walk across the river on the steps this time! We both did it with our camera. Talk about nerve racking...

She got to see what British roads are really like...And the problems that occur!

She brought entertainment, a boobazwalia! Well, at least for me and for our ginger pirate balloon man!

Kristen got to meet all of the wonderful kids at Lidget Green! She also helped me with some of the bulliten boards. I was really thankful for her because I was swamped! Thanks Kristen! :)

I hope she had a good time. She was so go with the flow, which I appreciated with it being the last two weeks in England. I had a great time and now we can say our random trips have turned global...