Bits and pieces

spider web on my door

Term one of NETS officially ended on Thursday (6/16). The ten weeks just seemed to fly by. We now have a three week break. I will be spending the first two weeks touring Eastern Europe. Here is my itinerary:

Teaching

As usual, we had lots of teaching good over the last month. Some of the topics were:
Standing on God's promises
Introduction to evangelism
The Father heart of God
Domination, manipulation & ungodly control
Acceptance and Belonging
Bitter Root Judgments
Understanding deception & discernment

The way to a man's heart...

In order to give the workers at Pierrepont a break, everyone gets "packed teas" (bagged dinners) Sunday nights. It's usually a sandwich, boxed juice, and fruit. Not that filling or tasty. Therefore, the Asian people here (staff and students) usually cook Sunday nights. I've had the wonderful privilege of sharing meals with them.

The term three NETS students left for Thailand earlier this week for a short term missions trip. By the time, term two begins, their term would be over and most of them would have gone home. So, all the Asian people got together for a BBQ before they left for Thailand. I will miss some of the term three students (and my stomach will miss them too).

Some of the NETS students will not come back for term two. The one I will miss the most is Yutai, who has been like a spiritual auntie to me:

So after two months, what's it like to live in England?

The language
I think we speak the same language. English, right? I think I have so gotten used to hearing British accents now that hearing American ones sometimes sound strange. There are certain nuances, however, that took some getting used to. What Americans call pants, they call trousers here. In England, pants are underwear. Restrooms are referred to as the loo. Instead of saying lines (such as waiting behind a cash registrar or in car traffic), they say queue. So if you spilled a drink on your trousers and it's a busy restaurant, you might have to wait on the queue in order to go to the loo. What rubbish...

Expensive
Because one British pound is about two dollars, you can imagine how expensive it is to buy stuff here. Ordinary things seem twice as costly here. For example, if you were to go to Mickey D's and buy a "value" meal, it would cost about 5 GBP (or $10). If a Brit went to the US, it would be like 50% sale for him/her. Gasoline (or petrol) is mad expensive here. To fill a tank, it costs about 30 GBP. That's $60!!! And most of the cars here are tiny.

Driving
Speaking of cars, I finally drove one last week. It was the first time in two months I had driven a car (a record for me). It was very strange driving on the left side of the road in the right side of the car (and changing gears with my left hand)! When I first came to England and I sat shotgun in a car, I would freak out whenever the driver made a right turn because I looked like we were turning into the left lane.

Final thoughts

God is so good. I've learned so much, experienced much healing, and made many good friends. This blog cannot do justice to what I've experienced here. It was more that I could have asked for (Eph. 3:20). And you know what, I have another 10 weeks to go when term two begins (July 11).

NETS 16 2005 (representing 18 nations) and some staff

Well, that's it my friends. I will be updating this blog once again sometime during the second week of July, when term two begins. Cheers!