9/27

Today Annelie had a half day off, so after doing some reading and homework, I found her and we went for a walk and talked about family and prayers and the things God's been laying on our hearts since we've been here.

There's lots of trains around here, but about half a mile from the school is a set of tracks that isn't used anymore, so we walked on the tracks and it was nice to sort of relax and get to know one another on a little bit deeper level.

The tracks go through a forest as well as through the orchards and it's fun to try and balance and walk on the rails themselves.

After seeing what school is like for the students, Annelie is considering attending spring school in Sweden, which I've really encouraged her to talk to someone about. If that works for her, she might even be able to travel with me after our six months here ends!

My plan for right now is to spend a little bit longer in each place I visit. I think that will save a lot of money compared to moving around every other day, and I'll really get more of a feel for the cities I get to see. I'm thinking of taking a week for one of the bigger cities in Italy, then traveling through to Paris and spending a week there, and then England for that final week.

With travel time and taking it slow, that will be about four weeks, but I need to look into it all a lot more and make sure I have a well-planned budget. Annelie has invited me to go with her to Denmark as well, so we shall see how everything factors in!

It's interesting, because with all the free time here, balanced by hours of Bible lectures every day, and no tv or media to distract me, the speed at which I'm thinking things through and learning new lessons has increased exponentially. I'm so used to being busy, getting up early and going to bed late, and always having something in the background so I don't need to think so much.

Here, I've found myself listening to music a lot more often just to kind of escape my own mind and take a break from the intensity of all the new thoughts. I've also found that I need to journal more to sort everything out.

I'm loving it though, and am experiencing stronger convictions regarding lessons I've learned in the past, as well as new realizations about my life, and the ways I tend to limit Christ from living through me. For this week, I've realized the importance of honoring Christ in the simplicity of my daily walk, not just through my works.

Because I am constantly surrounded by people who may or may not be like me or act like I think they should, He has revealed to me my need to live out the true and unconditional love of Christ. It's such a basic truth of our faith, but something I have been able to overlook quite a bit simply because at home, I have the luxury of being able to take time alone whenever I choose.


1 Corinthians 13
New International Version (NIV)
13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.