Sharing Life
Coming back from OCF last night, I was praying on the bus and really thinking through what had happened in the day. Yesterday, I had a "last minute" meeting with a good friend whom I haven't seen since the beginning of the school year I think or was it just the beginning of the semester? Anyway, it was a great time to meet up, good excuse to eat some good food, and just talk about what was on our hearts. You know, I really do value and enjoy Christian fellowship especially in one-on-one situations or even a much smaller group. I think I sometimes really miss that ability and freedom that I had on the ship where I could almost find anybody, especially close friends nearby and just talk and share life.
I was thinking yesterday on the bus that I would love to have a closer fellowship group that could meet more often for personal Bible study and prayer. In my mind, it would be great just ot be able to read the same passages as this other person or persons and just be able to talk about it and about what God is saying to us personally and how that is effecting us. I find it sometimes a little distracting when we have a fixed amount of questions that we have to answer and go through. Not that this is wrong or bad because it is also helpful in some cases but I think it would also be great to have that deeper discussion that is not bound by a fixed question book or whatever so that we can share person struggles and thoughts and then help each other in prayer to overcome these struggles. I wonder if you who are reading this have any idea what I'm saying. In any case, it is something very much on my heart that I want to be praying about and I trust that in God timing that He will bring up somebody whom I can do this with.
It's especially difficult when I think of where I'm staying in comparison to the majority of the friends I've made since coming to the UK as well as those really really close friends that I made on the ship who are now all over the place though I praise God that I have still managed to keep in contact with most of them.
Of course, many of you probably also know that my exams are coming up. It has been a major struggle for me to getting into a revision mode though this happens every single time. I have 8 exams this coming May. (6th-29th) and also one 30 minute test sometime in the first week back at school, which I actually know nothing about at this point of time. Two of my classmates are planning to join me a two day revision thing over in our OM guest house on the 17th. I know you think we won't be revising but I think we will be disciplined enough to make sure we do and that we cover all of it if possible. It is also a way for us to be celebrating of my classmate's birthday so we're going to treat ourselves after the revision to a good bonfire and some marshmellows and all those good things. =0)
I've been really excited by the friendships that God has given me. Just the other day I was talking to Vanessa Nicholas, one of my dearest if not best friend. We have this thing where we contact each other on the first of every month and just tell each other how we've been doing and just being somewhat accountable to each other. It was only when I called her on the Doulos just a few days ago that we realised we had been doing this for about 7 years and that before that we were still together on the ship! I have constantly admired her faithfulness in keeping in contact with myself and how God has used her in so many ways. She is one of the only people if not THE only person who reasonably regularly writes me a proper letter, which is a seriously big deal since hardly anyone these days bothers to write letters though I find they are a hundred times more personal and special than any email or ecard I have ever recieved. Praise the Lord for Vanessa and I pray that I will be able to be just as much of a blessing to the people around me.
