Erica Norton, the amazing wife of my professor John Norton, has just introduced me to a song that has captured my heart completely. "Dance With Me" by Chris Quailala is a song that captures one of my favorite things to do with God: DANCE! My soul longs to dance with the Lord and this song stirs that desire even more.
I'm sitting in an airport in Helsinki, Finland listening to this song with big black headphones that drown out all the noises around me. Members of my Around the World team are sitting, walking, and conversing around me but I'm in my own world. Nothing else seems to exist but these words that drip out of this mans mouth, into my ears, and straight to my soul. I want to so badly get up and begin dancing in the middle of this airport, there's plenty of room to do it too. We're sitting down stairs near our terminal and there are big areas open, inviting me to frolic.
I love that the Lord has created each one of us to have different passions and talents. Each one of us is especially unique. These Around the World team specifically has so many unique gifts and passions in each person. We all fit together like a puzzle to form something beautiful. I feel so blessed to be on this trip with all of these amazing people.
Dance With Me by Chris Quilala
Behold You have come over the hills upon the mountain
To me, You will run. My Beloved, You've captured my heart
Won't You dance with me, Oh
Lover of my soul,
to the song of all songs?
With You, I will go You are my Love You are my Fair One
The winter has passed and the springtime has come
Won't You dance with me, Oh
Lover of my soul,
to the song of all songs?
Romance me, Oh
Lover of my soul
to the song of all songs.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Final Days of Russia
I've spent the last two days wandering around Moscow, Russia like a tourist. This is the first time so far I actually feel more like a tourist than a world traveler. We're staying in a hotel room with actual beds, real towels, key cards, elevators, and people who speak English at the front desk. Yesterday we walked around the Red Square and surrounding areas. We saw Lenin in the dead flesh, walked inside St. Basil's, roamed the streets, went into the inner city of the Kremlin, and hung out on a long pedestrian street. In total i took 386 photos yesterday in the span of 10 hours. Today we split up and went to one of the biggest markets in Europe that happens to be right outside our hotel. I bought some beautiful things: Russian dolls, Amber, Christmas ornaments, Russian socks, and them most amazing handcrafted leather journal. It has been a very successful day. And to end it I was sung an Aaron Bird original song, read a bedtime story by Brock Powell, and sung to by our very own Backstreet Boys (Sam, Macho, Steven, Brock, Aaron, Ben, and Ethan in spirit). These men just continue to surprise us Around the World girls. They really are some of the most amazing guys I've ever met and I'm so excited to spend three more months with all of them!
It's strange that we're already leaving Russia; our time here has gone by so fast. It seems like our last few days especially were filled with A LOT of adventures and new people. I will miss Russia, and I will miss the people I've met and grown close to over the past two weeks. Russia has been a bit of everything, both cold and warm (in two senses of each word).
Tomorrow I head to Turkey to spend two more weeks traveling and exploring. I hope to meet more new people, experience more new things, and continue to be stretched.
It's strange that we're already leaving Russia; our time here has gone by so fast. It seems like our last few days especially were filled with A LOT of adventures and new people. I will miss Russia, and I will miss the people I've met and grown close to over the past two weeks. Russia has been a bit of everything, both cold and warm (in two senses of each word).
Tomorrow I head to Turkey to spend two more weeks traveling and exploring. I hope to meet more new people, experience more new things, and continue to be stretched.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
RUSSIA
Out of Argentina, onto a flight to Chile for 2 hours, learned Russian with Ellie, in Chile airport for 1.5 hours, on a flight to New York for 11 hours, sleeping horrifically in a vertical position, in New York for 8 hours buying supplies and hanging out, on a flight to Finland for 8 hours, barely making it on my last flight, figuring out I had a 100.2 fever, making it to Moscow, finding out that my luggage had been lost, filled out a ton of paperwork, got a bus for 15 minutes, stoped at a random Russian store to pick up some supplies i was without due to lost luggage, ate yummy pizza and Sabaro, back on bus for 4 hours, and I am now finally in Vladimir, Russia!!
I left Buenos Aires, Argentina Sunday at 5pm (Argentina time) and I finally made it to Vladimir, Russia last night around 8pm (Russia time). So it took me about two days to finally get here, longest experience of my life! Not going to lie it was difficult because I was super sick as we were flying; stuffy nose, soar throat, achey, chills, all the promises of a super bad cold. But I am here now!
I think I like it here in Russia. It rained today while we were out buying supplies; my very first foreign rain experience. The rain here isn't any different from the rain at home, although it felt significantly colder due to the 40something degree weather outside. I totally paid for a bus ride today too, prior to rain. It was a very exciting experience!
OH so my bag totally got left in Helsinki, Finland. Six of our 30 bags got lost somewhere between New York and Moscow. So that was interesting, something else to add to my 100 degree stupid cold. But it was okay, it didn't bother me really. I knew i could get by a couple days with nothing but the clothes on my back and a few other things. My big bag is just a bunch of books, chargers, clothes, and DEADWEIGHT! That beast is heavy, I'm going to have some very nice muscles after this trip so look out.
Russia succeeded in following through with one of it's stereotypes I was informed of prior to my arrival: I met a guy names Vladimir. Who else but a Russian would be named Vladimir? Nice guy, but it makes my heart chuckle a little, especially because the city I'm in is called Vladimir. Anyhow, I've noticed there's a pattern of chivalry with the men here. They really like helping all of us girls do things. When I first got here I was welcomed by a man who spoke some English, and he insisted on taking the 3 plastic bags I was carrying in my hand. It was something I could have easily held but he would not take no for an answer. I could get use to that I suppose. Oh, and I was bowed to twice tonight! This guy said goodnight on two different occasions this evening and bowed both times, very interesting. I was not sure what response to that should be, so I smiled.
Tomorrow I have breakfast, class, lunch, service work, dinner, and homework. There will be much more fun in there than it sounds, promise! I'm excited to see more of what Russia has to offer. It's a beautiful place that I feel as if I could be falling in love with. I'm working on learning more of the language, it's quite difficult though. Thank God for Serge and Paul, our lovely translators! Without these guys I would understand very little of this world around me.
Well it's almost 12am here, and I still have quite a bit of homework to do so I shall be off. I'm excited for what God's doing with all of us here in Russia and I'm stoked to see what unfolds each day at a time!
I left Buenos Aires, Argentina Sunday at 5pm (Argentina time) and I finally made it to Vladimir, Russia last night around 8pm (Russia time). So it took me about two days to finally get here, longest experience of my life! Not going to lie it was difficult because I was super sick as we were flying; stuffy nose, soar throat, achey, chills, all the promises of a super bad cold. But I am here now!
I think I like it here in Russia. It rained today while we were out buying supplies; my very first foreign rain experience. The rain here isn't any different from the rain at home, although it felt significantly colder due to the 40something degree weather outside. I totally paid for a bus ride today too, prior to rain. It was a very exciting experience!
OH so my bag totally got left in Helsinki, Finland. Six of our 30 bags got lost somewhere between New York and Moscow. So that was interesting, something else to add to my 100 degree stupid cold. But it was okay, it didn't bother me really. I knew i could get by a couple days with nothing but the clothes on my back and a few other things. My big bag is just a bunch of books, chargers, clothes, and DEADWEIGHT! That beast is heavy, I'm going to have some very nice muscles after this trip so look out.
Russia succeeded in following through with one of it's stereotypes I was informed of prior to my arrival: I met a guy names Vladimir. Who else but a Russian would be named Vladimir? Nice guy, but it makes my heart chuckle a little, especially because the city I'm in is called Vladimir. Anyhow, I've noticed there's a pattern of chivalry with the men here. They really like helping all of us girls do things. When I first got here I was welcomed by a man who spoke some English, and he insisted on taking the 3 plastic bags I was carrying in my hand. It was something I could have easily held but he would not take no for an answer. I could get use to that I suppose. Oh, and I was bowed to twice tonight! This guy said goodnight on two different occasions this evening and bowed both times, very interesting. I was not sure what response to that should be, so I smiled.
Tomorrow I have breakfast, class, lunch, service work, dinner, and homework. There will be much more fun in there than it sounds, promise! I'm excited to see more of what Russia has to offer. It's a beautiful place that I feel as if I could be falling in love with. I'm working on learning more of the language, it's quite difficult though. Thank God for Serge and Paul, our lovely translators! Without these guys I would understand very little of this world around me.
Well it's almost 12am here, and I still have quite a bit of homework to do so I shall be off. I'm excited for what God's doing with all of us here in Russia and I'm stoked to see what unfolds each day at a time!
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