14/02/2011
Before you ask, no I couldn't think of a better title than the lame one I came up with.
Started the day by reading the card Amy got me with explicit instructions to be opened today, Valentine's Day, of all days. It was really nice though made me think a lot about who and what I miss about home, which is an awful lot of people and things respectively. But we're having such a great time here I hardly get a chance to think about it for too long, which is probably a good thing in terms of not getting homesick.
I then brushed my teeth to the point of drawing blood in my gums - this keeps happening cos I'm not used to using a manual toothbrush and I think I'm a little bit too eager. At least they're clean but I've opened up a hole inbetween my front two gnashers which is a little annoying.
Had a small breakfast - washing up is an absolute dream with the brilliant contraption they have here. It's a brush but with a reservoir of liquid in the handle which is fed onto the bristles as you apply pressure. Such a simple concept yet you don't see them in the UK. Might have to bring one back.
We had our first lesson of the trip, led by Ryan, and we're starting with how to preach. We're each going to get a chance to do it throughout the outreach, probably at least twice, and so we need to know how to prepare one and successfully give it - it's not as simple as reading a passage through and scratching the basic surface.
So we had a couple of hours of that followed by lunch. Not sure how but Jarett and I got onto a conversation about French people and gimpsuits. We had a scrumptious potato salad with chicken and garlic in it, it was truly delicious. On some of the days we've all felt kind of underfed on just sandwiches or whatever, but there could be no criticisms about either the taste or quantity of the meal. It was seriously good.
We then had a coffee break straight after lunch, which is the kind of schedule that suits me. So that was my third and fourth cups of the day.
Andy and I played a game during the break which basically involves throwing the ball at each other as hard as possible from a short distance, the aim being to catch the opponent's throw. We need a more pumped-up ball as we couldn't get enough pace to do any damage to either of the two target areas: face and genitals.
Our afternoon's training wrapped up the basics of how to prepare a sermon, and we were then told to go and prepare the skeletal structure of one. Mine's on Colossians 1: 15-20. Read it, it basically explains how awesome and loving God is in a really succinct way. Powerful stuff.
Our well-deserved dinner was pasta and bolognese sauce.
Afterwards, us Brits treated the Americans and Jarett to a few slices of Britain's historical culture cake - we scoured YouTube and found clips of the following:
- Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em - the rollerblading scene. If you haven't seen it, look it up.
- Only Fools and Horses - the scene where he falls through the bar. Same applies.
- Byker Grove - the bit where PJ gets blinded
- Eastenders - a horrifically misogynistic yet hilarious scene involving Pat, Roy, Peggy and Frank
- Rainbow
- Button Moon
- Mr Blobby - the scene where he gets told he can't go on holiday.
- Mr Bean - the diving board scene.
- Fawlty Towers - the Germans scene.
I'm not sure they quite knew what to think, but I was in stitches almost the whole time especially at the SMDAE scene.
After that, we did some more work on our sermons and now me, Andy and Jarett are just chilling.
A couple of minutes ago, I helped Andy tweezer out a thorn that was embedded in his toe.
It was a strange experience.
I'd better get my beauty sleep, or rather sleep.
Chao (once again I remind people that that is the correct spelling, it's ciao in Italian)
JG
No comments:
Post a Comment