...that leads to the land of the Canaanites. That's right folks. Exodus is finished. I am happy to say I finished all my homework, ahead of the deadline even! I finished it all before lunch on Saturday, so after lunch I was able to go to the lake. Now, I had heard things about this lake and I was very excited to go swimming and show these Indians my swimming skills. Apparently, not many Indians know how to swim, so it was very fun watching one of the DTS students hold up Kalyan, a 26 year old SBS staff member, so he could practice kicking and moving his arms in the water! Oh man. You really do see something new every day in this country. Also, on our way to the lake we hit someone! But it was just the side mirror and the person was drunk, so Kalyan said it was okay. I'm sure that kind of thing happens all the time here. It was pretty crazy. The lake was HUGE! I was expecting this small lake in the middle of a dry field, but it was absolutely huge and it was surrounded by these beautiful mountain-like hill/cliffs. The beach however was rocky and not comfortable, but the Norwegians and I managed to find a small area of sand-like rocks to lay down on our towels in the sun for a few hours. It felt so good to swim again, and I even wore shorts! It's the first time I've worn shorts in public for 5 months now practically. It wasn't even really public, and that's why I was able to. It was quite funny laying in the sun with our t-shirts and pants on. Who knows when I'll ever be able to sun-bathe in just my swimsuit again. God only knows.
I always have thought that I wanted to be like Moses. I wanted to meet with the Lord face to face, like a familiar friend. I want to go near the darkness surrounding the mountain when every one else is terrified and inching away. Now, I still want to experience God like Moses did, but I realized I am totally like Moses. He kept giving God excuses when God was calling him to lead his people out of Egypt. "Why me? Why not someone else?, I don't speak good, They'll never believe you sent me..." and the list goes on. He also has an anger issue. Not that I have an anger issue, but I have other issues that hinder me from obeying God or seeing him face to face. Even now, as I am beginning to think I probably am going to stay here as staff, I still have the excuse of "I don't have any money, I am not good at speaking in front of people, I've never been a leader..." blah, blah, blah. However, all this time I thought in making excuses like this I would never properly see God, but Moses did! Moses constantly questioned the Lord and he still was in his presence more than many other people in the Bible.
Also, some funny things about Exodus. When the Israelites tell Aaron to make them other gods, Aaron clearly collects their gold, puts it in a fire, and molds it into a calf. So, Moses comes down from the mountain and sees them worshiping these idols and his anger problem flares up and he yells at Aaron, and Aaron says the greatest thing ever...He tells Moses he collected the gold cause the people wanted idols, threw it in the fire, and this calf just came out! Like, he didn't do anything, he took the gold out of the fire and it just was in the image of a calf.
This morning I went to my first ever Indian church service. I know it has been 4.5 months since I've been here pretty much, and this was my first time going. It reminded me of the small church services we attended in the Czech Republic, except this was in English, and I knew half the people there. Worship was great. Kalyan can really sing, who knew? He played my guitar, and I saw that he took his scooter and became a little wary of him bringing my guitar on a scooter in India, but if there's anyone I'd trust with my guitar on a scooter it would be him. I think that Kalyan is a character that has yet to be introduced to this India story of mine. I will tell you that he is former SBS staff here on this campus and is working on helping pioneer an SBS in North India which should start in September. He's from South India, and is very funny and very fun. He took us to the lake! I've been here for 4.5 months and didn't even know about this lake until Kalyan came to visit.
At the end of this quarter I hope to travel to Goa with my lady-love, Lottie. Picture this...a week on the beach. Literally. Eating fish, reading books, laughing like anything, discussing how funny it is she's finishing SBS and I'm staffing. Both things we were not going to do at the beginning of SBS.
I have recently become addicted to Cadbury's Dairy Milk Fruit & Nut chocolate bars. Picture this...a bar of chocolate with nuts. Assorted nuts. Almonds and cashews. I like this because I'm not such a big fan of peanuts in chocolate. However, I do love peanut butter with chocolate. Anyway, this chocolate bar also has raisins in it. I love them so much. I cannot stop eating them. I think I need to seek counsel from the School of Addictive Behaviors going on this quarter.
I am going crazy here without a camera. If anyone has a nice camera they're not using and wants to mail it to me, that would be wonderful. The camera I had 1st quarter broke and now I am camera-less.
Valentine's Day came and went as if it was any ordinary day. As the years go by Valentine's Day becomes less and less of a big deal to me. They build it up so much during the school years. Forcing you to bring valentine's to class for everyone or no one which is nice actually because no one feels left out, but then Junior High School comes and you can send carnations to people. You can imagine this now, in home room on the morning of V-day, passing out carnations, and some people are getting like 6-10 carnations, and others zero. I'll admit, I always got one or two, from my close friends at the time, but still. There were people with nothing. How sad is that? I am so happy to be a part of this family of God. He gave me not only carnations, but roses, sunflowers, mountains, rivers, oceans, sunsets, sunrises, snow, deserts, jungles, chocolate, strawberries, whole grains, milk, ice cream, and best of all he gave me his only Son, his only child, he gave his Son's life for me. That's the best gift of love that ever was given. This morning at church Kalyan asked us all what love is exactly and then we read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 which you all know fairly well, "Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy or boast, it is not self-seeking..." all these things that I know I need to brush up on all of them, but that's what love is. That is not how this world sees love, but it's how love was meant to be. That is true love.
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