"You Lead"
today was a hard today.
i am, once again, thousands of miles away from some of the people i love the most.
but this time i have my sister with me.
AND.
i have my God.
and He has GREAT plans.
for me.
and for you.

and heres how i know.
last year about this time mom and i were packing up and saying tearful goodbyes to the fam and some friends at our beautiful thai airport and flying to my "homeland". it was bittersweet, lookin out the plane window at all the glittering lights of the city i love and trying to get excited about the new home God had called me to. i guess is was more sad than happy. but then, i was certian my God would take care of me. and He did.
i was overwhelmed by His love for me.
and now, and year later, i wrap my arm around my sister and wave goodbye to three very dear people. and they walk through security.
they go back home.
we stay.
and thats hard.
but i'm certian He will overwhelm me again.

we get in the car. Gogo drives. Shaina sleeps. and Jaimie Grace's "You Lead" plays on the radio station. yepp. its a God moment. and i'm overwhelmed.
here are the lyrics for ya:

You lead, I'll follow, Your hands hold my tomorrow,
Your grip, Your grace, You know the way,
You guide me tenderly,
When you lead, I'll follow,
Just light the way and I'll go,
Cause I know what you got for me is more than I can see,
So lead me on, on, on and on,
Just lead me on, on, on and on,

isn't that beautiful?
okay, so it may not be that meaningful to anyone else, but for me it was a wonderful reminder that my God has great plans for me. and even tho rite now they include letting my family head back to thailand without me, i am gonna trust Him. and adore Him.
i love my God :)

GOD DID IT! :)
so.... yeah. its been a while.
and heres the London update i know you've all been waiting for. ahaha. umm. anywayz

Saturday (theres an early post abt this day. but its where the story starts. so you get to hear abt it again. >< haha)  -  left lucys. ran to the train station. lost oyster card. found oyster card (YAY GOD). missed train. arrived 30 mins late. locked out of church. let in by construction workers several times. had a sister worship time (not worship ourselves. just to clarify. that would be gross.) Caught playing piano. met "the team". explored our new home. Became friends with the construction workers through awkward mutual misunderstandings.  Ran in the rain. caught playing the piano. again. Explored the park. Did laundry. Set up rooms in the basement. Ate at the orange room. Slept.

Sunday- awkward moments on the way to the showers. Beautiful church service. Lunch with ladies. tiny taste of tourism. Another service. Nandos with sam and andre. Buckingham palace and westminister abbey. skype with family. and zach.

Monday – tough group moments. Door to door with henk. Jewish guy. Greedy cow. “Can’t you tell?”  Met with andy. Bengali boys. awesome new friends. Lana gave her testimony. Skype. again. at least... i think it was then.

Tuesday – English class. Women’s fellowship. Sang indescribable. Jay talked. Made appointments at saloon. Henk made coscos. Night English classes. Banana grams. Late talk with lana.

Wednesday – the light. laughed as the beer can fell out of the guy's coat. Bede estate. played jenga. sat on a cab. gave testimony.  The amazing spiderman with ash and sam. Ate jonathans food and nutella muffins. Late talk. again. :)

Thursday – door to door. Tea with Italian man. Henk made food. Met with andy again. more bengali boys. Jay and lana gave testimonies. escaped to the "loo" for a good talk with God :)

Friday – run. Hair appointments. Awkward moments. Cable cars. Sam’s uni. O2. Boat. London bridge. Tower bridge. Tube to british museum. One direction starbucks. Buckingham palace. Abbey and ben. Southbank. Tube and bus. Fish n chips. Contact. “CUSHION”   Skyped mari. Bible study with lana.

Saturday – set up shop. Got points. Gave free biscuits to fasting people. Bengali boys. again. Torch came. Samsung fights. “just eat it.” Went to the shopping center. Lost dale and hunter. boo.  “we did it”. Walked home. Ate indian food. Henk gave his testimony. Biked. Slept earlyish (1 am)

Sunday – another great service. Lunch with sam and micky. “beans on toast”. Park pictures. Hair.com. walked back. More pictures. Napped. Worked on song. Song service. Shared with church (and cried of course). Andre walked in late. Met mom’s friend. Lana, random man and I talked to random dude. Shaina and kate came back. Guys came back. Made food. Bengali boys. again.  Sang songs. Made tea. Got socks. Said good bye around 12. Hung out with sam and andre. They rapped. We laughed.  Played contact. Packed. Got separated in the tube. Were reunited.  Awkward good byes with sam and andre. Went to the fifth terminal. Ate. Slept. Waited.and finally boarded plane.

so there you go.

and if you have any questions, its pretty much all shaina and i have been able to talk about so please ask one of us :)

and to tie in the title of today's post i'll hafta give a short background story.

so we were at the mall.. errr.. shopping center, and this guy was handing out popoutandfoldtogether paper torches. we couldn't resist. so uzzi, shaina, rahul, and i each grabbed one and proceeded to create our own torches. uzzi finished first, and proudly waved his in the air yelling "i did it!" and grabbing the attention of everyone around us ( i mean, the ones that weren't already staring at us for sitting in the rotating lounger). yeah. and then for some odd reason the rest of us decided to do the same when we finished creating ours. and we've been quoting uzzi ever since.

but yeah. as i thought about everything that happened on our crazy london trip, i felt like the best way to sum the whole thing up was simply to say

GOD DID IT! :)

"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith.!And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and this things will be given to you as well.
"Do not be afraid, little flock, fo you Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possesions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasuer in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treausre is, there your heart will be also." Luke 12:27-34

"Theres a reason I'm alive for the blink of an eye."

I now sit in the basement of a church where i shall be living for the next 10 days. It has wifi. yay. and no showers. boo. so at 9 am tomorrow its very probable that a strange group of mississippians, and two blonde girls from thailand will make their way over to leisure center to freshen up. whoo. but yeah, i'm stealing from tomorrow's post. :P let me back up to yesterday.
Yesterday i toured peckham. don't worry, i wasn't alone. aha. lame. anyhow. Lucy Coates from our host family was free, so Sam and Lucy showed Shai and me around. we rode on three double decker buses.. and sat on another one. haha. it was really fun sitting in the front and pretending to drive. yepp. us harkins are easily entertained.
we played monopoly when we got back "home". apparently i'm pretty bad at that game. sam isn't. i got out super early, but was secretly happy cause then, whilst my tres amigos were nosily competing, i slipped out the back door with my favorite bright green duct taped Bible and finally had some alone time with my best friend. :) it had been a while.
there was a nice bench at the edge of their garden covered from rain by a big tree. it was wonderful. i quite enjoyed my little spot. and i read about King Josiah and Absalom, and decided that even though absalom was one very good looking guy i'd marry a josiah over him any day. :) yay for good hearts.
after monoply we watched more game shows (big surprise) and cooked a quick thai dinner before Lucy headed out to babysit for a couple hours. and after that we made some great videos of our bar stool competitions with sam. good times.
the sad part came after that. good byes are always sad. no more needs to be said.
NEXT DAY:
it was kindof a stressful morning. we awoke early, took quick showers, ate hurried breakfasts, pushed our luggage down to the Oyster card machine, left shai with the luggage while i ran to look for my lost oyster card, ran back with the card in hand (thankz God!), tried to get the machine to work, found another machine, missed the train, spent 30 mins waiting (yes impatiently) for the next train, rode the train, took two tubes, and, finally, found the church.
we were late, but turns out, so was everyone else. so we spent a couple awkward moments exploring the church. but all was well when we found a piano and shai played O Holy Night, and i played Blessed be you name and we sang our hearts out to the Lord
it was in the midst of this glorious moment that our friends arrived and i was reunited with my dear friend Lana Pol. God is good.
to sum up the events that have passed since then: 
- Lana, Shaina and I went out for coffee
-Lana, Dale, and Hunter slept even though Shaina and Rissa told them not to
-Rissa and Shaina ran around the block twice in the rain and explored the church some more
-Rissa and Shaina were caught singing and playing piano. again.. this time by other new friends
- we got a proper tour of our new home
-we ate lebanese food
-we got a proper tour of the neighborhood and a really cool cementery where i took amazing pictures
-Rissa and Shaina did laundry at some... place.. and had to buy soap
-Rissa and Shaina were responsible and went to the leisure center to discover that it was closing for the day and showers would have to wait more that 12 hours. sad
-Rissa and Shaina then enjoyed the equipment at the random park place :)
-Rissa washed dishes while Shaina went on facebook
-Lana and Rissa went to Subway while Shaina was on facebook
-Rissa and Shaina skyped Isaach, Zach, Kevin, ... and several other amazing people who happened to be at the same amazing place.
yepp. thats pretty much it.
oh, now for my quote.
 ummm that song has been stuck in my head.
i think its cause here i am in london and i feel like every moment counts. like i did when i moved to mississippi . haha. and i wonder what path God has prepared for me, and what on earth is it He wants me to do.
don't get me wrong, i'm thankful to be alive for now. but today i caught myself wondering - what is the reason that i'm alive.. for the blink of an eye?
and you know what? i kinda feel like i won't get the answer to that question until its all over and you know, i'm dead and promoted to glory and all. (yay!)
so for now, i guess i'm just gonna trust that i am here for a reason.
that theres more to what i'm seeing.
that there are footsteps to follow.

theres a reason you're alive for the blink of an eye.

Another cute Ari quote: "Rissa, you must trust Shaina. she will make sure you make it to the other side and you don't get hurt."

It was about half ten when Shai and i sheepishly appeared at Anne's door, a bit tardy for another day full of adventure. I will own up and admit that it was my fault we were late. but mom was chatting with my while i ate breakfast, so thats why. (good excuse huh?)
Today we decided to try a second attempt at spending a day at the park and were successful. :) the parks here in England are absolutly fantastic.
 its exciting.
 the weather was perfect for a day at the park, and the sky so perfectly clear i was sorely tempted to go buy a towel and spend hours staring at it. to bad the grass was muddy. probably wouldn't have been a great idea though, considering how Shaina and i are fairly sunburnt as it is. our newest shainaism (that actually orginates from sam) would be "its funny how we grew up in thailand, and then came to london and got a sunburn." :P i'll try to get a good picture of our red faces up soon. but back to our park excersion...
Shaina and i absolutly loved all the little kids yelling at each other with their adorable accents, and managed to video some of them while help Ari balance on a tightropeish thing.

at one point a little boy named George climbed quite high, and i could tell his grandmother was rather nervous (because she kept calling out to him saying: "um, george, don't you think it would be a good idea to come down now?", so i quickly went to his aid. he didn't really need my help though, and managed to get himself down rather impressively. then i made the mistake of congratulating him and saying "great job george!" to which he responded "how do you know my name." Shaina and i were laughing to hard to answer, and the poor little boy didn't play near us again. oh wellz.
Once Ari had successfully walked the tightrope back and forth several times, we let another young girl give it a go, and headed for another roped structure. Our new game was to let Ari gingerly make her way from one side and sit down in the middle. After she was seated, she would pick a side for Shaina to sit on, and once she was seated, i'd make my way to the other. Then the whole system would be repeated. This is where today's quote comes in. :)
the first time i was supposed to cross over and sit down, i sarcasticly remarked to shai about how "difficult" this process was going to be. dear Ari heard me and immediantly turn to shaina asking if she would be willing to to help me out if i needed it. when shaina told her that she would be willing to assist me in anyway, ari turned to me and gravely explained that all i needed to do was to trust shai, who had walked the way before me.  slightly embrassed by the whole conversation, i thanked shaina profusly and quickly made my way over to sit down.
however, as we continued on with our "game", i began to look into deeper implications of what had just happened. forgive me for philosophical or whatever for a bit, and bear with me. cause in my humble opinion, i actually had some pretty cool thoughts in those couple of mintues. :P
i began to imaine our lives as those roped in areas, and the ropes themselves as the individual struggles we come across. we are the little kids, looking hopelessly at the tangled masses, trying to make heads or tails of it all and to move on, and God is kinda like the big babysitter (i don't mean to be in anyway disrespectful by comparing Him to that at the moment) that we need to learn to trust.
it was fun, standing there and listening to Ari shriek as she clung tightly to the ropes, surrounded by two very capable babysitters with blonde curly hair, knowing that although to her the challenges looked huge, we could easily handle any problems she got herself into.
 i wondered if God often feels that way. He is there, right next to us as we squeal in horror at the tangled mass of ropes in front of us and it tempted to laugh because He knows who He is, and to say it plainly - from His point of view our struggles don't look all that hard. But just as i loved (and still love) Ari to much to laugh at her confusion or temporary moments of panic, and chose to patiently stand by her, He supresses a grin and reminds us during our darkest moments that He - like Shaina in the earlier part of our story - has walked the path before us, and will assisst us. We simply need to learn to trust in Him.... to follow His footsteps.
Isn't that kinda beautiful? slightly unreverent, i'll admit, but still. i love the thought of God seeing so much more than what we see, and loving us even when we forget that He is sooo much bigger than the issues we face. and He really is. while we see splinterly red ropes, He is gazing at a beautiful park with a lovely sky. well, maybe not. but i was.
anyhow.
we had a picnic at the park with the entire Glazier family and two friends, one of them an adorable boy named Jack who found great joy in chasing pigeons and eating the bread we gave him for feeding the ducks. the ducks were pretty aggressive, and reminded Shai and i about an experince we had (or, our brother had) while feeding deer several years back, but thats another story.

we then took a walk in the park, stopped for ice cream, and basically chased Ari and Jack around while snapping photos and laughing at all of Sam's great comments. good times.
It was midafternoon when we got back to Annes. first we washed off our muddy feet. then we watched more game shows. the pointless jackpot was almost given away, guys. and argentina has a lot of silver... or is it gold? :PP
we spent the rest of the evening at a youth event with sam, the two girls from our host family, and about 20 other teenagers. that was fun. shaina, lucy, my new favorite sam, and i made up the champion team for the connect four game. pretty sure we won a few other games too. maybe. defintely lost the strawberry lace game though. sam's team won that one. glad he won something.
one little boy looked like edmund from the Narnia, so i got a picture with him. afiterwards he was grinning really big and telling his friends "i'm famous!" pretty sure i made his day. :)

Lucy, Sam, Shai and i had a great time drinking tea, eating sweets, and catching up on life for the next hour or so. and now i'm left alone in the kitchen, typing away to my heart's content. hopefully you've enjoyed the post and i didn't make to many typos this time. God bless!

"I spy something that starts with the letter... blue"

Monday afternoon met two courageous sisters braving their way around the train station, eager to prove their indepence and intelligence to the world. Aganist all odds we arrived at the Denmark Hill station right around 3:30, where we met up with the Glazier family (minus the men who were busy touring some random, unimportant football pitch) and Anne.
After arriving at Anne's house, we received a tour from Ari, switched the shirts on the Winnie the Pooh bears, smelled all the flowers in the garden, and then had tea before being walked down to the home we are now staying at. A delightful family with two teenage girls offered to take us in for a couple nights so we could stay nearby, and we have greatly enjoyed their generousity and company. As well as their accents and appliances. (we had a wonderful chat that night about carpet fur and cat fibers before retiring for bed)
We woke up early Saturday morning (i think Shaina is still suffering from our intense jetlag) and had a great breakfast that included pecans and nutella. In case you were unaware, americans and indians say those words differently than the english do.
The rest of the day was spend touring London with Sam Glazier. Despite the fact that he has grown up in thailand, he did a pretty great job playing tour guide. we learned new information from the signs we read, and we only really got lost once thanks to the shard, gherkin, and turban tower. We began our journey by each grabbing the best seller free newspaper, and hopping on a tram.

 we got to see the national gallery (who knew artist often paint in panels that can only be detected by x-ray?), buckingham palace and the changing of the royal guard, st. james park (where we had a lovely picnic with 100% british potato crisps), South Bank (i got ANOTHER bracelet before Shai even got her first), tower bridge, St. paul's cathedral,  tower of London, the Globe, and probably more. it was a lot of walking and great fun. except that poor sam was a little sick after the fish and chips we ate at Hot Munchies to escape the rain.

We made it back "home" around 7:00 after getting stuck in rush hour traffic and watched several shows before splitting up for the night and debriefing with our host family.


Today began a little less early - we were back at Annes to spend the morning chillaxing with Sam and Ari at 10. Ari and i spent most of the morning making pretend honeycakes and offering them to our costumers. Then we had a Jenga tournament. i placed 3rd.. out of four. i think our favorite moment of the tournament had to be when one of the contestants managed to topple the tower on the first turn. but watching sam and shaina play under the umbrella that Ari insisted they needed to protect them from the rain outside was pretty great too.
After a quick lunch, we headed out to Grenwich park. traffic was suprisingly heavy, but we made great use of the time spent in the car by playing I Spy. we were all pretty good at the game, but, as Mr. Richard explained, we have had years of practice, so we ought to be.
And in case you haven't put it all together, that would be the same conversation where today's quote comes in. not near as deep of a quote as they sometimes are, but it was so adorable, i couldn't resist. i guess Ari was a bit confused when we changed from colors to initials. :D
we finally arrived at the park over an hour later and found it was closed. sad day. but we still got to walk through the tunnel under the Thames, so that was super exciting... and very cold. God is preparing Shai and i for american winters. :P  We also went to the Maritime musem. that was pretty great too. i learned that chinese people used compasses to know which way to place bodies they bauried. who knew?
Ari and i danced on the cobbled streets all the way to the car. that may have been the highlight of my day - warm sunlight, a blue sky, fluffy white clouds, cool breeze, beautiful streets, and a very happy little friend twirling around and holding my hand. i love it.
back at Annes we watched more shows (Ari got really into Deal or No Deal), and had a great pasta and english sausage supper with a juicy melon for desset. yum. and then we watched Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. very intertaining. and i got a few rite. whoo.
and here i am back at the host home, ready to head to bed because sam said we were a tad bit late yesterday, and i'll need sleep if i need to move as fast as Shaina in the morning.
God bless!

"Yet there with my love, I'm home"

 Shaina and I began our monday morning with more tea, toast, packing, and watching Fiddler on the Roof with Nanny. It was one of the two movies she had, and my first choice. Since being Golde my junior year, i have a special place in my heart for that musical. okay, thats a little cliche, but i did enjoy watching the movie again. Shai and i quoted all our favorite lines and laughed at them even before they were uttered from their character's lips. And although i've always loved the part where Tevye demands to see the sewing machine, but this time i fell in love with Hodel's song "Far From the Home I Love".  i guess cause i've been away from "home" the past year it really touched me and all. sentimental, i know.  haha. but as sad as the song is, theres a certian hope to it. she leaves the home she loves. why? to be with the man she loves... because, as today's quote explains, with her love she is home.

the start of the song says "how can i hope to make you understand why i do what i do, why i must travel to a distant land, far from the home i love." how often have i felt this way when asked why i left Thailand for Mississippi? :P
it then says "once i was happily content to be as i was, where i was, close to the people who are close to me, here in the home i love"
i was.
"who could see that a man could come that would change the shape of my dreams? Helpless now i stand with him, watching other dreams grow dim. oh, what a melancholy choice this is: wanting home, wanting him. closing my heart to every hope but his, leaving the home i love. there where my heart has settled long ago, i must go, i must go. who could imagine i'd be wandering so far from the home i love. yet, there with my love, i'm home."
obviously, i would change some of those lines. hahaha. but i think by now you guys get where i'm going with this. -> i was happily content with my little life in Thailand, but then God changed the shape of my dreams when He called me to Hattiesburg. so there i must go :) cause with my love, i'm home.
that line really made me smile, cause my love is everywhereeee. here, in beautiful london with its crazy weather - i'm home. back in thailand with its happy people and intense heat - i'm home. in hattiesburg with my new friends and responsibilities - i'm home. and someday when i go to heaven and get to know see my love better, i'll feel more at home than i ever have before. :) yay for love!
anyhow. those are my thoughts, and i'll fill u in with our travel details later. byeee!

July 8^th’s Quote: “What excuse are you using?”

                 By 9:30 this morning, we had finished another wonderful breakfast (complete with tea and toast), prepared ourselves for church, and were headed out the door and down the road to Gravel Hill to, once again, catch the tram. I think we classify as experienced travelers now. Here are two things we have learned about tram travel – the tram only comes once every 15 minutes on Sundays, and, as our favorite poster explains, you don’t wanted to be remembered by a handful of flowers by the tram tracks.

                We were plenty early when we arrived at the queue for the 11:30 service, but  weren’t too sad because we had observed that the church-welcomers were slowly making their way down the line and making conversation with each clump of visitors. We couldn’t wait to see their reaction when we explained that the four of us had grown up in Thailand together. Sadly, we must have appeared to be very deep in conversation as our welcomer walked past because he simply said hello and then went on to the next couple. That was slightly depressing.

                Not much later we were lead to the entrance and found ourselves some seats near the front of the theatre. We didn’t recognize any of the songs, but I genuinely enjoyed one called beneath the waters.

                The guy that spoke was a young man named Simon, who had been awake for the past 36 hours and has a huge passion for tennis and Andy Murray. This made us very happy, and we liked him from the start.

                He had us look at the book of Jonah and made everyone say the words “Get up” whenever we came across them. It had been a while since I had studied Jonah, and to be honest I had forgotten how God used Jonah’s disobedience to bring the whole ship of people to Himself. That might be my favorite part now.

                What Simon took from the first three chapters of Jonah was how we tend to run away and make excuses rather than to follow the Lord’s leading. The quote from today was a challenge from him to us to figure out what we use in our lives as lame or “good” excuses to keep from obeying the Lord. I guess mine is fear of what others think of me. When I was talking to that guy at Starbucks and I could tell that he wasn’t happy to hear me say that the reason my family lived in Thailand was because God called us there, I decided not to mention my Savior again for the rest of our 20 minute conversation. I guess I need to draw closer to the Lord, because “perfect love casts out fear”, and I don’t want my silly fears to get in the way of God bringing beauty to a broken life ever. Why do we fear things of the world anyway?

                After the service, we walked over to Covent Garden and found a lovely little place called the Traditional Pub where Shaina and I got to have Fish n Chips as well as a Posh Fish Finger sandwich (we enjoyed the name so much we simply had to try it). Twas a very delightful experience. And since the Hardys had treated us to this true English lunch, we treated them to London’s best waffles. Fair trade, huh?

                We looked at several cute shops at the square, marveled at the tin man with amazing balance, and dropped some loose change in the cup of the man who sat on the corner singing through a traffic cone. And then we were back underground, on our way to Starbucks once again. So we aren’t only experienced travelers, but also Starbucks regulars. : )

                Anna met up with another friend, so it was back to the trio as we travelled back to Nanny’s, but this time we didn’t run into our entertaining friends. Nor did we find a man in a suit to update us on Andy Murray’s match.

                When we arrived we watched an exciting game show called “The Chase” and then found a channel that let us know that Andy lost. Sad day. We had tea to cheer our spirits, and then Kate had to leave.

                Since then we have enjoyed other channels, more tea and toast, my first hot cross buns, and now a quiet evening with Fiddler on the Roof playing in the living room. It’s been a good day.

                And considering how I already shared a bit from my heart earlier in this post, I think that will be all for now. God bless!

Quote of the Day: “All we are is just pilgrims passing through..”

                We started off our day with several successes – not waking up super early like crazy jetlaggers, eating the best toast I’ve ever had off beautiful blue and white Tower of London dishes, taking the tram, finding a Starbucks, posting on my blog for the first time, and fulfilling Shaina’s dream of having a Starbucks cup with Cecelia written in black marker across the cup. She still has the cup. : )

                The weather was gorgeous and made for great pictures as we strolled along the South Bank, gazed at Big Ben, and touched the London Eye supports to make ourselves feel more accomplished. We considered riding it, but really, who wants to spend 20 pounds and half an hour waiting in line when the view might be more amazing on the ground level anyhow. And we certainly did see some … interesting sights. Lots of people were dressed as tin men or famous actors. A few had hats out with signs that read “operates with coins or notes” and we were tempted to pay to watch them dance (or do whatever they had planned for our entertainment) but were, of course, too cheap to do so.

There was a French man who called me over, asked me to put my finger out, and proceeded to make a Union Jack friendship bracelet for me. I still have that on. Makes me look like a tourist, but that doesn’t really matter because our accents give us away, although I have detected a slight change in them already.  Everyone at Uni will be pleasantly surprised.

                The scenic route was in order (kind of because we got lost for a bit) as we headed towards Tate Modern.  That was fun. Several wonderful pieces of art there.  We did find though that we didn’t seem to be as cultured as those around us because the random shapes didn’t exactly resonate in our souls, and we weren’t quite sure how the sculptures represented fish. We did find one piece about Thailand that left the four of us rather excited. Course, we couldn’t tell you what it said, but we were still quite proud of the display.

                Our feet were quite tired after walking around several display rooms, so we found what we hoped was a bench rather than artwork, and sat down for a bit before heading out on an adventure to find the Hummingbird bakery.

We took the tube and then decided to walk and found ourselves right in the middle of a Gay Right’s parade. Needless to say, we felt a little out of place…. although Shaina pointed out that my laptop case had a rainbow design so that helped me fit in. Yay.

                Eventually we squeezed our way through the thick crowds, giggling to ourselves (although I was sadden for a quick moment when someone spilled beer on my new shoes) and sighed with relief when we sighted our delightful bakery filled with delectable treats. Anna, Kate and I each picked out cute cupcakes and Shai got a brownie with a powdered sugar outline of hummingbird. It cost extra to eat in the tiny shop, so they wrapped our sweets in adorable bags and sent us on our way to the Starbucks down the road.

                I was thirsty for a sip of water, as was Shaina, so we put our heads together and decided that our cheapest option was for me to stand in line for the loo with her Cecelia cup and then to fill it up with tap water (an option we wouldn’t have in Thailand). I ended up standing in line for nearly 20 minutes before I could follow through with the essential part of our scheme and found myself surrounded by a few eccentric characters. The Indian guy beside me struck up conversation by asking “So, are you here for the Gay Rights Parade?” He, rather proudly, was. We carried on until it was finally my turn to use the toilet, and I learned that he was a chef, his eight best friends live in California (so he is planning to move there after he heads to Canada), and he finds the England weather shameful. We haven’t found it to be that bad though.

                So after our third time at Starbucks in England, we were back on our way to the Tube. In case you were curious, we didn’t walk back the way we first came, but we saw several rainbow capes just the same.

Anna met up with a friend at the Victoria station, so Kate, Shaina and I travelled back to Nanny’s as a trio and had a great time on the train. There are only two sections on each train car that have four seats facing each other, and we always try to sit on those.  When the three of us entered together, we found that three of those four seats were free, but didn’t want to make the poor man in the fourth seat feel too awkward, so I ended up taking the seat diagonal to him while Kate and Shaina sat together behind me. This way we managed to carry on conversation and leave him to his peace – until three VERY loud elderly adults walked in, taking the two free seats and one across the aisle. Kate, Shaina and I couldn’t help but laugh at their random comments (as well as the facial expressions of those around us) and giggled silently when the poor man, now in a very awkward situation, popped his ear buds in. I think our favorite comment from the excited group was when the lady told Jaffa that his face reminded her of a camel.

                Another funny moment was when we were walking from the tram to Nanny’s and Shaina mentioned how she had been too “showered to tire” the night before. I really enjoyed that. : ) Then we had to recall all of our favorite word flip-flops and were laughing rather hysterically when we arrived for a Shepherd’s Pie dinner. (Random note: the reason we were so punchy was that we were jetlagged and it was after eight, although the sun was still up.)

                A delicious supper led to dishwashing and preparing for bed, but when Anna got back, we sat around in PJs, drinking tea and talking until one in the morning when we decided we must go to bed in order to make it to the 11:30 Hillsong Church service the next day. And we went to bed.

                I crawled under the covers with my Bible in hand, but didn’t end up reading it before I fell asleep. Nevertheless, God and I had several conversations throughout the day, and I just want to share with you how the quote at the top of the page fits in with what He has been teaching me.

                Since I left Thailand for college, God and I have talked a lot more than we ever did. A major part of what we talk about is basically this: me marveling at the beauty He has created, and me asking Him why there is so much brokenness in this world. I love it when God shows me beauty in the broken places, but it is terribly hard to think of a place or person as divinely beautiful, and then to find brokenness there.

                England is perhaps the most beautiful country I have ever been to, but, to be honest, it has its brokenness. Boo. But the great thing about noticing the sad parts of our world is to realize that Heaven is completely void of all of them. God changes everything. And the great thing about the amazing parts of this world is the knowledge that they don’t even compare to the sights we shall see someday at our heavenly home.

                And that’s how the quote for Steven Curtis Chapman’s song “Long Way Home” fits in. I first heard the song this summer and absolutely love the way he talks about the hope of heaven on the hard days and how we must kept from getting too comfortable here on the good ones. It doesn’t matter whether we are surrounded but terribly wonderful or wonderfully terrible situations – Heaven is far greater than earth, and God is absolutely fantastic. And as His children, all we are is “pilgrims passing through”.

                So there you are. Wise words from Rissa. Aha. Hope you enjoyed them!  God bless!

yepp. i just learned how to post pictures.what up.

Favorite Quote of the Day: “Dreams are tawdry when compared to the leading of God, and not worth the aura of wonder we usually surround them with. God only doeth wonders. He does nothing else. His hand can work nothing less.”

I’m not quite sure when my Friday began, but I think it was sometime between eating Burger King at the airport with my family and saying “goodbye/see you in three quick weeks” to Mom, Dad and Isaac, and silently thanking the Lord as our BA flight finally lifted off Thai ground. The third farewell to my favorite temporary home wasn’t near hard as the other two had been for one main reason – I now have my sister with me. It’s a lot easier to wait patiently for a chance to return when you enjoying time with a close friend.  And at the moment we are having a mint time in London.

We arrived after approximately 11 hours on the plane. I slept for nine of those. In case you are unaware, British Airlines have wonderful little headrests that slide around. I think every airline ought to consider investing in them. Another thing you should know – I didn’t use my screen at all. Except for when Shai reached over and put on a One Direction song for the both of us to enjoy.

But on to more important details..

The flight ended, and we walked briskly to immigration, were we spent a lot of time worrying about whether or not we actually could enter this beautiful country visa-less. At the end of our slightly stressful experience, it was decided that we could on the condition that we enjoy ourselves and not work. I shed a few tears and Shaina sang praises to the Lord.

We arrived at baggage claim half an hour later (after landing, that is) to collect our bags – two of the last three on the carrousel (the last one belonged to our genius of a new friend, Luke who is hopefully enjoying his first day in London at a camp) and set off to find Kate Hardy, her cute car, and then Anna. Us four girls had fun trip down (or up?) to Puckeridge in the County Ware, and got to spend a delightful couple hours with the Robinson family. I believe my favorite part of that was walking down an adorable street in crisp weather, with a Gregg’s sausage roll in hand and four wonderful friends laughing beside me. God is good to allow us such carefree moments in life. : )

After that, the two sets of sister piled in the cute car again. Next stop -> Nanny’s house. It took us about 2 and ½ hours, but the drive was so gorgeous I don’t think Shai or I minded at all, especially when we found ourselves on a thin road with tall hedges on both sides and managed to narrowly squeeze by an older car with a man and his piglet inside. Fun times.

There was hardly a moment to enjoy Nanny’s home because by then it was nearly 6 and the 7:30 showing of Singing in the Rain was about 1 and ½ hours away. So after a quick freshen up, we were back in the car, and then on the tram, the train, and the underground tube. We found all modes of transportation to be efficient and pleasant, which is good because we will probably be enjoying them for the remainder of our time here. We will probably even get our own Oyster cards – proof that we are well-traveled around the London area.

Singin’ in the Rain was an amazing experience. It was a blessing from the Lord that we had tickets to balcony seats since we were a tad bit late and they wouldn’t have seated us till intermission (or “interval”) had we gotten tickets for lower seats, so yay God!

We sat high up in plush seats, singing along and quoting lines from our favorite scenes. I could go into a more in-depth commentary of our opinions of each character, the way they said certain lines, and how they set up each scene, but I’m pretty sure my Dad might be the only person who would actually appreciate listening to all of that.

Upon exiting the theatre, Shaina and I felt like we were part of a movie. Everyone around of was humming, and the scenery was simply beautiful. We rushed past tall, brick walls as the sun went to sleep around us, and when we emerged from the underground, the weather was cold and the sky dark – lit by a yellow, waning moon.

 Just so you know, the moon looks different in England - more similar to the American moon, but still different. And not at all like the Thai moon, although we did establish that it must grow and shrink at the same time and amount in both hemispheres. You’ll thank me later for this random information.

Not long after our moon discussion, Shaina and I were crawling into two comfy beds at Nanny’s house, with our three “suitcases” and carry-ons scattered about the lovely room. I read Psalm 70 before going to bed, and felt like I could identify with David, after all my fears from standing at immigration earlier that day… but before I hit a more serious note, Shaina wants me to inform our readers of our three funniest/ most awkward moments of the day:

1.       The first takes place at the airport. The airport elevator (“lift”) to be exact. And the moment when Shaina and Kate stepped out of the elevator and Maurissa Grace Harkins stayed in the elevator as the doors closed and the elevator went up, to be more exact. It was slightly awkward when two British gentlemen entered the elevator with one very confused and embarrassed me.

2.        The second began with Shaina explaining to Leah that the reason she had a striped shirt on was because Louie Tomlinson wears them, and therefore she figured it was London fashion, to which Leah replied that London fashion does not revolve around what Louie Tomlinson wears. And then the next two people we saw were wearing striped shirts. Coincidence?

3.        The third took place is Starbucks. Shaina has always had this dream of telling the starbucks barristers that her name was Cecelia, and then hearing them call out her fake name when her tall hot chocolate with whipped cream on the top was complete.  For this sole purpose, she bolstered up her courage and ordered a tall hot chocolate with whipped cream on top from the Indian guy with a british accent. Unfortunately, he didn’t ask her what her name was.

Oh, and although not in our top three, the Shriek Musical conversation on the trolley was another funny/awkward moment when the friendly girl beside scooted over and proudly announced that she had three parts in that musical, and we had just been saying  we wondered who had turned Shriek into a musical, and what kind of strange songs they could have added to that story. That was an interesting hole to dig ourselves out of. But I’d say we did a fair job, and our young friend was glowing when we congratulated her on being quite the actress and for her new role in the Matilda Musical.

But back to more heartfelt things.

I felt like God taught me a lot about trusting Him today. In my head I can think “duhhh, God knows what He is doing, of course I’ll trust the Maker of the Universe with my future!”, and I can even say those words rather convincingly with my mouth. But it gets harder to do both (and to believe so in my heart) when it looks like my dreams may not come true (ie:  when I learned I may not be able to enter the country with all the amazing places Shai and I been trying to figure out when to visit, and all the people I had been planning to meet and get to know).

 I have a lot of silly little dreams of my life that I tend to cling tightly to whenever it looks like God may have other plans for me. I guess because I think my dreams for myself are so great, God’s can’t be better. Sounds blasphemous when you write it out, huh? But I honestly do feel that way sometimes, and that’s the reason I have put Jim Elliot’s quote at the top of my first blog entry, on a post –it on my laptop, and even on a real post-it on my dorm wall. I guess I need a constant reminder of how small I am, how great He is, how much He loves me, and, therefore, how much better His plans are for my wisp-of-a-life.  I know He will carry me through the hardest moments He has planned for me to go through, and hold my hand to remind me of His incredible love for this fragile disciple. He has planned each of my days and has walked before me.

Therefore, I shall keep loving this life ….

                                And following footsteps.