| 10:43p |
sparkles with lashings of cream
Well, the smell of campfire is still in my hair, there's tiramisu in my tummy and a general buzz happening in Carla Land. I'm looking forward to the weekend, and I'm looking fondly back upon the crazy week that was.
I returned via the Roanne-mobile from FEVA MYC a couple of hours ago. It was the yearly ritual- heave my suitcase up the steps, shout hellos to my boisterous family members, crank up the stereo, babble and gush about the week...and then check my uni results. Well, friends, I have to say that I nearly cried with joy when I read them. God has been so awesome to me with uni. I look back on last semester and think of how hard everything in my life was then, and it makes me so amazed at how God helped me to do uni work. Like, I spent most of my time during Autumn semester trying to figure out how to get out of my raincloud and agonising about boys instead of concentrating on parties, dandelions and shopping centres. "You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall." (Psalm 34:28-29)
So, the lowdown on FEVA MYC? It rocked! About fifty of us stayed down at Telford Conference Centre, which is in the Royal National Park, which is just past Sutherland. Scott and I raced there as the B-52's blasted through the stereo (my CD, not his), and unfortunately missed the road that lead to Telford because I was powdering my nose. The location was beautiful- a sparkly blue lake, loads of grass (though a girly girl like me wasn't too keen on the deer poo) and cute wood-panelled rooms. Also sparkling was the company. Five days with passionate, real and spunkerific Christian guys and girls ready and willing to get into God's word and love each other with everything they've got? Gimme more! The teaching was also stellar. I learnt so much this week about Jesus and prayer ("Prayer" was the theme of the talks and Bible studies for this week). One thing that stood out to me was how majestic God is. I think that I can often forget what a privilege it is to be in His presence. Like, the Israelites before Jesus' time had to wash and cleanse themselves for days before they could do anything related to God. Because that is how truly unworthy we are to be in His presence. But now, because Jesus died for us and took God's wrath for us, we can come to God in prayer wherever we are, and whenever we like. Isn't that cool? Another thing I realised is that suffering is all part of the Christian life. Suffering is in fact a blessing, because it develops perserverance and maturity in us as Christians.
While I was there, I decided to give the nickname thing a go. You see, "Spacegirl Princess Carla" is a bit of a mouthfull. Someone asked me if they could call me "Carly", so I asked a couple of people to call me by that name for the rest of the week. Just to see what it felt like. Unfortunately, I kept forgetting, so whenever someone looked at me and said, "Hey, Carly?", I'd look at them in a rather blank and confused manner until I remembered that that was ME! Then I'd giggle, because "Carly" sounds so funny! Like, it sounds like the name of a cheerleader from a 1980's high school movie or something!
Last night was especially cool. The FEVA MYC crew trooped down to the lake, where there was this bonfire surrounded by some steps, and we sat around and talked about God and BGR (boy/girl relationships- it's the new lingo!), and sang songs from "Grease". I think that a little bit of campfire, blankets and starlight always does a broken heart some good. Oh, as well as lots and lots and lots of prayer. |