I suppose it's my own fault for waiting this long to write a new blog, because now I find myself struggling to choose which stories to share of the hundreds of things that have happened since my last post. I've narrowed the "hundreds" down to just 4...aren't you proud? I tried to be brilliant, and make the 4 things start with the same letter, or at least have them spell out a word...after all, I DID go to Bible College. As we all know, every good ministry-related thing makes excellent use of alliteration and the like. I was unsuccessful, sadly...yet another reason I could never be a preacher. Well, on with it, already!

1.) Scotland: I have finally experienced a proper "British Holiday" as I spent a week in Scotland with my teammate (Amy), her sister, and her sister's friend. Scotland was AMAZING!! We were in Edinburgh for a couple of days (even had time to visit with a missionary there who Amy went to Ozark Christian College with) and then took a backpacker's tour (with "Haggis Adventures") up through the Highlands of Scotland, including Loch Ness and many other crazy-beautiful areas of Scotland. I ate haggis (twice, actually...I liked it!), saw an ancient (like, B.C. ancient) pagan worship site, learned how to make a kilt by simply folding one giant piece of fabric (a skill which will, no doubt, come in handy often), and took a cruise on Loch Ness searching for the illustrious Nessie. My photos are in the Scotland album on my Flickr site ~

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sisterhutch/

2.) Friends: I can't stress enough how encouraging it was for me to have two of my friends visit! It's strange to think that everyone I've been with over the last 9 months or so has been people I've only known for...well, 9 months or so. It was nice to have friends that I've known for years make the tiring journey across the pond to stay with me for a little over a week! Bonnie and Miriam stayed in Nottingham for a few days, getting to see (and participate in!) some of the ministry I'm involved in on a weekly basis. It was really good for me to see Nottingham and my ministry here from new eyes all over again! We had a lovely time seeing the city, playing crazy games with youth, and strolling by my favorite place in West Bridgford - - the Trent River. After that, we spent the weekend in London, getting to see some of my favorite "big-city" sites - the Tower of London, Big Ben, the British Museum...and, of course, experiencing the joy of the underground Tube! I had an amazing time in London; we went to a few places I've never had the chance to go in London yet, such as Portobello Road (remember that from Angela Landsbury's "Bedknobs and Broomsticks"??) and we even went to church at the new Hillsong London venue.

3.) E-mail: Here is an excerpt from a message our team recently received from the head of the Religious Education department at West Bridgford School ~

"I am writing Year 7 reports at the moment, which involved them writing about their achievements this year. A significant number mentioned the lesson with the Americans as standing out a lot in their memory. One girl wrote: "the topic that I think I did well in was when we had visitors from USA and I listened and concentrated and I still remember what they were saying" - which I take to mean the lesson had a big impact."

How encouraging! Also, one of the older girls that has been coming to our after-school club for years now has been showing a LOT of interest in learning more about God. She has even chosen to focus on Religious Education in her Sixth Form courses (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixth_Form). My teammate David has given her a teen Bible, and we're all hoping to get the chance to talk with her about things more outside of school. Please pray for her and for her parents (who are atheists who often forbid her to visit our after school club).

4.) Decision: After tons and tons of prayer and talking with friends and family (both here and in the U.S.), I have finally made my decision to stay for another year. I'll still be going home for a month or more to re-raise support and make sure my visa is in order, so hopefully I'll have the chance to visit most of you during that time!

I've been working really hard over the last year to get to the point where I am now with the local youth, and it seems like leaving now would be a huge mistake. I feel that I've managed to build trusting relationships with a few different groups of un-churched kids, and I don't feel right dropping those right now. Also, a lot of what I've been doing this past year has been preparation, set up, and ground work for some really exciting ministries...we're getting SO close to seeing the fruits of our labor as everything starts to kick off, and I want to be here to see these projects through. It just makes sense on so many levels, and God has really given me a peace about staying. I think I'm starting to get even MORE excited about what God's going to do in my 2nd year here than I was about coming for this year...so yeah, that's a lot of excitement :)


So there we go...my update. Sorry for the delay between posts! What can I say? I'm a terrible person :) I'll try to be better in the future. Until then, thanks again for all of your encouraging e-mails and comments.

Pip pip and cheerio, my friends!