Paris Day 2 July 4th

Happy July fourth from Paris!

9 a.m. came early that day. At this point we have decided that grabbing a sandwich from the market is the best plan. Before we left we discussed which sites to see and in what order. We decided on taking a tube to Notre Dame and walking most of the rest of the day. Notre Dame, the Louvre, and then some lunch. We were too excited to plan the whole thing. We basically just got on the same page before setting off. We left in search of a tube. A few blocks later we found one.

Notre Dame first on the list, and it didn't disappoint. A lovely elderly Frenchman showed me how to feed the birds.

There is an art to make wild animals feel comfortable enough to eat from your fingertips. Pinch a bread like food item between your fingers and ever so gracefully raise your arm in the air. It was amazing I felt just like Snow White. I have always wanted to feed random wild animals. Little tourist-tamed birds are close enough for me. Take note I had to soak my hand in hand sanitizer for 30 minutes afterword, because trust me they aren't that tame. The building itself was magnificent. We walked around the whole thing. Every wall, corner, and doorway whispers a story of its own.

I would retell every one if I could, but this is Paris in 72 hours or less, so buckle up.

A brief tourist gift shop, and side walk ice cream and hot dog vendor visit was in order. After a shared hot dog, 4 mini Eiffel Towers, one huge bottle of water, and rasberry sorbet we were on our way to the Louvre. Walking along the river was an experience within itself. The river is lined with vendors selling a montage of things, paintings, post cards, books, old odds and end

s, and plenty more.

The Louvre was brilliant. The queue was extraordinarily long, but surprisingly it only took thirty minutes. Once inside we set off for the italian paintings.

I saw THE "Mona Lisa", it was so unbelievably crowded. The guy standing behind me was from North Carolina. I heard him talking to one of his friends, and I got excited at hearing an accent from home. I turned and asked him where he was from. He kind of rolled his eyes and said America. Sometimes if your in a foreign country for a while the question becomes repetitive. Honestly the question isn't so bad as some peoples reactions, and most of the time your the best or your the absolute worst, and some people really don't mind sharing their opinions on your nationality.

I gave him my are-you-kidding-me face and said I know that, but where? He looked so surprised and said North Carolina. Then we talked about the carolinas for a while it was pretty great. We even saw him again later at the Arche de Triumphe. We continued our tour of the Louvre, with walking up tons of stairs to an area of sculptures and another italian painting area.

I saw the sculpture of "dum dum" from "Night at the Museum." We then made our way out in search of lunch.

We continued along the river and then veered off to find a nice quiet sit down place. We found a place and the boys ate MEAT. I believe that was their exact phrase. I had some pizza and we just sat for a while. We planned the rest of the day when we were done. Eiffel Tower, football stadium, and the Arche de Triumphe for the sunset. At this point I am completely exhausted, but its Paris. I kinda just had to get over it.

The Eiffel tower was HUGE, and it looked the same as it does in all the pictures. It was pretty amazing to see in person. We didn't go up because the queue was massive, and we heard it wasn't that big of a deal if you don't have time for it.

The Arche de Triumphe was my absolute favorite part of the whole trip. The sunset was beautiful and it was just really laid back. We walked across the street because we didn't know about the underground situation. We climbed some stairs and then just took pictures and watched the sunset.

We were all pretty tired. It was great! On the way back we walked under the street and then headed home. It was late and I was dead tired.

I am a genius!!!

The Shower Incident

England is cold. It is just a fact of life. Lately it has been semi-warm. The temperature has lingered around 70, which has been a blessing from the Lord for me (seriously). Since Wednesday the temperature has dropped to around 63 or somewhere near there lower when the sun isn't shining plus the wind has kicked up (actually it never died down).

I wake up 6:30 A.M. not super excited about h

aving to drag myself all the way downstairs to take a shower so I can drag myself all the way to the bus stop with wet hair, all the while the wind is blowing like a hurricane off the coast of Florida.

I give in and walk downstairs. Turn the water on and it is just not cutting it for warmth. This is one of those mornings that you would gladly welcome a little sting as long as it meant your bones would warm a little. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but the Button's shower has decided to give in. Let me explain the fixtures are currently temporarily unadjustable. So basically a nice medium warm temperature is picked and thats it. It is unchangeable unless you know where the pliers are, and I don't, and their gone for a while.

(please note the color coordinated kno

bs on top and bottom)

This is fine most days, but today its cold.

There are four handles for water. One hot and one cold for the bottom, which I have no idea why they are there, because there is not tub attached, but whatever. One hot and one cold for the actual shower nozzle up top. I reach down and turn the bottom hot on seeing if I can warm the top water up, and no that was a complete fail. Freezing cold water comes rushing down on my head as I nearly choke myself on the shower curtain trying to get out of the way. This "failure" however has lead to great discovery! So I turn the bottom cold on and then hot water comes out of the top. Just a little too hot if you know what I mean, but as I said before even a little sting is welcome at this point. A small adjustment and its smooth HOT sailing from there on. I am a genius! Hot showers for all. Praise the Lord. I spent the rest of my shower contorting my body as to remain in the hot water, but avoid the ever growing puddle of freezing water at my feet. No worries, it was great adventurous start to the day. I say this with all seriousness. So if ever your shower is being uncooperative just turn on cold water somewhere else. Happy Showering!

Paris Day 1 Saturday July 3rd

Paris is only one of the most amazing places.

I went with Brian and Mac. They are two other interns for CIU. We had a great time. It was stressful, but it was a great adventure! I learned a good bit about myself and about communication. Speaking of communication there are a few things that should be clarified before reading this blog. When I say train I mean above ground and when I say tube I mean underground like subway. Tube change is when you get off of one and move up or down levels to get on another.

(this is what 5a.m. looks like in London)

Starting at 6:50 p.m. Friday, July 2nd it took 1 train, 3 tube changes, and a taxi to get to Gypsy Hill in London to stay with Lenea(another CIU/CLC intern)so I could leave for Paris the next morning. (Thanks Lenea for letting me crash at your place!) Lenea and I ate pretzels and frozen Lasagna, while we giggled about "yankee" stuff. We are both very southern, but in England if your from the states your a yank. Actually we talked about how hot it was. It was 80, I am going to pass out when I get back to South Carolina.

Then Saturday starting at 5:00 it took 1 train, a 4 block walk, 2 tube changes, 1 more tube change (because we got confused), and an airplane to get to Paris. At 12:15 we landed and made our way through customs(which is the new bane of my existence). There was supposed to be a shuttle to take us to the hotel but that fell through (wimps). It then took a train, 2 tube changes, 2 difficult but fun multi-lingualconversations, and a taxi to get to the Best Western, where Mac had been waiting for us for almost 2 hours(it was 4 o'clock by the time we got there)(Sorry Mac). Exhausted and hungry we put our luggage in our rooms and set out to explore Paris, the city of love, and walking. ;)

First on the list of things to do was to FIND FOOD. Looking for a cheap place to eat was a complete fail. We walk into Zeyer, where we find a menu with things listed separately. Thats right we managed to wander into a restaurant that requires you to order every item individually. We ordered appetizers and left. But first we made our waiter translate the entire left side of the menu. Ahh Paris' ;) After we left we walked to the nearest market and bought a sandwich, well I had a baguette and let me tell you it may have been one of the best pieces of bread I have ever eaten in my life.

It is now 6:30 p.m. and what do we do we begin to walk. We wanted to take pictures at the top of Mountparnasse at sunset. Mountparnasse is this ridiculously huge building that allows you to not only see all of Paris, but also allows you to watch the sun set behind the Tour Eiffel.

We found the building then decided to adventure a little before heading up, because the sun sets around 9:30 in Paris during the summer. Turning to leave we noticed guy dressed in full skiing attire with skiing equipment standing on this wall type thing surrounded by his buddies, who had there cameras out. I thought he was going to try to ski down this slightly sloped wall thing he was on. Kodak moment right...WRONG! He started swaying, then he took his gloves off and throw them to various members of the audience, and then unzipping his jacket... It did not take long to figure out just what was going on. At this point I said, "Self I don't think he is doing what you thought he was going to do." Escape! Escape! How do I escape this situation. The wall thing was kind of blocking the exit. I turned my head and walked quickly and Brian says something like, yeah you probably shouldn't look. So that was a fun adventure...haha Ahh Paris'

Moving right a long. We walked around for a while and took pictures of this big building that had a golden dome roof.

I don't think it was a masque, but I actually have no idea what it was. We walked along the river, then headed back to Mountparnasse to watch the sunset and to take pictures of course.

At Mountparnasse we took 900 pictures too many. In all seriousness when your in a place so far away can you really take too many pictures? I think not. There was a beautiful sunset and after it finally set and there was no light to be seen the Eiffel Tower decided to put on a little show of its own. It sparkles at night, did you know that, because I didn't. It was so great!

After mount parnasse we got lost, but got to the hotel around 12:30 and decided to meet in the morning around 9 (I think. I couldn't remember then either. The boys came and got me.)

Lessons Pt 1

God is building my confidence. He is building my confidence in Him and in myself. Have you ever read You are Special by Max Lucado? It is a great little story about these little wooden “wimmicks” who give stars to the other wimmicks if they deem them special and dots to the wimmicks they don’t see as being so great. Punnichelo only ever gets dots, but one day meets Lucia, who has no stars or dots. The stars and dots just won’t stick to her. Punnichello wants to be like Lucia, so he asks how she does it. Lucia replies, “I go see Eli everyday.” Punichello goes to see Eli in His workshop. Eli is the creator of the wimmicks, and tells Punichello just how special he is and how much He cares for Punichello, because He made him and if he comes to see Him everyday he will soon be like Lucia and understand why. On Punichello’s way out as he pondered the validity of what was just said, one dot fall to the floor and rolls away.

My dots are falling off and it is to the praise of God’s magnificent glory. Today I witnessed to a man and his son on the train home from Canterbury. This is the first time in my life, that I have started a conversation with a perfect stranger and shared the gospel. It was not too long ago that, that would have been a lot less likely to have happened. Though, the enemy tried to plant doubt I was not moved. Jesus Christ is the only way to the father. God sent His only son to fulfill the law, die on a cross, and be raised from the dead three days later. It is the confession of sin and belief in Jesus Christ that brings us to salvation. That, my friends, is something to get excited about.

Captivating, by John and Stasi Elderidge, the book I am reading now, is talking about how God wants to be chased after, just like I want to be chased after. He wants me to come to His workshop to see Him everyday. He wants me to pursue Him. God has been teaching me to chase after him whole-heartedly. To spend all my time thinking not just about what He would have me do, but just spend my time thinking about Him. To do things, purely because it pleases Him. My analogy is girly, but totally applicable.

A girl has just had a great conversation with a very attractive guy. He talked about golf and how he likes Pepsi more than Coke. All of a sudden she is golfing and drinking Pepsi, even though she doesn’t consider G.O.L.F. an actual sport, and despite the fact that she is a die-hard coke fan, and absolutely despises the way Pepsi has this weird flavor that lays on her teeth after she drinks it. People do stuff like this so they can have something in common and we do things purely because he or she talked about it for half a second.

This goes back to what God was beginning to teach me about obedience at the end of this past term. I find myself starting to do things that are against the rules, but I know no one enforces that rule, and I have done this plenty before, and its no big deal, but for some reason I can’t bring myself to do whatever it was again. For instance I put my trainers (tennis shoes) on to go to work, because I don’t particularly love wearing my Danskos. However, in order to leave the house I had to walk all the way back upstairs, change shoes, and then go. I felt dumb for changing my shoes, but I can tell you I felt proud to wear my Danskos that day. I guess what I am saying is God is teaching me how to love him.

American...Party of One!

"Sarah Jane would you like to go with us to Andrews to paint their shed?"

And so the story begins.

First I should tell you that 1 Andrew is the Button’s only son, and 2 their version of shed would be something akin to a small sort of building you would put rakes and stuff in, you could maybe squeeze a John deer ridin’ mower in it if the door was big enough. In reality the door would be one wall and it would be the little mower.

When your going to paint you need painting clothes, but in my packing I didn’t think to pack painting clothes. So the Buttons let me borrow some coveralls, what they call a boiler suit. I heard Julia say that I could change when I got their, but I guess I just thought it wasn’t that dire and that it would be just as well to change clothes sooner rather than later. On the way to Andrew’s house we decided I needed more medicine from the chemist, aka the pharmacist, for my cold. We drive past the chemist and Jon points it out “There is where you will need to go.”

At this point I am getting confused, because I’m like why are we passing it? Why are you making sure I know which one it is? So h

e parks about half block away and says “Okay we will wait for you.” Now that is perfectly fine, more than okay, because I had gone by myself

before and had to walk a lot further, the problem comes when we remember what Sarah Jane is wearing. That’s right a slightly too small red boiler suit (I was too tall) covered in paint…Okay.

I felt like such an idiot. I felt like I should have had an “Im an American” sign flashing in neon lights over my head as I walked. Next time someone suggests for me to change there, I am changing there. The most Ironic thing is I changed clothes to go back to the Buttons and we just went straight back. (Yes, I took pictures, because I know you would appreciate the full affect it would give. Please note the slouched shoulders)

Other than this It was a great day. We painted the shed and the weather was wonderful.

I wore a t-shirt without a jacket…for about 30 min then the

clouds came back. ;) We ate fish and chips.

I had haddock it was wonderful! It was the best fish I have ever eaten. I am not a huge fish fan, but it was sooo good.George and Helen’s is the place we went, which it turns out that this fish and chip shop is kind of famous in Birmingham for having the BEST fish and chips.

All in all it was an absolutely wonderful day. That is me with Jon & Julia Button

The Blessing of Buttons

I LOVE THE BUTTONS! <3

Jon and Julia Button have graciously taken me in. They picked me up Saturday after work and introduced me to my new space.

I could have cried. It is absolutely positively delightfully perfect!

The Buttons are amazing people. They take such great care of me. Julia makes sure I am fed and watered and Jon makes sure there are no spiders and the heat in my room is up. They show me how to do things step by step, and make me feel so welcome.

Sunday I slept in, they left for church, and then I showered. They have these fabulous little mirror tiles laid right into the wall. After a skype with mom Julia served up the traditional Sunday England Super. Beef with mash potatoes, yorkshire pudding (see "words!" blog), vegetables, roasted potatoes, and gravy all over! Delicious is about the only word I can come up with. The meal itself also reminds me a lot of the south. I thought of my grandmother with every bite. The Almacks (CLC people, who introduced the interns to British culture pre crossing the pond) in England you are supposed to eat slowly with your fork in the left hand and the knife in the other. They may have trained me too well, I was the last to finish eating. After the plates had been cleared a rubarb crumble with a bit of custard was brought. The custard is warm and liquid. After this, the tea was prepared and we sat around for a while chatting, by the way I take my tea with two sugars. What I mean when I say "we" is Jon; Julia; their daughter, Anna; their son, Andrew and his wife, Rebecca and their twin daughters, Lucy and Jessica; and me. We watched the twins play for a couple of hours then had more tea and some sponge cake. I like the double dessert rule on Sunday.

After everyone left Jon, Julia, and I went for a walk. About thirty minutes long, but very productive. They showed me two different bus routes to town, but most importantly where I would normally get on and off the bus for work. We came back and ate toast and cheese as I introduced them to my home in the states. I tried marmite, I like it, but I now understand the need for moderation! For all of you yanks, it taste sort of like red eye gravy, but congealed. Thank you Button Family for a wonderfully restful sunday. Thank you Lord for the Buttons and for such and amazing Sunday.

The Book Shop

Friday morning was bitterly cold, but the weather couldn't hold back my excitement to see the city. In fact, the chill only added to the excitement, because it was exactly the kind of thing that was to be expected of England. I learned how to flag down a bus, how to pick the good seats, how to walk around a moving vehicle without falling, and finally how to get the bus to stop. It wasn't till Saturday that I learned to read the bus schedule and memorize the main stop points for my safe travel. It was easy enough, because Naomi was with me. Tuesday I shall fall from the nest, and it shall be blue skies or long way down. The bus pass was easy enough to get; up the stairs, around the corner, down the escalator, take picture in passport picture booth, up escalator, around another corner, pass another passport picture booth, stand in que, 46 pounds, and there you have it. There is one opportunity to lose the pass, but the second time your on your own and you must do it all over again.

The Store is quite small for the amount of material inside, but it is comfortable. When we arrived Naomi read me the contract, and showed me how to search for items and work the till. After a lunch break there was a quick outing for shampoo and what not then back to the store to practice my till skills.

There was once a bookshop next store that has recently moved down the way. I overheard Naomi give directions a couple of times that morning so when someone came in looking for it, I regurgitated the exact directions to the man and he was off. I turned to find my new team members marveling at what just took place. Penny said, "Okay, your allowed to stay." Penny is like the second in command and amazing.

The second day or Saturday if you prefer, was not so good. I was feeling the results of jumping into a schedule immediately rather than letting my body catch up, well before I got to work. It was going okay and lunch was amazing, I ate with Susan. Susan is a volunteer from Wolverhampton, a town over, who comes over to help out the b'rum store twice a week. She is nearer my age and quite funny. After lunch, I chatted with a customer for a good twenty minutes, what that small conversation took out of me was something unexpected. I was interrupted by Naomi, aka my hero, with a phone call from Phil Brunham. Phil is the UK director of CLC. His phone call was welcoming me to England and an offering of encouragement along with the welcome reminder that God brought me here. Monday will be better.

I know many things happened to get me here, most of which were miracles. The things I do know about are uncountable, and the things I don't know about I am sure are innumerable. Thank you Lord for bringing me to England. Teach me to be joyful always; pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, not put out the Spirit's fire, not treat prophecies with contempt, test everything, hold on to the good, avoid every kind of evil. Sanctify me Lord. Make my whole spirit, soul and body blameless (Thess 5:16-24)