Monday, April 28, 2008

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Oceans away...

The Lord has given me two really close friends here at school, Victor and Naomi, and we have a really cool three-way friendship (and no, for everyone who wants to ask the question - there is nothing between Victor and I). Anyway, school has a spring banquet to honor the seniors, and one day, Nomes and I got identical brown glass bottles in our mailboxes with this note inside each one:

Ahoy thar!
Let me tell ye of me story. Aye, was a pirate on high seas oft the coast of Japan and twas cot in a storm that carried me til the tempest tossed me on the fair land of Deebuqueh. The mighty God changed me from a seaman to a freshman. Fancy that. Arr. You see I met these two maidens fare an twas captivated by thar luv for Jesus. Arr. They helped me realize better who this here Jesus was by thar supreme example an shewed me how this Jesus' luv blows ye off yer feet far moor than any gale. His grace is like a mighty ocean but far deeper than any sailed by men. Arr...well...er...the point of this here letter is to let ye know that I am lost in the ocean of this grace and that I would be honored ... Arr ... if ye would accompany me to thee dinner on the seven an twentieth of April. Arr ye willing to accept me invitation?
Serving under His orders,
Victor

:)

Funness. So we sent him on a treasure hunt.

We left this in his box:
We fair maidens have finally arrived to inform you that we would be honored to accept your invitation. HOWEVER – on our long journey to answer you, we got rather lost and have forgotten where we buried our treasure. As we have heard that you are an adventuresome lad, we were wondering if you would be so kind as to retrieve it for us. This shouldn’t be too difficult, because we left ourselves a trail of sticky notes. Each sticky note will inform you where we came from last. In essence, you will follow our trail backwards and retrieve our treasure.

Then we gave him his clues:

#1 (soccer field)The last thing we can remember doing was running to watch an intramural game, but when we arrived, we realized we had forgotten that fĂștbal was played in the fall, not the spring.

#2 (playground) We were sitting on a bench together outside, enjoying the fresh air and watching the squirrels chase each other around where the children usually play.

#3 (Courtside Cafe) We enjoyed our chocolate malts, which we had just acquired, and talked about what we were going to wear to the fancy dinner on the 27th of April.

#4 (library) Thinking about pirates reminded us of our favorite children’s book. Reading it again brought back many fond memories.

#5 (coffee shop) As we were rather tired from burying our treasure, we decided to take a break and do a puzzle. The relaxing atmosphere lifted our spirits immensely.

#6 (sand volleyball court) We were so conscientious about not ruining the lovely lawn that we buried our treasure in loose soil. We took many breaks in between to practice our serves for our co-ed games.

We buried a picture for him (the one below with a verse on it, in a frame) and this last note was on it:

“Let’s put our treasure here,” I (Fair Maiden Naomi) said.
“Yes, buried in the sand is perfect,” I (Fair Maiden Elizabeth) agreed. “Then when he gets here he can bring it to us in the Tatham stairwell.”
“What a clever plan!” And we were off.


So we're going with our friend the pirate from Japan to the banquet. :)

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Another Trip to Chicago

Last weekend, Mr. Sanchez, my Bible Geography teacher, took our class on a trip to Chicago. We went to the Oriental Institute and he was our tour guide through the museum. It was really fascinating. (I could listen to Mr. Sanchez all day!) It's really something, though, to see real pottery and seals and idols from Abraham's and David's and Esther's days...it really made history seem more real. My favorite was seeing the giant figureheads from Persia right at the time of Esther, and seeing the jewelry and perfume bottles and pottery and thinking, "Esther could have used these very things!" Wow. So cool.

After the museum, we ate sack lunches, then some of us went to other museums and some of us roamed around Chicago. It was cold and rainy, but we still had fun. I spent the afternoon with a small group of friends in stores like Hersheys, Ghiredellis (anywhere we could get free chocolate... :), Water Front Mall, the American Girl store, etc. In the mall, we went into a small jewelry store, started talking to this black lady named Chiffon. I thought, "Maybe we can share the gospel with her..." and it turned out she was a believer! She and her husband have a church and Bible studies in their home! That was really cool and encouraging. Eventually, our group found a cozy coffee shop and spent an hour and a half doing homework. I went outside and stood alone along the bridge, praying and drinking in the city...I love it there. So many beautiful people. I love the skyscrapers - they testify so greatly to man's brilliance and intelligence, and I get so excited about the Lord's glory as the Creator!

Here are pictures from the day.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23036&l=ce90a&id=503933962
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23038&l=6162b&id=503933962

I still have no clue as to how the scripting works for links on this blog...can't get it to work...so you'll have to copy and paste the links I guess...sorry!