Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Sacred Space

Where I find a quiet place.
It's where my soul finds sacred space.
It's where my knees touch the ground.
It's where peace is found.

In You, Jesus.
In You, Jesus.
In You, Jesus.

It's where my heart is purified;
the only place I feel alive.
It's where my Father beckons me.
It's where this child is meant to be.

In You, Jesus.
In You, Jesus.
It's in You, Jesus.

It's where I run.
It's where I hide.
It's where You hold me safe inside.
It's where I live.
It's where I breathe.
It's where I look upon Your beauty.
It's where I fall.
It's where I rest.
It's where I find You loved me best.

In You, Jesus.
In You, Jesus.
In You, Jesus.


The throne of my heart has an incompetent ruler without You.
I look to You for the love of You, the peace of You to silence all the noise within.
To bring tranquility to all the scattered thoughts within.
I learn to think of You and not of me.
To go deep in You until I lose who I used to be.
With You I can be everything You intended me to be.
And it's in this sacred space where I lay my ability to be anything without You.
Where I lay my preconceived notions about You.
Where I forget about me. To remember life is about you.
To remember I live for Your smile.
To remember I live for Your smile more than I live to please the crowd.
Make me like water.
See through me.
See You through me.
Nothing left of me to see.
Cleanse me.
Immerse me in purity.
Wash me of iniquity.
Help me to choose You.
To lavish You with a lifestyle worthy of You.
To lavish You with more than words.
To lavish You with all that you deserve.
I surrender because You are more than my cognative knowledge...

In You, Jesus.
In You, Jesus.
In You, Jesus.

It's where I tremble with Holy fear.
It's where my questions disappear.
It's where my feet begin to dance.
When I realize where I am.

I'm in You, Jesus.
I'm in You, Jesus.
In You, Jesus.

Sacred Space, Steve Fee

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

An old Roman ampitheater

While in Alexandria we also got to see a really awesome old Roman amphitheater. Of course it was in ruins. But the date outside the gates said 817 B.C. That is super old! Of course this is where not only did they have theater but they also held political rallies and did awful gladiator type stuff too. Though I never really figured out what a ROMAN amphitheater is doing in EGYPT?








This really old fort in Alexandria

We got to see a famous old fort while in Alexandria. I don't actually know much about it but it originally had a lighthouse and it was a famous port for many centuries. Now all that is left of it is the fort. It was really cool, minus the fact that they had all the Muslim symbolisms in the building. That wasn't so cool to me. But here are a few pics of the fort. I'm sure it has a name but I have no idea what it is, sorry.









Tuesday, March 24, 2009

A realy really old palace in Alexandria

So our trip to Alexandria was amazing! We saw some really beautiful and really old things. We saw the Nile, stayed at a hotel on the Meditteranean Sea and saw the oldest palace in Alexandria. Here are some pics of it and the grounds around it. We couldn't go inside the gates b/c it is currently the residence of their current president.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Ciaro

We took a two day trip to Ciaro and Alexandria to see the National Egyptian Museum, the Pyramids, the Nile, the Meditteranean Sea, a palace, a fort and an old Roman ampitheater.

Here are the pyramids.

The Red Sea

We took a little spring break vaca to Hurghada, Egypt. It was so wonderful and I tried to soak in as much sun as humanly possible, though I could have used more.

Here are some pics of the Red Sea, our hotel and on a boat. Enjoy!









Sunday, March 22, 2009

Back

Back from a week in Egypt! Will post pics tomorrow!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Washing Machine Update

We have a new washing machine! After 3 weeks of a broken one we are finally able to do laundry. Now my roommates have been hand washing things but not I. So mine is super piled up. And not to mention that you cannot double wear any kind of pants here. It is disgusting right now with all the snow melting so everything gets super dirty when you wear it.

So I am kind of feeling like I have too many clothes. OK well lets not go too far and say too many, but a lot. I have just run out of tights, but still of hose left. Other than that I have yet to run out of anything yet. And then when I think about the clothes I still have at home, my goodness. Well in my defense, I just gave away 2 sweaters to a friend the other day. I have had them since 9th grade, that's 10 years! So that is one reason I have so many, I keep them forever.

So our landlord hasn't been able to get ahold of 'the master' since Friday. He came out about 5 times and 'fixed' our old machine. Um, not so much. He totally cut corners and it was still broken. So when our landlord couldn't get a hold of him after like 5 days, he bought us a new washing machine!

It is amazing already. It is almost the size of an American one. Our last one could hold 2-3 towels or 2-3 pairs of jeans max. So as you can imagine, with 3 girls it was always running. It took forever to do any laundry. I always do it once a week and it would take me 3-4 loads plus towels. So currently it is holding about 7 towels! Its really quite exciting!

Monday, March 9, 2009

Mazlenitsa

In Russia they have a celebration in March called Mazlenitsa. This is the official celebration of Spring. It is always on March 1st. At school we celebrated it this past Thursday. They send the kids home early and have a big party for the teachers.
First we went outside and all the teacher were drinking hot, spiced wine and playing carnival like games. It was very traditional Russian and so fun. Some of it was participated in and some we just watched. Then we went inside for some music and dancing accompanied by blini (kind of like a crepe). You could have smoked Salmon, red caviar, jam, honey, or sweetened condensed milk on your blini. They also had spiked punch, tea and some cookie like things.

It just really cracks me up that these things would be found at a school! I don't think that they were ever have alcohol at an American school for a celebration, even if it is for teachers only. But this is Russia!
Here is a pic of our drama teacher. He is a hilarious man! He was one of the MC's of the event.

Here is a pic of the American Girls. Kathryn, Truc, Lydia and me

The next few pics are just of some of the games we were playing outside.

This is a video of the teachers singing and dancing around in a circle. I don't know, its a Russian thing.

Here is a video of the teachers at Zaitsevo and the teachers at Presnya having some sort of sing off or something.