The Paradox of Christmas

Happy Christmas!

Rejoice!
The waiting is over! Christ is born!
Praise God for his endless love.

Rejoice - Chris Tomlin

See the morning, see it rising

Over the mountains high

See the mercy in the mighty hand of God

Living Water come and fill us

Only You can satisfy

Turn our sorrow into singing

The song of our life

Rejoice, Rejoice

Sing with the angel voices

Rejoice, Rejoice

All Heaven and earth rejoice

Lord, Your strength is a tower

The righteous run into

Lord, Your love is a banner over us

And we hold on to the promise

That Your hold on us is true

There’s no other like You, Jesus

No one like You

Rejoice, Rejoice

Sing with the angel voices

Rejoice, Rejoice

All Heaven and earth rejoice

Rejoice, Rejoice

Sing with the angel voices

Rejoice, Rejoice

All Heaven and earth rejoice

Always

Again I say rejoice

Always

Again I say rejoice (2)

Rejoice, Rejoice

Sing with the angel voices

Rejoice, Rejoice

All Heaven and earth rejoice (2)

Kew gardens

London is a beautiful city. Or to be more honest: London city has some beautiful spots. 

One of them is Kew gardens. It's gorgeous! 

A very calm, huge, surprising and beautiful park. I wish I could live there. Be one of those super cute squirrels and have all the time I want to chill out in my garden. 

http://www.kew.org/
Thanks Mercy!

Fusion: Student work equipping Day

http://www.fusion.uk.com/forstudentworkers/equipping-days

Two weeks ago we got the opportunity to join a group of young people for more training in the area of student work. It was very encouraging to see that people from other groups non-related to community shared a similar vision and saw the same needs. 

What I found most touching was the agreement on the fact that bringing people to Christ is not about throwing the best events, but about daily choices to live life the best way possible. And to let God's love and care overflow to the people around us. 

Like someone once said: to be the light and the salt of this earth. 

young and old friends

Friends visiting

Kim & Elisabeth, thanks a lot for coming all the way up here! It was great having you. Please come back!

Could you send me some of the pictures?

Saint Nicholas

He is the best!

Je serai toujours sage comme un petit mouton, 
Je ferai ma prière pour avoir des bonbons!

voor de nostalgie:

Giving thanks...

I can't believe we're the 18th of December already!
So throughout the coming week, I'll post a few things that happened since I came back.


First Thanksgiving!


Good old Wikipedia says:
Thanksgiving in North America had originated from a mix of European and Native traditions. Typically in Europe, festivals were held before and after the harvest cycles to give thanks for a good harvest, and to rejoice together after much hard work with the rest of the community.At the time, Native Americans had also celebrated the end of a harvest season. When Europeans first arrived to the Americas, they brought with them their own harvest festival traditions from Europe, celebrating their safe voyage, peace and good harvest.

Julia and Camille cooked us a fantastic Thanksgiving meal! It was a great experience to be part of this holiday. 

Apparently thanksgiving is supposed to be a bigger family-holiday than Christmas is... hard to imagine!

Joe helped make it all happen and Q, Jamie and Mercy joined us for the meal.

A wedding in Belgium

Hello there!

I'm back :)
Back from not writing for a long time.

And back from an enjoyable weekend in Belgium!
Karolien, one of my ex-household-mates got married on Saturday.
It was a very nice time, a beautiful wedding and fantastic to see so many friends. Great to hear about all the changes the new school year brought.
Karolien en Gillis, I wish you all the best in your marriage!

I got the chance to see my parents and siblings for some time. So good to be able to come home for a weekend, having a nice time, going out for dinner, update each other about little things in life that have or haven't changed,...
It quickly felt as if I had never been gone.
Even though I really enjoyed being home, I am glad the GAP-year is not over yet. Being home, showed me that I still have a lot of things that I want to learn and master before going back for good.

In the midst of travelling from home to Lebbeke to Leuven, back home and back to London, I was able to meet a friend from university for a few hours. It's such a blessing that she was able to free some time.
I really enjoyed walking around in Leuven and chatting about the placements next year and so much more!

For everyone who is planning a trip Belgium-London or London-Belgium:
When I was booking my travels, I found out about cityjet.com. At that point it was cheaper than the train and way easier than the Ryanair. So I took this option & it was amazing!
The plane leaves inside London and not an endless train-ride away. And it arrives in Antwerp. (Very close to where I live.)
Both the airports are very small and you are only supposed to be there 15mins in advance. Everyone is extremely nice to you (HUGE difference with Ryanair flights and airports) and you get free (!) food and drinks on the plane. Also, they let me bring a big suitcase and hand-luggage included in the price. So I was able to bring all my winter clothes from home to London. Thank God!
So it's really worth checking the prices when you come over!

During the same weekend people were coming to London for a SWOT-weekend. My roommate last year was one of them. I got to see her on Thursday.
Loads of blessings for me this weekend! Thank you everyone!

Gapper in London

I made this for a friend, but seeing the result, I thought I could as well share it here...

October update

Hey World !

Here is the longer update about life here. I decided to do one for each month, so this is for November.

In this message I will cover a few parts of life as a London Gapper.

Household

At the moment we are 4 girls in the house. It’s very multicultural and none of us is from here. We have 2 Americans, 1 Lebanese and me (1 Belgian). Very challenging, but it brings a lot of beauty too. Although the house is very small, we have a lovely little garden to escape too when needed. J Up till last weekend we had another Lebanese girl in our house, but she moved out to live closer to her university.

One of my jobs is to lead this household. Being new to London too does not make that any easier. The biggest challenge is to try to find a way of living where every culture is comfortable.  But, we are all very motivated to do the best we can and serve one another in this way, and I can see the progress during the last few weeks.

It is a blessing being able to share my life with other Christians who really want to live a life for God’s greater glory.

‘Work’

With ‘work’ I mean everything we do that is planned between 10.30AM and 5.30PM. I work full time for Koinonia, which is the university student outreach in London. It is a very diverse job! In the mornings we have a training-slot. This covers topics like time-management, discussion groups, discussing cultures …

Afternoons are filled with meeting up with people, coffee stalls and other services outside of Koinonia.

I really enjoy it. Meeting new people and having good conversations are a big blessing here in this inpersonal city and the trainings are thought-provoking and informative. (My fellow Gapper Camille told me I could use these descriptive words. I would just have said ‘Interesting’ being interessant like in French or Flamish or in any other normal language, but for some odd reason ‘interesting’ does not work in modern English any more… Bummer!)

Community

I have been in community all my life. Up till September that has been the Belgian community (called Jerusalem). It is very interesting (I think I’m using it right this time) to be part of another community. Things are very similar in a lot of ways, but still very different in other ways. People in Antioch (the London community) all live very close to each other and you can feel a very lively way of life here that I hadn’t found as such in Belgium. Although I admit that Leuven is getting there…

Another big difference is the amount of youth running around. It is crazy how silent and small Antioch becomes when the kids aren’t there J

One of my services this year is to have a little youth-group with some of the girls. Last weekend we did a sleepover. Very nice, very loud and very active J

So that is mostly the official part of my gap-year this month.

I’ll add the non-official things like last month whenever it comes up.

Have a nice month!

Good bread

I solemnly promise that the next post will be a proper update.
But to keep you updated on some of the smaller things that happened recently:

- Yesterday we had a day off and the original plan was to go discover London. But a sudden crave for actual real bread (and not the usual factory-toastbread) changed the plans...

Breakfast this morning was heavenly!

AND Joe gave us Côte d'Or today. Best day in weeks :p

- Today we took one of the curtains down. It looked like a wedding dress. So Elyssa (one of our housemates and fellow gappers) and I got married today. Sorry you couldn't be there. Maybe next time... (don't tell Elyssa!)

Mister Bean's Car...

Spotted this car the other day.

I wonder how it survives the crazy traffic in London...

In case you can't see it, it has only 3 wheels.

blog-game

Ok,
another random capture of London life.

Rule of the game: if you see this picture, you are not allowed to close this window before answering the question in the 'comments'-section.

Here is the question: Who is this homeless person?


The winner gets a prize!
Good luck.

The Phantom of the Opera

Miracles do happen.

Clara (a friend from Belgium who lives in London for this year) and I were talking a few days ago about the big 25th anniversary of the Phantom of the Opera in the Royal Albert Hall.
We were both dreaming of being able to go and see this masterpiece.
The only problem: I do not have a budget for this kind of dreams to come true.

A few days later I get an email from her with more or less the following: "Hey Marie-Sophie, do you remember this Phantom of the Opera thing? It is the day after tomorrow. I bought you a ticket. Would you like to come?"

WOW! Of course I want to!!

And so it happened that yesterday evening Clara and I were standing in this stunning hall, with thousands of people, listening to breathtaking music, watching masquerades, a man with a white masque and exploding chandeliers....

Because it was the 25th anniversary, Andrew Lloyd Webber gave a speach and the original cast came up to sing a few songs. Incredible how they can still sing that well after 25 years! I wish I had such a voice :)

Clare D., I wish you could have been there too... !

http://www.phantom25th.com/

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eLyvAU9kQE
   sorry for the turbulence at the end... 

Internet is in tha house!!!

                         ^
                         |
                         |
                 important message

AND THE 2 LONG AWAITED GIRLS FINALLY ARRIVED!!!
                         ^
                         |
         even more important message!!!
their names are Elyssa and Sabine.


And freshers week started yesterday, this means:
- a great way to get to know loads of new students
- a great atmosphere around campus
- daily coffee-stalls (For the Belgians who ever did this in Leuven, you will not believe this, but over here people are queuing to get a cup of coffee and the awkward 'would you like a cup of coffee or thee' - 'no, I don't drink coffee nor thee' NEVER comes up!! Heavenly!)
- crazy full days. Today we got up at 6.15am!

And I got 2 letters from Leuven this week. I felt so loved :) Thanks guys! Wait for an answer in expectant faith. Maybe I'll have to get up at 5 to be able to write it, but it will reach you soon! ;)

Anyway,
now that we have internet, let me know when you would like to skype and we'll get a 'skype-date' :)

Looking forward to hearing from you soon!!

I have not told you...

... that I found internet IN (technically out) of the house.
If I open the top window and put my computer as far as possible out of the window, I get internet access!!!
But it's a very uncomfortable 'too low for standing', 'too high for sitting'- position, so I found out this one was the most comfortable:

Mum, just so you know: this is NOT my room :)

Community Weekend

This weekend was our community weekend. A very good way to meet everybody, get to know names and get the connections between the kids, parents, spouses etc.

The nicest part was the ceilidh (Scottish country dancing), where I got to dance with 1/2 of the community :) Nice way to break the ice...

I did not take any pictures there, but I hope to find some to show you soon. It was a 'stunning' place (to copy Julia's words).

Here are some other pictures of the last week.

in our office

MS - Joe - PM

people working... :)

Julia - PM - Camille

Going out with our (extended) team 

MS - Camille :) - Mark - Katie - Julia - PM 

(+ Joe who was taking the picture)

and my two housemates and fellow GAP-ers

Julia - Camille

Shakespeare at the globe

Just wanted to share I was able to join some people to go see 'Much ado about nothing' in the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
It was a great experience. I had to read Shakespeare at school, but this play made it very tangible and made me realize the genius Shakespeare was :) Also I know now that my legs are able to stand at the same place for 3 hours in a row. :) Yes, it was the cheapest ticket...

http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/on-stage/much-ado-about-nothing

Hi Folks!

So yeah, we got our diary's filled with awesome things :)
This week is 'plein à craquer'. Using my lunch break to write this little update.

We had our first days of 'Mission school', and started with the Psalms course and got a lot of homework... :)
Sunday we joined the community-meeting for the first time and afterwards we were invited to a welcome party for the newly arrived people. It was great to get to know a lot of new people and make connections between people we already knew and their parents and family.

I have learned a lot these last few days. I hope this will continue during the year.

Here is a picture of our house for the moment. Not a very good one, but at least you can have an idea.

also,
- we still do not have access to internet at our house.
- still no bank-account
- our little dog just died. A painful experience... I had hoped he would still be there when I would come back :(

 Tot zover deze lezing...

Start of the year...

9 Days ago I left Belgium. A lot of things happened after that.

First, we moved into our little household. At the moment we're living with 3 girls: Camille, Julia (both Americans) and me. And we are in joyful expectation for 1 (or maybe 2) Lebanese girls to join us! :)
It is a small, but welcoming house, with carpets everywhere. And with enough furniture to host a whole army.
I love how we re-arranged the rooms. It feels like home.

One of the first days the mens household (who live across the street) took us for a 'London by night'-trip.
It was beautiful! If you come to visit, I'll bring you there, I promise :)

Then we went to Glasgow for our first SWOT "weekend", where we had some training on studentwork. I did this SWOT two years ago, but it's good to hear everything again now my english emproved a bit. I got a lot more details out of it this time.

Yesterday we saw the Koinonia office for the first time. This is where we will be most of the time -I think...

Since they have to move out every summer, we were able to rearrange it and be creative with the space and furniture we have. I love this kind of work :) And I think it looks good. 

Today we will have our calendars filled with things we are going to do this year. Looking forward to that. Because, you have to admit, an empty calendar doesn't get you out of bed, innit? :)

Also, I tried to get a bank-account, but 3 different banks did not let me open one, so please pray for it to work soon. If we have an account, we will be able to get internet in the house.

That's kind of my life up till now. Hear from you soon!

Glasgow

Just back from an awesome training-weekend in Glasgow.
Again, very bad internet access. Sorry about that!

London baby!

Arrived safe and sound! Looking forward to this year!

I have limited internet-connection now.

For my current house address: check my Facebook or ask me by email.

one more day

Leaving for London tomorrow morning. Bye bye Belgium! I hope you will find a government before I come home...

ready to go?

How many times have I been asked: 'And? Are you ready to go?'
response: 'Well, emm ... '

oops... I hope my mom doesn't see this ;)

I'm sure I will get in London and get a little nervous about all the things I was not able to bring or forgot to pack, but little by little things are getting where they have to be.

The 'farewell'-stage started & I started packing. One suitcase is ready for the move... and my room is a mess. Still some work to do here :)


Next to that, I think God has been giving some winks too...
I'll share one story.

Middle of July I realize my temporary license expires in September 2012. 

Great! One more year... oh, wait...

Just a little worried I open my computer to try to find a exam-appointment before 1st of September. Preferably the latest possible, because I am not at all ready for this exam. After having to fill a lot of boxes with names and numbers and dates, I finally get the news that the first possible appointment is 4th of September.

A little more worried I call the exam-center and ask if people sometimes happen to cancel their exams. And if it is possible to contact me if something opens up before 1st of September because ... (the whole story).

'Missy, we are not a call center and we do not use our time, calling people just like that' - very long awkward silence - 'all right, I'll see what I can do.'

A few days later I get a phone call: 'There is a place opening up in 10 days at 7.30AM.' 

'10 days?? That's too soon!'

'I will not call you any more for this. You take it or leave it...'

gulps...

For around 6 days we have been practicing day and night. I'm not lying if I told you we drove at least 6 hours a day.

The next 4 days my parents left for the PTI in Poland, so I wasn't able to exercise any more. I was getting more nervous by the day.

Extremely worried and very early in the morning I leave for the exam-center with a friend of my parents (In Belgium you have to bring someone to accompany you during the exam, normally this is your teacher). 

After more or less one hour I hear it was not good enough, I failed. But I could always try to make a new appointment at the desk.

I go to the desk and even before asking, the woman sais: 'For new appointments, subscribe by internet, the next possible date is in October.'

*sigh*

Driving back, a little disappointed, I reason that it's only the start of august and that things still have the time to arrange themselves, so I decide to start checking the possible dates several times a day to see if there is a new opening somewhere.

Back home, first thing I do is check for a new opening. Very surprised I see there is one! The day after I get back from Adelante... not at all the best timing, but at least a new chance. To make the appointment I need my id-card. Worried that someone else would take this place, I run to the car to get my card, start filling those million boxes again and click the button 'check next available exam-moments'. 

I can't believe what I see, so I refresh the page... nope, it's still there. A new possibility came up during the 2 minutes I just spent: 25th of august, a completely full day just came up, I was the first to see this and could choose exactly what time I wanted to go. 

A 'wee' miracle just there...

Everything that followed went as smoothly as possible. And I passed my exam with zero mistakes. 

One less thing to worry about! Thank God :)

A lot of people prayed for this... do you think having my drivers license in my pocket could have anything to do with this? :)

email messages

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iAdelante, hermanos en fe, esperanza y en amor!

Adelante as a preparation time for this GAP-year...

Just back from an overwhelming experience.
What a week!
Very challenging, but eye-opening time.
400 young men/women coming together to deepen their relationship with the Lord.



Here is a little random taste of Adelante in a Spanish newspaper: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2011/08/11/paisvasco/1313071009.html
Thanks to everybody who made this happen. And especially to the 'mysterious donor'. I hope this message will reach you one way or another :)

Later on I spent two days in Madrid, enjoying the sight of the World Youth Days.
Madrid is crazy at the moment. Streets are filled with people wearing very colourful t-shirts and hats. It's 38°C in the shadow and melting in the sun. Flags are filling the horizon. Really! I'm not even close to exaggerating :)
An amazing witness! We are not standing on our own...

Opening Mass shot

Loved spending this time with Mercedes, Martha and Nathalie!

Now I'm back in Belgium where we had to stop the car driving home today since we couldn't see anything because of the heavy rainstorm... :) I will miss you, Belgium!

Uh oh!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14460554

Let's hope those riots calm down soon! 

London youth, we need to talk! :)

What's the plan? Some explanation in letter form...

Dear,

As you might know, I am leaving first of september for 10 months to London.
The idea is to serve there as a full-time Kairos Gapper.
Here is a short explanation.

GAP? Never heard of it…

“The practical and spiritual lessons of this past year will be of use for a lifetime.”

Kairos GAP is more than a year out. It is a year of your life invested in service, training and mentoring.

Service
The gappers typically spend around six hours a day in some kind of Christian volunteer service capacity.

This could be serving the desperately poor living on the rubbish dumps of Manila or speaking to college students in Minnesota about Jesus Christ.

It could be helping with a youth outreach in Latin America or running a street mission in inner city Dublin.

Training
Over the course of the year, the average gapper spends around 400 hours exploring training from life skill topics such as self-management and intercultural awareness to more discipleship topics such as service and scripture.

Given that a normal college class can take around 40 hours of your time, the GAP year is a bit like 10 classes over a year.

The high training input that goes on in the year is the reason why many gappers point to their GAP year as a foundational year of service and learning impacting the rest of their lives.

Indeed one of the most valued aspects of the year is the space to develop and think about longer term vision for life.

(http://www.kairos-eme.org/Training/GAP/Vision)

More specific GAP in Londen:

My service will mostly be in Koinonia. This is a mission which reaches university students in London. (Similar to Pharos here in Leuven.)

Most of my work will be reaching out to students in London to tell them about Christ. Alongside the evangelism I will be involved with some administrative tasks for Koinonia, helping out with some youth work in community (Antioch) and a few other service opportunities.

The training consists of:
1. Evangelisation
2. Scripture study
3. project management
4. Local mission – improving as a mission worker

reassurance :)

In case you were wondering. I am indeed going to interrupt my studies for this year of service. Because it is the end of my theoretical studies, it is a good time to serve in another community. After my year of service, I will return to my studies and begin two years of practical studies.
So do not fret, I am looking forward to starting my internships as soon as I come back :)

More questions?
Ask them here and answers will follow!

salut!
Marie-Sophie

more information about GAP: http://www.kairos-eme.org/Training/GAP
more information about Koinonia: http://site.koinonia.co.uk./

To blog, or not to blog... that's the question!

Hello everyone!

I finally decided to make a blog instead of writing too much email-updates...
The idea for the blog is to make it possible for us to live this London-adventure together in this way.
I will try to put up regular short updates and pictures.
It would be nice if I could hear something back from you from time to time, so please react as much as you want :)

I am writing the blogs in English to avoid having to translate it into Dutch, French and English. And since London is a main theme, I guess it is not completely out of place...
I hope you'll be able to watch my English improve over the year, so forgive me my beginners-mistakes. :)

That's it for now... first a few weeks of Adelante, preparations and farewells...