The Call to a Person is Just as Important as the Call to Missions

Okay, I have a really good excuse for not posting in a long while: my life has been topsy turvy to the extreme. This is such a faith-building time. God is infinitely good.

So, the week before last, I started to feel this incredible tension in my heart: I wasn't sure about Budapest because a few doors had closed for me: 1) I didn't even get the opportunity to apply for the Fulbright because I do not have tenure (takes 4 years in NC but 3 years in other states) and 2) I learned that the youth may not get to go to Budapest just yet and that we wouldn't know for a while. There are key parts in my prophecies that let me know that still 1) I am in a huge time of transition and most likely not going to be here next year and 2) that the desire to go to Budapest could just as well be a desire for the plans God has for Eastern Europe later in my life and not right now.

Meanwhile, there is this incredibly sweet guy sending me all these wonderful emails (a trend he adhered to all summer long while I was in Europe). We had decided back in June not to date because he believed God had someone else for me. Little did we both know that now is an acceptable season for us to consider each other long term and that he is that someone else, only a few months later. So, after he keeps being sweet without stating his intentions, I wrestle for a weekend with totally ditching him forever (which would have been the most miserable mistake of my life) and finally, we talk and realize that we are both willing to pursue a relationship and follow God's will. We have been dating two weeks and very, very happy about what God is doing in both of our lives, both individually and together.

Burton Morris is a senior at ECU, a film major. Sooo many of my talents, my work with drama, and other random things in my life make sense as I encourage him in this dream. He does live a few hours away, but we have had the incredible opportunity to hang out many weekends recently and in the near future. This is such a fun time! Peter Laffoon, his best friend, came down from DC and we threw Burton a surprise 1984 party last weekend! I wanted to share these few details as a testimony of what God can do when He calls people together; I also wanted to explain more of my absence from youth recently.

Already, I knew I wouldn't be at youth group very often on Saturday nights because this year, God really has called me to focus on Green Hope. The teacher prayer meeting is still going well, and new people are attending all the time. FCA is rockin! They may need to move into the auditorium soon. I have never witnessed so much favor on a group of students. The students at Green Hope are magnetized by the power of God.

I love you all dearly, and I thank you for your prayers for this season of my life. I'm still going to apply to a few opportunities in Budapest, but no crazy Peace Corps trying to run away from everything and everyone I know. Always, always, always feel free to call me (I'm getting more minutes on my cell phone plan at the end of next week!).

MORE pictures

Okay, for those of you who have been looking, the pictures Andrea originally had posted are now here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreawood/

My pictures are in two places. I posted pictures from Ireland, Bath and Budapest on Xanga, so just click on "pictures." I made comments on them, so you know what's going on.

The Spain pictures are on Kodak Gallery. Just log on to kodakgallery.com, type in my email cole_dog@yahoo.com and my password: shoebox. Don't delete anything!

I may not be at church or youth group the next two weekends. I am potentially going through GRE training. It's time to WORK! Please be in prayer for the Fulbright Exchange. I am really starting work on the essay and application. This year's all about getting to Budapest. Where God guides, He provides, right?

HOME!

I made it! Stepped on a metro at 10 a.m. in Paris Sunday morning euro time and finally stepped off my final plane (until next summer, I think) last night around 6:00 p.m.; I was shocked at how friendly and nice the final customs guy was. "Welcome back" in a nice, North Carolina accent and with a SMILE!

Easing back into normal life, trying not to think of my stacks of mail, school duties (have to go tomorrow! to help the freshmen find their way), and crazy other tasks (getting my car window fixed--some teens vandalized it, starting up the running schedule: half marathon is on its way!, learning Hungarian, getting FCA going, starting work on the Fulbright application--eww, let me stop). PICTURES!: are you ready for this? I left my second camera on a train with my CD player (thank goodness I only had copies of CDs and not the actual ones in there), and my JOURNAL :( (it's okay, I've written enough to make up for most of it these last few days), but I still have two cameras to develop and the one from Scotland already developed. I'll post more links to pics soon, but here are some that my friend Sarah took:

zurich:

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2054778&l=37450&id=2711091

florence:

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2054779&l=82f09&id=2711091

rome:

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056790&l=a464e&id=2711091

venice:

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056791&l=1534c&id=2711091

cinque terra:

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056792&l=3c899&id=2711091

The cinque terra pictures hardly do the place justice (no fault of Sarah's). Can you guess out of all of these which pic is my favorite?

Feel free to call me! I would love to hear from any and everyone now that I'm back (this week is play time and errands, which I've learned aren't necessarily as urgent as everyone makes them out to be: next week, the work, work begins).

in Barcelona - the realities of backpacking

I'll actually be here tomorrow and the day after, too! My current traveling companion, Mary Susan, tells me that there are requirements for professional backpackers (la duena de la mochilla) - I'm getting reflective as I'm about to leave Europe:

1) You have to travel for at least 13 days in Europe

2) You have to sleep in at least 5 different cities for 5 consecutive nights

3) I made this one up: you have to sleep in at least one airport (on the cold, concrete floor) and in at least one train station (on a hard bench). . .or, since Mary Susan doesn't have dreads, wash your hair in a nasty bathroom sink, which you have to pay 70 eurocents for, with some old guy wiping the counter around you as you scrub that scalp.

4) You have to get a eurail pass - they let me use mine MUCH more than 10 times, but when you reserve trains, there is always a sweet surprise about how much it will cost: this last cost 67 euros for my overnight from Barcelona to Paris (the most expensive, and they don't even serve meals on these overnight trains!).

It's all about getting home at this point. I am tired, quite tan, hot (no ac in much of europe!), not sure if I'll get some waterbourne disease from all these random faucets I have tasted of, cut, bruised and permanently scarred. I will probably look back and say it's all worth it, and you all will probably here nostalgic stories about "when we were here," but yeah, I'm ready to come home sweet home.

I have free internet again - thank God - so this is why posts are much more frequent. In favor of not being too pessismistic and explaining why so many still choose to backpack, despite how horrendous it is (I've met some people who told me that they've done it for the last three summers in different parts of the world!), I´ll tell you the good parts of today: ate paella at a really expensive restaurant, bought flamenco music (drat, these all cost $, but I'm convinced that I'll spend less tomorrow, really), and I scoped out the beach I'll be hanging out at tomorrow!!!!!! Barcelona, and many parts of Spain, have AMAZINGLY beautiful palm trees - this is where LA and many parts of Florida inherited this trend from. Oh, and the Spanairds LOVE 'ol Chris Columbus - I've seen about 7 statues of him since I've been here. Brian O. would love the Catalun spoken here - it's a mix of Spanish and French, really (for all you non-geo buffs, Barcelona is north Spain, really near France). Ex. "Sortida" is the word we see here for "exit" In the rest of Spain, "Salida," in France, "Sortie" - "Sortida" is the mix! Enough people still speak Spanish here, so we get by quite well. Okay, perhaps getting ready for bed soon or going out to experience Barcelona at night - who knows? 

at a hostel in Granada