February 29, 2008

Happy Leap Day! I've always thought leap years were interesting. :)

Things have been calm relatively here in Swavesey. We had a bit of excitement yesterday when a serious grinding sound started to come from the rear driver's side (which sounded just like the brakes were metal on metal) and when I took it in I was right- I had to leave the car with them, thereby stranding us again. :) STAG had a welcome dinner last night, so I took the last bus into Cambridge at 5:30pm, and after the dinner we had to take a taxi back home. It was more interesting than that because the A14 is basically closed at night for several more days- they simply closed it, so too bad if you live in a village that has no other access. You can't go out from 9:30pm to 6am. We have no idea what they're doing, and during the day there seems to be no noticable difference. :)

This week has been fairly busy with Arena on Monday nights, which is going well. We also have the TEAM training course all day Wednesday, and home group in the evening. I have the ladies' group Thursday morning, and G has his men's group Monday morning. Our time here at STAG has been very fruitful, full of new relationships, outreach, and study. Just to give you an idea this is what we've been studying:

Arena- Mark's book about JC's life
TEAM- The letter to Colossae, and the OT guy who was swallowed by the fish
Home group- Paul's first letter to Corinth
Ladies' group- the history of Is leaving Egypt
Sundays- The second history book covering Samuel's life

If you don't regularly read the bbl or have ever considered it something which can be studied, you might be surprised. :) All this study has given us a more well rounded and better understanding of the bbl, and we've enjoyed it. The training we're receiving here has already enriched our daily lives, but will also be invaluable for us when we reach the 3rd world at some point in the future. We're still headed that way by the way- we don't know the where's and how's and when's, but that's ok. :) In light of that also I've been looking into sustainable development companies, volunteer organizations, etc, in hopes that I can find a part time position in water resource management and get some experience with that here. We'll see what happens.

G is heading out for Seattle Sunday, and he's giving his practice talk today at another office of his company here in Cambridge. I have a long list of household projects that need to be taken care of, and his being away will be a good excuse to finally get to them since we have some friends visiting at the end of March. I need to fix our toilet seat, rent a saw to cut some boards that aren't properly covering our bathtub, paint 2 rooms if it's warm enough...besides a bunch of other stuff. I'm partly putting this up here as a form of accountability- since I've told others I'm going to do it now I really have to. :)