So this past weekend (February 1-3) I went to a youth retreat for college students. There's a church in the next town over called New Life. It is just a branch off of the main church (which has about 500 people) in the town of Lincoln which is where I went the weekend before. The pastor came to the college a few weeks ago and asked if any of us wanted to go and as soon as he told us about it I wanted to go so bad!!! I couldn't decide if I could though because Kelcie and I were planning on going to Scotland and I didn't want to miss out on a travel opportunity. BUT long story short, we pushed back our trip and I got to go and I"m so glad I did!!!!!!!!
There were about 150 students that went but only 8 were from Harlaxton that went and besides the fact that we were going to have a college retreat with a bunch of college students....we really had no idea what we were doing. We were told that we would be staying in Lincoln (which is about 40 minutes away from the university), but once we got there the church actually took us to Norfolk which is about 2 1/2 hours away from Lincoln! Needless to say that if we died no one would have even know where we were......but I'm not trying to scare my mother so I'm gonna move on.
Anyways, so EVERY single person there was extremely loving and welcoming to us as soon as we arrived (which had nothing to do with the fact that we were American, I"m sure haha) but you could just feel Gods presence as soon as we got off the bus (sorry...coach) and it was just an amazing feeling! We immediately were placed into a worship service and didn't even get to eat until 10 at night! we were starving!!! it didn't help that once we actually got to eat they gave us a normal sized hot dog bun with a half sized hot dog to put in it..... all of the british students were worried about us because we're americans and we eat all of the time and have huge servings....I didn't even argue haha. I was actually asked why I was so skinny, if I ate the normal American sized portions, and why I didn't take up two bus seats instead of one....yeah guys...we've got a great reputation going for us! haha! I also had a million questions about gun control. Good thing I had a politics class before I came or I probably wouldn't have even known it was an issue.....and that's not sarcasm. They truly are upset about it though, even the students which impressed me. They're all so afraid that if they come to america they will get shot. I told them it was only the psycho people of course.....at least, that's what I tell myself. The students kept me up as long as humanly possible each night, which was fine with me, when I was there I never felt tired, I just wanted to keep going! but I think I only got six hours of sleep the entire weekend...and when I wanted to nap on the bus ride home they wouldn't let me because they were STILL talking to me.....and my parents think I talk to much.....
The rest of the weekend was filled with worship time, bible studies, playing games and just having a good time together! We taught them so many American games and how to Wobble.....and I'm sure about 3/4 of the people reading this don't even know what that is...and that's okay haha all you need to know is that it's an american dance to an american song.
So all in all it was just an amazing time and I met so many new friends and more importantly....got myself a pretty darn good english accent! ;)
As much as I love harlaxton, I really didn't want to come back after experiencing such a great atmosphere! I'm just so glad I had seven other students from my school go through it with me. I would fly back next year just to go....but that's kind of an expensive youth retreat.....
oh well, here's some pictures!
We were kept so extremely busy that I was barely given time to take them!
This is an odd game they play, but apparently it's a tradition to do every year. all of the students stand around the railing of the spiral stairs while one student lays at the bottom. The student at the top throws the ball at the person on the bottom and they try to catch it. It might sounds lame....but these guys were so energetic and funny that it was absolutely hilarious!
uno! finally a game I knew how to play!
here's the wobble
These girls were my roommates. They were SO awesome and they took me in as soon as I stepped in the room! I barely even had time to spend with my american friends because the british students want to spend as much time with you as they can. They invited us all down for Easter so hopefully we can go!!!
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