My Home for the Next 4 Months!

The view outside my room

My bank:)


St. Michaels (where I went to Church)
Me in front of the York Minster!

My apartment in St. Mary's is right behind the smaller building at the right

Beautiful England countryside!

Sunday was absolutely brilliant! (my failed attempt at a British accent). I FINALLY had a good nights sleep, and if you know me well, you know how important my sleep is to me:) I woke up at 11:30am and went into to town with Tessa to run some errands. We tried our first Pasty for lunch, which is a flaky pastry with different fillings, ours was tomato, basil and cheese- delicious! We also went to Starbucks and were pleased to find out that we could use our American gift cards, score!

We met up with our friend Rachel and explored the city of York, meandering through the small shops in the busy streets. Sunday is apparently a hopping day to go to the city because the streets were packed with people and festival activities. We felt very accomplished leaving the city with some necessities and were pleased with how relaxed we were. It is so weird looking around this city and thinking that this is going to be my home for the next 4 months.... I think I can dig it.

In the afternoon, the entire Calvin clan was invited to a local church for Tea 'n Toast (how British is that!). There were also crumpits there so that was a plus; I definitely felt British. It was nice to just sit and chat with the other Calvin students and talk about the experiences we've been having so far.

A group of us went to an evening church service that meets right next to the York Minster called St. Michaels. The service is more contemporary and is geared towards college students. I absolutely loved it! The church itself looked straight medieval but we were singing contemporary worship songs! It's like the people here are used to every building looking so beautiful- they would probably be disappointed in America. It felt so wonderful to worship with other students my age from a different part of the world; I think I found the church I will be attending for the rest of my stay here in York.

I do not have any classes on Monday so I have a lot of free time on my hands to explore York a bit more and prepare for my classes starting tomorrow. I think I like my schedule here- definitely easier than Calvin, or in Jabez's words "a glorified vacation".

Thank you all so much for your prayers! I miss you but I am so excited to see what God has planned for the next couple months. He is so good

~Kristen

Arriving in York

Hello all! After much persuasion from friends and family, I have decided to start a blog to document my time here at York St. John University over the next 4 months. Let me first start by explaining why I chose the title, "One Day at a Time"...

Kristin Lier and I went to her church about 2 weeks ago. After the service, Kristin decided to interview different members of the congregation for her Interim project about love. Long story short, she ended up interviewing an older man, who appeared to be in his 70s, named Tom Young. To paraphrase his explanation, Tom described love as laying each day down, one day at a time, for someone or something that you believe in. He then encouraged Kristin and I to remember to live each moment and take life one day at a time. At that moment, I felt God as though He was almost hitting me upside the head! That same morning, I had been worrying about packing, going to England, leaving my friends and comfort zone and almost any other worry you could imagine.

So, my motto for this trek to York is to take life "one day at a time". When I begin to feel overwhelmed I will remember the big picture and who really is in control.

On January 27, 2011 we finally landed in Manchester (after many delays in Chicago, of course) and proceeded to head for our grand destination of York, England! The countryside is gorgeous over here. The green hills seem to go on forever.

During my stay in York, I will be attending York St. John University with a group of about 25 other Calvin students. The university itself has about 6,000 students (although the buildings are much closer together than Calvin's so the campus seems small). We have had orientation for the past couple days but have been fortunate enough to explore the beautiful city of York (which I will post pictures of shortly...)

Although there have been moments of uncertainty and anxiety, I feel so blessed to be here with such wonderful friends in such a beautiful place.

Thank you all so much for your encouragement and prayers!!! I truly appreciate it:)

Tomorrow I am planning on going into town to run some errands so I promise to take more pictures of the campus and the city and put them up, along with the pictures that I was able to take at Whitby today.

~Kristen