Monday, October 8, 2007

This Week's Activities

This past week has been a very fun week for me, with almost always something to do. Last Sunday Amy and I went to the Opera House to see the European Ballet perform Coppelia. It was great seeing a ballet not on TV or the LCCB’s The Nutcracker. This is the first live ballet that I have ever seen that was not performed by the Las Cruces Chamber Ballet. It was a great experience, but still a little strange.

Tuesday I joined Naomi and Tammy for an aerobics class. This was the first time I’ve ever done aerobics and I had so much fun. It reminded me of the jazz class I took in high school—but slightly different. The name of the class is Bums and Tums Madness (or something to that effect). I was fairly sore the next day, and even more sore by Thursday.

Wednesday night we had a dinner party at Debbie and Keith’s flat. They are co-founders and part of the management team for Good News Family Care. They are one of the family’s that live in Charis House. They had all five volunteers for dinner and various other people associated with us and GNFC for dinner. Debbie made curry with a lot of other things I’ve never had before and everything was delicious!

Friday night the leader’s of Little Fishes (the mom/toddler group I work with) and I had dinner at Nicola’s. We had Chinese take-away and talked about the group and planned for the rest of the year. I am now in charge of finding crafts for the children to do that are associated with the week’s Bible story. I’m really looking forward to that since that was always one of my favorite things about teaching Sunday school. It was a nice meeting, but a little awkward since I am the only single/non-mother in the group. But I can always appreciate a funny story about little ones.

Saturday night I went out with my new English friends: Tammy, Lisa, Jo, and Naomi. I had an experience last night that I’ve never encountered in England. Or Europe. I was carded. I’ve never had to show ID when ordering a drink before. The manager said that since I look like I’m younger than 21, she needs to see ID. I find this odd because the legal drinking age in England is 18. We noticed that Naomi, who just turned 18 in September was not carded. When I presented my NM driver’s license the manager said that she would accept it this time, but she really shouldn’t since it’s not British. I really should show my passport. But following that logic: my passport isn’t British so why would that be acceptable?

Each Sunday for about the next 10 weeks I will be taking part in an Alpha Course. It was started in London as a basic Christianity course for “baby Christians”. It has now spread worldwide. Buxton Community Church does this course whenever necessary. We were invited to take part in the course. It basically covers the basics of being a Christian. We were given a ride to Tim and Beryl’s in a 1950’s sports car. That was exciting. But don’t ask me what kind of car it was. I’d never heard the name before, but it was made only in the 50’s and only in Britain.

It was a fun-filled week and I’m looking forward to more!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Christina, My husband Bob and I just retired and moved to Las Cruces in July. I think we actually saw you at Peace before you left for England. We just received the Peace newsletter with your Thoughts for the Month insert, and I wanted to let you know that 2 new members of Peace will be following your year's work at Charis House. I'll include you in prayers too - sounds like a challenging but great year ahead! I have joined the assisting minister bunch at Peace - I did this for about 10 years in another congregation. Bob is helping Pastor Loy redesign the church's website. We have met a lot of people already - and are attending Pastor Loy's Crossways Bible study.
We've traveled twice to London - years ago, but have many fond memories, and I can relate to your comments about the language! I'll be looking forward to your monthly news, and I'll peek at the blog now and then. God Bless you and your work. Susan Mitchell shm@artguidesource.com