We are four days into Spring School and I'm excited. When I look at a calendar, I'm reminded of how fast Spring School goes...it is only eight weeks long. It seems so much needs to happen within these next eight weeks, but I know it will be gone before we know it. The picture above was my view today, of students hard at study, from the balcony in the new Conference Hall.
There seemed to be a few "sleepers" here and there during lectures today...but most for good reason. Two nights in a row now, we have had the fire alarms go off in the Main House (the castle). Monday night the alarm sounded at 4:30am...we had a full evacuation to designated fire assembly points, role-call was taken, there was no fire, just an alarm caked in dust...everyone returned to their rooms, probably just tucked in under their cozy covers when it blasted again...it only sounded for about 40 seconds and shut off. But within the hour, just when people had fallen back asleep, 5:30am it rang one last time. And then we Tuesday night, it rang at a 1:20am and the evacuation and role-call were involved as well. It was the same fire alarm that set them off the night before, we now think it may be a mouse in the ceiling or a spider that comes out at night? Yikes. Let's hope tonight will be a peaceful, full night's sleep!
Happy Wednesday.

Winter Bible School has ended.
Spring Break Holidays have come to a close.

New believers have been born here over the past three weeks!

Spring Bible School begins in 2 days.
Going home is in the near future.
Sun (and wind) is currently a more common forecast than rain.
I miss my family...and my country.

A fellow American and I were chatting the other day...how often do you thank the Lord for the country you were born in? Living in a different one for almost two years has reignited my American Pride. Living in England has been some of the best years of my life, but I never knew how much I would miss America. Yes, America has it's issues, but which country doesn't? People run our country, what do we expect? People aren't perfect. Do you ever wonder what it would have been like living with George Washington or Abraham Lincoln as your President? I do sometimes...when God was the most important influence in government and His name was freely and openly proclaimed.

On another note...

I tried to form a habit over the past month: to work the word "pardon" into my daily vocabulary. An American stereotype (that is true) is the overuse of the word "what". If someone asks me a question, my automatic response is "what?" or "huh?"....ew. It sounds so dull. Even worse, yesterday in Lancaster I was ordering food and the waiter asked me something and the only response I could get out of my dull head was, "say what?"! Oh my goodness! I felt ridiculous. Needless to say, it is not yet a habit. But I'm working on it! To be fair, it is hard to break a habit of "what" for 23 years, in only four short weeks.

I will give it up to the British and their elegant vocabulary. It does inspire me to be better.