Now, let's hear why.
If love is measured in pounds, I feel about 454,767,876,646,436,439,872,398,439lbs. of love whenever I have someone who comes to visit! I was fortunate to feel this overwhelming feeling right at the beginning of this month! John Lee, a friend from Lansing came for a week! I only knew three weeks before he came that he would visit. It was definitely a welcomed "surprise." We toured Leuven, made sushi, and hung out with Pharos people. It was all around a great time. Here are two pictures that pretty much sum up the Belgian part of the experience!
One: Waffles and Chocolate
Two: The Sushi! The first I've ever made!
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Probably the most exciting thing to happen while he was here was our trip to Paris! John, Lynn Van den Zegel, my best Belgian friend, and I left at 5am from the Leuven train station so that we could catch our 6am bus in Brussels. We got on the bus, and four hours later, we were in Paris! We took a quick stop at our hostel to check-in and then drop off our luggage. What followed was a lunch of baguettes, cheese, and wine in front of the Eiffel Tower! It was great! Afterwards, we climbed up the tower. Yes, we took the steps. None of this elevator crap. I might have been winded after, but I was quite conditioned since my room is on the 3rd floor my house. Comparable, right?
The rest of our trip included seeing the Arc de Triomphe, eating an authentic Korean meal, visiting the Eiffel tower again at night, going to Sacre Coeur, attending Mass at Notre Dame, and two failed attempts of going to the Louvre. It was wonderful.
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The next experience worth mentioning is the community retreat. Every year, the Jerusalem community goes on retreat together. For the past 31 years, it's been at a retreat center in Bonheiden. Now, I hope you haven't been worrying too much about me. I know that you've probably been thinking that I should go on another retreat in a castle. I mean, I have only had the one experience in January. You may put your little heart to rest. Here are two pictures of where the retreat was held.
One:
Two:
Yep. So cool. Anyway, the theme of the retreat was Freedom - Vrijheid. It spoke very much to the heart of the community, and it was a great experience to see how Jerusalem was really seeking for healing and unity. Great moment #1: Singing Great and Wonderful at the Lord's Day Celebration. Great moment #2: Singing The King of Glory Comes also at the Lord's Day Celebration. The second song always brings this video to mind. It took all my energy to not laugh uncontrollably while imagining members of the Jerusalem community doing this:
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This past semester, Pharos has put on the Life in the Spirit Seminar- a 7-week series that explores the fundamental truths of Christianity and offers participants an opportunity to choose (again) for Christ. Each week builds on the previous, and during the 5th week, there's a chance to receive prayer for Baptism in the Holy Spirit. This past Wednesday was our 5th installment. That day was just a horrible day, to be honest. I just felt like everything was wrong. The whole day I thought that there would be no way that I could lead music for that night since I was in such a terrible mood. The day progressed. My mood stayed the same. It was only 45 minutes before I was to begin leading that something happened. The week previous, I had jokingly said that a Pharos member owed me some ice cream for a bet that never really happened. Either way, that night, she came up to me with a voucher for free ice cream. It was completely unexpected, but it was exactly what I needed. I felt so loved it was crazy. It helped me free myself from whatever was holding me back, and I felt God's grace help me with leading the music for the night. It was easily the most moving prayer session that Pharos has had all year. Who knew that God would help me get through a horrible day with free ice cream!?
Well, that's March. It's been full of all kinds of excitement. I know there's more to come! There's about 11 more weeks of my Gap year. With that, there is also roughly 4.5 more months worth of Europe, friends, and God. Praise Him!
