Spring Break

This week, in terms of apparent enjoyment, has been one of the most prominent.  Christy and I were given a week of break from school!  No reading or classes required, and, if we could arrange what we needed, we were allowed to travel to wherever we wished.

Christy’s mother and grandmother came over from the States at the end of last week to visit, and they all went traveling this week.  I believe that they were visiting a castle, and they also spent a few days in London.

For my part, I spent a few days not doing much but catching up on some sleep and doing some reading for fun. Monday and Thursday, though, I did a lot of traveling.  On Monday, I went into Edinburgh by train.  Most of that day was spent wandering and looking around the city.  Also I followed CTI tradition and bought a kilt. 

Thursday was even better for traveling.  With a lot of help from wise, old Tim, I booked a train ticket and took a day trip to York, England.  Not as prominent as London, but it was a great trip and a lovely city.  Even the train ride itself was pretty good, despite being very long.  It’s been a great week.

Jon Key

The Update

The last few weeks have gone fast due to the trip to Northern Ireland and Spring Break from the 30^th till the 4^th.  In the days between the time in Northern Ireland and on holiday, Jon and I continued our studies. 

Tuesday, after reading in the morning, we went out with Graham to a lovely old town called Culross.  Culross is five hundred years old!  It still has cobblestone roadways and Holland-inspired houses.  Here is an  interesting fact about the roads: down the center of the road large stones were used for the laying of the road, these stones were significantly easier to walk on compared to the right or left of the road that was built out of smaller stones that made the walk rough.   The history behind this is: if you had money and paid taxes then you were allowed to walk down the center of the road walking pleasantly on the larger stone pathway, but if you did not have enough money to pay taxes then you were not allowed to walk on the larger stones, instead you were forced to make do with the bumpy road made out of smaller stones.  The houses were surprisingly bright in color and had roofs that reminded me of roofs that you would find in a country such as Spain; this was due to the Holland inspiration of the architecture.  After a wee walk around Culross, we hopped back in the car and went to a park that was paid for by Andrew Carnegie, a rich millionaire from the States.

Wednesday I had an all day rugby tournament that went well.  We played three games- lost the first two but finished well by beating Stirling University in our last game. 

Thursday morning my mom and grandma arrived at the airport, so Beth and I went to pick them up, and that afternoon we had our last class till after break.

Friday, mums and tots took place as normal.  Play-doh was the main event this week.  In Covenant Kids Club we went over the miracle of Jesus healing two blind men in Matthew 9: 27.  To finish the day up Paul Wright from Ulster came over and blessed us with a talk on the significance of Christ’s actions on the cross.  Over the weekend I got to show my mom around Airdrie and Glasgow while my grandma was visiting her cousin in Northern Ireland.  Over break my mom, grandma, and I made our way down to London while Jon visited Edinburgh and York.

This week is a normal study week until the Go team (a group of people from Northern Ireland) comes over to help pass out flyers for our mission week (a week that has sermons during the week in the evenings).

 

Holiday was fun but it is good to be back.

 

Christy Lear

 

 

Northern Ireland

This blog is incredibly overdue.   Well, we were busy over the weekend.   Sue me.

Anyhoo, last week, Beth, Christy, and I went to Northern Ireland for a conference about John Calvin.   Since neither Christy nor I had been to Northern Ireland before, this was also a great chance to do some site-seeing.

The conference itself was pretty good.  It mentioned some misconceptions about Calvin and cleared them up.  The speakers also talked about Calvin’s views on certain topics.  I don’t remember all of them, but the thing that stuck out to me the most was that Calvin kept in close contact with the churches that he was partnered with.  He would send letters occasionally to encourage other pastors to keep up their work, or correct them as needed.  It struck me that in the modern day, churches are very independent of one another and don’t seem to have much contact outside of certain events. Maybe this should be changed, though I’m not sure how.

As for site-seeing, we visited a couple of places, each amazing in its own way.  I liked best Dunluce Castle, a castle built by a Scottish clan (I believe it was the MacDonalds).  Though little more than a ruin, it was still amazing to look at.  Also, White Rocks beach was awesome, too.  The beach was beautiful, and the sea was lovely.  I’m really thankful that, except for the last day, we had great weather, perfect for touring.  Though I kinda wish the wind could’ve waited just one more day.  Then I wouldn’t have gotten seasick on the boat ride back.

Jonathan Key