I found this in The Letters of Samuel Rutherford this afternoon. It's a pretty long quote, but I liked it.

"Twenty times a-day I ravel (twist the threads disorderly) heaven, and then I must come with my ill-raveled work to Christ, to cumber him (as it were) to right it; and to seek again the right end of the thread, and to fold up again my eternal glory with his own hand, and to give a right cast of his holy and gracious hand to my marred and spoiled salvation. Certainly, it is a cumbersome thing to keep a foolish child from falls and broken brows, and weeping for this and that toy, and rash running and sickness, and bairn's diseases; ere he get through them all, he costeth no little care and fashery (trouble about a multitude of things) his keepers. And so is a believer a cumbersome piece of work, and an ill-ravelled hesp (hank of yarn) (as we say) to Christ. But God be thanked; for many spoiled salivations, and many ill-ravelled hesps hath Christ mended, since first he entered tutor to lost mankind. O what could we bairns do without him! how soon should we mar all! But the less out weight be upon our own feeble legs, and the more on Christ, the strong Rock, the better for us. It is good for us that ever Christ took the cumber of us; it is our heaven to lay many weights and burdens upon Christ, and to make him all we have, root and top, beginning and end of our salvation. Lord, hold us there."
~The Letters of Samuel Rutherford, page 100

"Behold, I go forward but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot percieve Him;

When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him; He turns on the right, I cannot see Him.

But He now the way I take: When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold."

Job 23:8-10

Glasgow was lovely. From the time I hit the ground the people I met were very kind and fun to be around--especially Rebecca. I still had the leftovers of the flu from the week before, so I was something of a zombie for the better part of my time. Rebecca has the right idea about how to spend free time with friends (in my opinion, at least): stay up late and sleep in the next morning! I made a personal record with her in that regard, and I won't publish how late we slept in Saturday morning.
It was raining when I got off the plane, but got clear "around 4 o'clock" as predicted. Sunday morning was gloriously beautiful, then it rained in torrents in the afternoon.
We went to lots of different youth fellowship things while I was there and I got to know a few of her friends a little bit. Rebecca's brother got engaged Friday night, so she was very excited about that and it was fun to listen to her discuss the details. Rebecca is an excellent conversationalist and is great fun to listen to whatever she's talking about, actually.
I had a great time, and would love to go again sometime.

Scotland!

random photos from around cambridge

Today is Caroline's birthday. She and her older sister are going to London with her parents to see the musical Mary Poppins in honor of the big day. They are taking the train in and making a day of it. It sounds like so much fun!
Tomorrow I leave for Scotland! I am going to see Rebecca Hamilton, a friend who is going to school in Glasgow. I hear such contradicting reports of Glasgow that I don't know what to expect. The Hamiltons tell me that it is the center of the known world, that Glaswegians (if that's how you spell what it sounds like their saying...) are the salt of the earth, etc. Then there are other people that gasp and stare when they hear I would consider going there. I am intrigued. I've wanted to go to Scotland ever since I can remember and am thrilled to get to go (for the accents alone if nothing else)!

Peter, Ashley, and I all got soaked in a rain storm on the way home from a walk. As you can see, the kids still were in good spirits despite the rain!

Me and my friend, Elisa

Saturday morning I went to a series of lectures on church history that Chad VanDixhoorn was giving through a local ministry called Christian Heritage. It was about three and a half hours long: the topics were Freedom of the Will, Luther, the Council of Trent, and the Anabaptists. Whew! It was very good, I love it when someone makes me think about things that really matter.
Later that afternoon, I went punting with a bunch of students from the church. If I haven't said so before, a punt is a boat and punting is pushing the boat alone gracefully with a 15 ft long pull. About the graceful part... I obviously wasn't the punter but a passenger! You have the option of renting the punt or going on a tour where a "professional" punter poles you along and tells you random facts about the colleges as you pass them (The colleges are almost all along the river...): We rented our boats. The river was choked with other punts, rented and guided.
The people in other boats were a consistent source of amusement, as they came in all shapes, sizes, and skill levels. The accuracy of the facts that the obliging tour guides (who passed within inches of our boat) came up with was a particular source of mirth, as according to the folks I was with, they seemed to make things up as they went along: "To your right is Magdalene College. One of the notable things about this college is that their formal dinners are still candlelit with no electricity at all..." The guy sitting across from me turned and said that he'd been to a formal at Magdalene last semester and that he was almost certain that those light bulbs they used ran on electricity.
There is a trick called bridge jumping where you get the punt pointed under a bridge, give it a good shove, and scramble up and over the top of the bridge by the time your punt comes out the other side. No one tried it yesterday; but it would be fun to watch. We had a great time.
Sorry I haven't put any more photos on here yet. I'm working on it.

Just wanted to share some dialogue and thoughts from a International student welcome that I went to the other day. (I'm not a student here, but I go to some Christian student things anyway).
The speaker said, "So, you've been here for about a week. Has anyone showed an interest in you and who you really are since you've been here? Not what you're studying, but who you are and what you left behind in coming here? " There were heads shaking all over the room, and the listeners were really paying attention now. A chord had been struck. "We are here to welcome you; to get to know you; and to find out who you really are and who the people are that you shared a tearful good-bye with last week."
The speaker recounted a few different kinds of welcomes that he'd received in different cultures around the world, and how that even though some of them were very different, the main thing was that the person giving the welcome had the same idea of making him feel like he belonged and that someone was happy to see him.
Then he said some things about how college changes lots of people in many of different ways, and is a time when some people find faith. He went on to say that they had an interest in us and who we were, that they would love to talk with us about God and the Bible; but first and foremost that they had an interest in making us feel welcome, and in really getting to know us.
A lot of people were touched by this, everyone there knew exactly what he was talking about when he spoke of being lonely. I realized what the Bible was talking about when it tells us to welcome strangers and aliens in the name of Christ. Being lonely is one of the most horrible feelings in the world, and hospitality is an incredible evangelism tool.
"For I was an hungered, and you gave me meat: I was thirsty, and you gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me... Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Matthew 25:35, 36, 40

Ashley woke up with a cold this morning--she sounds so pitiful sniffling and asking for a "tiss-u". She slept in past when everyone else had already eaten breakfast, so when she started eating hers she asked where everyone else was. She asked me to sit next to her while she ate (she is the one who would rather have anyone but me do anything for her, usually). In other words, she's being super-cute this morning! (I'm writing sitting next to her with the lap top). She's "All done now, actually", so I'll write more later.

The other day was a day off, which I spent riding my bike around Cambridge and ducking in and out of bookshops and stalls in the market. It was so fun! I bought a old copy of Lorna Dune for a pound, and a collection of Chesterton's Father Brown mysteries (the introduction says that Father Brown is the exact opposite of Lord Peter, who is my favorite mystery character.) The day was everything a fall day should be, down to the smell of good coffee and pastries in the market and the sun on one's back. It was the first day of classes at the university, and there seemed to be a festival atmosphere around town.
I had tea in a tiny tea room across from the Round Church, which was built in the 12th century; tea consisted of a huge scone and a pot of tea, with the company of my newly aquired books.

Yesterday I went running with the two toddlers in a stroller. It wasn't really a jogging stroller, but was a bit better than the normal buggy... I thought I was going to die. It was much harder than just running! I ran to a park and let the kids play on the equipment for a while. After a few minutes I put them back in the stroller and gave them snacks, then started to walk back. Ashley turned around and asked scornfully, "Why aren't you running?" I ran home. Nothing like a three year old for motivation.

Today is Ashley's birthday party... As a matter of fact, everyone in the family with the exception of Peter has a birthday in either September or October. Ashley is so excited. Victoria wants me to make a bow and arrow with her this afternoon, and went so far as to ask her mom to schedule it into the day's events. My brothers would chuckle. We'll see how it goes.

Hope all is well with you all. If anyone wants a good movie idea, try Miss Potter if you haven't already. I watched it last night with my friend Elisa, and it was pretty good.

Till later!

I went on a walk with Emily, Ashley, and Peter this morning to run some errands and get some exercise. We were walking down a narrow street, about ready to turn back for home, when I saw a book shop and asked if we could stop... It was wonderful. There were so many old books in there, books from the 17, 18, 1900s, of all shapes and sizes. I got to touch a first edition Winne the Pooh, one of those books that made history! I could have stayed in there all day and all night, just looking and touching books. I walked out with a page of an old Bible (the binding had fallen apart and they were selling individual pages), a 1526 edition in Latin, printed in Paris with hand-written marginal notes and underlined verses. Very cool. I definitely plan on going back there sometime soon!

Hey all!
Things continue to go well here. Fall is coming on slowly but surely, the surest sign being that term is starting this week here at the university and the population of the town has at least doubled in the past few days. There are people everywhere.
I was hoping to be able to share more photos than I have at this point: I have not been successful with up-loading off my camera. The computer I'm using now doesn't recognise my camera and the camera shop's computers were down the past two times I've tried there.
Ashley's birthday was Sunday. She turned three! It must be so cool to be growing up--seems like everything is such an adventure. I think this was her first birthday that she's ever been conscious of, and she was so excited. The whole experience centers around the cake ("Tomorrow is my birthday cake!").
Today Maxwell, the VanDixhoorn's black cat, dragged in a mass of mouse remains onto the kitchen floor and dropped them next to the baby. Emily lost it. I don't think I've laughed so hard since I've been here. It was so, so funny.