an update since Saturday: NOTHING HAPPENED. Hahaha....well, nothing thoroughly exciting at least. Not that I've had previous events that have been heart-stoppingly, breath-takingly, adrenaline-rushingly exciting. I finally wrote my cover letter and sent in my resume to National Geographic in Washington, DC. Am furiously praying now. Also sent in my resume to the Uni of Northampton for a Press Officer position, and am currently being hounded be a Korean pastor because he wants me to go teach English in Korea. Now, that thought had crossed my mind before, but the moment has since passed. If he caught me a few months ago, I might have said yes and jumped on the next plane to Korea. Now...I'm just faced with too many options. I'm still contemplating if I wanna do my MA (Communications) in Oxford next year. Argh! And I was complaining I had nothing to do after this year. When it rains, it pours. God loves a good laugh.
Oh, wrote something last night as well. Being on a volunteer scheme, the organisation that I'm with emails weekly newsletters featuring a particular volunteers to everybody under their scheme. Well, next week's gonna be my turn and so I was asked to write something yesterday. So being the good old obedient me, I wrote something:
A writer unable to write. Not because there’s nothing to write about, but because there’s simply too much to say. Six months have passed since I arrived at Heathrow Airport, excited and bright-eyed, to begin my year as a Marketing and PR assistant at Newbold College in King Arthur country – home of myths, legends and history.
The last six months spent in England have been absolutely incredible. My main duties at Newbold lay in writing news articles and promotional materials, skills I spent the last three years in Avondale College honing as I worked on a degree in Communication. It wasn’t quite work, since writing is literally an extension of who I am.
Of course, it wasn’t all sunshine and flowers. I have to be completely honest and say that there was the initial loneliness and ensuing depression, there was the frustration when I found out that things didn’t and wasn’t going to go the way I thought it would, there was the disappointment of being let down and left on my own and the unfortunate event of being taken for granted. Most devastatingly, there was the downhill walk with God…
I have to admit that the thought of giving up and leaving flashed through my mind on several occasions. And yet, this was where I knew God had led me, this was where I knew God wanted me to be and of course, there was the ongoing romance I had with England itself which meant that I was not going to let this opportunity slip through my fingers just because I lacked endurance and perseverance. So I stuck around, and at this point in time, I have to say that I had the most amazing six months of my life.
Being in England meant an easy access to so many different places, within Britain as well as all over Europe. I found out ways to travel unbelievably cheaply around Europe, which was great for my volunteer paycheck. I travelled like there was no tomorrow. Every weekend, I would find myself in a different location – Amsterdam, Venice, Bath, Sweden, Windsor, Rome…the list continued to grow. My passion for history and the arts was fuelled as I ran my fingers across ancient ruins, visited incredible museums and breathed in the electrifying atmosphere of London as I attended a few of its endless number of musicals and theatre shows.
And most amazing of all was how God never gave me up even though I was more than prepared to forget about Him. He would bring different people into my life who would gently nudge me towards the right direction with nothing more than their own love for Him. It wasn’t an overnight process, but one day while sitting in the fields in the south of France, contemplating and writing about life, I was suddenly filled with understanding and brought to a whole new level of faith in God.
Proverbs 3:5,6 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not upon your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.”
It used to be my favourite verse, and it was the only thing that I could think of that day. And with that new found trust and love for God, I was able to face whatever difficulties that came my way. And on top of it all, I would not have survived six months in Newbold without the support of family and friends who were consistently praying for me and being there for me.
Making the decision to live in England for a year has been amazing as I immersed myself into a completely new culture and was able to experience relationships with God, family and friends as I would never had. My England Tales continue…
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