Biggest Loser

Have you watched this show? I know I'm like 7 seasons behind the rest of the world, but I just saw this show in full for the first time last night - and it's really good. There is one woman on the show who lost her husband and her two children in a car accident about a year or two ago, and she is just incredible. No one could deny that her story was completely heartbreaking, and yet she was so enthusiastic to come on the show and do this for herself. She admitted that she wasn't afraid of death, that would be an easy way out for her considering that her family is gone - this was much harder.

I got choked up several time last night watching these people share their stories and their embarrassment and fear over being so big. Then watching them work out (which truly needs a new name, because I call what I do working out, and my pain looks nothing like theirs!) you're seeing these trainers in their faces pushing, motivating, intimidating and I was just thinking, "wow, I could not do that job. I wouldn't know when to scream and when to encourage, and obviously, when to throw the f word around." (They do that a lot...it helps with the pain? :) )

Bob, one of the trainers, pointed out last night that they had 4 guys on the show over 400 pounds, one of the biggest casts they've ever had. He said this is what they're seeing because this is what is happening in America. Not a big surprise to a lot of people as we often just passively admit that Americans are overweight because they do everything to the extreme or because financially, we can afford to be - but a discouraging fact nonetheless.

London Continued...

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Ok, so it seems like we were in London forever, but the truth is, it was only two days. We're making a huge photobook of our trip, so the best way to share pictures is to make a slideshow after we upload them to the photobook. So, since we're still in London in the photobook, my blog is still in London.

All that to say, London was a lot of fun. After we figured out the metro system (thank you to my New York friend Blair who showed me the ropes on this) we were able to find our way all around the city. The first morning we got there, we showed up at the Tower of London (the castle-looking place from the last post) and just kind of stood there like, "now what?" We quickly came to find that discovering things on our own was fun and adventurous, but once we joined the tour, having a tour guide was invaluable as he was able to provide the context for everything we saw.

Turns out the Tower of London was built in 1078 and was used as a palace a fortress and a prison. You could still see the area around the Tower that was used as a moat. You could pay to go in to what is now a museum, but we didn't end up doing that

Next we walked the bank of the River Thames and made our way (about 3 miles?) to the London Eye. This is a huge sort of ferris wheel (for back of a better explanation) that takes about 30 minutes to go around in a circle and show you an amazing view of London. After that we took a tour of the British Houses of Parliament. The buildings are huge, intricate and pretty impressive. After that we just walked around the city, grabbed dinner and saw a show on the West End.

The next morning we went to Buckingham Palace, but we were so disappointed to not see the guys in the big fuzzy hats and red coats, also known as the Household Calvary Regiment or the traditional guards. Turns out August is exactly the wrong time to visit as you will often see other military men guarding the palace, which we did.

After that we took a pedal boat around Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park - that was definitely good for a laugh. Walked around the city, visited the famous Harrod's department store (it's huge!), amd went to the British Museum where we saw the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone was created in 196 BC! It's not just the language CD's as some people have thought...how sad.

Anyway, here's some more pictures, they're coming slowly but surely.

More views of London...

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I'm behind! More descriptions on all of this later, but here's some views of and from the Tower of London, the London Eye (the big ferris wheel), the Houses of Parliament, the River Thames and Big Ben.

Back home and slowing down

Ok, so obviously we only found access to the internet once while overseas - so it looks like I totally dropped the ball on our European adventure. I will try and catch up each night this week with a posting on each city we visited.

I am currently in the car on my way back from Texas. I went down for the weekend to see my parents and my sister who flew in.

It was nice to take some time to slow down a little. It seems like a trip to Europe should be plenty slow, but not when you're trying to see 4 countries in 12 days!

Anyway, we spent some time antiquing this weekend. Funny how that used to seem so boring to me, and now I am a little fascinated by it, always drawn to the old postcards and worn hardcover books. I wonder what of my "junk" might end up at an antique store one day?

London!!!

to see the full images above, click on each one.

We are just wrapping up day two of our time in London, and it has been so much fun! We visited the Tower Bridge (which by the way is the cool bridge you always see in pictures, the London Bridge is lame), Waterloo Station (for Britt's brother who likes the Bourne movies), the London Eye, the Thames River, the British Musuem (briefly), Hyde Park, took a tour of the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, Buckingham Palace, gosh, think that's it.

We head off to Paris and met our tour people tomorrow at 5 AM! Ha! We'll be going to bed early tonight.

On a random and funny note, our tourguide's name is Graham, and to answer your next question, no, we won't be telling him that our dog's name is Graham!

Ok, more later. Tomorrow the Eiffel Tower!

It's really here!!

Ok, our Europe trip is finally here.(Mine and Brittany's that is.) We leave this afternoon for our two week excursion through Europe. First stop, London. I hope to update when I can. We're pretty excited but also hope ours bags are under the 50 lb weight limit! For two people that pack for a living, we should be experts at this, but we'll see.

Pray for safety!

Reality

We're having a good week here in PA. The week is going well, the students seem excited to be here and our staff is working well together. 

Last night the topic of the evening was freedom from bondage to our sins. The students spent the day with a paper shackle on each wrist, symbolizing the sins that enslave them. Last night our speaker was addressing this topic and he shared a very real and sad story from his own life about his brother. 

His brother was a speaker on the same stage a couple of years ago, and because of bondage to some sin from his past that he never let go of, he now finds himself forced to resign from the church he was at, divorced, and working at a funeral home and waiting tables at night.

How incredibly sad. That could be anyone in ministry really. Any person who hasn't repented of their sins and given their life to Jesus and been made free in that. He had dealt with some addiction to pornography, he was sexually active in high school, and he had never really dealt with that. As his brother said, he was just trying to live in both worlds, and sooner or later, that catches up with you. If you don't deal with those sins, if you don't repent of them, turn away from them, or they will destroy your life.

I was just caught up in the reality of that story. The reality that I had met this man, that I had seen pictures of his family and now, that image that I had of him wasn't true anymore. That is reality: if you aren't daily walking with the Lord, if you don't turn away from the things that hold you in bondage, then you are enslaved to those things and you aren't experiencing freedom, and you aren't living in Christ.

I have been sorting through that all summer -what that looks like in my life. What am I enslaved to? I've realized that for a lot of us, that could be an everyday question, battle, realization. I guess I'm trying to pinpoint the things that I have deemed necessary or essential to worry about, or spend time on and then asked myself - who is that for? Will that bring glory to God? Is that for me or for Him? 

I would challenge you to ask yourself the same thing? What do you hold to be more important than God? How did it get there and how will you get rid of it?