See, amid the winter's snow...

Haven't we been surprised by all of the snow in recent weeks?!? Well, at least here in Europe... It seems like everybody is commenting and twittering and blogging and posting photos about the snow! Okay, so now it's my turn!

Let's start with some pictures from the snow we had earlier this month in North Cotes, close to the end of the school term - from what I heard, it was the heaviest snowfall in that area anyone can remember!

Credit goes to Marina for most of these photos - thanks for letting me use them!

Because of the snow, we had a number of prolonged power and internet outages and, for a few days, we were completely cut off from civilisation as the only road out of the neighbourhood was impassable! The annual Christmas programme had to be cancelled for safety reasons and a number of local churches in Grimsby also cancelled their Sunday services.

All of this was just a week or so before term break when we were to go home again, so we were getting a bit worried about whether that would even be possible. But, praise God, the snow melted away more and more, so that everyone could get out once the holidays began! :-)

There were no problems whatsoever on the road driving back to Germany, but then the very next day it started snowing again! This past weekend, I went to a wedding in northern Bavaria, where we saw even crazier amounts of snow! See for yourself...

As Christmas approaches, all of the snow brings to mind a lovely Christmas carol:

See, amid the winter's snow,

Born for us on Earth below,

See, the tender Lamb appears,

Promised from eternal years.

Hail, thou ever blessed morn,

Hail redemption's happy dawn,

Sing through all Jerusalem,

Christ is born in Bethlehem.

Lo, within a manger lies

He who built the starry skies;

He who, throned in height sublime,

Sits among the cherubim.

Say, ye holy shepherds,say,

What your joyful news today;

Wherefore have ye left your sheep

On the lonely mountain steep?

"As we watched at dead of night,

Lo, we saw a wondrous light:

Angels singing 'Peace On Earth'

Told us of the Saviour's birth."

Sacred Infant, all divine,

What a tender love was Thine,

Thus to come from highest bliss

Down to such a world as this.

Teach, O teach us, Holy Child,

By Thy face so meek and mild,

Teach us to resemble Thee,

In Thy sweet humility.

Merry Christmas, everybody! Hopefully any snow you may have will add to the Christmas spirit and remind you of the wonderful words of this beautiful carol. What a wonder that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth to bring us peace and hope and life!

kʰæn ju ɹid ðɪs?

wɛlkʌm tʰu ðə ɪntənæʃnəl fənɛtɪk ælfəbɛt (ɑⁱpieⁱ) wɛɹ wɹdz ɑɹ spɛld ɛgsækli æz ðɛⁱ ɑɹ pɹoᵘnæᵘnst. ðɪs ɪz wʌd ɑⁱ hæv bɪn lɹnɪŋ ðə pʰæst fju wiks ɪn mɑⁱ kʰɹɔs kʰʌltʃʊɹəl kʰɔmjunɪkeⁱʃnz kl̥æs. si bɪloᵘ foɹ sʌm pɪktʃəɹz ænd wɑtʃ dænjəl mɛⁱk ə mɛs ɔv θɪŋz.




Translation:

Can you read this?

Welcome to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) where words are spelled exactly as they are pronounced. This is what I have been learning the past few weeks in my Cross-Cultural Communications class. See below for some pictures and watch Daniel make a mess of things.

And here is Daniel trying out one of those difficult R sounds...
 

 
The most fun class of the year so far! =)

Please repent of your sin

Please repent of your sin.
It is killing you.
It is killing others.
It is contributing to the horrific nature of the world.
It is separating you from God.
It could cause you to spend eternity in the conscious, eternal torments of hell.

Repentance is a gift that God gives.
Repentance is the love of God in action.
Repentance is only possible because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

And friends, you and I, we are sinners. And Jesus came to save sinners.

These words were spoken by Mark Driscoll in a sermon about the fall of man. Don't take this as a personal accusation or judgment from my part. I am just as bad a sinner as anyone else and I know it. So I am not pointing the finger at you. But the Bible says that we all are sinners and God warns us about the consequences of sin. Don't let sin destroy you. Come to Christ in repentance and let him change your heart.

As the great Puritan writer John Owen said, "Be killing sin or it will be killing you."

6 minutes of good news

No matter what nation or people group or culture or language or religion, the gospel is good news for everybody. It is good news for you. Good news for every day of your life and for all eternity.

Will you take just 6 minutes to watch the following video about the gospel and find out how this is good news for you?



Think about it.

Meditate on it.

Let it sink in.

Believe the gospel and live.

You never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never outgrow your need for the gospel!

Woodlands survival

Last week, I spent 4 days out in the woodlands in Derbyshire receiving survival training with my classmates as part of our Cross-Cultural Communication course. On site, we were provided with a few pots and pans, a limited amount of water every day, and an experienced instructor to give us training in how to survive in the woods. We were able to bring our sleeping bags and clothes and food, but only what we were able to carry on our backs. Tents were not allowed. We would have to learn how to build our own shelters from what is available in the woods.

We packed our cars early Monday morning and drove for about 2 1/2 hours to a place in Derbyshire where we could leave our cars.

From there, we hiked about 40 minutes into the woods.

After we arrived, our instructor Dave first taught us how to build a shelter.

And then it was up to us to gather materials for a shelter...

... and to make a shelter that would hopefully be waterproof!

Here is the finished product and my bed for the next three nights (with a makeshift mattress out of branches and foilage)!

This was what our camp looked like:

We learned how to make string from plants...

... start a fire ...

... even without any matchsticks or the like!

Plenty of smoke!

And useful for roasting a chicken or two!

We also learned how to make traps for animals...

 ... and where and how to find and make sense of animal tracks.

We had great weather every day, with just a few raindrops landing on my face on Thursday morning at around 5 a.m. - because my head was sticking outside of the shelter, not because my shelter wasn't waterproof! ;-)

And then it was time to pack our bags and head back to the car park again.

Goodbye woodlands!

The first to arrive back at the car park! =)

All in all a great experience - learned lots of interesting new things and had a good few days out in the woods with my classmates!

Life without limits!

Are you living life to the full? Or are you struggling with your daily circumstances and quickly become depressed? Life is not always easy. In fact, everyone of us will have to go through really difficult times. But this does not mean that there is no hope and we cannot have joy.

This morning in church, I was greatly encouraged when we watched the following amazing video about Nick Vujicic, a man who probably has much more reason to despair of his circumstances than any of us, but whose life nevertheless is bursting forth with joy. If he can find joy in his condition, then so can you!






Visit Nick's website at www.lifewithoutlimbs.org.

Jesus says: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10b)

Don't Waste Your Life Sentence

What are you doing with your life? When we look around in our society today, we see people who in our eyes are wasting their lives - drunkards, drug addicts, beggars, prostitutes, criminals, prisoners etc. What we tend to (or want to) forget is that the hard-working, honest, church-going businessman with a wife and two children and a nice home may just as well be wasting his life, if he is living only for this life and what the world has to offer.

Several years after writing his excellent book Don't Waste Your Life, John Piper and his ministry Desiring God will be releasing a new movie entitled "Don't Waste Your Life Sentence" on 20 August 2010. This movie tells the story of people who have wasted their lives and have become rejects of society, but have had their lives radically changed by the gospel. They have found hope and peace and freedom in Jesus Christ and now have a reason to live again and the desire not to waste their lives.

You can see the trailer here:


What can we learn from these kind of people who were failures and have lost everything? Probably a lot more than you realise...

For more info on the movie, visit http://beta.desiringgod.org/dwyls.