6/23 - Jumping In

What I did:

I woke up and left with Matt to go to Cliff. We had a nice talk about his church that helped me understand it a little better and helped for my research. When we got there, Matt gave me a schedule of all the activities that are going on at Cliff this week. Apparently graduation week is full of lots of fun activities planned and run by the students. So, I saw that there would be some worship at 9:30 and went to get some breakfast before heading to worship.

I got to the common room and saw a bunch of people I did not know. I kind of slipped in the back of the circle and we sang and prayed for a while. I actually did not know many of the songs we sang. It is always interesting what songs come up that I have sung hundreds of times back home and then the few that come up that I have never heard before. After it was over, I sat for a little while, trying to figure out how to introduce myself to everyone. I am not bad at introducing myself and talking in a small group, but when it is a roomful of unfamiliar faces, I don’t really know where to start. Luckily, a guy named Ernest (sorry if it is misspelled) came up to me and introduced himself, then introduced me to the whole group. I talked to a few of them about why I was there, then Ernest took me to a kind of students only lounge called “Diggs” (that is my best guess at what it is called). It was a nice lounge area with some TVs and game systems.

Then we went back to the common room and I went back to my room to get some scheduling stuff sorted and to try to get caught up on computer stuff. I went back down for lunch and ate with several students and kept explaining what I am doing there then went back to my room to kill some time before a game of rounders.

I walked down to the bottom field, which is a little field close to the road with moderately cut grass. People trickled in and we divided into teams for the game. Rounders is kind of like baseball (like a little girls version of baseball is how I think it was described :) ). There are 4 bases not including home plate and you have a very short bat that you can only swing with one hand. We played with a base ball for one game and a tennis ball for the other. You can run whether you hit it or not and you have to make yourself around the bases to get back to bat. The only runs we counted were rounders, which would be the equivalent of a home run. My team lost both games, but it was very fun.

After we played, we were all very hot and tired, but some people decided to go down for a swim in the river. I joined and in a little while we walked down across the road to the river. We looked around and could not find a place that looked safe and clean enough to jump in (not to mention it may not have been completely legal to get in at that point). So we decided to hop in some cars and travel to Chatsworth. This is a place that has a nice clean river (actually I think it is part of the same river, just in a better spot) and has a large stately home where some movies have been filmed (like the more recent Pride and Prejudice). It is the home of the Dutchess of Devonshire. We found a nice spot to jump in. The water was terribly cold, but refreshing. We walked around some and saw some guys jumping off a stump into the water. So we went to try too. Brought me back to my cliff jumping experience several years ago, only much less terrifying. We stayed for a while, then headed back for the evening meal.

We went to dinner wet and smelly, but it was worth it. Then, I went and got cleaned up and came back down for Celebration. It was kind of a years end worship service for the students and faculty. It was really great. We sang some and danced (led by some men from Africa), prayed, and had some testimonies then a message and some reflection time. It was really powerful, and if for no other reason than this, I am glad I came. That might sound cheesy, and I have probably said the same thing about other parts of this trip, but it really was a great time to spend with God and some new friends.

After that, I was invited to go to the pub with some of the students, so I tagged along and ended the night rather peacefully relaxing and talking with them.

What I learned:

This week is going to be much more exciting and busy than I thought.

The kind of end of the year week that I have always thought would be great (and I think Blake is with me on this one) is what is going on this week at Cliff. So, that kind of thing does happen, just not at SMU.

Jumping into a nice cold river sounds great right after a game of Rounders, but not so much an hour later after you have cooled down.

How to play rounders. Although it may take me a while to really develop my style and get good at it.

I am probably going to butcher this story, but here it goes. All of the houses around Chatsworth had to be moved centuries ago when someone living nearby said that he did not want to be able to see the houses of the workers. All the houses were torn down and moved further back except one that is now separated from the others and lasted just long enough to not have to be moved.