Update....

Well I really just wanted to upload this video, pictures coming soon.  I've managed to get some up on facebook, but these take a bit more time.  This was inside the great cathedral on sunday, Lisanne and I walked in a few minutes before the "worship" ended so we got to hear the amazing organ.  The experience was surreal, let me assure you.  Walking into a building with tons of history dating back to the early first century was incredible in itself; the eerie yet beautiful organ music ringing through the halls made it feel like a step back in time.  Today was the first official "lecture day", but really it was more an introduction to living as a community at the base and what that entails.  The location for our lectures is at Eden Community Church, about a ten to fifteen minute walk from the base.  We trainees headed out to the church provided only with a map and not super specific directions and attempted to make our way to the location.  To use the simplest explanation possible, we got lost.  Although we had already walked around town quite a bit, this part of Carlisle had not been highly traversed by any of our five pairs of feet as of yet, so finally we were found and brought to the church a half an hour after they expected us to be there.  Despite this, however, we had a good time and are slowly adjusting to this new culture and living situation.  Love you all and thanks for the prayers!

A Journey Begins...

Hello again, it is now my third night here at the base and I am now safely tucked away and enjoying tea and warm sweaters.  Jet lag has not been so terrible for me, I don't know if it's because I arrived at the base in the evening or because God is having mercy on me.  I think it's a little of both:)  I've met all of my lovely trainee-mates and staff at the base, and I'm so excited to get to know them better.  In my room there is Eva (pronounced Ava), Kelly, Lisanne, and myself, and we are all working together to stay as warm as possible.  In the boys' room there is Juel (from South Korea) and Ben (assistant dts leader).  Total there are four members of the male species in the house (David and Ben dts leaders, Juel, and little Josh, the two-year-old accompanying his mom and sister for a couple of weeks here).  Yesterday we went to see Carlisle castle, and today we visited the cathedral.  Both sites are over a thousand years old, and my jaw was left hanging for about half of the time we were sightseeing.  Soon it's off to bed for me, and tomorrow we have our first lecture at the community church.  Goodnight and blessings!

<3 Aubrey

Arrived!

Sorry for the late annoucement of my blog, I arrived at the base Friday evening at 8:30 Carlisle time (about eight hours ahead of California time) and was too tired to send out the notice for it:)  I arrived safe and sound, apart from a few moments of near panic at the Edinburgh train station and 24 hours of little to no sleep.  My plane ride(s) went tolerably well, except for the length of the first one and my sheer exhaustion for the second one.  I flew from LAX straight through to Heathrow, London, and transferred to British Midland Airlines for my connecting flight to Edinburgh, Scotland.  From the airport I took the bus down to the train station, where I had a prepaid ticket for my train to Carlisle, England at 4:15 pm.  I arrived at the train station and after looking around bewildered for a minute or two I found someone and asked where the train to Carlisle would be.  The very kind and helpful gentleman directed me to platform 11 (I think there were as many as twelve different platforms scattered around the vast station) and said it should arrive at 4:00.  Making my way through the chilly station, across the road where taxis and other vehicles zoomed, and onto the rather frigid and deserted platform 11 I sat down with my giant rolling duffle and two heavy backpacks to await my train.  After seeing multiple trains come and go (it was not yet 4:00) I finally asked a couple who were near me how I would know which was the train to Carlisle.  They said that I could follow them because they were waiting for the same train, and that it hadn't arrived yet.   By four o'clock I began looking for the train to come, and then my friends spotted it down the platform a ways (I expected it to pull right in front of us) and we began walking towards it.  However, we were no more than halfway there when the train pulled out of the station rather quickly, leaving us stranded.  After speaking to the lady at the information desk, I was informed of the time of the next train to Carlisle, but not the platform.  It's a good idea not to assume anything in a foriegn, very strange train station where everyone knows what they are doing except for oneself, and that is exactly what I did when I assumed the next train would pull into the same platform as it did before.  Of course it didn't, which I discovered an hour later when I asked someone where I was to expect the Carlisle train, and as I ran to platform 7 I stopped and watched my coveted transportation pull out of the station and into the cold Scottish night.  By this time my hands were frozen, my body exhausted, and my spirits very low, so naturally my chest heaving with a sudden burst of emotion and my voice was shaky and tear-filled as I approached an official-looking man and asked him when the next train to Carlisle.  He informed me that there were no more trains, and that I should go to the information booth and see if they could help me.  Oh the emotion!  The information booth was closed and I began praying quite fervently that the Lord would help me and bring me exactly where I needed to be.  This was quite a test of trust, as you can imagine, and I'm not quite sure whether I passed it or not: I was having a few doubts at the time.  But the Lord is merciful and patient, and He was there with me even in my fear and emotion.  I found out from a more official-looking person (a lady with a security badge) and I asked her what I was to do with my situation.  She informed me that the next train to leave to Manchester (Carlisle is on the way, it's the train I should have been looking for all along) was in twenty minutes on platform 4 (by this time it was 5:40pm) and I hopped on it.  I was picked up by DTS staff members David and Hannah, and went promptly to bed at the base after a small bite to eat.  Sorry if my description is too long, I get to writing and I don't always know when to stop:)

Anyway, thank you all for your prayers and if you could keep in prayer the spiritual warfare (which I completely believe this was) then I would very much appreciate it.  God bless you all, I send my love:)

<3 Aubrey

A Journey to Remember

Thank you, all who read this, for your support and love; I am so blessed by you!  As I lift of in a few hours to join the other members of my Discipleship Training Seminar in England, I will begin an experience that will last a lifetime.  My purpose for this blog is not necessarily to open my travel journal to you, but to tell about all of the wonders God is going to do in me and through me (for I know they will be many:)).  I am excited for the journey in the physical, but my spiritual journey is going to impact me far more and I hope to share with you those things the Holy Spirit prompts me to.  Your prayers mean so much to me, I'm not sure I can express just how much through this keyboard, so I thank you again for your support.  I'm in God's hands completely, but it brings me joy knowing I am also in your prayers.