A view of a river

We just got back from first year weekend away.  It was held at a conference site just out of Nowra on the Shoalhaven river, roughly a two hour drive from Sydney (though of course Sydney is so large that it really depends on where in Sydney you're coming from).

We got there very late on Friday night so it was dark and the view was hidden from sight.  This is what I woke up to the next morning!

Angels in a chapel

Today we had women's chapel in Cash Chapel.  It’s a little chapel across the road from college, built in memorial for a young man who died in the war.

A trip to the mountains

We decided to go away for a couple of nights to the Blue Mountains during our one week of holidays.  It was a great way for us to relax and not do any work (well we only took our languages study with us), and it’s only in hindsight that I’ve realised how good it was for us go away. 

The day we arrived was cold, wet and misty; the perfect winter’s day to curl up indoors with a blanket.  We were staying near the Three Sisters (rock formation), and we wondered if we’d get a chance to see them at all through the fog that was surrounding us.  Thankfully it cleared up the next day when we went for a walk. 

We did a couple of walks to waterfalls and a lot of op-shopping.  I finally found the fourth and final book in a fantasy series I have.  I’ve been looking for it in op-shops for a few years now and I saw it in two shops there!

There’s not much more to tell so here are a few pictures instead.  There may be more to come later.  (Hover over them for descriptions)
 

     

 

 

 

 

 

    

Getting to know friends

We had some friends, a couple from college, over for dinner last night.  We wanted to get to know them a bit better and we've found in the past that spending time together outside of your usual context can be helpful for this. 

After dinner we played some games (a card game called 'Munchkin' and a board game called 'Smallworld' if anyone is interested).  We love games so it was great to have another couple to play with.  We've got a number of friends in Adelaide who we play games with, and different games with different friends, so we were really excited to find out that these college friends were into board games (particularly the ones we would call nerdy games). 

I think there's something about playing games that helps bring people out of their shells a bit.  We express ourselves more readily because we get involved in the game, and we feel less self-conscious.  At least that's how I feel.  Certainly as one person opens up, relaxes and feels safe to express themselves, they unconsciously give others permission to do the same.  

We like playing games to get to know people.  Do you have things you like to do with guests, or things you do to get to know people better?

What's in a name?

I spent a long time trying to think of a name for this blog.  In some ways I just wanted to get to it and start writing, but I didn't feel like it was worth writing anything until I had a name to make starting at all worthwhile. 

I wanted something that either described what I would be writing about, or described me (in a non-corny way).  I knew I wouldn't be in this stage of life, being a student, forever so I didn't want the name of the blog to lock me into that, though in some ways I will be a student my whole life, as a student of God's word. 

I ended up with "Reflections of a Lamb" because I've grown up knowing that my name means 'lamb of God'.  When I looked it up on the internet I was told that Rachelle (a French name) means 'lamb'.  Rachel (the Hebrew origin of my name) actually means 'ewe', but that's close enough to 'lamb' for me.

I also want to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is my shepherd, he calls himself the Good Shepherd in John chapter 10, and I am his sheep wanting to hear his voice and follow his commands. 

My reflections will be about what I've been doing, but most importantly to me, they will be about being a lamb of the Good Shepherd, Jesus.

The Beginning of Blogging

Here I am, I've started a blog!

I've been thinking about doing this for a while now, pretty much since we decided to move interstate for Bible college.  But I've been shy of doing it because I thought I'd be too busy or wouldn't have enough to say.  I want this blog to be a way of letting friends and family know what I am doing, learning and thinking.  I also thought it might become part of my study process to summarise what we've been learning at college.  I got some encouragement that friends and family would be interested in reading this sort of thing (or at least my mum will!) so I started to get a bit more excited about the idea. 

Now, in our mid-semester break I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go.  I'd love it if you'd read and come along side me in my journey.

Rachelle