Day Fifteen

11:02pm

Seven of us hitchhiked into town today. We split into two groups - Kristin, Spencer, and myself in one group; Jenn, Christy, Thaddeus, and Alex in the other. We (my group) ended up walking for a half hour before we got picked up by a nice middle-aged woman. She spoke English and asked us where we were all from and stuff. After telling her I'm from FL, she said she has a house there. Neat.

We got some things at the grocery store and the sports store. I bought a much-needed pair of cleats, socks, and shorts, and only spend a little over $100. The cleats were probably $20-$40 cheaper here than they would've been in the US, and they're just as good.

On the way back, we only walked for about 12 minutes before an older man picked us up. Either he didn't know how to speak English, or he didn't want to. So he only spoke to Kristin. He dropped us off right at the door of the Barn. As a side note, let me just say I look like a pro in my football gear.

After we ate dinner, the few of us that are playing tomorrow morning for church decided it would be a good idea to practice again. We only practiced for 45 minutes because innebandy started at 7pm. One of the guys had been dissing me a lot because apparently when they played last night, his team owned. So of course my response was to talk some trash and say my team was going to beat his (even though we had no idea who our teammates would be).

At 7pm, we all walked down to the gym, still talking trash. There ended up being four teams, and luckily enough, he was on a different team than me. I was ready for the throw down. I had some great players on my team. We didn't end up playing his team until towards the end, but we tied 0-0. Oh yeah, and he checked me into the wall; I decided to play a little harsher after that. Then we played him again two games later, and my team won 1-0. I don't think I need to say anything else about that. =)

peace, love, and victory.

kaeli

Day Fourteen

10:42pm

Supervising went pretty well this mornig. Cleaning the dining room wasn't that bad, it was just time consiming. We played musuic from my laptop and had some neat conversations. Apparently, on Sundaym a few if us frim SLC are leading swrhip. That will be very interesting considering how last minute it is. We are praticing tonight. Sersiouly, that's all there is to report today. It was pretty uneventful.

peace, love and not caring about spelling.

kaeli

Day Thirteen

7:20pm

Today has been a pretty busy day. It's Thursday, so that means pancakes for breakfast. I actually wasn't tired in class today so that's a first. The last hour we talked about how to share the Good News, which is definitely something I needed to hear because I am not entirely fantastic at that.

Our first intramural football game was today. The first two teams played at 3:15pm and the other two at 4:15pm. I was in Lag 3 which played the second game. They made a rule that there has to always be one girl from each team on the field. It's a good rule because it makes it fair for everyone. But at the same time, it sucks for me because my team is the only team with one girl, so I have to play the whole time.

I played forward, which was new to me since I'm used to playing mid. Sometime in the first half, I assisted Josh from England in a goal. We were up by the goal, I had the ball, I passed to Josh, he scored. Our team ended up winning (7-2, or something like that) so that was pretty encouraging. Nate and Trevor called my team the monster team because apparently we have good players.

I was reppin' my A-Team shirt at the game, and we were trying to come up with a team name. Since I was the only girl, the guys wanted to include me in the team name. How nice of them. Ideas bounced around from Kaeli's Klan, to Kaeli's Kids, to Kaeli's Krew, to Kaeli's Boys, etc. Then Joel noticed my shirt and suggested the K-Team. So that's our team name now. I feel so honored.

Elke wanted to meet with a handful of people, myself included, after dinner. I thought I was in trouble. As it turns out, we are going to be supervisors for Work Day. Just for tomorrow. We were picked at random, but if we do a good job, she might pick us again later. I'm cleaning the dining room tomorrow with Kristin (pronounced Christine), and that's it. It should be fun - she's a neat girl, and she's teaching me Swedish.

Class tonight was pretty difficult. Gah-lee. It's been all about the importance of the septuagint, different people that translated the Bible, and characteristics of the NT. Lots and lots of information.

I asked Jenn if she would help me with my ball-handling skills in football, and she said she would be delighted. Hopefully by next week, I'll be a little better.

I haven't done my devos since I've been here and I sort of feel convicted about that. I just don't know what to read, and I didn't bring any devo books with me. That was stupid of me. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

peace, love, and the K-Team.

kaeli

Day Twelve

9:34pm

There's something here in Sweden that is similar to a Good Will back home; it's called Erikshjalpen, which means Erik's help. There's a really cool story behind it, and if you ever get the chance to look it up, do so. We took a tour of Erikshjalpen after breakfast. As we were listening and walking, I noticed a lady bug on Bekah's shirt. We named him Steve and determined that he was a germaphobe, self absorbed (he cleaned himself every three seconds), deaf, somewhat retarded, and he had lame legs. Literally. But we loved him and took him on the tour with us. He even stayed with us when we got back to the Barn. He really liked Bekah's jacket.

We had class tonight, and it was more mind-boggling discussions and questions and resolutions.

I wrote a song today - it's simple and short, but it expresses what I was feeling at the moment. I really needed God to just intercede in my life and cradle me in his love. I was sort of at a loss for words, hence the shortness. I tried to record it, but for whatever reason, I couldn't. I shall try again tomorrow. In the mean time, here are the lyrics (it makes more sense when they're in order):

God break me

And make me Yours

God save me

And make me Yours

For You are strong

And You are mighty

But I am weak

And so unworthy

For I am small

And I am weary

But You are all

And still You love me

peace, love, and poetry.

kaeli

Ps. This just in! I recorded the song and it's now on my myspace music page. Go here to check it out. It's called "Make Me Yours" because I couldn't come up with a better title.

Day Eleven

8:59am

At breakfast, I sat at a table with Zack (intern), Nate (intern), Tyler, Luke, and Bekah. Bekah and I were slightly outnumbered. Anyway, the guys started talking about stupid guy stuff, and then they talked about paintball. I chimed in and mentioned how I have a full auto paintball gum and they all stopped and stared at me. Nate didn't believe me and asked me if I had one, just to make sure they heard right. It was pretty funny.

9:25pm

I feel like my head is going to explode. Today's lectures were so intense. We were talking about inerrancy and if there are alleged errors in the Bible. We went over many examples of Scripture and came to the conclusion that inerrancy is not a good choice of diction. There's more but if I tried to explain it, I know I'd be off because I can't think straight at the current moment.

We had the rest of the evening off, so Megan got her violin and I got my guitar and we did some praise and worship; that was cool. After dinner, I went to the chapel and did about another hour's worth on my own.

Around 9pm, Danielle, Christy, Jillian, Kristin, and I went on a walk up the hill and back. It was completely black in some places, but I have never seen that many stars. Ever. (Cue David Crowder's "Stars.") We had fun talking, mostly of things we want to accomplish in life. They were all freezing and in their winter coats, and I was in a hoodie with my sleeves rolled up. And I was still warm. Gah-lee.

peace, love, and cold-blooded.

kaeli

Day Ten

10:36pm

Laundry day - finally. This morning, my roommates and I woke up early to drop our clothes off at the laundry room which was good because I was running out of things to wear.

Lectures were good today. Jesse is doing them this week and it's basically an apologetics class - sort of. It's pretty challenging and I'm excited about that.

After lunch, I had about three hours to kill, so I grabbed my guitar and went out to the pavilion by the football field. I was playing loud and singing louder. Eventually I played the song "How He Loves" and almost cried. That is one amazing song. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

The day passed by quickly after that. I went over to Heidi's after dinner for a cup of my favorite tea (English Breakfast) and that was fun. I ended up taking the cup with me to evening lectures because I wasn't done. Mmm.

Cory bought me a book called The Shack before I left for Sweden. I read a few chapters, but got hooked on the Twilight series in between so I put that book on hold. I finished the series last week, so I started reading The Shack again. Man that's a scary book; but it's definitely really good. I'm in chapter five now.

Dan locked up tonight and was wanting to borrow my guitar, so I waited till he got to the Barn (main building) and gave it to him. Then I read The Shack some more. If I don't go to sleep now, I'll be exhausted in the morning.

peace, love, and pages.

kaeli

Day Nine

10:24pm

Church was good today. John Poysti spoke about leaving the past in the past. (I'd write more, but I'm journaling about this two days after the fact, and I can't really remember.) Before church started, there wasn't a whole lot to do so I grabbed my guitar and went out by the tree in front of the chapel. I was just playing and singing and praising God, and Megan came out with her violin and played with me - it sounded amazing. Pretty soon, there were about ten other people out there with us, just worshipping our God. It was awesome.

Jesse, Dean of Students and worship leader, mentioned something about if anyone wanted to be on a worship band, they had to sign up for the Spiritual Life Committee. So, I did. Big surprise, right? We had a meeting after lunch, just seeing if there was anyone interested in playing for Worship Together tonight. Megan, Manuel, Dan, Spencer, and I agreed to do that. Worship together is like an hour of praise and worship music, along with some other things. It was an awesome experience.

peace, love, and togetherness.

kaeli