Off to a conference

It's been a crazy week and I've got another ahead! Tomorrow morning I'm leaving at 6:30 a.m. for Haling Island, near Portsmouth. I am very excited to spend a week on the English coast, especially if the gorgeous, sunny, warm weather holds up (I doubt it). But Emma is from Portsmouth, and she tells me it's much warmer down there.

This week I:

1. Wrote 4 newspaper articles, including my BIG story for the Chicago Sun-Times Travel section. It should appear on Sunday, Feb. 10, and my public blog will launch on their site that day.
2. Helped a lot of people at the Arches, including several pregnant teenage girls. I was thinking a lot that day about what a difference birth control can make in a woman's life. I'm glad these girls are carrying their babies to term but ... anyway, I was told that English girls can get birth control from the school nurse or even a GP. Hasn't seemed to make much of a difference in these girls' lives. However, I was encouraged by one lovely young woman. She's just 18 and had been kicked out of the house by her mum, she doesn't really know how to cook and looks quite lost, but she clearly loves her two-month-old baby girl so much and has been given a new flat. Her brother and sister are helping her out, so maybe she'll be OK.
3. Got my visa extension application paperwork sent off! Please join me in praying I get approved for my final two months here and also that I get my passport back by Feb. 15, since I'm supposed to go to Norway on Feb. 17.
4. Did a lot of learning, growing and stretching in spiritual and emotional matters.
5. Taught kids and found out from some parents that that their kids talk about me (in a good way) at home.
6. Was given a gorgeous grey, wool cardigan by Anna; fun footless tights by Jules; and 6 STUNNING, beautiful, almost-new pairs of shoes, plus one pair of boots, by Carmen
5. Rode my bike to and from church A LOT!!!

(and now I need to go do it again, as I'm due at church to help with set up in 22 minutes. Ah, well, I guess my packing for tomorrow morning is going to have to wait until I get home at about 11 p.m. tonight. The joys of Discipleship Year continue).