Hey Everyone!
It's been a while - hope you are all doing well!!
The last time I updated you all was back before Christmas and a lot has happened since then.
#Adventures| Over the Christmas/New Years break I was able to go to New Jersey, New York and Canada. I had a really great time and got to see and do things that I've always wanted to. My favourite thing from New York was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. The view was wonderful and I could see out across the river and see the Liberty Island where the Statue of Liberty stands.
While in Canada I went to see Niagara Falls. Beautiful. Just seeing the magnitude of it all was breathtaking.
The coolest thing were the rainbows that kept appearing, disappearing and reappearing again in different positions. They would appear for a minute or less and then slowly fade away.
It was really cold when we went and so a lot of the shallow parts had frozen over and there were lots of dangerous looking icicles.
#Food| Of course I had to try some new food while I was on my travels. The first was slice of New York City pizza. Okay granted this isn't really a 'new type' of food but it was definitely the best slice of pizza I've ever had. I don't know what they do to make it taste so good but it works!
The second was a dish called 'Poutine' which is really popular in Canada. Essentially it is chips, gravy and cheese. I didn't like it. But I'm glad I tried it :)
#Weather| So this has been the most unusual week of weather in Texas since I got here. We went from 20 degrees celsius and sunny skies to -3 degree with snow and ice in just a couple of days. Now back home a little bit of ice, snow and rain never hurt anybody - the exact opposite is true here! Texas wasn't built to handle this kind of weather. The type of tyres on cars, not much drainage on main roads and minimal grit laying services can be a recipe for disaster. So whenever snow or ice is forecast the local schools close for the safety of their students. There were around 250 car accidents last week due to the weather conditions. Thankfully none were fatal, however many cars were written off and abandoned road side.
On a happier note - I enjoyed seeing the snow :)
#Compassion| City On A Hill (the church I'm at) have a lot of connection with Compassion International, the organisation that raise sponsorship for children living in poverty around the world. The church has been sponsoring children for many years and currently sponsor over 100 children in Kenya. Compassion International have what they call a Compassion Experience which is a large truck that tours across the states giving people an experience of what it is like for the children living in poverty. City On A Hill were privilege to be the host location for the Texas part of the tour. The inside of the truck was set up to look like two different compassion locations, Bolivia and Kenya. Walking through the truck provided you with an insight into what life is like for two children who have been sponsored through compassion. It was great helping out with the experience and bringing students from one of the schools we work at to be part of it. For more info on this, check out their website: www.compassion.com.
#Prayers| Please pray for the students at the church. Many of them have had rough starts to life and are struggle with different things. Sadly on of our seniors (17yrs) attempted to commit suicide three weeks ago. He has recovered physically now. Please pray for him, for God to renew his mind and heal him in every way he needs healing.
Please also pray for the general health of our students as we have another student who has been in hospital for a while now battling an illness that it took a while for the doctors to diagnose.
We really appreciate all your prayers.
#Funny Moment| We had our first lessons in a new school we are working in this week. As we were introducing ourselves to the students one of the girls heard I was from London and ask to hug me! #SmallTimeCeleb
Until next time folks! Oh yh - I'm back in less than four months :-D
Lots of love
God Bless
Tess
#MoreNYCSnaps|
