''Are you excited?''

''Are you excited?'' - A question I've been asked about 5 or 6 times this weekend by people referring to my year abroad (which commences 8 days from now :-O)! My answer... ''I think so''... To which I have had some strange looks, looks that seem to be asking me to elaborate...

...So I will! Basically, or prehaps not so basically, life is a funny old thing! (Can i get an amen?!) At the end of my second year of uni I was sooooo gutted about leaving people and people leaving me and just didn't hugely feel like I wanted to go home. I'd gotten used to living with 3 wonderful friends who are christians which undoubtedly kept us accountable and gave us support and excitement about living for God at uni. I had met lots of new friends in their first year and shared soooooo much fun and randomness with them and just had an awesome year. Dont get me wrong, I was looking forward to seeing friends and family, but I knew I would greatly miss all these things amongst others.

Y'know what though, I shouldn't have worried at all :) GOD IS ALWAYS FAITHFUL! He provided a really lovely summer and reminded me that there are great things at home that I would never want to miss out on. Firstly I had an awesome week at a christian youth camp that I lead on every year - I think it was possibly my favourite year so far ever! I had the most challenging tent group in the worrrrld, but at the end of the day it really stretched me, taught me patience and gave me extreme compassion. We also were able to be a part of a good number of teenagers becoming christians and growing in their faith! I felt like I never wanted to leave that legendary Devonshire field and all its views!

But I did. And I came home to more excitement, straight into our church holiday club for primary school aged children which I also led at! To be honest, at first I was like ''hmmm, well it'll be fun but surely those children wont take much in about God, there wont be any extreme conversations, but just more like a week-long party'' Oh how I should have had more faith!! The week was awesome and I was continually blown away by the 50 or 60ish kids, most non-churched, who just came out with all these awesome things they were learning about God and how great He is! Fab! Whats even greater is one of my nieces and my nephew came, and loved it - hurahhhh!

God also provided me with a job and although most nights I felt like I didn't wanna go and be faced with random holiday makers, being rude and asking stupid questions such as ''does the sweet and sour chicken have sweet and sour sauce with it..?'' I mean COME ON PEOPLE!!!! Despite that though, the job provided me with some awesome debt-busting pennies and the people I worked with were fab too ( I had great fun teaching chinese people english slang words such as lush, innit, wassup etc!)

I also just came back from Forum which is a national 5 day long conference for Christian Union leaders. I went last year when I was on the CU committee and loved it so much I decided to go back and volunteer in the kitchen - was great fun, met lots of new people and learnt more about God!

You may be reading this (tho I doubt anyone is!) thinking why is she blabbing on about this stuff? Well I guess its just to remind myself that when God takes you out of one situation into another, we quite often think that its not gonna be any good, that it wont compare with this or that. If I draw a comparison between leaving uni for home and leaving home for France, its quite clear that God will have great things for me this term :) Yes it will be scary, yes it will be odd and yes I will miss soooo many people - Including YOU! But I know God will be with me every step of the way. He will never change even though my situation will and this will just make me lean on him so much more and hopefully I may grow in faith, grace and confidence. Deserves a WOOP I feel!

So, to conclude this rather long, and perhaps for you, boring post - I believe I am excited, or at least I most certainly should be :) I will miss home, and I will miss Pompey peoples but its an adventure that I most definately do not want to waste by worrying about what I'm missing out on elsewhere! Please don't forget me - I wont forget you, stay in touch and keep me smiling :)
Major massive love, hugs and kisses to you all,
Sare xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx :D