Cass is grouchy

I've been in London 4 months today. Or yesterday. Maybe the day before. It's great, i love it, amazing city but I'm sick of the west! I miss orphan babies, I miss Africa, i miss any and all adventure. not regular adventure but like ends of the earth, almost driving off cliffs, what's that fungus on my arm? adventure. OH MY GOODNESS! And breathe

It’s been quite a while since I blogged an update so here’s a quicky (sorry for the delay) I’m a working girl again! I got a nanny job a few weeks back but it fell through last minute and instead of waiting for another one I got a job as a waitress. Funny but tips included, it in fact pays better then a nanny job would. So that’s nice. It’s a fancy little Italian restaurant in the business area of London. I really like it actually. I still will sometimes break out in tears as the job in itself is miles away from my heart. It’s fine though, God’s totally been blessing me loads in it all. I finished my training a week early and was opening shortly thereafter. (which is good as you don’t get tips while training) I’ve also had amazing customer experiences, as people from other tables randomly come up to me, put their arms around me and tell me how much they like me, or say that I’m the “happy waitress”. The other day I got talking to some high class business people about my long term goals. Haha I started sharing Jesus and how he’s the only answer for a war torn Africa etc etc. and they welled up with tears! They gave me the “who are you” look and their business card and we’re supposed to go out for tea and talk more.(lol) So it’s been fun. The kingdom is a comin and I’ll settle for nothing less.

As of now, I’ve sort of stopped the “celeb banquet job” though. It was great and all but I didn’t want to get taxed and lose money, so I’ve been putting it off. As fun as it was all in all people are people and Beyonce doesn’t even tip that well. ;)

My neighbourhood has been quite the place lately .In the past few weeks the gangs have gotten quite restless. Whether just walking home from work or from the tube or wherever they have suddenly decided that we need to…get to know each other. It’s weird cause they never used to bother us but now they’re starting to cause some trouble. A pimp even tried to pick me up at the grocery store the other day! I was very annoyed. After a few rude encounters with some of the gang guys and a group of “wannabe gang” guys I got really frightened for a while and was ready to become a hermit in my flat. Funny that I’d be more scared here then I was in Africa.( I think just cause there I always had guys to protect me and here all of our friends live miles away) But, I had a good talk with God about it and he reminded me who he is and who I am and that (oh my word) he’s actually pretty big. And what can man do to me anyway? (Again, don’t wry, I’m not stupid just not scared)

Sorry that’s not too exciting. I have another cold and am pretty tired. My mom’s coming to visit me in just over a month though. That’s blog worthy. So that’ll be end July, if you want to come and visit (cough cough, Evan and Crissy) end Aug. would be great.

So there you have it, my one month flaky update. :)
Tons of british lovin to you all, speak soon!

a little AYS action

Completely strapped for cash I recently got a job as a banquet server. The company is AYS and they do fancy dinners such as movie premiers, celeb parties, rich people’s gatherings etc. (The fact that I got the job was such a miracle as I showed up to the interview late, soaking wet and without being able to hear in my left ear due to an ear infection). I had my first job on Friday at a millionaire’s house. Now most of you know, I don’t really care who you are or how much money you have. Truthfully (as bad as it is) I find it easier to love the poor and broken then the rich and “whole”. (cough cough) So I’m on my way to wait at this dinner and I start crying realizing just how far this is from my heart, I do my best to suck it up but it doesn’t get much better. When I arrive the other workers weren’t very nice to me and my supervisor didn’t seem to like me. I bolted to the bathroom and did a panicky “God what’s up!” He was so sweet and just said “Cass, just do it for me.” Instantly a joy comes over me and I go back out to serve a platter of 260 pound “mini beef burgers” (about $630 for one of many plates of canapés). Well the night shifted and it seemed that all the guests liked me best! Suddenly the supervisor wasn’t so mean and by the end of the evening instead of cleaning up I was in charge of all the guests, making sure they were all topped up and happy. Haha. It was very sad though as those hundred pound dishes often went in the trash. We were aloud to eat some so long as we kept working and I found it soon became “one for me, one for the garbage”. That could only last so long however before the nausea kicked in.
It was so frustrating though seeing all the food going in the rubbish bin that I soon began to collect it. I think everyone thought I was a little weird at first as I start talking about the homeless and how we could develop programs to give the leftovers to street sleepers. They said I could do what I like and by the end of the night I had a trash bag of food that I hauled home.
My job Monday was much different. It was a L’Oreal party (is that even how spell it?) for the upper class and celeb’s. Apparently big shots were there and I felt quite out of the loop as I didn’t know any of them. I had two VIP tables where people would walk straight from the runway to my table but I didn’t know them. They didn’t tip either so I don’t know why they were so special. Lol. (Rumor had it that Beyonce was there but I looked for her and didn’t see her so I think it was made up)
So there you have it. London takes a twist as I now work for the richest of rich yet the poorest of poor. lol

Cornwall Vaca 2007

The Plan: Surf Holiday in the Province of Cornwall
The Result: A rained out weekend of bed rest
So the weekend started out great. We spontaneously left a day early to the beautiful story book village of Gwithian, Cornwall for a few days of fun in the sun and surf on the sea. It had been an intense couple of weeks and we were all ready for a lazy good time ("We" as in Laura, Me and a girl visiting from Canada whom we had met in Africa 2 years previous). The forecast however called for rain and even before leaving London it started pouring. We get there and I'm not feeling to hot. I had been sick all week but it had seemed I was on the mend. Not the case. As the night went on my ears started getting all funny and before I went to bed it sounded like I was "underwater". Well two o'clock in the morning rolls around and i'm pacing the floor in excruciating pain. I honestly thought my had was going to explode out my ears. When I would try to be still and sleep my body would convulse from pain. (lol not the highest pain tolerance) So after almost an hour I woke up the girls in the other room ( I had been quarantined in the lone bedroom due to a bad cough) and collapsed on their bed cring. They prayed for me, found me drugs and put me back to bed but it wasn't until the wee hours of the morning that I managed to get back to sleep. The next day after having my head in the toilet as a mean of coping with the pain we headed to the doctor. The verdict: A nasty ear infection. So we were off the the pharmacy and then I went straight to bed. The end result: No surfing for Cassandra. Exhausted I spent most the vaca sleeping. It seemed that if I rested 3 hours I had energy for 2 and personallity enough for about 30 minutes. I still managed to visit the beach however and see some pretty shops. And due to the chilly weather nobdoy went surfing anyway.
So that was my weekend. I was going to give a full update but I'm bored so maybe another night.

“If your dreams don’t make you want to crap your pants, then they’re probably not from God”.
A guy I know recently said this and it was an oh so timely reminder.
With the wrong perspective big things can look very small. The moon for instance as massive as it is, can easily disappear behind your thumb when caught at the right angle. The same with God. So often we’re so focused on our own problems that ‘our fingers look bigger then the moon’. Funny that we’re called to a life of impossibilities yet we run around only doing the things that look possible. Everything Jesus did was impossible without God so why would we think we’re to live any differently? I’m saying all this because at this exact moment everything seems impossible. Everything I want, everything I’ve planned, even my basic needs. Everything. So really, if God doesn’t show up I’m screwed. Pretty much. It’s amazing, I’m really happy with it and looking at history the “odds are for me” but I’m really learning to rest in what feels like the unknown. Anyway,

The last couple weeks have been ones to ponder, good but interesting. A while back God was talking about me going to Paris. It was right when my job at the clinic ended and I had no money to spare. He wouldn’t drop it however so I made a budget and said that if he wanted me to go he’d have to pay for it. Well, suddenly the job started up again and by the time it ended, it was exactly my budget.
So I got back from Paris Wednesday and have determined that England takes the cake over France ;) . It was an amazing trip I’d do it over in a heartbeat but I probably wouldn’t recommend Paris for the lone lady traveler. The French guys lived up to their reputation and I was actually shocked by their aggression. Even with my diamonds they still persisted! (thus the reason England gets cake) The food was amazing though. A chocolate crepe and the Eiffel tower at night…quite a feat.

One week left in April and I’m looking forward to May. Bring on the heat.

(I saw this in the Paris Metro and thought of Jarett, can you believe it's been 2 years?)

Happy Resurrection day!
Laura and I went to the cottage for the Easter Weekend. Friday we tanned and Saturday we managed to slip up to Blenheim Palace. The Sunday was beautiful and topped off with a chocolate egg hunt that that we put on for the parents and baptismal service in the evening. (LOVE baptisms) Don’t really feel like blogging much else so here are some pics instead. Yay for spring

Only in Oxfordshire....

Seems to have lost his pants in battle :0

So a day turned into a week. Seems about my blogging style. Sooo much has gone on. My goodness. I was thinking what to say and I’ll just give a fluffy life summary.

Well last weekend our tiny little church put on a conference. Rolland and Heidi Baker (With Iris Ministries, whom I worked with in Africa) are old friends of my Pastors so they came in with a lil team to be the speakers. It went really great. So Eleos style, as it had free admission and the first three rows were reserved for the homeless. Laura and I ended up running most of it as Kurt and Asha caught up with the Bakers. We joke that the pictures below best represent the practical part of the weekend “Eleos-Iris Style”.

Things here are still going amazing. New little development, I’m now the keyboard player for my church. Haha. I guess they’ve been praying for a keyboard player for quite some time and even though I haven’t played in a worship band or even really practiced for about two years for some reason I agreed to do it. It was funny as I arrived at church about a half hour before the service the Sunday I was suppose to play and even though everything was set up, nobody had any intention of practicing. I noticed the piano was well, a tad tiny and missing a pedal so I asked if I could quickly have a go at it. I sat down only to discover, they don’t have sheet music. They sort of laughed and asked if I could play by ear. We started practicing and turns out they only have one monitor for two vocals, one guitar and now a keyboard. I don’t know which was more difficult, trying to learn a new song by ear or simply trying to hear myself over the bongos and guitar. One guy was sent on a mission to find music to a song that I didn’t know and came back claiming he was successful. Only one small problem. “Can you transpose music?” “Can I what?” Turns out it was the right song, wrong key. So they gave me a pen and about 5 minutes to try and transpose this song. In the end I did figure it out (proof alone that God is in love with me) and they find music to another song. Except with this song the cords are right but in the wrong spot. “Well you just sort of make it up” The drummer tells me. And the lead vocalist/guitar player agrees, “Yeah just make it up”… Not reassuring. So we play around a bit, made a total new song list and then just waited for people to show up.
Lol Was funnier at the time I think.
It was really good though, I loved every minute. God totally showed up and did his thing and we worshiped for the next two hours, completely skipping the sermon.

A couple weeks ago I also got a chance to leave London and see some country side as Laura and I took a train to visit her parents in Oxfordshire. It was great, her parents are moving to a new little village that we visited that is all thatched cottages! No joke. The whole thing looked straight out of a movie, topped off with a 16th century pub next door and a castle up the way. Below are some pics.

Work is going better. I’m working part time now while secretly looking for a way to love on babies and annihilate poverty in London. No luck as of yet but I’ll keep updates.
Laura and I went with Kurt and the team to “Church without Walls” last Saturday. In short it’s breakfast, a short talk and prayer with about 40ish homeless guys under a tree at about 7 in the morning. Kind of similar to what I did in S’toon.
The shear quantity of homeless people in London though, has been quite the issue lately. There is a solution, I know there is, I just don’t know what it is yet. Giving up my futon isn’t it and neither is throwing a pound or two at their feet. Lol I’m not going into that now but man, I refuse to sit on the fence for this one.
Anyway there’s some of life’s basics, below are some pictures. Cheers

-The location of the conference was moved across the street so to avoid confusion we posted a sign, we feel this picture sums up the practical aspect of the weekend.
-The place that it was held in was an old anglo-catholic church probably older then my country. The bathrooms were ancient and a joy not only to use but also to clean.
-Just got off the train and still a little tired and cold. (laura’s parents new cottage)
-16th Century Pub