God-shaped hole

Right now we are in a small village called Vamos. Since my last update, we went to Chania, Crete, which is the third largest city in Crete and is right on the water. We were there for a few days. We have been in Vamos since last Thursday and will be here until this Thursday when we will get back on a ferry and travel to the Greek islands of Tinos, Mikonos, and Santorini for a week!

The rest of this entry is part of my travel journal that I am keeping for my class. The things that I wrote have been on my mind recently though, and I think it's interesting enough to share with all of you.

I promise I am not usually a negative person, but there have been times on this trip where I have been fed up with people. Nobody in particular, just constantly being surrounded by people and never being able to find personal time has been very frustrating. During the first few weeks of this trip, I diligently did my daily devotions and offered up prayers to God whenever something was bothering me. But as this trip has progressed, I have found fewer opportunities for personal time and time alone with God, and it got to the point of being unnerving.

This kind of thing happens so gradually that it is almost unnoticeable at first. I think the first time I noticed how much I was suffering because of the lack of personal time was at the Orthodox Academy of Crete when we prayed over our dinner for various people we all knew who were suffering. Upon finishing the prayer I felt a sense of revitalization and new awakening and I remembered how good it felt to thank God for the meal and to pray for others. This sparked discussion over dinner that night about how much we miss saying table grace.

The event most recently that has offered me personal time was on Good Friday. I had an awful and frustrating evening because I was trying to solidify plans for my post-semester excursion with Lissie Jacobsen and a bunch of hurdles were presenting themselves in my path. We have to make special reservations on certain trains that will cost extra money. The cost of the ferry isn’t covered by our pass. Hostels are two to three times more expensive than we had budgeted. We can’t find a way to ship our suitcases back home for less than 100 euro per person. All of the above scenarios, and a few others, were causing me angst and frustration. I let this bother me all through dinner and other students on the trip offered me comfort the best they could, but their best efforts weren’t making a difference. I tried to talk myself into a better mood and it wasn’t helping.

That night we were remembering Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. During the service I could feel God pulling on my heart and telling me that he was there to help; all I needed to do was ask for it. Some eerie things happened during the service, such as the part where a passage is read and a candle blown out several times in a row, and the first half of the candles all blew themselves out at the correct time. When David Wintersteen was reading, the wind seemed to correspond with his words; when the scene was calm there was no wind, but when Jesus was being crucified the wind picked up and was howling. At one point, the passage ended and a bell rang in the same rhythm in which the passage had resounded. Eerie events like that that made me think about the omniscience and omnipotence of God.

At the end of the service, we were encouraged to leave the place of worship in silence. We were also encouraged to stay in the place for as long as we felt necessary. I spent a solid amount of time thinking things over and offering my worries to God to handle. I prayed that our post-semester excursion will work out fine and that we can find a way to not go completely broke during the trip.

The next day things began to look up. I got an email Christopher in England (who we were going to stay with for a few days) and he told me not to worry about anything there. He said he has already requested leave for the full five days we were visiting and will show us around London, Stonehenge, Cambridge, and other areas we are interested in. He said that he booked a room for us at a great rate. The problem with hostels is also working itself out through talking with various people Lissie and I know who have traveled in Europe before and getting recommendations from them. The suitcase thing is also in progress of working itself out and I am confident it will be OK.

So what has this taught me? I have learned that I need to find times and places to take personal time for myself and time to simply hang out with God. I need to remember that although God is great to come to with problems, he is also a good guy to credit when things go right. I wish that I could go to church every Sunday and attend chapel a few times during the week and I wish I had a strong Christian support system around me on this trip to make things easier, but in turn I am learning a lot about myself and my personal worship habits, which is sequentially making me stronger. I have learned that I don’t have to feel overwhelmed by people and events, and I know that will help me furthermore enjoy the rest of my trip.


And more pictures!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000638&l=bbde4&id=1273320032
These are from Katalagari, Rethymnon, Orthodox Academy, Chania, and Vamos.
Enjoy!!