Life Savers

Right along the road to school runs the fastest river in Europe. Where it runs alongside our apartment it looks relatively slow, but by the time it reaches town it looks pretty terrifying. Apparently, I have cause to be afraid because every twenty yards or so (I really have no idea) there is a bright yellow stand with an orange life saver attached. Colleen kindly informed me as we were passing one of these that if I fell in she would throw one out to me. My reaction was along the lines of "that's all?!" Because, let's be honest, if I fell in I would want her to do a lot more than throw me the life saver and hope I grabbed on.
I'm finding out that looking for a church is a lot like trying to get out of a very fast, cold river. A life saver is great, but what I really need is for someone to jump in the water. I've visited two churches here, and while both have been really nice and welcoming, very few people are actually willing to go out on a limb and really try to make me part of the group. This is hard, because as much as I want to be part of them, I can't invite myself in. Thankfully, last night I went to the Christian Union (which is like their version of Campus Crusade) which had a lot of visiting students as well. Because we are all in the same boat, we were all reaching out to each other. So I'm not writing this so that you all feel bad for me, because really there's nothing to feel bad about. Instead, to all my Grace church and Campus Crusade friends: really reach out to people, even if it means you are giving up sitting with your friends and it makes you uncomfortable. This has really reminded me what it means to be new, and that Christians aren't always the most welcoming bunch. But we should be! So my advice: Stop throwing life savers, and get in the water.