December 2nd, 2012
Boring Information:
Good evening and happy holidays to my many followers! (Many being a very relative adjective). My name is Mason Bramer and this is my very first blog post in "The Walk Across the Pond", a blog entailing the next semester, Spring of 2013, in which I will spend in England. I will be living in Grantham, England and attending Harlaxton College for the semester. I will be living in Harlaxton Manor (pictured above), a "castle-like" home to 180 American students who come to live the European life for 4 months. I will arrive in London, an hour south of Grantham, on January 3rd and will take classes at Harlaxton until April 17th. From there, myself and some of my best friends will travel for 12 days to every country, city and town we can in Europe before returning home on April 29th. To be honest, this is about the extent of information I have right now on my upcoming Spring semester, but don't fret, there will be more to come! Read that Mom? I promise those are all the details I have!
Purpose of the Blog:
Kings of Leon deep tracks add to the cluster of blending machines and chatter in Spencer's coffee shop, where Kyle Stewart and I are working diligently on homework. In actuality, our diligence is being dedicated to our blogs that we have just set up for this coming semester, in which we will both be spending in England. "European Stew", Kyle's pun-filled blog title, stimulates my creative juices so that I may as well create a title for MY blog. Distracted by conversations of our own and of the hipsters accompanying us in coffee consumption and lack of production, I step back from and think of the purpose of this blog. "What will be my reasoning in writing this?" An obvious answer, to write about events, people and culture that I will experience next semester. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to have higher hopes, that it may consist of something more than that. To write of my daily life for a semester would prove necessary the recording of the most important part of my life, my faith given to me by Christ.
Kyle begins to tell me of how God had recently showed him we are given gifts to worship God with, and that the copious variety of gifts truly shows how big our God is. This is a beautiful representation of Kyle's devotion to his own faith and the glorifying of Christ in his daily thought to say the least. Heading to a culture in which less than 50% believe in a "God", I had already started to doubt this sovereignty Kyle was speaking about (Praise God that I will have him for accountability and encouragement while there). And due to the lack of religion in this region of the world, I had began to see myself disregarding the passion and love of my life, and dedicating my time to enjoying the semester. I do intend to enjoy my time in Europe, but only through the satisfaction found in the joy of Christ.
Of course, through videos, pictures and words I will post most everything I can that happens in those 4 months. My hope for each and every post is that somehow, God is exposed through them. Whether it be explicit writings of how I've seen God working, or subtle exposure through the happiness and fun found through times with my friends; my passion is that God is known. Such a secular culture is sure to expose struggles of my own, and via the culture displayed in my writings, we can see the great necessity for our great God. My "Walk Across the Pond" isn't simply going to entail that of the events and travels I endure, but also of the endurance of faith God will provide for me.
As it does in Bowling Green this time of year, dusk comes early. Sunday's procrastinators begin to finish their coffee and possibly their homework, while Kyle waits for my blog-babble to end so we may leave. I ought to rap it up for his sake, this blog is about my friends and myself, and our semester "across the pond". My "walk" will include my experience of the beauty of Europe's culture and how I have to rely on God to keep walking.
I don't leave until January 3rd, so until then there may be one more post! But come January 3rd, you can expect many posts! (Much shorter than this one don't worry!)
