Tag: hidden Doctor Who quotes

Spring Break Update

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life, Personal Updates1 Comment

I was on spring break from camp this week. I spent the entire week at home. Easter was lovely, and it definitely gave me a chance to observe and reflect on how we’re all growing older and so much has changed. We haven’t done a real Easter egg hunt in several years, so Mom just dumped a bunch of candy on the floor and we all sat around politely nibbling on it. No mad grab, no piles, no trading five jelly beans for one Reese’s. We did a little bit of dare-you-to-eat-this-mystery-jelly-belly, though, so I guess full maturity hasn’t hit yet. One or two “significant others” joined us, which makes my heart swell with joy. I love adding to the family circle. especially such wonderful people and perfect fits as they are. Many of us went to different Easter services and even different churches, which was weird but good. We’re each choosing our own spiritual communities and our own places to encounter God.

The rest of the week was relaxing but fun and productive. Highlights:

  • I kept my Netflixing minimal. (Well, I say “minimal”… I went through all of season one of Dollhouse in two days, then successfully avoided TV the rest of the week.) Those who’ve lived with me will recognise the accomplishment this is.
  • In my defence, the above marathon occurred during recovery from a devilish cold which almost put me out of commission for a few days at work. And that ain’t easy to do. I went through more tissues this week…
  • I purged and organised my giant 6’x6′ IKEA bookshelf and cleared out a whopping 13 of its 25 squares. All of my college papers are now completely sorted and labeled. Hallelujah.
  • I went thrift shopping with my sister and bought three adorable tank tops for a total of about $5 that were all completely unique yet all had nearly the exact same yellow colour scheme. I seem to have definitively discovered my new favourite colour.
  • I watched the Doctor Who episode “The Eleventh Hour” with my sister while eating fish fingers and custard, as the Doctor and Amelia iconically do in the episode. I cannot even express how gleefully geeky we felt.

    Oh yes. This happened.
    Oh yes. This happened.

I also took some more baby steps forward on the IHOPU planning front.

  • I got in touch with someone in Kansas City from whom I might be renting a basement room. Things are looking very positive– OHMYGOSH I’M RENTING MY OWN PLACE!!
  • I filled out my IHOPU application, then seem to have recycled it along with mounds of junk from the shelves I cleaned. Ah well. Emailed the admissions office for another form, since it’s inexplicably not online.
  • I did a projected state of my financial affairs in August. Not too shabby. Not exactly fully self-sustaining, but definitely starting off on the right foot. 🙂 God is providing… I love it when he does that!

Oh, and the Academic Calendar for the Fall 2013 semester is now online.

2013 Fall Semester

August 15–17 | New student orientation
August 19 | Fall semester/quarter I begins
October 11 | Quarter I ends
October 14 | Quarter II begins
November 24–December 1 | Thanksgiving break
December 13 | Fall semester/quarter II ends
December 15–January 19 | Christmas/winter break

Guys, this is starting to feel really real again.

I do have a few prayer requests, since I’m apparently in list mode:

  • The last trimester at camp to go well– energy for all the staff!
  • A good summer job to come through.
  • Housing arrangements in KC to be settled.
  • The application process to IHOPU to go smoothly.

Thank you for your support and your prayers as God turns my life beautifully upside down. 🙂 Grace and peace!

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Book Hangover

On By CaitlynIn Just Thoughts1 Comment

I’m currently in one of those weird moods commonly known to bibliophiles as a “book hangover,” although I contest that it can happen with TV programmes equally strongly. This happened a few days ago when I finally watched the recent Christmas special of Downton Abbey. No spoilers, but suffice it to say that there was a long beautiful sequence of scenes of joy and peace and promise and newness, and then in ten heinous seconds it all was ripped away leaving a gaping bloody hole in the centre of perfection… and then I had to walk away and do “real life,” whatever the heck that is. And all I could think about was how sadistic these writers are and how are these people going to bear it when they discover what the viewers know but the family is blissfully unaware of until the next episode… Curse you, BBC!!!

Anyway, I was talking about books. Somehow books are even weirder because it all happens completely in your mind. Interrupt me while I’m reading, and my eyes will jerk up, staring blankly, trying to reorient myself but 99% mentally still in the book. Whatever words stumble from my mouth in those next few seconds are almost guaranteed not to make sense.  The only reason I’m able to write coherently now is that I put the book down a full thirty minutes ago.

I’m currently reading a mind-bending sci-fi/fantasy novel called Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card. The plot is excellent, but it’s the intelligence of the characters that makes Card’s books stand out. I feel like I’m learning so much about human nature just from the way the characters understand humanity. Anyway, I read a full 300 pages in one sitting. Took me about three hours. Yes, I know that’s insanely fast. I’m probably not human.

When I finally “come to” enough to realise that I should probably take a break, I close the book, wash my dishes which had been sitting abandoned next to me for at least two hours, and stumble upstairs and into the bathroom, something else I haven’t done in far too long. Staring into the mirror, an array of bizarre yet familiar thoughts accost me. It’s a bit of a side effect of the bleary return to the “real world.” Like waking up from the Matrix.

Well, here I am. Caitlyn. Is that my name? Who is Caitlyn? Oh look at that, I have a body. Still got legs. I am inside my body. Isn’t that weird. I am stuck inside my body experiencing only what’s immediately around me. Is this how time normally passes–very slowly, in the right order? Have I always been in my body? How maddening–I’ve always been inside my body, always thinking even while asleep, never leaving myself alone. I feel completely claustrophobic inside my own skull. Because clearly I’m not my body. I’ve barely been aware of my body for the past three hours. So what is this consciousness trapped in here? What is Thought, what is Consciousness, what is Self, or Soul, or Sentience? Are all people like this–so much bigger on the inside?

And then I conclude that I’ve had a little too much Book for one day and decide an appropriate remedy is finding some Real People to Hang Out with. Extreme introversion must be occasionally forcibly counterbalanced with purposeful social interaction. Except like tonight when the house is empty and my options become basically either watch Merlin on Netflix or go to bed early. If I’m smart, I’ll choose the latter and start fresh tomorrow, when I’m hopefully a bit more in touch with this thing called Reality and feeling a little more at home inside my own skull.

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The Kingdom Belongs to Such as These

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life

Saturday night was my second night serving in the Children’s Equipping Center (CEC), the children’s ministry center at FCF. I help lead the 8- to 12-year-old girls every 5th service on either Friday or Saturday. This Saturday was amazing. I’d been told that these kids are crazy Spirit-filled and watch out because they will prophesy your socks off, but this was the first time I’d actually seen what went on that night. At least half a dozen kids got slain in the Spirit as their peers prayed for them and were on the floor through most of worship. I was skeptical at first (these are IHOP kids; they’ve grown up with this stuff) but they got up telling me all these stories of visions they’d had that sounded like something straight out of Revelation. They asked if they could pray for me, but they first had to make sure I was standing in a place that if I fell down, I wouldn’t hit my head on the stage. I was so blessed by their prayers. I’m sure I’ll be telling more stories of them throughout the internship.

I love the way the CEC leaders teach the kids–they put biblical realities in kid-friendly language so they can have clarity on it, but they don’t boil anything down. They’ve been going through Jesus’ parables the past few weeks, and I love to sit under the teaching and glean stuff I’d never thought about before. The leaders really listen to and respect the kids, and the kids really have some profound insight on these passages. I feel like I’m learning so much about children’s ministry, leading kids in general, and even the heart of God in general. CEC is an incredible ministry.

Also, I wanted to share with you an insight I got the other day in the prayer room. I was meditating on the Trinity and trying to wrap my mind around this”one yet three, three yet one, together yet separate” thing. I asked Jesus why he never told a parable of the Trinity, because we sure do need one, and what he brought to mind was a cartoon I’d seen years ago as a child. It’s about a whale that has three uvulae and therefore literally sings with three voices at the same time. His voices fill the ocean with beautiful three-part operatic harmony. Each voice has its own unique place in the harmony and interacts with the others in such a way as to create a complex, dynamic song. One song, one person, three voices. He is his own harmony.

So God is like a whale that sings with three voices? “Yes. No! But if it helps, yes.”* It’s at least a close enough picture to move me to awe. And I think that’s all he was really after.

How amazing that God hid this little revelation inside a Disney short from 1946! I imagine him giving that little nugget of the Divine Story to some animator who may or may not have even known him, but God just wanted to hide this little secret for the children and the childlike who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

“At that time Jesus declared, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.'”
(Matthew 11:25)

“But Jesus called them to him, saying, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.'”
(Luke 18:16-17)

* The Doctor, Doctor Who series 6 episode 4, “The Doctor’s Wife.” And yes, Doctor Who does apply to every situation.

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Walk Like You Can See

On By CaitlynIn Personal Updates3 Comments

…or, “In Which God Comes Through and Idris Comes Home.”

Here’s what happened. After my new car abruptly died about two weeks ago, it went to our mechanic to be checked out. My mom called the guy who sold me the car to ask his advice. He told us to take it over to his mechanic and that he would help pay for repairs. (Wow.) So we took it to his mechanic… and discovered that it had one of two problems. One would cost a couple hundred to fix, the other would cost close to a thousand. Not good. When my dad relayed this info to me on the phone…I don’t like to use the word “panicked,” but the phrase “deeply concerned” feels apt. I had no idea how I would pay for my baby to get fixed, even if the dealer helped out.

I remember saying to my dad that a certain quote from (you guessed it) Doctor Who felt very relevant.

The Doctor: “Amy. You need to start trusting me; it’s never been more important… You’re going to have to walk like you can see.”

Doctor Who series 5 episode 5 “Flesh And Stone”

Up until now, my path to Kansas City had been pretty well laid out. I’d done the math. I didn’t send out support letters; one year of working at camp was more than enough to fund tuition and a car. I had everything budgeted down to the last dollar, then this happened.

And I suddenly had to walk like I could see.

I knew I was gonna get there. No question whatsoever. I just didn’t know how.
It’s like watching a TV episode where you know everyone’s going to be okay and they’ll get out of the mess somehow, but you keep watching to see how it’s going to happen.

So, after a few tense days, we learned that it was the more expensive problem– I had blown a head gasket. Apparently, that is very much Not A Good Thing.

That’s where God stepped in.

The dealer was more than true to his word and not only paid for THE ENTIRE REPAIR, but he also drove my car around town for a few days just to make sure it wasn’t going to fail on me again. I picked it up from his lot on Tuesday evening, and it has been driving like a dream ever since. 🙂

I am absolutely blown away by how good God has been to me in this whole process. It’s like over and over he keeps stepping in and announcing to the world, “Look, I said she’s going to IHOP–she’s going! Don’t you dare try to put anything in my daughter’s way, because I’ll just knock it aside!”

Kansas City, here I come!

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