I did not mean to wait this long between my last World Youth Day post and this one, but grad school kind of got in the way. Anyhow, I’m writing this now.
Our plane from New York City landed in Prague, Czech Republic around 11am Czech time (this means 3am Mountain Time) and we were all exhausted. I have so much trouble sleeping on planes that I barely got any rest on the transatlantic flight and now we were off again.
The Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic.
Castles in the Clouds by Myra Johnson The first book in the Flowers of Eden series introduced readers to Bryony Linwood, an orphan trying desperately to provide for her sisters in the shadow of the Great Depression. In Castles in the Clouds, we meet one of those sisters—Larkspur Linwood, a young woman who has a passion for teaching but yearns for something more than life as a small-town Arkansas schoolmarm.
Young and impressionable, Lark mistakes a college professor’s interest for romantic love. When he offers her the chance to join his efforts to start a school in Kenya, she pictures herself bringing the light of knowledge to hundreds of African children eager to learn. But the menial tasks she’s assigned at the school aren’t so different from life on the farm where she grew up. Miserable and deflated, with her fragile heart broken, she gives up and returns home.
Enter Professor Anson Schafer, whom she met briefly in Kenya. Partially blinded from an eye infection he contracted there, Professor Schafer cannot return to Africa. He has come to Lark’s school to recruit teachers like her for a more modest venture—the founding of schools and relief efforts here in the U.S. for those struggling through the Depression.
Still stinging from her experience in Kenya, Lark is reluctant to risk leaving her familiar surroundings, but she knows how great the need has become, and—although this isn’t the exciting life she’d envisioned—she finally agrees. As they work side by side, Lark begins to realize that the deepest satisfaction comes not so much from what you do, or where you do it, but from the attitude of your heart.
Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository
I have returned! (I am sure you already knew this though from Twitter and what not, but I am back!)
I have had some crazy adventures this summer. This fun one, World Youth Day 2016, all began with a terrible airport experience. First, our group was too large to check everyone in properly.
Second, they had to delete “notes” on our reservation in order to check us in. This means that my gluten-free meal request was CANCELLED! I was not exactly happy with this because this means that I would be without food (except for the snacks I brought with me) on the trans-Atlantic flight from New York City to Prague, Czech Republic.
The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye
In case you have missed it, I’m going to World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland! I am super excited about this (and also a bit nervous because of celiac).
Anyway, I can’t guarantee internet access and will likely disappear from everything for a few weeks. I have some reviews scheduled while I am gone and that is about it.
I will definitely share my trip when I return in August.
Please keep me in your prayers and let me know if there is anything you would like me to pray for while I am on pilgrimage.
