Day 2 - Sunday, April 19th 2015

Fortified by a full English breakfast, we headed into Stratford-upon-Avon to explore the hometown of William Shakespeare.  We walked through the home of his birth and of his own children and heard of the rich history of life in the 1500s.  

A Spanish Television station was there and filmed a few of our students reciting Romeo and Juliet

With a brisk breeze at our backs we punted on the River Avon and did our best not to disturb the timeless decorum of this sleepy town. (The echo of squeals from our boaters may or may not have startled the locals and lovely swans!). 

   

We celebrated this Lord’s Day outside Holy Trinity Church, the resting place of Shakespeare, with encouraging Scripture, testimony, hymns and teaching.

Finishing the day in small groups for dinner and shopping, we departed for some much needed rest.  Having thoroughly discovered this wonderful little town, we learned that William Shakespeare wasn’t just the guy who wrote plays and sonnets.  He was a boy who didn’t meet the vocational expectations of his “glover” dad, he was a teen who ended up with a baby and subsequent wife before he had planned, he was a performer who craved the spotlight, he was a writer who wanted to capture the essence of what it means to be human, he was a husband who resisted the embrace of his wife and a dad who neglected the joy of discipling his children.  He was the genius who wrote across the genres and shaped literature for centuries to come.  But more than all of that he was a man who spent his whole life searching to be defined by his passions… apart from His Creator.  

These are the streets he grew up on.  This is where he made his mark on the world – for himself.  He missed the whole point.  Is it possible to gain the whole world and still lose your own soul?  Very easily.  It happens every day.  Unless we make a conscious decision to “deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Christ”, we too could be celebrated for centuries to come and be utterly lost in eternity.  Where are you planning to make your mark?  Is it in academics, sports, finance?  Wherever you have been gifted, remember you were created for reflecting God’s glory, not your own.  How do we do this?  By using the platform we have been given to speak highly of Christ and make much of the Gospel. Live circumspectly for the honor of His great name. Imagine what Shakespeare could have accomplished for the Kingdom!  Walk in Shakespeare’s footsteps here to know a moment of success; walk in Christ’s to know an eternity of triumph.

Senior - Jasmine Walker

Junior - Riley Pettee

“I find I cannot speak or think well-enough of my Lord, nor ill-enough of myself.
Nothingness and emptiness, vanity and sin are my sole and only heritage by nature,
and all my fullness lies in Christ, and every excellence I can ever claim must come
from Him and Him alone” - Spurgeon

Senior  - Angel Sobrepena