My New British Home

April 20, 2013

Capernwray Bible School will be my home for the next two months. I can't believe it, I'm finally here!

In the morning we girls slept in and then came down for a big English fry-up breakfast. The transit bus was supposed to pick us up around 11:30, but a few of us got antsy and decided to take a walk down the road to Capernwray Hall for a "sneak peek." It was hidden over a hill and around a bend, but when we finally walked up the long driveway, there it was. It felt less than real--so hard for me to believe that I was really standing before the "castle" I'd read and heard so much about.

We were so giddy, but managed to make our way back to the B & B and wait in the lounge with the others until the bus came. We piled into the bus and drove to Capernwray, unloading at the massive front door. It really looks like a castle! Of course there aren't battlements and loopholes and such, but there are thick walls, diamond-paned windows, a courtyard with weathered cobbles, arched doorways, a maze of corridors, splendid woodwork, and so much more.

It doesn't have old-world charm, but it does have nice showers and
new mattresses.

Just as every cloud has a silver lining, sometimes the sunniest day has a looming shower. I discovered that I would not be staying the Hall itself with most of the students, but would instead be in one of the brand new Conference Hall bedrooms. You can imagine my disappointment. Here I was thinking that I'd be sleeping, eating, really living in this historic place, and instead I'm in another building altogether. However, my roommate from the B&B actually turned out to be my school roommate too, which seemed like an act of Providence. We are already good buddies.


We went to the dining hall for watercress soup (a first for me!) and I met new people at the table. We had fun discussing American words and phrases that you should never say in England (skip the subject of fanny packs altogether, please). I wandered around a bit more, arranged all my luggage around the room, then walked up to the top of the tower with several other students and took pictures of the beautiful view.

At the end of the day everyone met in the Lounge, all 150-something of us students sitting everywhere, and listened to the school principal give his welcome message. He addressed my insecurities, the nervousness I was feeling, and after a cup of hot cocoa I began to imagine that everything would very probably be all right.