Hey, we’re the Buffalo gals! We’re the newest—and the smallest—OneLife group with only six students, one RL, and a site director… all girls, except Michael Scott Davis, our site director. He’ll have fun this year, we’ll make sure of it!
It’s been really nice here at OneLife’s new location in Buffalo. We’re living in a former convent that’s now connected to Centerpointe Community Church, a community of believers who welcomed us with open arms and loving anticipation. They’ve really put in the effort to make us feel loved and comfortable here in this time of adjustment, even going so far as to provide us with lunches and dinners ever since we arrived, and promising to continue to feed us until our chef comes in October!
None of us brought any vehicles of any kind here to Buffalo, but the layout of our area is such that we don’t need them! We have a Tim Hortons 3 minutes away, another Tim Hortons 10 minutes away, a library 40 minutes away, a Dollar General 30 minutes away, and a nice chunk of afternoon free time (so far!) to walk or bike to them.
We’ve had some great adventures already in the great city of Buffalo; walks, bike rides, library trips in the pouring rain, ice cream walks, and mall trips. In fact, the very first day we got here we all went out on a walk and gave our RL—the beautiful Alayna—a taste of how this year’s going to go when we came back giggling and carrying a giant beanbag chair on all six of our shoulders. We went back out again that same day and returned with two bicycles, much to her astonishment. Yard sales are true treasure troves!
On the subject of our RL – Alayna’s not just our resident leader, she’s also our Just Dance partner, our grounding voice, and the wonderful Mother Superior of our little protestant convent. We love you, Reverend Mother Alayna!
I’m sure we’ll come to find out what the cons of having such a small group of people are, but so far there have been more ups than downs, the laundry schedule being one! Doing life with such a small group of people has been a growing experience for us all, but it really has helped to foster a sense of mutual affection and support.
Through this time at OneLife we have been growing closer to God and seeing how He has been moving in our hearts and working through us. Even though we’ve only been here for a short amount of time, we’ve been growing as sisters in Christ.
We had our first week of classes this week, and have had very fruitful discussions with our teacher, Esteban Mora, who came from Costa Rica. He’s helped all of us to better understand the overarching story of Scripture. We learned about how Jesus has always been in every aspect of the Bible, from Genesis right down to Revelation. We studied Creation and the Fall in Genesis 1-3, and went on to typology and the covenants God made with man throughout the rest of the Bible. Just this morning Esteban finished the week up with passages from Isaiah 65, Revelations 21, and others, outlining God’s plan to restore the relationship we had before the Fall. It’s so amazing to realize the insane depth of the Father’s love, and the impossible mercy He’s lavished upon us! As David said in Psalm 139, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”
We’ve had an amazing first week, and are looking forward to the Colorado trip, and our future classes!!