My Blog

A Deep Breath & A Look Ahead

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 01:27:12 -0500

Cinque Terre could be the most beautiful place in the world. The air is crisp and there is a delightful sea breeze. Cinque Terre is made up of five small cities and we are staying in Monterosso. The city is nestled in between rocks with a crystal blue ocean at its door steep. So beautiful, it makes you take a deep breath!

I really cannot believe that our trip will be ending one week from today. . . I have learned so much on this trip! The Lord has truly been at work in me and in our group. He has blessed us with so many great conversations. I thank my Father for allowing me to do His work! I make all my boast in the name of Jesus! He is the reason for everything good and perfect!

As our trip begins to close it is easy to “shut off”. I have been praying that I would not quit. That I will not just lay aside the work that I am here for, not only here but when I return back home. Then today I was reading in Psalm and in the 138 chapter it is talking about a thankful heart toward God. When I came to the end the last verse caught my eye.

Psalm 138:8
The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me. Lord, Your love is
Eternal; do not abandon the work of Your hands.

I pray that God will not only send people for us to talk to and share his love with in this last week of our trip, but that He will continually use me for His work! I pray that i will not ever give up on the work of the Lord.

Thanks for all the prayers!
Love Y’all!

Roman Holiday

Tue, 2 Jun 2009 00:38:29 -0500

Rome is one of those cities that everyone says you have to see, and now i know why. We got to see so many amazing things which includes: The Coliseum, Roman Forum, the cell that paul was in before he died, Vatican City, and we ate the best gelato in the world!

The Rome hostel was the exact opposite of the one in Venice. It was full of people! The first night we were there we sat downstairs in the common area and started to meet people. I sat down at the end of the table, and since I’m almost deaf I could not hear the conversation at the other end. So, i began to talk to a guy sitting beside me. His name was Joel. We started to learn the basics about one another and i found out he is from Virginia, he is vegan, and he works for PETA. We began just talking about family and our lives back in the states. Later that night he came with us to the Trevi Fountain. We joined in on the tradition of throwing a coin in to insure your return to Rome!

Later in the night, while we were eating the best gelato in the world, Bryan, Neal, and I began to talk to Joel about his reason for working with PETA. He explained that millions of chickens are killed inhumanely, and if we treated dogs or cats that way people would be appalled! You could tell that this was his true heart. He cared so much and felt so strongly on this kind of issue that he had changed his lifestyle and committed his career to this cause. After he had explained the ins-and-outs of PETA, Neal asked if PETA took a stand on abortion. He kindly replied, we do not take a stance on the topic. This baffled me....how can you care about the murder of millions of chickens and other animals, but not care about the murder on millions of human lives. This was something that really made me think about the world today, we will go to great lengths to save animals, but when human lives are being taken everyday - we do nothing.

We continued to talk to him about his involvement with charitable organizations and how he helps to feed the homeless. Joel is a man with the understanding that we have an obligation to the world we live in, it is just void of one thing--- the God who made it all! I pray that Joel would know of the love that God has for him; and that one day he will know the Creator of the World for which he lives so passionately.

Thanks for all the Prayers!
Love Y’all!

Still Working, Even in an Empty Hostel. . .

Fri, 29 May 2009 05:22:48 -0500

So we are in Venice...we arrived and had “about 18 hours” until we could check into our hostel, so we just walked around and had pizza. After a little while we picked up our bags at the train station and walked what seemed to be forever to our hostel...I think each trip from the station gets longer as my bag gets heavier! We finally made it and found out that our hostel was university housing and they lent out rooms in the summer that were not being used. At first this sounds wonderful and full of opportunities.....but the contrary is true. We are not allowed in any of the common areas with the students and they do not mix with us...oh well.

Today we were just sitting around at San Marco Square and saw two men that I had met in line to see The David in Florence. It was cool to run into some folks that we already knew :)

We have taken two trips off the main island. We went to Murano and Lido. In Murano we watched glass blowing and in Lido we attempted to lay out on the beach. The beach in Italy is very different from the beach in America. The wind was blowing and it was cold so Jenn and I did not take our clothes off the whole time! But the Italian men did not have a problem with the cold they still sported their speedos! In the end we had a good time laughing at our surroundings and making videos!

This city has been different than any other city. Not just because it is a city without streets and we have not had to dodge cars and vespas, but we have not meet really anyone....it has been just the ‘ol team!

God has been teaching me that He is using me, even if i don’t feel like I am being used! One of my dear friends, Melissa Reeves, made me a little booklet full of verses and encouraging notes for my trip and today the verse was Galatians 6:9 which reads, Let us not be weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”. That was such an encouragement to me...I know that even though we are not meeting people here the Lord is still working and He is still using us, we have to just keep at it and not give up!

Please be in prayer for us, we only have a little time left in Europe. Pray that God will allow us to meet people!

Thanks for all your prayers!
Love Y’all!

The City Full of Fleur-De-Lis

Tue, 26 May 2009 23:42:23 -0500

We are on the train leaving Florence. This turned out to be one of my favorite cities! As my friends know I have a slight obsession with Fluer-de-lis! And the city of Florence is full of them!!! We have meet so many people in Florence! It has been amazing! On the first day we were sitting in the cafe area of the hostel and Jenn said, “I just want to meet people”. Then a girl turned around and responded, “Hi, I’m Kim”.

Kim is from Seattle, Washington, and she is traveling around with a friend for a couple of weeks. We instantly started talking and ending up going to watch the sunset and eat gelato. At one point it came up that Neal had been to Seattle and had been to Mars Hill Church. Kim said that she knew the church and liked it. This opened the opportunity to take our conversation to a deeper level. We soon found out that she was a believer. We were able to have a wonderful talk about all sort of things from twilight to christian music. Neal was able to have a great talk with Kim’s friend Jason(so check his blog for that!) It was such a blessing to meet Kim, and now I have a place to stay in Seattle!

We also were able to meet many other people from all over the world! Florence was such an answer to prayer! God has provided once again, and in abundance!

We are almost in Venice now and I can’t wait to see what is in store!
We serve a God who provides!

Thanks for the Prayers
Love Y’all!

Oh Paris!

Sun, 24 May 2009 23:15:25 -0500

So we are in Paris! The city that I have most anticipated on this trip. It is so beautiful here and everything is so....well....Paris! We got to see the Eiffel Tower, and it was all i hoped it to be!

On the way over from Athens we meet two brothers from Canada that have been traveling for 8 months around the world. We were able to hang out with them and get to know them a little better.

We also got to meet a new little friend in the park the other day. He was the cutest little boy with a sweet French accent! He played with us in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower, and when he had to leave gave us all kisses on the check and said Au Revoir! So cute!

Paris has been a little hard to meet people....our hostel is big and people are in and out all the time. We have had very brief conversations with people....one was with Ben from Nevada. We sat around the hostel and got to know him a little better, nice guy, and loves to make jokes!

God has truly been teaching me that if I ask he will provide! This is something that I have been learning ever since i signed up for this trip, but now even more now that we are trying to meet people! So many times we have asked God to send us someone to talk to and then right then He provides! Wow! What an awesome God I serve!

My continuing prayer is that God will give us people to talk to. And that I would be a walking example if Him!

Thanks for all the prayers!
Love Y’all!