So. Back in Canada!
Our last few days in Europe were really great. Stayed with my friend Verena-who had come to Moose Jaw as an exchange student two years ago-and her family for two days in Germany. Very thankful it worked out, lots of fun and blessings (including free room and food ^^) The trip back home was really long. 5 hours on the train to Frankfurt, 5 hour sleep, 7 hour flight to Montreal, 6 hour layover, 5 hour flight to Vancouver, 6 hour sleep, 2 hour flight to Smithers, lots of excitement and hugs, 1 hour drive to Houston, more excitement and hugs and Voila!
You know, I was thinking on the flight across BC while looking at the mountains and red pine trees how good it was to be coming back, but that the past 2 months had just flown by as if it never happened! But then something triggers the mind and memories and stories come flooding back. [So please ask about the trip and ask to see pictures and hear stories!] I don't want to forget anything and I want to keep hold of the lessons God has been teaching me and I want to keep in touch with some of the amazing people we met along the way. I know Olinda has =) Too bad she had to jump right into the swing of things with a family reunion and rushing to get all the hay in before the rain. (Although some of her Dutch relatives are up here for a visit so it was cool to say Hey! Last time I saw you we were in a different country! Heel leuk) At least I still have some time (between visiting Friends and grandparents and enjoying BBQs and swimming at the river with Jane and playing with my little cousins) to relax and reflect before entering the wonderful world of Ootsa Lake Bible Camp for two weeks.
We praise God for protecting us and providing for us every day (even if it means getting into vehicles with strangers kind enough to help us find our way in a big city) And we're thankful for the way He has used us to touch others in ways we probably will never know, but even more so how He has used others to encourage us and teach us so much about loving people and enjoying His creation and living in freedom.
I'm excited to go back to camp, still have to figure out how I'm getting there, but I know it will work out. I'll be praying for the people we met this summer and also for the people I will be meeting in the next few weeks at Camp, (and also for the many people God has placed all over the globe this summer), that doors would be opened for the Gospel to be proclaimed... tenderly... and that hearts would turn to Christ. For everything that can be known about Him has been clearly perceived in everything that has been created. We just have to pray for the open heart and eyes to see it!!
Well I suppose I should be going, the lady next to me at the library is wrinkling her nose and telling me to blow mine. Sorry I have a chronic disease!!! (I'll try harder not to sniffle). God bless her heart. And my nose.
Caronport (aka Mom, Dad, Club-J, Jacee, Sawdehar ;), Joe's Place, Briercrest College, etc.), See you in two and a half weeks!!! Love you all and praying for you!
-Oh, crazy story! So I went over to one of my friend's places, a girl I met at Army cadets-I never keep in touch with her but I always visit everytime I come to Houston. Anyways, I went to see if she was home and her uncle said, "oh, she's not here, she's a multimillionaire now living in Kamloops, yah, her parents won the Lotto, $9.5 mil. and their living in Kamloops, or maybe Calgary, I don't know, they don't really have anything to do with me anymore" So I ended up talking to him for about half an hour instead. Really encouraging. Didn't know he was a believer, (never actually talked to him before) but I'm glad she has an uncle like him, he was glad she had a friend like me, I just talked to her on facebook (thought I should probably keep in better touch, don't even know my friends are millionaires) and she seems to be doing pretty well, just got back from Nova Scotia! lucky ;) Okay I'm done now. Ciao!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
In Bruges
Which wasn't a bad movie by the way.. wouldn't watch it again though.
Needless to say, Bruges is a beautiful little city full of medieval buildings and sparkling canals, kind of like a fairy tale, really =p We even rented a tandem bicycle which was quite the adventure haha.
Oh yah, Olinda just reminded me that we haven't talked about Paris at all! SO!. What to say about the city of light and love? Well first of all, two days is not enough time. But we did have a fantastic time there, saw the Louvre and that beautiful Monna Lisa (not a spelling mistake-it's Italian!) smile and it truly is that amazing. Except they keep you like 100 feet away so you have to squint to see anything. (slight exaggeration) Definitely climbed the Eiffel tower, walked around the gardens of Versailles, prayed in the Sacre Coeur, Ate crepes in a tree at the foot of the tower, got lost after our amazing night bike tour (which reminded us of the Berlin bike tour with the crazy group of Aussie Rugby players who love their alcohol only this time it was an American flight crew =) And a kind man drove us to the night bus stop (don't worry, we were completely safe! Plus he had to go back and take care of his drunk friend) where another kind man (in a uniform) gave us further directions and laughed at my tattered map that I had only had for 2 days. Ah Paris. We had fun practicing our french oh and we ate duck! Yum. With only four hours of sleep we left for Bruges (and we packed our bags the night before so we wouldn't wake up 5 minutes before our bus leaves to frantically shove EVERYTHING into our bags like the one girl we helped send off the day before haha)
Canada, see you in 3 days!
Needless to say, Bruges is a beautiful little city full of medieval buildings and sparkling canals, kind of like a fairy tale, really =p We even rented a tandem bicycle which was quite the adventure haha.
Oh yah, Olinda just reminded me that we haven't talked about Paris at all! SO!. What to say about the city of light and love? Well first of all, two days is not enough time. But we did have a fantastic time there, saw the Louvre and that beautiful Monna Lisa (not a spelling mistake-it's Italian!) smile and it truly is that amazing. Except they keep you like 100 feet away so you have to squint to see anything. (slight exaggeration) Definitely climbed the Eiffel tower, walked around the gardens of Versailles, prayed in the Sacre Coeur, Ate crepes in a tree at the foot of the tower, got lost after our amazing night bike tour (which reminded us of the Berlin bike tour with the crazy group of Aussie Rugby players who love their alcohol only this time it was an American flight crew =) And a kind man drove us to the night bus stop (don't worry, we were completely safe! Plus he had to go back and take care of his drunk friend) where another kind man (in a uniform) gave us further directions and laughed at my tattered map that I had only had for 2 days. Ah Paris. We had fun practicing our french oh and we ate duck! Yum. With only four hours of sleep we left for Bruges (and we packed our bags the night before so we wouldn't wake up 5 minutes before our bus leaves to frantically shove EVERYTHING into our bags like the one girl we helped send off the day before haha)
Canada, see you in 3 days!
Monday, July 19, 2010
Oh Yah... Title!
Okay! So it's been a while... Sorry about that!
Since Nice (Southern France), we have been to Lauterbrunnen and Lucerne in Switzerland and are currently in Munich again for a night before heading to Paris for three days, then Brugges (Belgium) and then find our way to Frankfurt to fly back to Canada in only 9 days!!!
Switzerland. Super expensive, but absolutely worth it! (Also could be due to the fact that we just had to do everything) High ropes course, Paragliding, Whitewater rafting, and we didn't even get to do Canyoning! Definitely satisfied some of the adventurous mountain spirits within us =)
To wind down from our adventures in Lauterbrunnen/Interlaken we found an International (English Speaking-and reformed to boot!) Church in Lucerne where we met two other Canadian girls named Laura and Mary-Ellen. We hung out all day so that was really cool. We were encouraged by how they intentionally honour the Lord's day even while traveling by not spending money/trying not to make other people work. I mean when you only have 18 days to travel (they were on a Contiki tour), you want to make the most of every day and do as many tours and eat as much food and get as much souvenirs as you can! But it's a really great witness to their fellow travelers and we pray that others may be encouraged by them and glorify God.
On that note, I met a 65 year old Italian man in the hostel named Dino who shared his cheese and pears and bread and beer with me and who hadn't slept in 3 days and shared quite a bit of his life story with me in the broken english he knew and wore a cross around his neck and had very interesting theology about the afterlife so we talked a bit and I gave him the french bible that I picked up in Winnipeg (because he understands french better than English) so we pray that He would read it and continue to be transformed by Christ.
In other news, thank you for following our travels and may you be blessed and encouraged by our Lord Jesus Christ!
Paris, here we come!
Since Nice (Southern France), we have been to Lauterbrunnen and Lucerne in Switzerland and are currently in Munich again for a night before heading to Paris for three days, then Brugges (Belgium) and then find our way to Frankfurt to fly back to Canada in only 9 days!!!
Switzerland. Super expensive, but absolutely worth it! (Also could be due to the fact that we just had to do everything) High ropes course, Paragliding, Whitewater rafting, and we didn't even get to do Canyoning! Definitely satisfied some of the adventurous mountain spirits within us =)
To wind down from our adventures in Lauterbrunnen/Interlaken we found an International (English Speaking-and reformed to boot!) Church in Lucerne where we met two other Canadian girls named Laura and Mary-Ellen. We hung out all day so that was really cool. We were encouraged by how they intentionally honour the Lord's day even while traveling by not spending money/trying not to make other people work. I mean when you only have 18 days to travel (they were on a Contiki tour), you want to make the most of every day and do as many tours and eat as much food and get as much souvenirs as you can! But it's a really great witness to their fellow travelers and we pray that others may be encouraged by them and glorify God.
On that note, I met a 65 year old Italian man in the hostel named Dino who shared his cheese and pears and bread and beer with me and who hadn't slept in 3 days and shared quite a bit of his life story with me in the broken english he knew and wore a cross around his neck and had very interesting theology about the afterlife so we talked a bit and I gave him the french bible that I picked up in Winnipeg (because he understands french better than English) so we pray that He would read it and continue to be transformed by Christ.
In other news, thank you for following our travels and may you be blessed and encouraged by our Lord Jesus Christ!
Paris, here we come!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
6 minutes!!!
That's how much time I have left at this computer!
So we're in Firenze now, Roma was fantastic and our three day Italian adventure was incredible! Swimming in the Mediterranean, visiting ancient ruins, tasting Limoncello, climbing cliffs in caves (although it probably was illegal, there just wasn't anyone around to tell me not to do it!)
Our last day in Rome was really awesome =) We missed our Vatican tour that we had booked, so while trying to scout them out, we ran into someone else selling tours in English. So why not. We met two other girls, Jess and Chloe on that trip and ended up hanging out with them all day. It was so wonderful and refreshing to be with two girls our age who love Jesus as much as we do so we were able to eat and pray with eachother and that is church!
Florence has been a lot of fun, we sang Karaoke last night haha and Saw David today. Really marvelous statue. I could have looked at it for hours. Did you know that he is holding his sling behind his back and some pebbles in his right hand? Never saw that before.
One more day in Firenze and then we're off to the lovely villages of Cinque Terre.
One more minute left!
Hope you are all having a beautiful summer and may the Lord bless you richly =)
See you soon!
P.S. My time ran out as soon as I finished, but thankfully it was saved to drafts. We have since then spent our two last beautiful days in Italy kayaking and cliff jumping. Now we are in Nice (southern France), trying to get used to attempting to communicate in French instead of Italian. Still marveling at the Beauty of God's diverse creation (especially the cave that looked like melted icecream!) and I am reminded of the first Chapter of Romans that says "since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." And Biblegateway's verse of the day that I just read two seconds ago -> “Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”- Jeremiah 32:17 Need I say more?
So we're in Firenze now, Roma was fantastic and our three day Italian adventure was incredible! Swimming in the Mediterranean, visiting ancient ruins, tasting Limoncello, climbing cliffs in caves (although it probably was illegal, there just wasn't anyone around to tell me not to do it!)
Our last day in Rome was really awesome =) We missed our Vatican tour that we had booked, so while trying to scout them out, we ran into someone else selling tours in English. So why not. We met two other girls, Jess and Chloe on that trip and ended up hanging out with them all day. It was so wonderful and refreshing to be with two girls our age who love Jesus as much as we do so we were able to eat and pray with eachother and that is church!
Florence has been a lot of fun, we sang Karaoke last night haha and Saw David today. Really marvelous statue. I could have looked at it for hours. Did you know that he is holding his sling behind his back and some pebbles in his right hand? Never saw that before.
One more day in Firenze and then we're off to the lovely villages of Cinque Terre.
One more minute left!
Hope you are all having a beautiful summer and may the Lord bless you richly =)
See you soon!
P.S. My time ran out as soon as I finished, but thankfully it was saved to drafts. We have since then spent our two last beautiful days in Italy kayaking and cliff jumping. Now we are in Nice (southern France), trying to get used to attempting to communicate in French instead of Italian. Still marveling at the Beauty of God's diverse creation (especially the cave that looked like melted icecream!) and I am reminded of the first Chapter of Romans that says "since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." And Biblegateway's verse of the day that I just read two seconds ago -> “Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”- Jeremiah 32:17 Need I say more?
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Not I, Said the Big Bad Wolf!
Okay, Ill give in. Actually miss my family right now. [love you!]
Anyways, Since our last post, we have been to Vienna, Where we stayed with the Brother of my friend Shamiran and His family(Eva, Immanuel and Elizabeth]. Incredible hosts and friends and lovers of God =) and continue to pray for them in their ministry to Assyrian refugees; Grunau, where we were offered a job to work in the Treehouse Hostel there =p; Salzburg where we "experienced" everything Mozart and Sound of Music OH and ICE CAVES!!! the biggest in the world!; Venice, where we got lost (of course, but we meant to!) and sat by the sparkling canals eating baked bread and Nutella.
Besides that, we are now in Rome! Exploring the ancient History of bloodbaths and romance. We also went into the Bascilica of "Saint Peter in Chains" Where the chains that Peter reputedly wore before his crucifixion are kept in a glass case. It was actually quite powerful, sitting in that church, looking at Peter's chains with Michaelangelo's sculpture "Moses" to the right, thinking about these men of God who sacrificed everything for the Word of God, praying about how I can know God and serve Him even a fraction of the amount that these people have. As for now, we will continue to give water and bread to the beggars on the street in Jesus' name, and sharing His love to the people we meet. We've actually met so many cool people on our way so far! (Toga parties and awesome roommates help with that ;)
Oh and we also have a super opportunity (at a "slightly" extra expense) to go on a three day trip to Pompei, the ancient city preserved by volcanic ash.
Internet is expensive and we're running out of time again, wish we could write more, but hey! More stories to share when we return!!! Thinking about you lots, especially family and Joe's Place (and certain somebodies) haha, love you all, Oh! And at Cheryl's request here's an itinerary of our next stretch of our journey.
Pompei: July2-4
Rome (again) until the 7th,
Stopover in Siena, Picture at Piza, Florence for 3 nights, Cinque Terre for two, and then off to other countries!
Please leave comments or email us about how we can remember you and pray for you too!
Anyways, Since our last post, we have been to Vienna, Where we stayed with the Brother of my friend Shamiran and His family(Eva, Immanuel and Elizabeth]. Incredible hosts and friends and lovers of God =) and continue to pray for them in their ministry to Assyrian refugees; Grunau, where we were offered a job to work in the Treehouse Hostel there =p; Salzburg where we "experienced" everything Mozart and Sound of Music OH and ICE CAVES!!! the biggest in the world!; Venice, where we got lost (of course, but we meant to!) and sat by the sparkling canals eating baked bread and Nutella.
Besides that, we are now in Rome! Exploring the ancient History of bloodbaths and romance. We also went into the Bascilica of "Saint Peter in Chains" Where the chains that Peter reputedly wore before his crucifixion are kept in a glass case. It was actually quite powerful, sitting in that church, looking at Peter's chains with Michaelangelo's sculpture "Moses" to the right, thinking about these men of God who sacrificed everything for the Word of God, praying about how I can know God and serve Him even a fraction of the amount that these people have. As for now, we will continue to give water and bread to the beggars on the street in Jesus' name, and sharing His love to the people we meet. We've actually met so many cool people on our way so far! (Toga parties and awesome roommates help with that ;)
Oh and we also have a super opportunity (at a "slightly" extra expense) to go on a three day trip to Pompei, the ancient city preserved by volcanic ash.
Internet is expensive and we're running out of time again, wish we could write more, but hey! More stories to share when we return!!! Thinking about you lots, especially family and Joe's Place (and certain somebodies) haha, love you all, Oh! And at Cheryl's request here's an itinerary of our next stretch of our journey.
Pompei: July2-4
Rome (again) until the 7th,
Stopover in Siena, Picture at Piza, Florence for 3 nights, Cinque Terre for two, and then off to other countries!
Please leave comments or email us about how we can remember you and pray for you too!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Dobri den!
That means "good afternoon" which is probably the only thing I can say correctly in Czech =]
We are now on our fourth night in the Czech republic and loving every minute of it! The beautiful castles, old architecture, rolling green hills, wild poppies, cheap food =)
[Although it is raining here in the tiny town of Cesky Krumlov but we get free internet, so hey!]
Our first two nights in Praha (Prague) were spent with Jen Nolin, a lady I met through her parents who work at my school whom I met while searching for someone who knew whether I needed a visa to visit the Czech Republic or not! haha. So it was really kind of her to let us stay with her without even meeting us! But that is one reason why I love being a part of the Body of Christ. All family. And we even got to help out at her school for a few hours. (She's a grade 2 teacher at an international school). It was so much fun meeting kids from all over the world and helping them colour and cut out fish and being stung by the crepe paper "tentacles"!!! It was a nice change from all the sight seeing and historical information that I feel obligated to absorb as much as possible while traveling the old and culturally rich European landscapes! But one gets a little exhausted of all the incredible sights and sounds and information. (Although the acoustics were AMAZING in "the oldest church in Prague" where we listened to performances of Ave Maria and Mozart and Vivaldi etc)
But I must say thank you to whoever taught me that ping pong game where you hit the ball, drop the paddle and run around to the other side of the table-you know what I'm talking about? Anyways for our last night in Prague, staying at our hostel, it was a hilarious alternative of laughter and ridiculous fun getting to know people-we had about ten people going -while everyone else was out on a pub crawl. But seriously. So much fun. Although I had to humbly explain that I had not invented the game but everyone loved it, so cheers!
Oh and get this. Checking in, we realized that I had not booked two beds in an eight bed dorm, but no, the entire eight bed dorm. AGHHHHHH with no possibility of cancellation!!! I was about to cry. But then I realized it was still only about 40 Euros altogether and we had our own private shower and toilet so it wasn't all that bad. And of course God had a reason. Let's just say that it opened up a door to help out our awesome friend Leigh (who was previously staying in a room with all guys haha fun, but smelly) and share scripture and pray with someone who actually really appreciated it. And now she has a bible and open eyes and I'm excited to hear about how God is going to use her in the rest of her travels!
"God, if you want me to read this story to her then make her cough or something so I know she's still awake"
"cough"
"...fiiiine"
=]
We are now on our fourth night in the Czech republic and loving every minute of it! The beautiful castles, old architecture, rolling green hills, wild poppies, cheap food =)
[Although it is raining here in the tiny town of Cesky Krumlov but we get free internet, so hey!]
Our first two nights in Praha (Prague) were spent with Jen Nolin, a lady I met through her parents who work at my school whom I met while searching for someone who knew whether I needed a visa to visit the Czech Republic or not! haha. So it was really kind of her to let us stay with her without even meeting us! But that is one reason why I love being a part of the Body of Christ. All family. And we even got to help out at her school for a few hours. (She's a grade 2 teacher at an international school). It was so much fun meeting kids from all over the world and helping them colour and cut out fish and being stung by the crepe paper "tentacles"!!! It was a nice change from all the sight seeing and historical information that I feel obligated to absorb as much as possible while traveling the old and culturally rich European landscapes! But one gets a little exhausted of all the incredible sights and sounds and information. (Although the acoustics were AMAZING in "the oldest church in Prague" where we listened to performances of Ave Maria and Mozart and Vivaldi etc)
But I must say thank you to whoever taught me that ping pong game where you hit the ball, drop the paddle and run around to the other side of the table-you know what I'm talking about? Anyways for our last night in Prague, staying at our hostel, it was a hilarious alternative of laughter and ridiculous fun getting to know people-we had about ten people going -while everyone else was out on a pub crawl. But seriously. So much fun. Although I had to humbly explain that I had not invented the game but everyone loved it, so cheers!
Oh and get this. Checking in, we realized that I had not booked two beds in an eight bed dorm, but no, the entire eight bed dorm. AGHHHHHH with no possibility of cancellation!!! I was about to cry. But then I realized it was still only about 40 Euros altogether and we had our own private shower and toilet so it wasn't all that bad. And of course God had a reason. Let's just say that it opened up a door to help out our awesome friend Leigh (who was previously staying in a room with all guys haha fun, but smelly) and share scripture and pray with someone who actually really appreciated it. And now she has a bible and open eyes and I'm excited to hear about how God is going to use her in the rest of her travels!
"God, if you want me to read this story to her then make her cough or something so I know she's still awake"
"cough"
"...fiiiine"
=]
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Do you have a piece of chewing gum?
BERLIN!
This City is fantastic, with so much historz (and crayz kezboards) AMAZING Döners and wonderful people. We took a bike tour our first day which was really neat, riding a bike around the city, hearing the history and stories about the berlin wall and Hitler's bunker. We saw some museums and met more people on our busabout tour. We have about ten friends now that are traveling to Prague on the same day as us! Australians, Canadians and Brits and Iäm sure well meet more =) Quite the characters some of them are. Should be a fun trip.
So on the bike tour our Australian friends decided that they would like to order the big one liter mugs of Beer (each) and let me say that the rest of the tour was quite entertaining.
Oh and one girl had her bike tire flattened so we got to watch our tour guide in action!
I got a free piece of the Berlin wall for volunteering to stay at the back the whole time... didnt help that we got lost and separated from the front of the group for about 10 minutes or so haha.
Well Im running out of time on this computer, but feel free to ask us more about our adventures last night haha
"what do you want to do?" "I dont know, what do you want to do?" "I dont know, Jesus, what do you want us to do?" "fine.. lets just walk around.. maybe find something... music... i dunno"
"Hey, do you speak English? Oh good, me too. Do you have a piece of chewing gum?"
This City is fantastic, with so much historz (and crayz kezboards) AMAZING Döners and wonderful people. We took a bike tour our first day which was really neat, riding a bike around the city, hearing the history and stories about the berlin wall and Hitler's bunker. We saw some museums and met more people on our busabout tour. We have about ten friends now that are traveling to Prague on the same day as us! Australians, Canadians and Brits and Iäm sure well meet more =) Quite the characters some of them are. Should be a fun trip.
So on the bike tour our Australian friends decided that they would like to order the big one liter mugs of Beer (each) and let me say that the rest of the tour was quite entertaining.
Oh and one girl had her bike tire flattened so we got to watch our tour guide in action!
I got a free piece of the Berlin wall for volunteering to stay at the back the whole time... didnt help that we got lost and separated from the front of the group for about 10 minutes or so haha.
Well Im running out of time on this computer, but feel free to ask us more about our adventures last night haha
"what do you want to do?" "I dont know, what do you want to do?" "I dont know, Jesus, what do you want us to do?" "fine.. lets just walk around.. maybe find something... music... i dunno"
"Hey, do you speak English? Oh good, me too. Do you have a piece of chewing gum?"
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