Hi everyone! I haven't written in a while. Well let me fill you in on what has been going on. God gave us a blessing in disguise by putting us under quarentine for 2 weeks after training in the Dominican. With the swine flew scare, Benin will not let us in until after "quarentine." At first we were all really bummed and frusterated. Then we ended up deciding to spend 8 days of that time in Europe, going as cheap as possible and using our own money.
What an adventure!! We started in paris, after great flights thanks to everyones prayers except for the one we almost missed due to an intense game of phase 10. :-p when we got to paris we met some friends who are now on the ship, Kelly and Jamie and her friend Doug from south africa. Then me and my traveling buddies, Becca and Christina took off to see as much as we could in four hours. We did pretty good! we saw Notre Dame and the Eiffel tower. We quickly realized that Europe is Incredibly expensive!!! So instead of paying for buses, we decided to rent a car and drive to Germany, Switzerland, and back to Paris where we fly out to Africa. For our entire Trip . We had so much fun making things cheap as possible. we walked places as much as possible and never went out to eat. We found grocery stores and proceded to live on PB&J, and water for the most part. Every Hostel that served free breakfast was an opportunity to collect some more crasants for then next day ;-p
In Germany, we stayed in Munich and saw Dachau the first concentration camp. It was so interesting. totally worth it. it was quite heavy but i am so thankful for the experience and opportunity to learn some amazing history. We also met some great girls who roomed with us in our hostel. We had some great conversations. I have become very thankful for free bathrooms, as we quickly learned that you have to pay for the restroom in Germany and in many parts of Europe! hahah
So we continued on in our little French car driving through places where no one speaks english making all kinds of hillarious memories as we tried to communicate. As we drove we came by a sign that said Aus Faurt. We all had a huge laugh as we realized it came regularly and realized it meant exit!! We decided to name our car Aus Faurt :-D
the night before leaving Germany we decided to switch our plans and drive to Interlaken, Switzerland, where we spent a whole day hiking 7 hours in the Swiss Alphs!!! It was Incredible. I believe it may be the most beautiful thing i've ever seen! Talk about bein in awe of God! we got to touch snow too!
On our way to the Aphs we were snapping pictures every minute, and decided to stop once on the side of the road for some good shots of this amazing view over a lake. So we pulled the car off into a little open space on the side of the road, unsure it was legal but noting it was big enough ;-p then Christina got the idea that she could get an awesome picture of us if she climbed on top of the car. So she did and after Becca climbed up to get a pic of Christina and I. In the middle of this completely normal happening, a police car pulls up... we all start to freak a bit. when renting the car, Becca found that her license had expired on her birthday just a couple weeks ago. This forced Christina to become the driver. Well Becca had been driving, so they were both making sure the story was that Christina was driving and Becca slowly got off the top of the car as we all turned to meet the policeman expecting some repremand. Instead he said "I take a photo for you?" :-D We all Died laughing! and then made him get in the picture with us. we were all relieved.
After the alphs we went to Stay with some friends of Christina in Geneva. This time was such a blessing!! The Bensons are an incredible family and generous beyond measure! Mrs. Benson cooked us meals fit for royalty and we couldn't have been more excited to have real food and live in a home again with a family. We had a blast playing Dutch blitz and taking a walk around town that night seeing the sights. We quickly felt like family and when we had to leave we were actually sad. It is amazing how God places such incredible people in our lives in the most random ways in all kinds of places!
Now we are back in Paris with more mercy ship friends. Today we got bikes and went riding through the city seeing all the incredible buildings, and then stopping at the Eiffel tower for the second time later. Tomarrow I'm not sure of the plan, but as we have come to see, plans must be made in jello and that is just fine.
What an adventure already and an incomprehendable blessing. On this trip, I have become so close to Becca and Christina, we have shared some great talks and had some awesome time learning more about the Lord together. We chose to fast one day, partly so we didn't have to buy food and partly for the ship and all that is happing. On that day we began reading a book we were given in training called Practicing His Presence by brother Lawrence and another guy. It is the story of how this man decided to try and experiment where he determined to think of God every hour, then every 30 min. then every 15, 5 all the way till he was trying to bring the Lord back to mind every minute, so He would be with him every minute. It inspired us girls to try. So being conveniently stuck in the car, we began trying to think of the lord or say a little sentence to him every 15 min. but soon became anxious and lowered it to every 5. Now the rest of our trip, someone has their watch set for every hour and when it beeps we all know its time to bring God back to mind. It has been an incredible book, awesome excersise. In adition to that, God drew us to aswesoem people everywhere. and some of our conversations where so interesting. God has really gone with us on this trip and surprised us in incredible ways. He is so good to us! I'll try to post pictures later. Love you guys! sorry for the book this update turned out to be. I hope somehow God will speak to you through our experiences and your own. I love all of you. I'm beginning to fall asleep even as I write this, so i better sign off. Pictures are to come soon hopefully. Once on ship we will have training and have to get acclimated to the ship. in the mean time I'll be thinking of you. And i thank you SOO much for all your prayers!! Please continue to pray for health and safe travel and then just our focus on Ship to stay strong and God centured. Thank you!!
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