Sunday, February 24, 2013

Photos! :)

As promised in my previous post, here are some photos! This is mainly for the people who don't have  Facebook. Make sure you scroll down to read the latest update as well :)

                                                   Me being a nut in the front yard :)
 
Andreya and I in the square!
 
Week one! Our group and speaker Dan
Oksana and I


Our group up on top of a hill overlooking the city! Photo cred to Juan!
Me all bundled up on top of the hill :) photo cred to Juan!
Juan, Anna and I on the train going to Germany!
 
The water castle in Herrnhut, Germany
 
Our group going for a tour of Herrnhut!


That is all for now! Again, I will be trying to update on the weekends! xo  :)

A week in a castle...

I've been living in Europe for over 3 weeks now, and every day that blows my mind. I am living a dream that I never knew I had. Thank goodness God has bigger plans for my life than I ever had! I absolutely love the little town of Cheb and the little group that quickly became family. I will post some pictures with descriptions in another post.

We just finished our third week of teaching, and we spent the week at the Herrnhut, Germany base. Germany was beautiful! There was sooo much snow! Everywhere. It was a little too cold for my liking, but it was only a week, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing in the snow. As some of you heard, I fell down the stairs. Yes, it hurt, and yes, I have a massive bruise, but luckily I didn't break anything. My ywam family gathered around and prayed for my back, which was causing me a lot of pain, and the next day I was running down a giant hill of snow playing with my friends as if we were little kids. Thank you God! :)

This DTS is such a blessing and awesome opportunity for growth and learning. I already feel like I have learned so much! Somethings I have heard before, but it's like hearing them for the first time and actually applying them to my life. Trusting God in a very real way. Listening to God and not just talking at Him. Looking at prayer and worship differently as well. Needless to say, I'm starting to understand what everyone meant when they kept telling me that I was going to change a lot.

Last week we did a prayer walk and went through what some would call the red light district. Though there is not one specific place here. It is quite spread out throughout the town. I now understand why people say that Cheb during the day and Cheb at night are town different places. You can feel the darkness of the horrible things that happen. We prayed for the night clubs and the girls working inside and also for the girls out on the streets. It broke my heart to see girls my age and hear that they've been working there for quite a while. It's a sad and horrible reality, but we believe there is hope for this city and those girls. Again, no worries on safety. We went as a group and kept an eye out for each other.

As for our home, we call it the River House because we are right on a pretty little river. The building is an old monestery, and it is one of the oldest buildings around here. We are really close to town, so walk everywhere. My work duty is grocery shopping! So twice a week Oksana and I grab bags and head off to the store! It's not as easy as it sounds though because everything is in Czech, so it's interesting at times. But we fill up our bags and backpacks with all our groceries, pay, and walk back to the house. It has been very weird to me not driving everywhere, but I enjoy the walking.

Anyways, all is well here. I can't believe that it's almost been a month! I will try to post updates on the weekends, since that is the majority of our free time. Love and miss you all lots! Thank you for all your love and support!

:)

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Finally updating!

Hello everyone! I am finally updating everyone on a little bit of what I've been up to. Sorry it took so long, but I don't get much time that I'm not using to speak directly to family and friends. Things are going great! This place is beautiful, and I have quite enjoyed the snow here!  Foods are quite different here, and I am still adjusting. So far I've tried spinach soup, fish soup, pork meatloaf, salami sandwiches, and curry. Along with some Czech snacks that I have now idea how to say or explain. Speaking of the language, I am starting to pick up some basics! It's tough though! Also, there are a lot of different languages spoken in our house, which gets extremely entertaining at times. Besides the obvious of English and Czech, we have German, Ukrainian, and South African! So yes, translations turn to giggles quite often.
So far we have had a few talks from our first speaker, Dan Baumann! And if you get a chance to find a video of his story... Listen to it! He is hilarious and has quite an amazing story. We are learning a lot about spending time with God and listening to him.
As for adjusting, it is a process I am working on still. I have homesick days. I love the group and the people I am meeting here, but I do miss home and my friends and family lots too! The biggest adjustments ar probably the obvious.. Food, weather, and funny things like toilets and showers. It's an adjustment, but exciting at the same time. We do a 6:10 "wake up" and we have 5mins to get dressed and out the front door for a jog. THAT has recently become the biggest challenge. Haha for those of you that know me, you know that me and sleep are best friends.
Anyways, at is all I have time for, for now. I love and miss you all very much!