Prague, Herrnhut and Easter back in Cheb :)

So it's Easter Sunday today, and I'm definitely missing the Easter fun of home. I love coloring eggs and waking up to Easter baskets. Yes, I know I'm 20 years old, and yes, I still love Easter baskets. I mean come on.. Who doesn't love chocolate bunnies, jelly beans and Cadbury eggs?! But since only one of those was easily accessible, I decided to treat myself to a little chocolate bunny and some new music. Happy Easter everyone!

Anyways, on to an update since I didn't post one last weekend! Last, last week we had Carl Tinnion who is the leader of YWAM England and Western Europe! He was awesome, and I was definitely thankful for his teaching. He taught a lot about what it meant to be a blessing and to bring the Kingdom to earth. It truly is about loving God, loving others and teaching them about the great God that loves them. Love. Not judgement, not pushing anything, but meeting people where they are and loving on them. It's a beautiful thing.

Then last weekend we went to Prague, and I must say I've never seen anything quite like it. It is just stunning and full of so much history. We were there through Tuesday, and our speaker for Monday and Tuesday was Ludmilla Hallerova. She was such an inspiration! She's 85 years old and an incredible woman of God and missionary. She became a missionary as a teen and hasn't stopped since. She told an incredible story of an accident that happened with her two children and her faith in Gods healing that broke my heart but fueled my faith. Her kids were digging in the back yard and hit an old mine that exploded. They survived the explosion but her son had major damage to his face and her daughter had major damage to her legs. On their way to the hospital behind the ambulance Ludmilla told her husband that she had total faith that God would pull them through and all damage would be healed. While at the hospital, her son prayed and thanked Jesus that it was his face and not his sisters because she was pretty and people would make fun of her. The children both prayed fearlessly and knew God would heal them. The girl had 37 wounds that required stitches, but she eventually  healed and her legs worked just fine. The boy required surgery and sight was restored to one eye, which improved way more than the doctors ever expected. There were more details, but that's the main bit of the story. It was amazing. Truly shows the strength of childlike faith. 

Then we went back to Herrnhut, Germany for Tuesday evening through Saturday morning. It was good to see some familiar faces, sleep on the most comfortable bunk beds I've ever encountered, and have wifi from our beds, but other an that I was ready to be back to the River House. The Herrnhut base is bigger and full of more people than I would be able to handle for long term, and we've only been there when no students are around! Haha yes, there's that many staff. Thank you God for sending me to a smaller DTS! :) I love my little family here. Anyways, Thursday night we got the awesome opportunity to enjoy a Jewish Passover Seder meal, which was such a privilege and also a fun experience! Friday we hit our 2 month point and had a game night which was insanely fun. iXo youth be excited for some new games when I get home!  We headed home Saturday, and after multiple trains we were finally back in our cozy little monastery. (In case I haven't previously mentioned... our River House is actually a 600 year old monastery next to a river. We also live next to a castle. Cool, I know. It still amazes me.) 

Anyways, we have less than a month left until we leave for outreach, which also is just crazy to me, but I'm so excited!! I still can't publicly post yet where our outreach will be, but soon hopefully. I'm really looking forward to it! 

Thanks for reading! xo

 :)

Plzen!

Sorry for the delayed update, but things have been busy, busy.
We have finished week six and are already halfway through week seven! Last week we had two younger speakers that tought us basic understanding of the Bible. I think my favorite day was when we went through the gospels and learned the differences between. I guess I had the mindset of once you read one, you've read them all. Oops! Also, we did a graffiti workshop, which was super fun!

Over the weekend we went to Plzen for a youth conference, and I must say my friends back home would've been proud if they had seen me. I slept in a sleeping bag on a dirty floor in a freezing cold room. New experience... waking up shaking from head to toe even though wearing sweatpants, T-shirt and hoodie while wrapped in a sleeping bag. Oh and I survived the shower that was either hypothermic cold or burning lava hot... Needless to say I also think I broke my speediest shower record. Basically this weekend was outreach prep.  :)

We also got to climb to the top of a church tower in the center of Plzen, which was absolutely horrifying. Going up 299 (yes, I counted) narrow and steep stairs was quite scary. I have already fallen down one staircase in my time in Europe, and I definitely didn't want to repeat that on these much more fatal looking stairs. When I reached the top I experienced a mixed feeling of wanting to cry, throw up and rejoice all at the same time. Luckily, the first two didn't happen. The view was beautiful! I will attach a picture at the bottom of us at the top, and look left of my shoulder... That is the second largest synagogue in Europe! Also, while we were in Plzen, we found McDonald's! As sad as it is, I don't think I've ever been so happy to see one in my life! It was an awesome little taste of home. Oh and since they don't have drive-thru, they have "McWalk." Genius and hilarious, I know.

This week we have Carl Tinnion, the leader of YWAM England and Western Europe. So far he has been incredible, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the week! This weekend we will be in Prague then traveling back to Herrnhut, Germany for a few days! Then next weekend a few of us will be back in Prague just for a fun weekend of exploring! I can't believe that next weekend (Easter!) we will be celebrating 2 months of DTS! It's seriously crazy how fast the time goes.

Well that's all I've got for now! xoxo :)

Pieces of the puzzle..

     We just finished our fifth week, and I am feeling the homesickness I was warned of for the second month. This week I was able to Skype/FaceTime with quite a few people for the first time, which was awesome and sad all at the same time. Among that list was Sammy, Brit and my brother, all of whom I love and miss very much. Adding to the homesickness of month two is the fact that I am missing three of my closest friends birthdays all in one month (Jess, Kayla and Sammy). Even though its been tough this past week, I don't regret my decision to come here one bit. I keep reminding myself that I only have 20 weeks left with this wonderful little family that God has blessed me with. There will be tough weeks, but I am surrounded by an extremely supportive group here and also many supportive friends and family back home that continue to give me so much love and encouragement.

      This past week was not as mentally challenging as past weeks, but it was a lot of useful and practical information. The first half of the week was about discipleship, which reminded me a lot of what we teach our students back home. The second half of the week was focused on social justice, mainly human trafficking. I was so thankful for the practical information Margrit Thompson gave us about how to work with women whether on the streets or in the brothels, and that night we put it to practice! It was international women's day, so we took gifts out to the women. Two groups took the streets, and the other group took two brothels a little outside of town. I was in the streets, and I can't do the stories justice of how it went. It was a difficult but amazing night. Watching how the women reacted to just simple gifts and gestures of love and care really was heartbreaking, but it made me so thankful that God is using me for this ministry. His timing is so perfect. My favorite story from the night wasn't from prostitutes but two women that are alcoholics. We saw them a ways down the road outside of an alcohol shop. When we approached and gave them the gifts, they told us that 10 minutes before we got there they had just said, "It's international women's day, and no one gave us a gift!" Yeah... go God. The one woman immediately cried tears of joy, and before we knew it the conversation opened up and give one of our students the chance to speak a little about our great God that loves all, even them. The conversation ended in big hugs and saying they would be at our Thursday community night next week! I really hope we get to see them again. 

     I love looking back on the past few years and realizing how God has been preparing me for this. Four years ago after my first Passion conference I felt a pull in my heart to work with women who were in human trafficking, but I didn't know if it would ever happen. But God new the desires of my heart - to get to really know Him better, to work with these women, and my dreams to travel. Little did I know, He was planning to trump every dream I ever had with plans far bigger than I ever expected. So here I am now in the Czech Republic, realizing God spent the last 3-4 years preparing me to be here. My appetite for more "adventurous" foods changed a lot (thank goodness!), I went to 3 more Passion conferences, I took 2 levels of multicultural education, and then an entire semester of human services and counseling. Looking back and realizing that they were all just pieces to the puzzle is so exciting. I know that this DTS is just another piece of the puzzle, and its definitely a big piece! 

     I'm long winded today, sorry! I guess I'm making up for how little I spoke last weekend.

Lastly, we spoke about outreach this week! Our whole group will be in Eastern Europe, but we will be in two groups. We first chose regions, and this coming week we will have more definite teams and locations. The two regions are split according to the sea they border Adriatic (Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and Albania) and Black (Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, and Turkey). So next time I post, it will most likely be to announce where I will be from the end of April to the end of June!

Thanks for taking the time to read this super long post!  :)

One month!

Well as crazy as it seems, I've been living in Europe a little over a month now! It's been a long and challenging week, but we made it to the weekend! Yesterday we had a party celebrating our month together! We got all dressed up, decorated the River House, had pizza and ice cream, played charades, did karaoke and somehow it turned into a dance party that went until about midnight. Hahaha! I love this crazy awesome little ywam family that God gave me! :)

It's finally "warming up" here in Cheb! And by that I mean we've hit the low 40s a few times, and the snow has started to melt. Woohoo! We are all desperate for spring to arrive so we can put away our winter coats and gloves and finally enjoy the sun, which has made two glorious appearances this week! Sad thing is that because I haven't seen the sun in over a month it actually hurts my eyes. Haha time for sun glasses!

Sorry this is a short post, but I am quite exhausted. So I will close with a photo :)

P.S. To anyone who didn't see my post on Facebook, I want to say another huge thank you to everyone who helped support me. In the busyness of moving and packing in the last week before I left I didn't get to finish all my thank you's. So if you didn't get one, I'm sooo sorry! It will be a bit delayed. But super extra thank you to all who helped get me here!!!

:)