Guten Tag

May 29:

Breakfast is so much more delicious when it includes nutella! Don't worry mom and dad, I had fruit, meat, cheese, yogurt, and croissants. After breakfast we hopped on the bus and drove thirty minutes to the Stein am Rhein river (the part in Switzerland). The river was absolutely beautiful! The nearby town was just as beautiful and full of tourist shops. I had some crepes for lunch and ate them by the river (best lunch yet). Another interesting observation about Europe is the amount of bikes I have seen, especially in the little village by the Rhein. We had our first formal concert tonight in Busingen, Switzerland and it was absolutely amazing. The people were extremely grateful and this could be seen in their applauses that could last forever. Half of the people that came to our concert were from the church and half were from the surrounding village. It was nice opportunity to reach out to community members. I talked to a few people afterwards who could speak English and they were so appreciative of what we were doing and asked us to come back any time. The thing I love about music is the fact that we don't need to be able to speak the same language to share the love of God. You could tell that they were truly touched during the performance even if they didn't understand all that we had said. After our concert they fed us more delicious food and we headed back to the hotels for some much needed sleep. Shout out to all Collegians: I realized just how much I miss all of you guys during our first performance. I looked around the circle while Kendra was singing "Come to the Water" and realized just how many friends were missing. I hope you are all doing well, we are thinking of you. :)

May 30:

Today we had to "performances". This morning we sang at the Gottmadingen Nazarene Church during their service. The most touching part for me was when we sang "It Is Well With My Soul". The congregation knew the song so they sang along with us in German. It was just an amazing feeling seeing how even though we don't speak the same language we can still worship together. I talked to a 17 year old German girl afterwards and discovered that she was herself a musician and was amazed at how we conveyed our emotions through our music. She said that she could really tell that we meant what we were singing. It was nice to talk to someone close to my age about music, school, and just life in another country. After the first service we went to the Rhein Falls (again in Switzerland). It was so magnificent and powerful. I spent around an hour just admiring God's amazing creations. We had our second concert in the Neuhausen Church of the Nazarene at 17:00. We were told that the church was currently without a pastor and that the congregation was becoming disheartened because of their trials. I talked to someone afterwards who said that our songs were a huge blessing to them and I could tell that it had been a very emotional concert for several people there. I was also very excited to see the girl that I talked to after our first service of the day at this performance as well! I don't think our services could have been any better, God is good. Tomorrow we leave in the early morning hours for Venice, Italy!!!

We are here!!!!!!

Sorry I haven't been posting anything. We were at a small hotel outside of Salzburg without internet access, but for the next three days I will definitely be posting! Now for the super long explanation of what we have doing the past few days!

May 26:

After an 8 hour plane ride we landed in Munich! Right away you could tell that Europe would be a lot different than we had anticipated. The airport was extremely clean and very quiet, a lot different than Chicago. Another difference that we quickly saw were the taxi's outside of the airport. All of the taxi's were very nice BMW's, Volkswagens and Chryslers. From the airport we took our bus to Salzburg with our bus driver Guiseppe and tour guide Lanna. While on the hour long bus ride we discovered that private cars driving on the highway have no speed limit, don't worry, Guiseppe had to abide by a speed limit. When we crossed from Germany into Austria I was shocked by the lack of a border of any kind. In the U.S. we have huge signs when you enter another state, but here there was absolutely nothing (not even customs). Lanna later told us that because Germany, Austria and Italy are all part of the European Union there are no more borders. We stopped at a rest stop for lunch along the way and were reminded of our lack of being about to understand the German language. You have no idea what food you are ordering and you just point to something that looks good and hope it is edible. It was a fun experience and all the food that I have had so far has been delicious! When we arrived at Salzburg we went on a guided tour of the city. I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it is! There is so much culture and history. While on our tour we had an informal performance in the dome cathedral and it was an absolutely amazing experience! We could hear ourselves singing for multiple seconds after we had stopped. By the time we finished singing there were a lot of people sitting in the cathedral listening. IT was a nice witness experience. After our tour we went back to our hotel where we had a good Austrian dinner of Beef, Sauerkraut and potatoes. We then promptly went to bed and slept as long as we could. P.S. for the family: The view from my hotel window was of the Alps, beats parking lots any day!

May 27:

The hotel served as a "Hot American Breakfast" that was good and then we were off to tour a Salt Mine. The Salt Mine was a lot more interesting than I thought that it would be. There was a train ride, light show, boat ride, interactive aspects. We even got to lick our fingers after dipping them in water or rubbing them across the wall of the mine and taste the salt. After the Salt Mine we had an absolutely stunning drive to Eagle's Nest. The Eagle's Nest is the building given to Hitler for his 50th birthday. The bus ride up was nerve wrecking with the tight turns and sheer drop in a rather large bus. But the view from the top was worth everything! We ate a little lunch at the restaurant in Eagle's Nest, including some pickled pig snout (just another thing you end up eating when you have no idea what the menu says). The entire afternoon was ours to explore Salzburg. It was really fun to walk around with a small group and see new places as well as spend more time in places we had seen the day before and of course time for shopping! While walking around my friends and I got some gelato and ended up with some delicious Nutella ice cream!!! Mark and John, make sure you stock up on Nutella before I get home so we can make so milkshakes! Dinner was at a local restaurant in Salzburg and consisted of schnitzel and potatoes along with an early bedtime, still a little struggle with the time change.

May 28:

We left Salzburg, Austria this morning and had a 7 hour bus ride to Gottmadingen, Germany. Along the way that many of the houses had solar panels on them, they seem to be ahead of us in some aspects of technology. The rest stops along the highway are 10 times better than the ones in the U.S. even if you do have to pay.50 euro to use them. However the money is worth the self cleaning toilet seat! For lunch we stopped at a McDonald’s (I know, McDonald’s while in Germany but it wasn’t my choice. lol) There were many differences in the McDonald’s! My chicken wrap was bigger than a large drink, the cokes are sweeter and the drinks here are never served with ice. The McCafe was a separate part of the restaurant and had pastries and cheesecake! My basic German is getting a little better, I was able to read the “drucken” sign on the door and know that I was supposed to push it open. I don’t think it will be fluent anytime soon though. Around 16:00 (they use military time over here) we arrived in Gottmadingen and dropped everything off at our hotel. It is a nice, modern type hotel that has wifi! :) We then went and toured the nicest preserved castle in Germany that was built over 1,000 years ago. The hike up the a little work but the castle and view of Gottmadingen were absolutely breath taking. We all went down into a little dungeon area and sang “A Mighty Fortress”, “The Lord Bless You and Keep You” and “Amazing Grace”. While we were singing some German men stopped and videotaped us. It was an amazing experience to sing in such a beautiful place. After a few more pictures of the castle we drove to nearby Switzerland for dinner prepared by a lady who belongs to the church that we will be singing at tomorrow. Another delicious meal and we headed back to our hotel. My friends and I walked around downtown Gottmadingen for a little while and got some Gelato (I think it is becoming an addiction). :) I am currently watching some tv in the hotel room with my roommate. There are some interesting channels!!!

Sorry if this is all really scatter brained but there is just so much to talk about and I am trying to condense the three days.

Hurry Up to Wait (May 25)

This morning most of us met up on campus for some final items, preparation and prayer. The motto for the trip is currently "Hurry up to wait". We had to hurry up to get to campus, then wait to be assigned something to do. We are now at the Columbus Airport and it is hurry up and check your baggage to wait at your gate for a few hours. We are starting to get anxious about our quickly approaching flight, but all the sitting has us a little tired. From Columbus half of us fly to Chicago while the other half flies to Philadelphia. The excitement will probably hit when we get off the plane knowing that our next stop is Munich!! Everyone is doing great and there have been no problems so far, love and well wishes are sent to everyone back home!

The Countdown of Hours Begins!

In less than 12 hours (9:30am) everyone will be heading to MVNU where we will load everything onto the bus and have a time of prayer. Our flights leave around 4pm and we won't get to Munich until 9am on Wednesday. The 12-16 hour flight will give us a lot of time to eat, sleep, mentally prepare for the trip, and get super excited. Hopefully we get a lot of sleep because Wednesday we are go go go !

Well, enough about the future. Right now I have everything packed and ready for tomorrow and the nerves are setting in. I have never flown before and I didn't envision my first flight being 16 hours long. But I am sure that it will be a good experience because I will be surrounded by some amazing people. Packing has been an adventure in itself, I have been talking to my roommate constantly about what she has and what I need to get. Somehow, everything has come together amazingly and I am getting even more excited to see what God has in store for us these next few days!

Crunch Time!

In 48 hours we will all be on planes that are Europe bound. For some reason I still can't wrap my head around that fact, probably because I still have to pack everything. Our whirl-wind adventure is quickly approaching and as we run around to find khaki pants and power converters we ask that you continue to pray for us. But even more importantly to pray for everyone that we will minister to and encounter while on our trip. We don't go over to just share our musical talent but also our love as Christians and your prayers are greatly appreciated.