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!!!