This week coming up is my last week of lectures, then I have a Christmas break for a week, then I come back and prepare for outreach for a week and then I leave for Ethiopia the beginning of January.  I can't believe in three weeks I will be in Africa!  wow. I'll be there for 2 and 1/2 months!  I am pretty excited what God is doing in my life. Not just here, but at home too :)

This past week our topic in lectures was the father heart of God.  It was amazing. Our speaker was so gifted in story telling and it was co encouraging and powerful.  One thing he talked about was how we should have seasons in our life, just like nature has seasons.  DTS has all four. I have been in Spring for the past 3 months, taking in and learning and begin nurtured spiritually. When I go on outreach I will be in Summer, giving and serving and doing ministry.  Coming back here for 3 weeks after outreach is our Fall, where we reflect and debrief. The last season, I am excited for as well. Winter - Rest.  I am so tired. December has been so crazy with meetings and preparing for outreach and so much happening around here, we all our starting to drag a little bit. But I think our winter break will be a little refresher for most of us hopefully.

Today I have team building with my Ethiopia team.  I do not know what it will be like, but we are supposed to be outside in the woods all day doing crazy things.. Some of the other teams went yesterday and they weren't allowed to tell us what they did. I heard a rumor that you have to eat gross things and that the only thing you are allowed to drink is this black tea they made (apparently it has laxatives in it). It feels more like some kind of initiation than team building. But hey I'm sure we will get sick in Africa and have to deal with that:)  I don't know if that is true, they also could be saying that to scare us. Oh well, we'll see. Should be fun.

Here I am in Germany

Happy

I didn't think anything could happen to make me happier

Oh how He loves me

He is so good to me

He knows the desires of my heart

I will never leave Him again

I love Him

I can't live without Him

He brought me here

To get my attention

He did

He has romanced me

He is my love now

I see that I need no one or nothing else to make me completely happy

But still there are people and things that bring me joy

And He knows that, He loves me

I know He blesses me

And gives them to me as gifts

He knows my love languages

I can't wait to see Him

I still can't get enough of Him

I want more

I want more of Him

He swept me off  my feet

He cared and tended to my wounds

He is gentle and loving

He will never let me go

He is my Edward ;)

A few more thoughts

So as our team was debriefing this week I thought of something else that was interesting and cool about my trip to Romania.  On the long journey south I had quite a bit of time to think and pray about the time in Romania.  There is this song that we sing here a lot called Hosanna and in it there is a line that says "break my heart for what breaks Yours." I was praying that on the way down. I had done a little bit of research before about the history of Romania and why there are so many orphans and what happened there while it was ruled my communism.  It was really interesting and so it gave me a little insight to what I would be stepping into.

I was just praying and asking God to show me while I was there what makes him sad and to see what breaks His heart, so that I could understand and relate to the people.  I didn't realize this until the end of the trip and while we were debriefing but from the minute we crossed the border from Hungary to Romania my heart was heavy.  

I remember so many days feeling almost lost and deaf to what God might be saying to me because I was so caught by the dreariness and pain all around me.  We would be praying together as a team and I would ask God to speak to my team mates because I felt like I couldn't grasp anything.  My mind was so quick to wander and I felt like I was on observant overload, I was always just watching things around me.  My team thinks I don't talk much, and I know sometimes I am really quiet but I feel like I was even more because I was constantly thinking about things around me.  

What is cool about that is that one of my team members who also happened to be the youngest was saying a lot of things that she felt God put on her heart and everything she said the rest of us totally agreed with her and just felt like God really was speaking through her.  It was cool because before we left Budapest one of the guys on their team said they had the impression that God would raise up one of the least expected of our team to be a leader. So I just feel like God was letting me really feel the pain there and maybe what He would have spoken to me, I think He told her :) 

But on the last day while we were in Sighisoara and then that last night at the base in Medias I feel like God lifted the heaviness away. The whole time we were at the base in Sighisoara I was overwhelmed with this feeling of hope.  We were praying for the staff there and then we were asked to share if God had put anything on our hearts for them. My heart was beating so hard and I knew He wanted me to share this vision/feeling I had with them. But I didn't speak up and then we moved on and I felt like I should have said something.  But this feeling I had was incredible, I could just see that base coming alive one day.  With so many staff and volunteers that they would be overflowing.  In my mind it was like Narnia.  It was still winter there and it was dark and cold, but I wanted them to know that spring is coming and soon the ice will melt and it will flourish.  I am still learning how to speak up when I need to.

While we were debriefing, Lucy our team leader said to Melody (my team member who said so many things that we agreed with) that she really felt that God spoke through her and that every time she said things they were right on. I was next to Melody and then Lucy looked at me and said in her brazilian accent "And you sista, you need to speak when you feel something."   :)

Overall I left there feeling free and lighter and changed. I really believe God let me feel the pain there but at the end He lifted that off so I could feel his love surround me and see His light shining.  So in the midst of all that darkness, we were a huge light. And where there is light, there is no darkness.

These are all from the day in Sighisoara

Romania

I got back late last night to snow! It is beautiful.

The train ride from Budapest was so so pretty, the further north we came the more snow there was.  It is still snowing outside :) I love it.

So in the past week I have been in 5 of the eastern European countries. The train took us from Dresden, Germany through Prague and a lot of the Czech Republic, then through the very west part of Slovakia. Finally down through Hungary ending in Budapest.  The train was 10 hours long, but so beautiful. 

Last Saturday night we stayed in a hostel in Budapest with the Hungary team, so there were around 23 of us. It was actually an ok one. The next morning 5 of our Romania team went to rent the cars and so the rest of us got to walk around Budapest a little. It is probably one of the coolest cities I have ever been to, the architecture is amazing.  After the others got back with out rental cars we had lunch and then began our drive to Romania. It took us forever to get there.

We got lost in Budapest because, well for starters everything is in Hungarian and none of us know anything about driving there. Plus road signs or street signs are so small and in the hardest place to read so by the time you read it (which most of the time you can't even say it) it was too late. At least they drive on the same side of the road. 

After we finally got out of Budapest we took wrong turns a few more times :) We didn't arrive at the ywam base where we were staying in Romania until 2:00 in the morning. 

Most of the drive through Romania it was dark and at first there was a full moon and it was so creepy. The trees were bare and most of the houses were really run down and there was fog. Add that to the fact that we were in Transilvania and well that's just creepy.

But we had so much fun. I loved my team. I would do my big outreach with them, we got along so well and there were no fights or anything like that we were all really easy going and just like, "ok, whatever" it was great. 

Romania was really cool, the language is kind of a mix between Italian, Spanish and French so some things I could understand. But the people were really fun, they are very similar to Greeks or Italians. Actually one of their favorite movies is My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and they quoted it all the time. So funny.  I kind of wish we could have gone in the summer. It looked really dreary while we were there, very brown and all the trees were bare and it was cold. I hear that it is very beautiful in the summer.  You can see that it is a poor country as well, all the houses are really run down and there were tons of apartment buildings that looked so cold and ugly and they were built during communism.  It was hard to think about the people who were crammed in there.  It definately opened my eyes but more while I was there

The base that we stayed at was in a town called Medias. It was pretty small, but it was nice. They didn't have any hot water, so we either had to take cold showers or boil water and take cup showers.  And last winter they didn't have heat. I do not know how they did it, it was so cold there.  We began to see why God led us there once we were there. The base was so small and they are in huge need of staff and finances. You could just feel it and see it on their faces that they were tired. So we prayed for them a lot. 

Each day we went out and did stuff in different places. One day we went to the International House of Prayer in a nearby town, and the next to an orphanage, and the last full day we had there we went to another ywam base in a different nearby town called Sighisoara.  That was my favorite day. 

The ywam base there has only 3 full time staff. It is in a very dark area and they were so happy to have us there. The town Sighisoara is beautiful. But one huge thing they face there is that is apparently the city were dracula was born. There is a spiritual heaviness all around them. We prayed for them and then did a prayer walk around the neighbourhood where their base is. Their main ministry is running a kindergarten for the local gypsy children. They told us about how the gypsies are looked down upon by everyone and are often very poor and can't afford to pay the 1.50 Euro it costs for the kids to go there each month. That is like almost $2.00 US dollars for a month! They have nothing.  

Another huge problem is prostitution.  There are these two men in the area that are powerful and run a kind of business. The people call them fish. They are called this because they catch children, especially young girls and bring them to live with them as servants. When they are 16-18 they start selling them as prostitutes. It is hard because everyone is so poor that it is one way to make good money so they keep doing it.  But after a few years when the girls start to look used up, they get rid of them and bring in new ones, they always have some because they are always looking for them. They start looking or watching for them when they are little, like in the kindergarten and when they are 12 or 13 they take them. Actually a lot of times their parents sell them because they have no money.   It is a really awful system. While we were doing our prayer walk the yeam base leader would point out the houses of those men and girls. It was so close to them, like the next street over!

 There were these girls that followed us and they were so cute. They were little gypsy kids and were fascinated with out cameras and kept posing and wanting us to take their picture and then show them on the back :) They walked with us the whole time hugging us and holding our hands. It was so precious, but I couldn't help but think how long until they took them. They were so beautiful and I just wanted to take them home.

We walked up to the top of the hill that the base was on and it overlooked the city, we played with girls and just worshipped God and prayed for the city. It was so cool.

When we left we could just see the light and encouragement on the faces of the staff at the base, they were so nice and I think that some of our team will go back there someday. I don't know if I will, but I would love to go back and visit and stay longer than a day and do an more intensive outreach directed in that area.

I had such a good trip and it has been hard to adjust back at the castle. There is so much more that happened but it would take me forever to write it all, but this was what impacted me the most, so thats what I wanted to write about. It did make me really excited for my big outreach to Ethiopia.  Only a little more than a month.

I can't believe how fast time is going by, yet at the same time it feels like I've been here for a long long time.

If I think of anything else that touched my heart I will write about and I'll put up some pictures, but for now I am going out to play in the snow!

I leave today for my mini outreach to Romania. I am excited.

We are taking the train to Dresden and then from Dresden to Budapest. We will stay the night there and then rent cars in the morning and drive to Romania. 

Our team is really good, I think God will do great things through us. We will be staying in the Transylvania region at a YWAM base there. There is a house of prayer nearby and also an orphanage. So we will probably be spending a lot of time at those two places.

We don't really have concrete plans or anything, but we are going to go there and let God lead us while we are there. It is going to be cool to see what happens and God does through us.

A lot has happened these past 2 weeks.

I have found out my outreach location, I have experienced a real African preacher, I learned that my future is really in God's hands and I am seeing how He is leading me.

For my 10 week outreach I am going to Ethiopia, it is a long kind of crazy story how that came about and God revealed to me and taught me so many things.

Then this week we have been learning about laying down our rights.

That everything we own or have belongs to Jesus and He is the one who gave it to us.

When we let those things that He gave us become more important than him is when it becomes wrong.  I think He wants to bless us and gives us things but when we become so attached to them that we aren't willing to give them up, it makes Him sad.

I have realized living here with a bunch of other people who don't have jobs or regular income, that you really have to rely on God to provide for you. I love our community because no one cares if you have the latest fashion or the nicest pair of shoes. You could wear the ugliest old lady wool sweater and we would think its cool.

It is nice to escape from the materialistic North America with TV and ads everywhere telling you that you will be happy when you buy this or own this or wear that. That is all crap. The real way to be happy is to give thing away to people who need it more than you do and not let those things take control over you (which often happens without you knowing it). Its crazy because He will really set you free when you let go.

And it is not just stuff, it could be a relationship, your culture or tradition, or you country where it is comfortable.

So this week we wrote down the things that were holding us back and rights that we were hanging on to. It was really powerful and we all let go of them together in our worship time this morning. I really felt like Jesus was there with us and taking it all away as we would give it to Him.  It is so hard to comprehend His love for us. You think you understand or know, but I am seeing it is so incredibly deep and vast we will never understand completely.

I am learning so much and I am thankful to be here.

God has given me some amazing friends to go through these things with and I am so blessed.

Mini Outreach

In November I will be going on a mini outreach for one week, it's part of the training and preparation for the big outreach section.  Several different staff are leading different ones and they presented them to us last week giving us all a choice of which one we wanted to go on. They were all to different locations with different goals or focuses. But some of them they could only take a limited amount of people so we had to put our top three choices on a piece of paper and they would go from that. My top three choices were:

1. Romania - which involves photography and working at an orphanage

2. Hungary - Working in Budapest with gypsies

3. Prague, Czech Republic - working with street kids, in the red light district and with youth.

It was hard for the staff because my first two choices were the most popular ones and they could only take 6-7 people for each one of them.  They asked us to pray about our choices and ask God where he wanted us to go. I totally felt Romania on my heart and it was really strong.

On Monday when they read out which teams we were on I was really excited to see where God was leading me. I would have been fine with any of the outreaches and I knew that he would direct the staff and place me where he wanted me.  

So I am going to Romania :) I am really excited! I have a really good group of people on my team and I think we will work really well together.  The leaders of our outreach said they were praying and our names were the ones God said yes to. 

We also heard the locations for our main outreaches this week.  We have a lot of choices. There are two more focused on art and photography which they developed for the photo DTS, but we are allowed to go on the regular ones if we feel called to.

The two photography ones will be in Ethiopia and India. There will be hubs in each country (which will be apartments that we rent out for the three months).  They will be a central meeting place for our team and will also have a temporary darkroom so we can develop and enlarge our film. The leaders of the two hubs are all members of the art ministry Pickapocket. So their plan that we make a book full of photographs and peoples stories. We will be working with people in extreme poverty and becoming their friends and then taking their photos in an effort to help them and end extreme poverty. We will design and put the book together and then they will make copies and sell it. All the money made from it will go right back to help people in extreme poverty.We will have a team of around 15 in each location and then we will split into smaller teams and go out from there for weeks at a time to work in various places or even countries bordering. It sounds really intense, but I think it is what God is calling me to do. I do not know which one I will choose yet though as my first choice. I am still asking for direction in that. 

The other outreach locations that aren't mainly photography focused are in Uganda, Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Egypt.

I am pretty sure God will lead me and place me where He wants me and knows where I can make the biggest impact. So we will see...

Fall here is beautiful. The colors, the crispy air, the indian summer days... I love it. It is probably my favorite season.  Time is going by so fast and I am learning so much everyday. Each week we have a different speaker from ywam speak on a different topic. Last week was on intercession and spiritual warfare. His name was Rogerio and he was from Brazil. Ok so one thing that was really funny was who he reminded me of :) Well.. if you have ever seen Madagascar (the cartoon) he was like the human version of the king lemur. He was so funny.  But he was a powerful speaker. I have never met anyone who know the bible like this man. It was amazing. One of the best things I got out of everything he talked about was just going to God and asking Him everything. Why do we always go to people to answer our questions or solve our problems. People really aren't that smart and we have stupid emotions and stuff that get in the way and, I know this is hard to admit sometimes,  but we really don't know anything.  God knows everything so we should ask Him.  I think we are so impatient that we want answers right away and so we go to someone tangible and ask them so we can "hear" something right away. But God will answers us, if we just wait and listen.

I have really had to do that while I am here, I mean we are a whole bunch of people from really different backgrounds. Some are very conservative and others are really charasmatic, but we all can live and worship God together. Which is really cool, my time here is between me and God and 

I don't need to get distracted by questioning Him about other people and the way they do things. I really had to go to Him a lot and ask Him what was truth and what was from Him, because I didn't want anything that wasn't from Him.  So I waited and listened and He made everything clear. He really is amazing and I love Him so much.  It is so sad when people are divided because of things like that. We are all God's children, no one is better than another.  Jesus is important, not stupid rules that people make up.  

Anyway I am so exc

ited about everything that I am learning.

         

We just got our second photo assignment today. 

We have to interview and take a picture of a muslim. 

That is so scary, yet exciting. We have two weeks, so we will 

have to go Dresden or somewhere bigger with a masque on our ow

n time.  They tell us the assignments get more and more challenging. Our last one was an apple as well as a elderly person. Its hard though to take pictures of strangers in a country where you do not speak the language. Its hard anyway to take pictures of strangers! You have to get all up in there personal space, not a comfortable thing... for either person :)  It 

should be good though, I am a little nervous about it, but I think it will be a good experience. It will also help prep me for outreach. There's gonna be a lot of awkward get in people's faces and personal space moments. Well I'll let you know how it goes...

So it has almost been a week since the new students have been here.  The first month I was here was only for those participating in the photo discipleship training school, now everyone else is here and we are joined with them for the lecture and training phase.  It was very overwhelming when they first got here. We went from 38 students to 85.  They are saying this is the biggest dts in Europe. At first, I didn't like it.. I just wanted to it to be small and our photo group again. But now I think it will be good. I am meeting some more people. But I am still close with all the photo people.  We started our lectures this week and we are learning about how to deepen our relationship with God and hear his voice. 

I am learning so much, its really cool. I am so happy here, happier than I have been in a really long time. I think its because I know I am where God wants me, and why would He have me somewhere that isn't good for me.  Sure there are days when I miss home and my family, but overall I am getting something I have needed for a really long time. I am spending time with the One who is most important and I am recognizing that He is the most important in my life. I am at the point where I don't want to even imagine life without Him, I never want that. I want more of Him.  One of the staff on the leadership team was speaking yesterday, her name is Lucy. She was just reminding us that God speaks to us all in different ways, through different things. I am seeing that everyday. He blesses me in so many ways, yet I don't always see that or realize thats his way of saying I love you. I am learning now how to see that. One way I realized that He speaks to me is through the cats :) I know it sounds kind of funny, but really I think its true. The cats here are so cool and I think Jesus tells me He loves me through them. I'll be sitting and they will walk up and just jump on my lap and snuggle me. He knows how much I love snuggling kittens.  I think its in the little things like that where we find him speaking to me.  Yet its the little things that get overlooked sometimes. 

This next part of the school is going to be very busy and intense, I will have dts assignments as well as photo assignments.  I am hoping that I keep the motivation that I have now and do well. I know with Jesus helping me I will :)

Photokina in Koln (Cologne)

This past weekend I got to do something I never thought I would be able to say that I have done... I drove on the autobahn across Germany.  We went on a little field trip to the west side of Germany. The only way that we could go is if there were enough drivers, because there weren't enough staff coming to drive, so 4 of us qualified and got to drive these really nice rental cars on a ywam road trip across the country. We left friday afternoon and came home on sunday. It was about 7-8 hours away, so it was a long drive, but it was so much fun. As you may know, there is no speed limit so that made it even more fun! On Saturday we went to this huge photography convention called the photokina which is held in Koln every year.  So we hung out there for part of the day checking out the camera equipment, some galleries and of course getting free stuff :) That was my favorite part. I think we got some batteries, pins, red bull and popsicles. After we left the photokina we took the subway in to the city center area.  The town was so amazing, as soon as you get off the subway and come up to the main square there is this huge cathedral towing right above you. It is the biggest one in Germany, it was so beautiful. 

So we walked around the town for a few hours and took pictures and shopped before heading back to the church where we were staying.

It was so much fun.. This week has been really busy though since we got back. This saturday the actual Discipleship Training School starts and the rest of the students arrive. A lot of us will be moving to another room and some us of maybe even in to apartments in town, which would be cool too. So we will have photo assignments along with everything else, it will be pretty crazy from here on. I am excited though. 

So I made a video tour of the castle.. I am not a professional or anything, but you can at least get an idea of what it is like inside :)

 

Dresden

Yesterday I went to Dresden with 7 other girls. It was probably one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen.  We left here around 7:45 and took a bus to Lobau where we caught a train to Dresden.  When I flew in I didn't actually get to see the city, because I took a train directly from the airport to Lobau, by-passing the city.  Anyway, It is very interesting there because during the second world war most of the city was bombed, destroyed and burned so there are theses really old buildings with back charred walls from the fires that have been restored and rebuilt and then there are these new modern buildings around them. But the old buildings are just beautiful. There is so much history in that little city. 

We walked around and took a lot of pictures. It was pretty funny all of us photo dts ywamers with our special cameras taking pictures of everything. Which worked out well because I'm sure anyone else with us would have been totally impatient because we paused to take pictures so often. I was kind of bummed because I didn't charge my digital camera battery the night before and so it died while we were there and I didn't get to take as many pictures as I would have liked with that one. But, I did have my regular film camera so I practiced using that and I am going to develop the film today. I really hope it turns out.  So I did take a few pictures on my digital which you can see, but there were so many more I wish I could have taken.  Its ok though because we are going back in 2 weeks for a free concert so I will take more that I can show :)

After we walked all over the city taking pictures we made our way back towards the train station and looked in little shops and ate dinner.

It was such a fun day, I love Germany and all the history. Its everywhere, even the town Herrnhut that I live in has a huge history.  So I am pretty excited to learn more about Germany's history and actually see the places I learned about in school, it makes it so much more real. Well I am off to take some more pictures and develop my dresden film...

Dance Party!

Ok so YWAM totally went up in my books.. they have dance parties..... Dance parties! What more could I want with my new shoes, except a dance party. I am so totally excited. There was one on Thursday night after the graduation of the group that just finished their dts. We actually got to hear their stories and see pictures from all their outreaches. It was really cool to see what God did in their lives and what they did in other people's.  It kind of gave us an idea of what ours will be like except ours will still be a little different since we are working with Pick a Pocket. We are actually going to have a simple moveable dark room where ever we end up going so we can develop our film while we are out there on the field.  I am pretty excited, especially since we will probably go some place warm. Its so so cold here right now. Castles are cold. But at least I can say I live in one, so that makes up for the coldness I guess. But yeah Dance Parties! Fun! Dance for Jesus! You know He would totally be out there busting a move with us. WWJD? He would dance with me :)

My New Shoes

Last week we had a meeting and what was shared and talked about, I got really excited about. The staff here told us about this organization that some of them started here this past April. A bunch of them had just finished their photo dts (which is what I am doing right now) and were like"what's next?"

Most of them were artists of one kind or another, passionate about art and believed in doing some kind of ministry through the arts, but weren't quite sure how to do it.

So they went on a retreat together to Scotland. While they were there they did a lot of praying and just sitting around trying to figure out what they would do. So one day they heard from God that they were to work with people in extreme poverty. They were all kind of shocked, because that wasn't what they were expecting. Many of them had already been to places on their outreach where they encountered people in extreme poverty and so they had seen what it was like.   They started this organization called Pick A Pocket. It is still very new and so they are still in the developing stages but here is a little about them from their website:

Half the world (nearly three billion people) live on less than two dollars a day.

Less than one percent of what the world has spent on it weapons supply each year could have provided the amount needed to place every child into school by the year 2000

Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.

The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (576 million people) is less than the wealth of the world's 7 richest people combined.

Poverty: depravation of those things that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and drinking water, but also includes such as the opportunity to learn and enjoy the respect of fellow citizens.

These facts can be completely overwhelming and shocking. What impacts you even more is when you are in a country that is stricken with poverty and you just see an ocean of people around you that have nothing to eat. It is one of the worst experiences to stand there and know we can do something about it and we don't.

As a group of young artists we decided that we would do whatever it takes to end extreme poverty.  We are taking our passions and talents and using them to bridge the gap between two worlds. We are representing the extreme  poor and bringing awareness to those who can do something about it. We are asking you to stand in the gap with us.

The girl, Liz, who was telling us about it was so passionate and direct. She made it very personal by telling us about people she had met and become friends with and then told us how they lived and how little they had.  It meant so much more than those commercials you see on TV about starving children.

Then she told us that our dts would be the first they would do this for, but on our outreach we will be working with Pick a Pocket.  They are going to use our photographs and our stories of our friends to help these people be heard and seen. Hopefully so that we can in turn put money back into the pockets of those people who need it so desperately.

That is where the name Pick a Pocket comes from. A lot of people don't understand completely what it means because in America its a term for someone who steals from your pocket. They want to help put money back into those people's pockets who got it "stolen" from them.

One of the things they do is called a 30 day challenge. It is were for 30 days you do not pay for any of the food you eat. They do that so you can identify what it is like for someone who lives that way. You should check out their webite and look at it a little more, I know I explained a lot, but on the website there are pictures and more info. It is http://web.mac.com/eliminationart/Site/Home.html 

Anyway I got really excited about this while they were talking, the whole time I had the goose bumps and was like wow, yes, finally. I feel like finally something fits with me. The best way to describe it is this analogy that I came up with while I was journaling.

I love shoes, I love shopping for shoes and finding cute pairs and getting good deals on shoes.

So I feel like for a long time I have been shopping for the right shoes. Sometimes I would find a pair that were really cute and I really wanted them and they looked really good on me. But when I wore them, I knew that if I bought them and wore them my feel would hurt and they really just weren't that comfortable. Then I would find a pair that were really comfortable and felt good, but they weren't me.  Then I would find this one shoe that I love and it feels good and its cute.. but, and yes this does happen, you can't find the other shoe! Basically I feel like I have finally found my shoes. They feel good and they won't hurt, they are cute and they look like me.

I feel like Ministry and Art are my shoes. Not one or the other, but both. I need both shoes for it to work :) And it does.

Today I got up and went for a walk before breakfast. We had the day off so I took my time and it was nice to not have a time I had to be back, except for Brunch which is served from 9-11 am. Anyway as I was coming back, I was just walking up to the castle when I saw one of the really cute sweet cats in front of me with this huge mouse in his mouth. He was headed toward the front doors of the castle which were open. He was too far in front of me for me to reach him before he got to the door and he walked in through the door and drops his special treasure right on the floor in front of the brunch table. Then he turns around and rubs up against my legs. It was really cute.  But then I had to move the mouse out before anyone else came down and saw it, because I'm sure there would have been some girls who freaked out. Plus we have 4 vegetarians and I'm sure that would have made their breakfast all that much better.

I was trying to find something to pick it up with and move it, but all I could find was some cardboard.  So I tried to scoop it up but it was all floppy and gross and I couldn't get it on there. Then the cat started putting his paw on it and holding it down on the floor and biting and chewing its head. I could hear the bones breaking and it was so gross, but I couldn't help but laugh. Eventually I got the mouse and the cat out the door to the front walkway thing. 

Then the cat started meowing really loud because it wanted to come back in.

It was pretty funny. I love cats. 

Making Cameras.. Fun!

I have only been here for a week and it feels like so much longer.  Its really good though, I am learning so much. This week we made pinhole cameras. We built them from random containers we had around. I used a little box that used to have medicine in it. You make the container light proof by taping it and then spray painting the inside black. On one side you cut a small hole which you put a piece of foil over that you have poked a needle hold into.  Lastly you make a shutter and put it over the little pin hole.  So basically we are making a camera like they invented hundreds of years ago.. pretty cool. 

So today I took my little camera out after loading it with special black and white paper in the dark room. I walked into the woods a little way and set it up and took a picture of the creek. You have to leave the shutter open depending on how much light there is. Its a little cloudy today so I left it for a few minutes.  I still have to go develop it in the dark room though so I am anxious to see how it turned out.

We also made solargraphy cameras. We made them the same way we made pinholes except they are made out of little film canisters. You put the same kind of paper in them and then take them out and leave them somewhere facing the sun. In three months we will go back and get them.

Instead of developing them though, you put them right onto a scanner and the somehow the picture shows up on the computer. Basically it will show you the paths of the sun everyday for three months, I'm excited to see how that turns out too.

Alright its tea time, I gotta go :)

The Castle

So as I mentioned.. I live in a castle. I really never thought I would be able to say that. It actually used to be an orphanage. It is 5 stories tall and I live on the 4th floor.

In the attic we have an art room, a music room and a prayer room. The main floor is where the kitchen and dining hall/meeting hall is where we have most of our lectures.

I have 3 roommates which I really like. Two of them are from here in Germany so I am learning how to speak the language which is fun. The other one is actually from Portland Oregon.  

So anyway, it is really cool and the property around is beautiful. There are lots of trails in the woods so its so nice to go out there for walks. 

So the Germans eat bread with everything. Its really good bread though. But yeah 3 meals a day.. you probably won't recognize me when I come home :) oh and the chocolate.. holy cow.. so so so wonderfully amazingly tasty. Actually I think I want some now....

PS. sorry for all the bad grammar and misspelling.. I do have jet lag you know.

I arrived in Dresden yesterday morning at 8:00 am. After claiming my bags, I made my way out to fin the train station where I had to take a train to a town call Lobau which is where I would be picked up. Its quite challenging to get around somewhere where you don't speak the language. At least here a lot of people know some english, which I was really thankful for.

So I caught the train to one place and then I had to switch to another train. The second train ride was about an hour long. I was a little bit scared at first because they didn't really announce the stops and I was afraid that I would miss mine. Plus I had a huge backpack that weighed 50 pounds along with a giant suitcase which weighed about the same plus another littler backpack which probably weighed 25 pounds. So here I am carrying around more than my own weight in Luggage in a foreign country alone. I am amazing.. it was a bit of a challenge. When I arrived in Lobau, I had to wait for about an hour to get picked up. I made misjudged the train schedule or something and had told them to pick me up around 12:30 pm, but I got there a little after 11:00am.  So I parked myself outside the front of the station sitting on my suitcase leaning against my back pack.  I got a few strange looks, but this is Europe I sure they are used to seeing that.

It was a beautiful day and so it was actually nice to sit outside in the sun.

So now I am here safe living in a castle with 2 sheep and a goat that roam around outside eating the lawn... as well as two sweet cats.  Yes I do like it here.

Germany so far

A New Beginning

A second chance, a new beginning, another chapter...whatever you want to call it, it starts today. Life is a journey. Its hard, sad and painful, but also wonderful, fun and full of love and excitement. Its finding your way through all of it that is challenging. What is it that I am called to do? Where am I needed? How do I get there? Well, that is what I am trying to find out. I want to find my Aurora Borealis. And I will. It may take me my whole life, but that is ok... thats all the adventure right? :) I am definately on an adventure.