Home at last...

After a busy summer traveling all over Europe, it is wonderful to be home again.




"Wherever you go, it is your friends who make your world."

Well, tomorrow I'm off to new mexico to see my sister!!

Ciao Ciao!

We are now in Florence, Italy, a beautiful city full of american tourists. Ive heard more english spoken here than Italian. But it is a great place.
We leave tonight for Vienna, which will be a nice place so we hear from our friends the Spain girls.
Ive been doing a lot of reading lately, everyone on my team reads all the time, so I was feeling left out. These are my favorites so far- Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis), Blue Like Jazz (Don Miller) and also by him To Own A Dragon. Very good books. Oh no, i would write more, but my time is up already!!
Love to you all!

Gryon, Geneva, Madrid.... its getting pretty busy!

Now I am in Geneva Switzerland with only 4 minutes to spare before I run and catch the train to the airport. We have an early flight at 6am and will be spending the majority of the night in the airport.
The short stay in Gryon was spectacular landscape wise, but much less so concerning good conversations and meeting people. Genveva is proving to be much the same way... However this time has been good for my team to bond together and learn to love each other. We found a place to rent bikes for free by paying a deposit, and chris and I rode around Geneva with nowhere in mind- we ended up way on the outskirts of the city, and decided to backtrack our path once we started seeing goats and donkeys. At one point we had to carry our bikes up 4 flights of stairs. Needless to say, next time we will bring a better map with us.
After that the four of us went to a cathedral from the late 1400s, the very cathedral that the renowned John Calvin spoke in. It is a famous church from the reformation days. I wish Dad could have been there to see it!
Well, unfortunately, my minutes are up.
Dearest Brother, Have a happy birhtday!!! I wish I could have been there with you!
And dear Summer, I also wish i could have warped back to New Mex to be there for Heidi and your shower.. I miss you guys!!
Over and Out.
Love Becca

Closing Time...

After way too much delay, I am posting again. The last two weeks here have been wonderful. I saw the fjords, climbed two mountains, helped build 64 beds and a million loads of laundry and dishes, saw my dear sweet mother who came miles and oceans away to visit me, watched a super sweet Brann football (soccer) game, and am now working the night shift for the hostel on its first day of being open. Its been so fun to get to work hard and see so much progress being made, as well as get to know the people here. Tonight we have about 10 guests, pretty good for our first day.
Building the beds for the hostel was a whole lot of hard work, and it was exceptionally hot for Bergen on those two days. Thankfully, several of Haakon's friends came and helped us build too.




Tonight I made waffels for the guests. Its pretty fun to have the responsibility of taking care of people and helping them out.
More pictures to come. Hadebra!

The rest of Amsterdam was really great, we met some fun people (Chris and Pat) and saw Haarlem with its many windmills and canals. After being there, we were ready to leave the smoke of the city and get to the fresh fishy air of Bergen Norway. It is beautiful here, but my teammates can say it better than I can. Here is what they have to say.

Here is Steph´s Update
Hei!
I apologize for not writing to you sooner, but this is the first time I've
been able to have time to sit down at a computer and compose a letter. Our
trip has been quite an interesting one so far- full of surprises and
adventures (and we've only been traveling for about 4 days!)! We arrived at
6.45 in Amsterdam last thursday morning. We couldn't check into the hostel
until 10 am, so we sat on the steps in the Dam (one of the main squares) and
just took in the sights, sounds, and smells (!). At first, I was a bit shocked
at how peaceful and quiet A'dam seemed, but (keep in mind that this is early
in the morning)on the way to the Shelter City hostel, which is situated in the
heart of the red-light district, we saw what this city is all about. During
our time there, we were able to go to some parks, take a tour, and explore the
city. It was beautiful, and many parts of A'dam are lovely and good, but it
was hard to escape the feeling that so many people in this city (mainly the
tourists, not the locals as much) are focused on the...sex, drugs, rock and
roll kind of lifestyle. The Shelter hostel, operated by Christians, really is
a shelter- it was a safe and comforting place literally two doors down from
the windows where prostitutes work. On friday night we took a prayer walk at
night through the red-light district, which was really difficult and
disheartening. The ministry in Amsterdam is a wonderful thing, and there is
much good that comes out of it. Please keep the workers and the guests to
these Shelters in your prayers. The positive part of the time in A'dam
was that I was able to spend time with people that I won't see for another
three weeks, and grow closer to the people I will be with all the time for the
next 8.5 weeks. I also learned some 'street smarts' for Europe, such as how
to NOT look like a tourist and look confident and self-assured (to better
avoid rude men, etc) and how to get tickets, book hostels, maps, etc. Since
our budget for food is roughly 4€ per meal, we've realized that food doesn't
come cheap- the average dinner costs about 13-17€ (up to 30$)- here in Norway,
a big mac at Mcdonalds costs 80 kroner (12 dollars!!!).
Thanks, mom and dad, for taking me out a lot around Europe as a kid- it's
really come in handy.
Yesterday, we took a 1 hr plane ride to Bergen, which was nice because we got
FREE food on the plane (we have been eating bread, nutella, and cheese every
day now). We took a bus from the airport and walked through the city to the
big white house- where we are staying for the next 3 weeks. It is gorgeous
inside- lots of space, tall windows, white walls, IKEA decor everywhere, trees
and flowers outside...there's a little cafe with expresso maker (which Devin
and I got really excited about), a boom box, cute aprons with flowers on them
(which I will wear when I try to cook), little candles, cacti, throw pillows-
basically what looks like stuff from an apartment of a 24 year old single
girl. The best part is that Becca and I have a little room and a kitchen with
dining room upstairs- when we saw it, we were jumping up and down because we
could not believe that we get to stay here. We were prancing around the room
putting all our stuff in drawers (we really took those for granted before!!)
and the books all lined up on the shelf.
We ended up waiting for a few hours because there was a miscommunication and
that someone(the guy in charge of this hostel) was still waiting to pick us up
at the airport. We also found out that the hostel is official closed until
June 10- so we won't be working for two weeks. When he arrived, we saw these
two kids-guys about 20ish. We were totally surprised because we expected
someone much older to be in charge of this whole operation! Their names are
Håkon and Christer, and they are students and also happen to run this hostel.
They took us out to dinner for kebabs and we all had a great time talking to
them about culture, interests, and Christianity. From what it sounds like,
there are not a lot of Christians here, so it can be difficult and lonely for
them at times. At our team Bible study/prayer and worship time (which we did
on the side of a mountain at 11.00 at night when it was still light out), we
prayed for wisdom to know what to do with all the time we have here. After
much prayer and reading 2 Timothy and the Psalms, we believe that we are here
to encourage the Christians already working here (some of whom we met last
night and are very nice and funny) and the Christians coming through here as
part of the organization based in this building (there are some people from
Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, and Norway). We also desire to get to know the city
and its people better, to find some sort of niche in this place for the time
we are here. Please pray for my team to remain focused, to stay in the Word,
to be a valuable contribution here, and for the opportunity to meet people in
this city and be able to serve the ministry well. Please write back letting
me know about yourselves and how you are doing, and please forward this to
anyone who would like it. Thanks for your prayers, and God Bless.
Much love,
Stephanie

This is Devin´s Letter:
God Dag,

Bergen, Norway is certainly a different city from Amsterdam. Here the only
red lights appear on halting automobiles, careful to give all pedestrians the
right-of-way. The people are tall, rich, and blonde. BigMacs cost the
equivalent of 10 U.S. Dollars.

Intermission--the hostel we're working-- doesn't open for operation until June
10th, affording us a whopping week to actually work there. In the meantime
we're connecting with leadership here and with the city of Bergen. We've got
a bit of prep work before the hostel opens, as well.

Bergen--and Norway as a whole-- despite being a Christian country (buisnesses
must close on Sundays, State Church for worshippers, etc.) is very secular.
New Norwegian friend Håkon says that in a recent poll, less than 5% of
Norwegian students attend church on Sundays. Yet here at Intermission we are
living with a dedicated band of Norwegian Christian university students, some
of whom live in the building, some elsewhere in the city, some who attend
university and some who work for the program. (similar to Intervarsity) There
is, in addition, a Serbian group of university students in the building
preparing for a collaboration conference in Serbia. God has got a lot going
on in this small hostel\house at the foot of a Bergen mountain.

hPrayer for team guidance will be appreciated, as our plan to actually work
with travelers in the ostel have been ruptured. Pray that God will show us
what now He'd like us to do in our YHMish plan's sted.

Peace
Team Nomads

Amsterdam

This is my second day in amsterdam. I went on a walking tour and got to see the highlights of the city, its is beautiful, but also very lost. Its very nice to be in a CHristian hostel in such a dark city. Truly, a light on a hill. Well i have to go, my minutes are up! but please be praying for our team and the whole group.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

So after much planning, packing, and anticipation, I am finally leaving for Europe tomorrow at 4p.m. I am currently having a great time with Mindrebo- she treated me to a last Jamba Juice in America- I highly recommend trying Strawberry Nirvana. Well, I have to go to bed. Ciao!

Jump Start the Summer

The past few weeks have been a rush of many good memories in a hurry. Here's the recap:
The first week after school ended I spent in Georgia with everyone in my family except my dear sister Summer and brother in law Oliver (we miss you guys so much!) We were able to see where david works and meet some of his friends down there (we love you megan!), and we had a blast playing in the lake, watching baby Jaxon, and just being together. I was able to row with the lake lanier rowing club a few times and get some excellent help from the experts- all the rowers were retired and eager to teach me. I learned how to scull, or row with two shorter oars as opposed to the one long oar on either the port or starboard side. I'm looking forward to improving my technique next fall.
After Georgia, I was able to spend a few days at home resting and catching up with old friends. I had a birthday party for myself a month early, which was mostly an excuse to have a party and get together with everyone.



I went back to wheaton for two days in order to get some last minute europe supplies from REI- a backpack, pretty essential. I was able to spend the night with dear Emily, and also see Kenlee and Gisela who live in wheaton.


One of the highlights was the reunion between me and my dear friend Sarah, who has been in ireland with Taylor U's study abroad program. This has been the longest we have ever gone without seeing each other, and boy, it was so good to see her again!!



There are few people who can put up with our family as well and as long as Gary and Stephanie have. They have been a wonderful influence in my life during the 13 years we have known them. Last saturday, Gary generously took me and a few friends sailing aboard his boat, Blue Belle. It was a perfect day for a sail and we had such a great time (Thanks Gary!)



Now I am trying to get the rest of my things all set for my departure to Europe this Tuesday. I plan to continue updated this blog with my Europe adventures, so stay tuned. Also, one person on my team is in charge of writing an online journal during our trip, so if you are interested in receiving that please email me or comment on this blog with your email address. Please keep me in your prayers- for courage, safety, team unity, and contentment in Christ.

FREEEDOM!!!!!

This captures my emotions for the past week.

School is finally over!! I just finished my Philosophy Final, and am now starting to tackle getting my room in boxes. Whew! Tomorrow morning I leave to go back home to St. Joe, and then Saturday I leave with Dad to see Kendall, Jaxon, Ricky, Mom, and David in Georgia. I am really excited to be done, but I am going to miss my girls so much!!

To see some of my adventures that happened last weekend at our last regatta in kansas, please see my sister Kendall's blog:
She and Jaxon flew to Chicago, then embarked on the long haul with my dear sweet mother all the way to Kansas to surprise me at my regatta!! I was just getting ready for my race at 9 am that morning, when I look over my shoulder and who do i see? Not only my dearest mother, but also my favorite neph and sweet sister Kendall. It was so wonderful, i was able to finish my race early in the day (bronze, 3rd place) and be with my family for the rest of the day. Thank you so much for driving soo long and far for me. I will never forget it.
And thank you elizabeth, dear roomate, for keeping such a big secret and helping out with the suprise. I loved it!

Crew banquet was last night, it was really fun and wonderful, and as soon as I get my hands on some pictures I'll post them right away.

Please pray for me during my finals week... I'm going to need a whole lot of knowledge next week.

Thank the Lord!! Classes are over!!!!! Woo Hoo!

Blessings Abound

This time of year when there is only 3 weeks of school left and all the deadlines are coming nearer, it is easy to let that stress you out and get you down. However, instead of letting it get to me that much, i try to count my blessings, which always turns my outlook on life around.
This weekend God blessed me in inumerable ways. I will say a few. We had our second regatta on saturday in Grand Rapids, Michigan. On the drive up, we stopped at my house and enjoyed Mom and Dad's bountiful hospitality: warm bread, fresh food, and a fabulous slideshow certainly entertained the whole team, and the puppy dog made everyone feel right at home. It was just wonderful. Another blessing was being able to have Elizabeth's Mom here for the weekend- she flew in from Philidelphia for the race, and she and my parents brought us a great breakfast on the day of the race too.
Our race went great, my boat won first in our division!! It was such a thrill to work so hard and have it pay off. We beat Calvin (yay!), northwestern, and a few other schools. God gave us a victory! also, he protected us on the long drive, which can be pretty hazardous at times with a big boat trailer.
Being in GR again made me think about 10th grade, when I would drive up to GR every sunday afternoon to visit summer, and we would go snowboarding from 5-10 for $13 dollars at cannonsburg. We drove past both of her apartements on the way, and I wished so much that she still lived that close again!!l
Meanwhile, while i was winning a race in GR, I was missing a work day that is used to raise funds for the Youth Hostel Ministry i am going to europe with this summer. We are required to find replacements if we can't go on the work day, but nobody at school could do it, they were either gone on the regatta with me, or already working for someone else, or just busy. So good old Seth and Isaac drove down from michigan early saturday morning and worked all day for me. They were true servants for my sake. They just left to go back to michigan.
Yesterday after we won the race, we sang this song which applies to every minute that we breath: Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below, praise him above ye heavenly hosts, praise Father Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Happy Birthday Momma!

To the best mom in the world, Happy Birthday! Thank you for your ever giving and loving arms that are always ready to sweep me up and hug me. Thank you for listening to me yak on the phone, and for coming to every regatta I've been to. I love you Momma!! Now I have to run to class...

Chicago

Dear Readers,
Thank you for your prayers. The weekend in Chicago was amazing, and our team learned a lot. It turned out that Devin, one of the boys in my group, was sick with flu-like symptoms on friday, so he stayed back in wheaton, while Chris, Stephanie, and I went to our hostel on the north side of chicago. The hostel was an international hostel with hundreds of rooms and a few lounges on the first floor, where we spent a lot of time talking to people. The first night we met a few people and Chris had a really good conversation with a Christian woman and man. Surprisingly, about 1/3 of the people we met were Christians. Saturday night I made spaghetti (can you believe it! i didnt burn anything!) for my group and about 5 others who ended up eating with us. People who were cooking in the kitchen sat down with us too, and we ended up at the table talking for several hours. I talked to people from australia, england, ireland, alaska, and zimbabwe. One guy that we talked to for a long time was from Holland, he was a christian who had just moved to the states a few weeks before. He was really nice, and ended up going to church with us the next day (this morning) at moody church.
All in all, it was a great weekend, we had a few really good conversations despite prior apprehensiveness, and grew together as a team and in the Lord. One of my favorite memories was praying before our meal in the hostel with people from all over the place. God has surely blessed us.

pray hard

Dear Readers,
This weekend I would really appreciate your prayers, i am on the verge of leaving for the weekend to go to chicago with Youth Hostel Ministry. This is our plunge weekend into life at hostels. Only the four of us in my little group will be going and staying at a hostel in chicago, meeting people, and showing them Christ's abounding love. Please pray for them, and for us, and for the other groups going out. Let us boldly proclaim the message.

Las Vaccaciones de Prima Vera (Spring Break!)

Spring break was so much fun. Imagine it... 6 girls in a suburban driving from Wheaton to Lakeland Florida to visit Grampa and Liz, who so generously arranged for us to stay in our own house down the street. It was so wonderful. We had many adventures, including Busch Gardens, Ft. Desoto, dolphins, sunsets, crazy raccoons, grilling dinner at the beach, playing shuffleboard, and eating lots of home grown citrus fruit. Thanks Grandpa and Liz for you loving hospitality. All of the girls had so much fun.
Also, on the way down, we were able to stop in GA. and eat an early breakfast with my dear hardworking brother David at his very own Chick-fil-a. And then on the way back up to Wheaton, we stopped in at Nanny and Pappa's house for a heavenly brunch and a much needed nap. We also spent two nights at Emily M's house (the redhead), who's amazing family took good care of us. We rode horses there, spent time in their hottub, ate lots of good food (there is a pattern here), and went to their church. Needless to say, I wish it could be spring break all the time.

Here are some fun pictures. The one of me on the phone is the exact moment when I found out Summer's baby is a little miss Heidi Anne!!

Winter Fun

Dear Readers,
Much has gone on since the last time I posted, but due to the increase of pre-spring break homework, I do not have time to write all about it, and everyone just likes looking at the pictures anyway. I must introduce to you the newest addition to the blogosphere, my own roomate Elizabeth!! You can see her beautiful blog here http://lilibette.blogspot.com/ to see what is going on in her life and a little bit of mine.

(oops, i couldn't figure out how to make those pictures right-side-up)

Jaxon Takes a Bath

Check out my cutie pie nephew!!

Cougar Sightings...

My dear caring father sent me a link to a website about cougar sightings in berrien springs, my home county. To see it- http://michigancougar.com/ I find this highly fascinating, due to my love of animals and biology. One cougar killed a horse in the town where my ex-horse currently lives (we sold him several years ago. I miss him!!).
Despite my past negative experiences with helping animals (see posts below), I still love them and am just so suprised that cougars are being seen all over southwestern mighican. Its pretty neat. Don't worry, the site said you have a better chance of being struck by lighting than attacked by a cougar. And if one does approach you, yell and throw things at it, it should just run away.
Maybe I should forget nursing and go back to environmental biology. I can remember once at Grampa's farm i found a lamb in the barn that was sick.

Grampa let me take care of it (I named him Clover) and brush its wool and help it drink. I set up a little tent outside for him to keep away the sun and flies, but he died the next day anyway. Another time i tried to help an animal was at Nanny and Papa's house. They had a birds nest near the door that a momma robin had made, and one of the baby robins fell out of the nest. I named her angela and for the whole day i took care of her. I made her a nest, found worms to give her, and protected her from stray cats. That afternoon I went to a swim meet that my friend was competing in (now she's going to the olympics!) and when i came back angela was gone. The dinner of an alley cat no doubt. Hopefully I will have better luck with nursing.

BTW...

For reference, this last blog might be better understood when you read summer's first. Her link is in the right hand column.
Today is my favorite day of the week, Thursday. I woke up at 6:30 and worked out, hopped in the pool, and then headed toward saga for a delicious custom made omelet. They are just so good. The rest of the day I plan to spend studying in my warm room in comfortable sweatpants and my lovely slippers my brother gave me. I am so happy its Thursday.
Oh yeah, one more thing. Yesterday I had a YHM meeting, and we had three professors there answering tough questions that past YHMers encountered during the summer. It was so interesting and inspiring. I wish all classes were like that. I learned more last night than I probably do in a week of classes, and thats 15 hours of class. Why do classes have to be so much more boring and uninteresting than just talking to smart people? Alright, enough procrastinating. Time to study.

Why Hunting Is Good

While some people may not agree that hunting is beneficial to society, I would ask them if they have ever tried to help the poor creatures they are attempting to "save". Because I have. Today in fact, I was faced with the choice to walk by the seemingly injured Canadian Goose that lay half frozen in the snow in the baseball field behind Saga for two days, or go help it. I called my sister, and she encouraged me to call the local wildlife agency. So I did. They advised me on how to catch it: take a sheet and gently herd it into a wall or fence, then place sheet over bird's head and body and pick up bird, then place in box. Bring box to their facility in Glenn Ellyn. So after I got my snow gear on and rounded up a few volunteers, we headed out into the wild. The baseball field was locked, so we climbed over the fence and walked quietly towards the victim. When we got closer, it began to squwak at us and I got the sheet ready. Then all of a sudden, the injured bird got on its legs and flew away. I will never be an animal rights activist ever again. I would join these men anyday to decrease the population of those menacing birds.