Great(ly Revised) Expectations

Looking toward each new year I like to think I know what to expect. But some years, I realize once again, that only God holds the future and my expectations don’t have much to do with things. It’s been a very growing year, and among deaths, births, travels, and new jobs, it seems this year was filled with some of the most major life landmarks any year could have. 

Early in the year, we were greatly saddened to discover Grandma’s cancer had returned and spread beyond anyone’s control. As she slipped further into pain with less and less ability to communicate, we spent many afternoons in her hospital room. Eventually, we were able to have her living in our home for her final days. It was a blessing to have that time with her and be able to give back some of the love and care she gave us for so many years. 

About a month and a half after Grandma’s passing, I went back to Europe for a month-long trip, mainly for the purpose of helping at a church-sponsored English camp in the Czech Republic. My usual partner in crime, Jeanette Wright, was my travel partner once again and we welcomed her sister Brigitte into our group as well! As our first experience at an English camp, we weren’t sure what to expect, but were excited to be welcomed with open arms by the other camp leaders and the campers themselves. 

I know now to only expect that my next year will be beyond what I can imagine. Since coming home from the Czech Republic, things are pointing to my return for a longer period of time for the purpose of teaching conversational English in the high-school near where English Camp was held, as well as helping with the local growing Christian youth ministry. Prayers and encouragement are greatly appreciated as I proceed with planning this new venture and seek God’s direction! If you would like to be updated on my plans and progress as things move along, please send me an email at Cairavel05@gmail.com. God bless you in the coming year!  

Changes and Thankfulness

It's been a while since we have posted anything on this blog.  And you'll notice there is almost no mention of travel on this blog post.  Unfortunately, we didn't keep up on our posting about our trip and it's now been two years since the events we were blogging about!  Since then we've made it back to Europe and had another great experience!

But time brings change.  And in these two years we have been changed, and shaped, and our goals have been given new life.  God has given us new directions and opened new doors for us.  Change brings it's ups and downs.  It's hard and it's exciting.  You're thankful for it and you hate it.

The great part about change though is that God never changes.  And for that we're incredibly grateful!  He never changes the fact that He loves us and has great plans for us.  He never changes the fact that He has given great forgiveness to us.  We get to see new and exciting things because of the direction God has given us.  So, you may see some different kinds of posts on here than you've seen in the past.

We hope you'll enjoy hearing about the new adventures in whatever snippets appear here.
And just for fun.... Donald O'Conner getting a lesson about life and then tap dancing on roller skates...  :D

Jeanette and Chelsea

Luther went a lot of places.... want to come with us? Part 2

This tour week was special for us because Jeanette’s parents and sister got to come along with the class and enjoy all the history and travel with us! Before they joined our group, they toured Neuschwanstein Castle on their own, as we had done earlier.  They came on Friday night, amidst us packing and checking the lobby for their arrival every 5 minutes. It was wonderful but almost strange to have formal parental figures in our midst again after the two months of being on our own. But it was great to see them and have them share some of our experience over there!

We travelled to many cities during this week seeing many historical places and places where Luther lived and worked.  We travelled to Dresden (did a city tour and saw The Zwinger),

The Protestant Church in Dresden

A view of the Zwinger at Sunset

Berlin (our main stop here was The National History Museum, but we also saw where the Berlin Wall used to be and the Holocaust memorial),

Checkpoint Charlie

The Brandenburg Gate

Where the Berlin Wall used to run

The Holocaust Memorial

Wittenburg (where we saw the Castle Church-where Luther allegedly nailed the 95 Theses on the doors, basically starting the Reformation, the church Luther preached in, and Luther's house; we also had the first Ambex ping-pong tournament),

The Castle Church

A night shot of the Castle Church

Erfurt (we got to go to the first monastery Luther lived at, where part of the newer Luther movie was filmed-it was so peaceful and beautiful there!),

One of the walkways in the monastery

The courtyard through a beautiful old window

Eisenach (where we got to see J.S. Bach's house and Wartburg Castle- where Luther was "kidnapped" and translated the New Testament),

Wartburg Castle

I'd say that's inspiration enough for Luther's "A Might Fortress is our God"

Mainz (toured the Gutenberg Museum and saw a few of the original Gutenberg Bibles!),

Worms (a short trip where we saw the Cathedral there, the place where Luther stood his ground against the council demanding he recant, and a monument to the Reformers),

Worms Cathedral

The Reformers Monument

and Heidelberg (we ended our academic tour here, took our final for our class, wandered around the city- enjoying a local hot chocolate shop).  

We made one more stop in Nurnberg where we said farewell to my (Jeanette's) family and headed off via train to the Ryanair airport in Memmingen to go to Sweden and Norway for the week.  

My (Jeanette's) favourite part of the trip was Wittenburg and Erfurt.  I loved the beauty of both places- walking through the hostel and seeing the nighttime view of the Castle Church in Wittenburg lighted up and the peaceful and quiet atmosphere of the monastery at Erfurt during the rainy day.  I loved seeing history come alive through the teaching of Dr. Smith and actually seeing the places Luther lived and worked.  The time of fellowship that we had as a group was, as always, wonderful and I think our group bonded even more on these trips.  The friendships that had begun at the beginning of the semester were deepening and our group was becoming more and more of a family.  I loved being able to have my family meet everyone and be able to experience a sliver of what I was experiencing.  This week was my favourite academic tour week (or at least top two... out of three... ;)).  Every week of this trip has a different special memory and it's very hard to rank them.

My (Chelsea) favorite parts of the week were Dresden and Eisenach. I loved the old city center, the beautiful Zwinger museum which we had a pitifully short time in. I also particularly loved going to a church service, partially translated by Dr. Smith. It was definitely a unique experience listening to Bach played during the service at various points and seeing several infant baptisms. In Eisenach, we were able to stay in a beautiful, old hostel full of character and dark wood door frames. The surrounding woods provided a beautiful setting for my pre-breakfast walks and Bible studies. There were even helpful signs scattered in the woods talking about some history of the area, which came in handy later when we visited the Wittenburg castle, because some of those same points of history came up again! Of course overall, pointing to this week in my trip and saying I was able to retrace some footsteps of Martin Luther is rather incredible. Dr. Smith shared his passion and knowledge so well with us, it will always be an extremely special week in my heart.