The Grand Finale

How do I write a blog post that puts some closure on my GAP year?  I don't know.  How do I sum up everything that God has done for me and all the wonderful and challenging experiences that I've had over the course of a year?  I don't know.  How do I tell all my friends and family about what I've experienced without sounding like a broken record?  I don't know.  There's a load of other things I don't know...like why I didn't get into EMU's graduate program for speech-language pathology for this Fall semester, or what other universities I should apply to for next year, or what kind of job God wants me to do in this next chapter of my life.  While I am unsure of all these things, there are more things that I am sure of...

1.  I just spent one amazing year of my life in Dublin, Ireland.
2.  I met some wonderful people in Dublin that really welcomed me and loved me during that year.
3.  I met some other really wonderful people in places like Glasgow, London, and Belgium that showed me great hospitality and love at different points during my GAP year.
4.  God worked some serious miracles in my heart this past year.
5.  Jesus Christ revealed Himself to me in ways that I never thought He would.
6.  I made a difference in the lives of the people that I talked to and formed relationships with this past year.
7.  I was challenged in ways I never thought I would be challenged this past year.
8.  I got to explore the beautiful cities of Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Paris, Barcelona, and Brugge.
9.  Skype and Facebook were both wonderful (and free!) ways to stay connected with friends and family while I was away.
10.  I am extremely grateful to my grandparents for storing my car in their garage for the year!

I've been home for three weeks now, and I've gotten to see so many of my friends and family.  It's nice to have my car back and to have the freedom to just drive anywhere I want.  :)  I also finally unpacked this past week, so it feels good to have all my things put away.

Looking back now on my GAP year, I'd love to tell you about some of the experiences I had, but first I want to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who supported me (either financially or through prayer) throughout my GAP year.  So many of you donated money to me, lifted me up in prayer, or even just kept in touch through letters/cards, emails, or Facebook messages this past year, and that honestly means the world to me.  Through your encouraging words, prayers and financial support you helped me get to Dublin...you helped me get to many other wonderful countries for retreats, training, and fellowship...you helped me encourage people in their faith...you gave me an experience that changed my life!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Here are some of the highlights of my year:

The YES Retreat (October 21-23, 2011)

• This was the first big thing I did during my GAP year
• I did some administrative prep work for the weekend, I was on the music team, and I led a girls' small group
• The Lord changed my life through this weekend and He changed SO many of the teens' lives.  Find out more about it by reading my blog post from that weekend:   http://gapdublin.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-said-yes.html

The "Hungry" and "Thirsty" 30-day challenge devotional books that I read (end of October 2011 through beginning of January 2012)

• I got these books at a shop in Dun Laoghaire (about 20 minutes from my home in Dublin), and I absolutely loved reading them!  I thought they'd be a good supplement to my daily prayer time, but they actually TRANSFORMED my daily prayer times.
• I loved the way these books were laid out...for each day there is a passage of Scripture to read, a writing prompt (which is great for me because I love journaling), some suggested things to pray about (based on the reading), and then a Christian song to listen to that relates to the overall theme for that day.  I had some seriously great conversations with the Lord during this time, and in return He really blessed me!

Koinonia Weekend and GAPper Retreat (both in London, January 20-25, 2012)

• Koinonia is a college-aged student group based in Central London and is made up of Christians from all different traditions (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican, Evangelical...).  I went along to their weekend retreat in January and met some really amazing people.  The theme for the weekend was "joy" and how we can only find true joy in Jesus Christ.  The amount of joy I experienced that weekend was incredible...and I'm not just saying that.
• Following the Koinonia retreat was a GAPper retreat, meaning that I got together with all the other people that were doing a GAP year in different parts of Europe (Belfast, Glasgow, London, and Belgium).  This was a great opportunity to meet the other GAPpers and learn more about what kinds of service they were involved in during their GAP year.  This retreat also came at a good point in the year and served as a refresher for the rest of my GAP year.

Kairos Weekend (February 10-12, 2012)

• The Kairos Weekend was held in Dublin this year, and it was made up of 17-25 year olds from all over Europe.  I was one of MCs (Master of Ceremonies) for the weekend, so I was responsible for all of the practical announcements for the weekend and also for keeping things running in a timely manner.  I was a bit nervous about standing and speaking in front of all those people all weekend, but the Lord really blessed me with confidence and it was actually pretty fun!
• Here's a cool story about something sweet that happened during (and after) the Kairos Weekend:   http://gapdublin.blogspot.com/2012/02/he-gently-whispered-hope.html  (If you read every post in my blog while I was away, you've read that story already.  I'm just posting it again for those that may have missed it.)

The first time I visited Starbucks in Blackrock and discovered St. John the Baptist church (February 17, 2012)

• Something truly incredible happened one day after a day of work at Spirit Radio.  The Lord used someone from the radio station, something I wrote down at Starbucks, and a beautiful church that I discovered to speak to my heart and show me His perfect love.  I thought about this day often during the rest of my year in Ireland...and each time it crossed my mind, I was reminded how very thankful I am that the Lord revealed Himself to me in such a real and beautiful way.
• I blogged about this day, but click the link if you happened to miss that post:   http://gapdublin.blogspot.com/2012/02/little-things.html

My escape to Belfast and Northern Ireland with Chrissy (May 2012)

• After the community-wide football tournament in Belfast during the first weekend in May, Chrissy and I stayed a few extra days and got to see some of the absolutely beautiful Northern Ireland.  We enjoyed this opportunity to take a day trip up along the Antrim Coast and see places like Dunluce Castle, Carrickfergus, Bushmills Distillery, the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, and Giant's Causeway.  
• See this blog post for the story and pictures:   http://gapdublin.blogspot.com/2012/05/up-up-and-away.html

My "big adventure" with my friend Amanda (June 2012)

• When Amanda came to visit me, I took two weeks off to travel with her, and we somehow explored 4 countries (plus Ireland makes 5) in just two weeks!
• We visited Scotland (both Glasgow and Edinburgh), London, Paris, and Barcelona.  
• See the pictures and a brief summary of our trip here:   http://gapdublin.blogspot.com/2012/07/big-adventure.html

Kairos Summer Academy (KSA) and On Holiday 3 (July-August 2012)

• I spent two weeks in Belgium toward the end of my GAP year, and this was a wonderful experience!  
• The first week in Belgium was for KSA, and it took place in Turnhout, Belgium.  This was basically a week of training, prayer/worship, and fellowship with other 17-25 year olds from all over Europe.  One of the coolest parts of this week was the worship times because we sang songs in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Arabic, and Polish!
• The second week was in De Vossemeren, and it was something called On Holiday.  I won't go into too much detail about this because I feel like I just blogged about it ( http://gapdublin.blogspot.com/2012/08/adventures-in-belgium.html)...but it was both a) LOADS of fun and b) exhausting!

Those are just SOME of the highlights...some of the things that stick out in my memory.  Of course there were so many other wonderful things that happened...

The Lord blessed me with a wonderful host family and I now have 3 new brothers and 2 new sisters.  

I now have friends in Ireland (both Dublin and Belfast), Glasgow, London, Belgium, Lebanon, Poland, and Germany (I hope I didn't leave any places out!!).  

Through a lot of prayer, time, and difficult lessons, the Lord has softened my heart toward my older brother and allowed me to forgive him this past year.  Just this week my brother called me to ask for forgiveness and I'm currently in the process of rebuilding our relationship that has been broken for a number of years.  Praise the Lord!

I experienced the joys and the difficulties of living in a Christian community.  I've seen how it can be a major blessing and also a major pain in the butt.  Okay, so I'm kidding about that last part.  Or am I?  ;)  Honestly though, it was amazing to be surrounded by such a large group of Christians that were there to encourage me and challenge me in my faith!

I grew.  I changed.  I was stretched.  I'm not the same as I was before.  Maybe I look the same a little bit on the outside, but I'm telling you....I'm not the same person I was when I left Michigan in September 2011.  

That's me (the Stretch Armstrong guy)...being
stretched by Jesus (that boy)

Thinking back on it now, it all seems a bit blurry.  Seriously, the whole year seems kind of like a dream.  Did I really live in Ireland for a year?  When I look at my pictures and read back through my blog and my journal, everything starts coming back alive and I start to realize that it actually did happen.  Thanks to all my family, friends, and even random people that supported me, I did spend a year in Ireland and I loved it!  I encourage you to please ask me questions about my GAP year!  It's hard for me to answer the question "How was your year?", but if you ask me specific questions or even ask to see my pictures, I can share with you some of the ways that the Lord made Himself known to me and I think you will begin to see that I am not the same Rachel as I was before.  Praise be to God!

Adventures in Belgium

I only have 1 more day here, but I wanted to fill you all in on what's happened this month!  Since my last post on the 24th of July, I've been extremely busy.  During my last week here I've got a bit of down time, so I thought it'd be a good opportunity to update my blog.  So here we go...

July 27th-August 3rd:  Kairos Summer Academy:  On July 27th I left for Turnhout, Belgium, where I spent one week at something called Kairos Summer Academy (KSA).  There were a bunch of other 17-25 year olds from all over Europe there as well, and it was a pretty intense week of training, as well as some good fun and fellowship.  We stayed in a big school and we each had our own bedroom, which was pretty nice.  There was a set of daily teachings about culture and how to build a good Christian culture, and then there were teachings on either leadership (for ages 18+), evangelism, or worship.  Everyone was all together for the "culture track", and then we split up after that for either the leadership track, the evangelism track, or the worship track.  I attended the leadership track and I really enjoyed it!  Some of the things I learned were quite challenging to me, and I took a lot away from the talks.  One thing that struck me during the culture track was that our culture, as "crooked and perverse" (Philippians 2:15) as it is, does not have control over us.  We have a will to choose right over wrong, and we have Jesus who loves us and wants to help us stay on the path toward Him.  In the leadership track, one thing that really stuck out to me was that women respond well to one another when they can see each other's weaknesses.  The challenging part of this for me is letting people see my weaknesses.  I don't like it when people see that I have failed or that I'm weak.  I often don't even participate in things if I feel like I'm going to fail at them.  What I learned though is that if I don't ever let anyone see me make mistakes or fail miserably at something, they may get a false image of me.  People may (I'm not saying they do...) look at me and think that I'm perfect and that I "have it all together" and that I never make any mistakes...and therefore they can't relate to me.  I don't want people to think that about me!  I am anything but perfect!  I'm striving for perfection in Christ...but that's all I am..."striving".  Anyway, I was challenged during the leadership track to try and let go and let myself be okay with messing up every once in a while.  It's not a bad thing to make a mistake...it just shows that I'm human!  Aside from being challenged during KSA, I also really enjoyed myself.  I led a women's small group the whole week and really loved the girls in my group.  There were a couple really talkative ones in the group, so we never had any awkward silences and there was always a great discussion happening.  Good stuff!  :)  Throughout the week we had free time in the afternoons, and I worked on the decorations for On Holiday (the second week I spent in Belgium...I'll explain in a minute).  The theme for the decorations was Hawaiian/tropical/vacation, and I was responsible (along with another guy named Amin) for the decorations for the main room for On Holiday.  During all of the afternoon breaks at KSA I was working hard making and painting paper mache fruits.  We got the other KSA participants to join as well, so it was really fun to see people's crafty sides.  :)

Everyone from KSA at the beach!
I'm somewhere in the middle...can you see me?

One of the lakes at Center Parcs

August 3rd-10th:  On Holiday:  On August 3rd I hopped on a coach bus with just about everyone from KSA and headed from Turnhout to De Vossemeren (also in Belgium) for On Holiday.  One way to describe On Holiday is this:  a big holiday (vacation) with a bunch of Sword of the Spirit communities from all over Europe.  Another way to describe On Holiday is this:  not a holiday at all...more like absolute craziness for a week with a bunch of community people.  I guess it was a good mix of the two.  This year On Holiday was held in De Vossemeren at a place called Center Parcs.  It was a huge park with lots of cottages, lakes, an indoor pool/waterpark place, a hotel, a conference center, and a few shops.  There was a bike rental place as well, so everyone got bikes and that's how we got around during the week.  :)  I led a Kairos  women's cottage during On Holiday, and I was also involved in helping with the youth programme, called Holympics (like "holy-olympics") which ran every day during On Holiday from 9am-11am.  During my free time I enjoyed swimming in the big swimming pool/waterpark on site, kayaking on the lake, hanging out with the girls in my Kairos cottage, and...oh yes, attending Kairos Cottage leaders meetings.  ;)  One of the days during the week was a free day, so I headed off with a big group of people to explore the city of Brugge.  We took a coach bus from De Vossemeren and the journey was 2.5 hours each way...but let me just say that I traveled with mostly Lebanese people...and if you know anything about Lebanese culture, you know that they're loud.  You better believe that we had a guitar on board our bus and that we were singing almost the entire way there and the entire way back.  Oh.  Yes.  :)  Unfortunately I didn't do my research before going to Brugge, so I didn't have a good idea of what all the buildings and churches were.  But I do know that it was a beautiful city...and I enjoyed some really good Flemish stew, some delicious Belgian chocolate, and a wonderful Belgian waffle.  Oh AND I tried rabbit!  That counts for something, doesn't it?

Some of the youth during their youth programme

Kayaking with my friend Annalize

Beautiful Brugge

A bunch of us girls in Brugge

I think this is what Belgium is all about...

My delicious Flemish stew and fries.  Yum!

Mmmmm...Belgian waffle!

Once I was back from Belgium, I spent the first couple of days catching up on sleep.  Now I'm enjoying a week of "one last time"s  in Dublin before I head back to Michigan!  Since it's not over yet, I'll post about my last week sometime after I arrive at home.  :)  Please keep me in your prayers for the rest of this week as I prepare to leave this beautiful country and these beautiful people and head back home to my (also beautiful!) friends and family in Michigan.  God bless you all!

Summer, Sweet Summer

Those are some of the beautiful flowers in Mount Usher Gardens in Wicklow, where I went with a woman named Justine, from the community here, and her 4 boys.  It wasn't the greatest weather, but for Ireland it wasn't bad, considering it only sprinkled on us for a total of about 10 minutes.  We had a great time walking around and enjoying the natural beauty of the park.  A lot of the pretty flowers had already gone away for the summer, but I was thrilled to get the pictures that I did.  :)  Thanks Justine for yet another wonderful outing!  :)

The "mini-camp" that I ran for the younger groups in the youth programme a couple weeks ago went really well!  For three afternoons I did some activities with the 7-9ish year olds and they loved it!  I got a lot of help from some of the older kids in the youth programme as well, so that was extremely helpful!  Check out some of the pictures:

Playing some games outside with the kids

The kids were hard at work on the posters we were making
for On Holiday 3 coming up in Belgium!
Well...most of them...

The kids had a great time over the 3 days and I loved spending time with them.  I didn't get to work with this age group much during my GAP year, so it was nice to get to know some of the kids.





The next event in July was the young adult camp in Avoca.  There were a total of 36 of us that went, and we spent a week studying the book of Philippians and just having fun together.  The theme of the week was joy, and I felt SO filled with joy throughout the course of the week.  We had some really great discussions in small groups, some wonderful self-reflection times, and really great worship times every morning and evening (okay...I'm a bit biased because I was on the worship team...but I actually heard from the youth that they enjoyed the worship times!).  We had a couple of really good speakers too.  One of them, Damian, was so very inspiring to me!  The love of Jesus was practically jumping out of his skin.  Everything about him...his smile, his positive attitude, the way he carried himself...was just all Jesus.  When he finished sharing some really powerful personal stories with us, I just sat there...stunned.  It was like someone had just knocked the wind out of me.  I honestly couldn't move, or even really speak.  I just sat there and tears started coming to my eyes.  Tears and a big fat smile.  I was so overwhelmed by the incredible joy of Jesus Christ.  It felt like the scripture verse about the "cup overflowing" (Psalm 23) was actually happening with my heart.  That's the best way I can describe it.  It was like the Lord was just pouring joy upon joy into my little heart and it was overflowing!  Mmmm...I really loved that feeling.  Another thing I enjoyed about the young adult camp was working with Hugh, the young adult group leader.  We ended up getting along really well, despite the fact that his personality is quite different than mine.  It was a good learning experience for me...I went through an entire week without worrying about "what's happening next?" or "what's happening tomorrow?".  Sure I asked those questions, but I didn't ever feel worried about them.  You might be thinking, "What kind of camp doesn't have a schedule?"  The simple answer:  a camp run by Hugh.  You might also be thinking, "Well...isn't that kind of unproductive?"  The answer:  nope!  We kind of went with the flow of how things were going with the young adults...how they were responding to the talks, how the small group discussions were going, what they needed to hear, etc.  This was a completely new approach to me, but it worked really well!  Plus it pushed me out of my comfort zone quite a bit, which is what a GAP year is all about.  :)  Another highlight of camp was the cooking.  I loved it when my service team was on for cooking the meals.  One night we had planned to make spaghetti bolognese, but when Hugh and I were in Tesco buying some of the food, the Mexican section caught my eye.  Living in Ireland you don't get much Mexican food...and I forgot how much I really like it...and crave it.  When I saw the Mexican food section in Tesco, all I could think of was enchiladas.  I've made them for the Mahonys a couple times before and they were a pretty big hit.  Hugh seemed to think it was a good idea for camp...plus it was something different.  So into the trolley went the enchilada sauce, the tortillas, and the refried beans.  Oh yes!  :)  The enchiladas that my team made that night were a HUGE hit among the young adults.  Everyone was talking about how good they were and I couldn't help but feel proud of myself for making them (and directing my team helping me in the kitchen).  I wish I would have gotten some pictures of them, but I guess I was just too excited.  Enjoy the other pictures from camp though!  :)

This is Densmore Lodge, where we stayed

The beautiful view from the lodge!

Me with some of the young adults

All the crazy young adults diving into the ice cold water!

Me talking to Hugh about something...

Small group time!

The week at camp was full of all kinds of crazy activities...a mud slide, a swing over one of the dirtiest, smelliest rivers, a game involving people being covered with flour and eggs, a slack line (like a tightrope), and much more.  Although it probably goes without saying, I didn't participate in any of these things...except the slack line.  But NOT when they stretched it across the pool!  That was a bit too much for me.  I enjoyed watching everyone be crazy though...that was fun in its own way.  :)

The day after we got back from camp we had a Community BBQ, which was really nice.  It was nice to see everyone from camp in fresh, clean clothes!  The weather was perfect for it too...not too hot, not too cold.  And no rain!  :)  Here are a few pictures, photo credit to Caoimhe!  :)

Me with some friends Lidia and Stephen, and
my host siblings Paul and Ellen! :)

Me with Anthony, one of the Clarke twins

With some of the girls from Community/camp...
Naomi, Almu, and Ciara

Me with Cathy.  Love her!

Everyone kept saying Almu and I looked alike...
I don't really see it though.  Maybe the hair?

Me with one of the cutest babies ever...John Paul,
my friend Pat's baby

Now that I'm back from camp and preparing to leave for Belgium on Friday, I'm battling some kind of nasty cold/hay fever/sinus thing.  Yuck!  I'm trying to be as productive as I can while still getting plenty of sleep and staying hydrated...but it's not easy.  All I want to do is sleep!  Please keep me in your prayers that I get everything done before I leave for Belgium, and also that I feel better!

I'll be in Belgium for two weeks...the first of which is a week of Bible study, training, and formation with other 17-25 year olds from all over Europe.  I'm leading a morning meditation for the first morning (Saturday), so if you could please say a prayer for me that that goes well I'd really appreciate it!  I'm also leading a women's small group that week, so please pray for a fruitful group and that we all get along well.  :)  The second week in Belgium is called On Holiday, where I'll basically be on vacation with families from all over Europe (and a few randomers from the States!).  I have a few roles during this, including leading a cottage of five 17-25 year old women, but mostly I'll be "on holiday" myself.  I'm really looking forward to seeing Belgium and having fun with some of my international friends that I've met over the course of my GAP year, plus meeting some new ones!

When I get back from On Holiday I have exactly 8 days left before I go back home to Michigan.  Ahh!  How crazy is that?!  I'm starting to miss Ireland already...

BIG ADVENTURE

Jeepers, it's been a long time since I've posted anything!  Quite a lot has happened since my last post, so I'll do my best to cover everything without boring you!  Get ready for lots of pictures!  :)


My friend Amanda came to visit me from Florida on June 13th.  We stayed in Dublin for five days getting reacquainted (it had been about 5 years since I'd seen her!).  We also volunteered a bit at the Spirit Radio table at the International Eucharistic Congress (a big Catholic conference-thing).  We had a small table set up and we were basically just spreading the word about Spirit Radio to all the people there.  It was encouraging to hear so many of them say, "Oh, Spirit Radio...I listen to that station all the time!  It's great!".  Sometimes I feel like no one knows about the station and that it's not very big, but it was really encouraging to hear so much positive feedback in such a short period of time.  We also spread the news that Spirit Radio will now be broadcasting on AM station 549, which will make the station available to the rest of Ireland (not just the 5 cities we currently broadcast in!).  Spirit Radio's getting bigger and bigger and reaching more and more people!  :)

Amanda and me at Dun Laoghaire pier

At the Spirit Radio table at the Eucharistic Congress

In addition to the time we spent helping out Spirit Radio, we spent some time with a guy named Gabe who was visiting from Ann Arbor.  We toured the Jameson Distillery and got donuts at the best donut place in town.  It doesn't look like much in the picture, but trust me.  Those donuts are GOOD!

At the Old Jameson Distillery with Gabe

The BEST donuts in town!  Seriously!

I wanted to take Amanda to one of my favorite nearby places:  Bray Head.  It's only about a 10 minute DART (train) journey away, and there's a beautiful seafront to walk along, as well as a mountain (Bray Head) to climb.  Amanda had the brilliant idea of taking a guitar along with us so we could sing praise songs when we got to the top of Bray Head.  There's a big cross on one part of the mountain top, so we figured that'd be the perfect place to do it.  We checked the weather before we left and it appeared to be fine...no rain in sight.  We didn't think about the fact that, well, this is Ireland...and it can rain at any moment.  Even when the skies have been blue and beautiful all day.  So up we went, anyway, climbing Bray Head.  We kept switching off who carried the guitar every 20 minutes or so because let me tell you...it's a bit difficult to climb a mountain with a guitar on your back!

It started raining as we were climbing, and it was quite cold.  Not really what we were expecting!  We made it to the top of Bray Head, but it was awfully windy and rainy up there!  We debated whether or not to stay up there and wait out the rain...and we decided we'd wait a bit.  We DID bring the guitar all the way up there!  We huddled up close to eachother and sat there shivering, waiting for the rain to die down a bit.  It eventually turned into kind of a light mist, so we decided to go ahead and play a couple of songs.  

My fingers were pretty frozen and numb, so it was a bit painful, but it was such a cool experience to be sitting up there on the top of a mountain, singing praises to our great and wonderful God.  He even blessed us (and warmed us up!) with a bit of sunshine after a few songs, and then He painted a big beautiful rainbow across the sky, which made it all worthwhile!  

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The buildings in Glasgow were pretty spectacular!
Check out that blue sky, too!  Very unusual
for Glasgow!  :)

We left the next morning for the first stop on our big traveling adventure:  Scotland.  Amanda and I absolutely loved Scotland!  We stayed with a group of girls from the Sword of the Spirit community in Glasgow (Community of the Risen Christ), and they took great care of us.  They are honestly some of the sweetest, most hospitable, funniest people I've ever met.  Sometimes the things they said weren't actually that funny...but everything in a Scottish accent sounds 10x funnier to me!  If you're Scottish and reading this, I mean that with all due respect.  I honestly LOVE your accent and wish I could sound that cool.  Anyway, Amanda and I got to hang out with some other people are age during our time there as well, which was really nice.  Here are some pictures from our time in Glasgow!

Part of the University of Glasgow

This is the DELICIOUS dinner that Christina,
the GAPper in Glasgow, made for us.  Mmm!

Me with two of our Glasgow friends, Eilidh and Dan

Christina (the GAPper in Glasgow), Miriam, and Amanda

Me with my friend Fraser at the art museum

Amanda and me soaking up the rare Glasgow sunshine!

We took a day trip to Edinburgh (pronounced "Ed-in-brah") as well, which was also very nice.  We spent a bit of time just walking around the streets, and we visited Edinburgh Castle (what we could see without having to pay!), St. Giles Cathedral, and The Scott Monument.  The Scott Monument was pretty cool...basically you pay 3 GBP and you can climb up 287 steps to the top of this big monument that overlooks the city.  It was rainy when we got to the top, but the views were still very beautiful.  It was well worth 3 GBP!  :)

My favorite street in Edinburgh.  I loved all the colors!

Edinburgh Castle

St. Giles Cathedral

One of the views from the Scott Monument

Another view from the Scott Monument....beautiful!

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The next destination on our big traveling adventure was London.  We took an overnight bus from Glasgow to London and it was one of the worst experiences I've ever had.  The seats were super uncomfortable and it was next to impossible to sleep.  I think we might have gotten a total of 1 hour of sleep during the entire 8+ hours we were on that bus.  Butttttt to make up for it, we stayed with a couple in the Sword of the Spirit Community in London (Antioch), and we slept for the first 3 hours or so that we were there.  It felt so great to finally lie in a bed!  After that we stayed busy while we were in London because there was SO much to see!  Here are a few highlights:

Westminster Abbey!

Big Ben and the Parliament buildings

The London Bridge.  It wasn't spectacular at all...just a
boring old bridge.  I only took a picture of the name
because, well..."London Bridge is falling down..."

This is Tower Bridge.  MUCH cooler than London Bridge!
We went to the exhibit inside, too!

St. Paul's Cathedral.  It was too expensive to
go inside, but the outside was cool!

The Marble Arch

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Next stop:  Paris!  I was so excited to go to Paris...I just couldn't wait to see the Eiffel Tower!  We took a train from London to Paris, and it was really nice...much more comfortable than the bus seats from Glasgow to London!  When we got to Paris, we had quite the scare.  Our train got into the station at around 10:15pm, and by the time we left the train station to get the Metro to our B&B, it was around 11pm, and when we got off the Metro we got SUPER lost.  To make a long story short, Amanda and I didn't have a working phone (well we did at first but we used up all my credit trying to call the B&B), so we ended up really lost and had a very difficult time finding English-speaking people to ask for help!  There were lots of tears involved, but we eventually found someone that spoke a tiny bit of English and was able to walk us all the way to our B&B!  Thank God for sending that guy as our guardian angel!  When we finally got to our room Amanda and I both hugged eachother and cried.  We were still in "freak out mode", but so glad to finally be in our rooms, safe at last.  The rest of our time in Paris was WONDERFUL.  We loved the B&B we stayed at...it felt like home!  We were very well cared for (breakfast AND dinner were included...), and we met some nice friends that were also staying there, so we ended up doing most of our sightseeing with them!  :)  Oh, and we ate crepes every day.  They were DELICIOUS!

This is our room at our B&B in Paris...
it was a tiny little thing!  Cozy though.

Notre Dame!

Inside Notre Dame was beautiful!
This is just a glimpse...

We had lunch near Notre Dame with our
new friend Helmi, from Finland!

Seeing the Louvre at night with our new friends
Kian, Quintin, and Nic

This was my favorite picture of the Eiffel Tower

These are our new friends,
Quintin, Nic, and Kian

One of the views from the top of the Arc de Triomphe!

We only went here because of the movie...
didn't go inside though!  Just being on that
street was awkward enough!  :\

Mmmm....crepes!  So delicious!

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Final stop:  Barcelona!  My first reaction upon landing in Barcelona was "Man...it's HOT!"  I continued to feel the same throughout the entire 3 days we were there.  I don't know if I ever cooled off.  After being in Dublin for so long, I forgot what heat felt like!  I was able to enjoy myself though, and we saw some pretty neat things, most of which involved Gaudi.  He's an architectural genius!  We visited Segrada Familia, which was absolutely beautiful.  I felt like I had to keep picking my jaw up off the floor.  We also went  to Park Guell, which is a big beautiful park also designed by Gaudi.  We enjoyed a fountain show one night in the center of Barcelona, and it was really cool to see!  On our last day we enjoyed an afternoon at the Botanic Gardens (not very beautiful, but we had fun anyway) and an evening on the beach.  Enjoy the pictures.  :)

This is where we stayed in Barcelona

Amanda and me at Segrada Familia...
It was breathtaking!!

A view of Segrada Familia from Park Guell

Me at Park Guell

Park Guell

The beautiful fountains in Barcelona

Super cool fountain show!

Amanda and me in front of the fountain.
Love this photo!

Amanda and me in the not-so-beautiful "Jardin Botanic"

Beauuuuutiful beach in Barcelona!

Just relaxing in the sand :)

I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to visit so many wonderful places, meet so many amazing people, and see so many beautiful things.  You better believe this trip was expensive.  I spent quite a bit of the money I earned while working so hard at Costco during college and last summer.  I don't like to think about it that way, though.  I have the rest of my life to earn money and work hard.  The experiences I had with Amanda during our big adventure were some of the best experiences of my life, and I wouldn't trade them for anything.

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I am back in Dublin now, safe and sound back at my home with the Mahony family.  I am pretty much caught up on sleep, and I've just about gotten rid of the terrible cold I had while we were traveling.  I'm also back in "GAPper mode", and I've got quite a bit of work to do before I head back home on August 18th.  Here's what's coming up:

July 11-13th - Youth program "mini-camp" that I'm running

July 14-21st - Young Adult camp (I'm helping with music and a couple of sessions for this)

July 23-25th - Another youth program "mini-camp" that I'm running

July 27th-August 3rd - Kairos Summer Academy in Belgium (I'll give more info on that later)

August 3-10th - On Holiday 3 (a big vacation with all the other Sword of the Spirit communities throughout Europe)

August 18th - Coming home to Michigan!

Please keep me in your prayers for when I come back home.  I know it'll be hard to leave here and readjust to living back home, and I'm still praying about what the Lord has planned for me for when I get back.  I found out about a month ago that I did not get accepted to Eastern Michigan University's graduate program for Speech-Language Pathology.  Although I only applied to one college and this decreased my chances of getting in, this still came as quite a disappointment to me and I'm praying constantly to seek out the Lord's will for my future.

Thanks for reading such a long post!  I love you all dearly and I am looking forward to seeing you when I get home!