Where is the Pope?

So if I asked you about Church in Italy, what would come to your mind first? The Pope? A large, Catholic Church with organs and choirs? Or would you first think of The Da Vinci Code? I bet the last thing you would think of is a small,evangelical church next to a Kebab Restaurant with a few guitars and a Brazilian man at the pulpit preaching on God's unconditional love! That is the exact church we got to experience in Cesena, Italy with Pastor Fabiano Nicodemo a few weekends ago. We knew about this church from our work with EPI (Eagle Projects International) who have been working with Fabiano for over 20 years. When Phil Eyster (EPI Pres.) heard we were going to be in Italy, he said we had to visit Cesena to meet this great man and his family, and to get some excellent Gelato... we did all that and more. Here are some of the highlights:

Meet Pastor Fabiano and his new English Club Poster. One of his outreach tools is to hold church sponsored English Clubs each week that can help locals practice conversational english, and occasionally hear about the love of God! We got to attend one of the meetings and meet some great people. They need some help, anyone out there speak english and want to visit Italy?

One night we enjoyed worship and teaching with the local college age Christians and after that some time to hang together and eat:

And a little Gelato after that (Gelato has already been consumed :-)

On Sunday we got to visit their church service:

And then play with the kids after that... it doesn't matter how old, or in what country, Justin usually gets beat at video games.

And of course, a little Gelato with the whole family at the famous La Cremeria!

After we reluctantly left our good friends in Cesena, we hoped on a train to the famous, beautiful and popular, Cinque Terre! Stay tuned for some pics and a chance encounter with some friends from Colorado... Who you ask? Well, you'll just have to catch the next blog (or stalk our Facebook page :-)!

Lugano and Venice!!

Left the mountains of Switzerland for the waters of Lake Lugano and the Adriatic Sea. Both places were absolutely beautiful, but don't take my word for it. Enjoy these pictures!

Click HERE to see pics from Lugano and Venice!

Week with the Parents!!

Well, the much anticipated week with my (Krista) mom and dad has come and gone. It was technically a little over a week and we jam packed all kinds of goodness into those 9 days.

We covered three countries and 11 cities. Luckily we had a car to whip around to all of these places quickly.....and it also gave the men a chance to drive on Germany's autobahn :-). They got up to speeds of 180km/hr!!

We started in Germany and went along the Rhine River to Bacharach, then on the Romantic Road to Rothenburg, and then in to the mountains and castle country to Garmisch. From Germany, we went in to Austria and explored Salzburg, then the Lake District around Salzburg in the town of Halstat, and finally in the Austrian Alps in Innsbruck. After Austria, we went to Switzerland to see Lucerne, the Alps in the Berner Oberland area, and finally Zurich.

It was tons of fun and a great way to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. We experienced Spaghetti Ice together, rode an alpine slide overlooking the lakes in Austria, did a few awesome bike rides (even one with belting some Sound of Music songs :-)), and had some great dinners overlooking gorgeous lakes and rivers. I'm so glad they came over and braved traveling with us :-). After Zurich, they headed to Scotland and England for a few days, and Justin and I headed to southern Switzerland (Lugano) and then into Italy (Venice).

Click HERE to see some awesome pics of our week with my parents.

We now have less than two weeks left on this crazy adventure and we'll be in Italy for the rest of the time. Tomorrow we leave Venice to go spend four days with an Eagle Project's Partner in Cesena. And then we finish our trip up with 6 days in Cinque Terre!!

A Tale of Two Cities

It has been quite some time now since we've posted and that is because we've had tons and tons of fun with my parents the past week or so and have had no time to make photo albums and write blogs. Pictures of our week with George and DeeDee are coming soon :-). But we did a few things between leaving Italy's wonderful Dolomites and meeting up with them.

We went to Vienna, Austria and Prague, Czech Republic! We liked both of these cities! They were super easy to get around and had lots of cool sights. In Vienna, we even got to see some Mozart in the Vienna State Opera House (I can never complain about Justin not taking me on cool dates again after this year)!!

In the nicest clothes we stuffed in our backpacks, ready to see some Mozart!

We were a little skeptical about Prague just because we had heard so much good stuff, we thought it had been built up too much in our heads and we were going to be let down, but it lived up to it's rep and was super great. The food is not as cheap as it once was we think, but still cheaper than most of the places we've been.

So, as some pics are long overdue, here you go.

Click HERE for pictures of our adventures in Vienna.

and

Click HERE for pictures of us in Prague.