Back Home! What's Next?

Disclaimer: This post is very similar to an email we just sent out. Just thought it was worthy enough to make the blog as well, as we hit the two week mark of being back in America!

So you've probably heard these clichés before:
Time flies...
It seems like just yesterday...
You'll be back before you know it...

Time does indeed fly, and it seems like just yesterday we were packing up our house, selling a car and getting ready for our year overseas, and as we have been back for two weeks now, we are definitely back before we knew it! We used to think these clichés were silly, not anymore!
It has been a while since most of you have heard from us (sorry for that, "we were out of the country"...we still love saying that:-)) so here is a quick recap of our "year overseas" which we generally broke into two parts:

Part 1:

The first half of our year was what we considered our intentional ministry and humanitarian portion of the year as we partnered with the non-profit organization, EPI (Eagle Projects Int) and visited 3 of their overseas partners in Harare, Zimbabwe; Kisii, Kenya; and Kathmandu, Nepal. We were also very blessed to be able to visit some of our friends laboring for Christ in Nalchik, Russia.

And for an even quicker version of our first 6 months, check out this video we made!!! Click HERE to launch the YouTube video.

Part 2:

The second half of our year included our not-so-intentional ministry and humanitarian portion of the year, or we could call it our sightseeing portion. :-) We visited some beautiful countryside and met up with some great friends and even family as we explored Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, and Germany. We even had the pleasure to spend some time with an EPI partner in Cesena, Italy. For a look at some photo albums from Europe, click HERE.

But first check out this video we made of our 4 months in Europe, click HERE!! (It's hard to choose 106 photos out of 12,000, but we did our best)

And now for another cliché...

The real world...

What are we going to do next, as we are now back in the real world? Justin's day job will be back at EnCana as he is lucky enough to be able to get his job back and has already started working. Krista is trying to narrow down a long list of possible options for her time which could include working towards a counseling practice, volunteering in some capacity, and taking a few more Seminary classes. And for the rest of our time we are excited to share with you two recent developments that will allow us to continue traveling and working overseas!

We have recently become official staff with EPI! We are now working with EPI in Special Project Development. This will allow us to continue to travel and visit EPI's great partners to see how their ministry is developing and what their needs are. Check out our profile HERE.

One of our first opportunities with EPI is managing a project with our EPI partners in Nepal. We are very excited to continue our relationship with the awesome couple that is working in Nepal (you have probably heard us talking about them) and the need that we are hoping to help with, which is very close to our hearts. They are doing some amazing work with young girls that have been rescued from the sex trafficking industry and we have a way we think we can help, with your help as well, of course. But as this email is already long enough, we will be sending another email with more details! So stay tuned.

We feel very blessed to have had this opportunity, and we are super excited about the future! Thank you so much for your support, prayers and well wishes!

In Him,
Justin and Krista

All Good Things Must Come to an End

One of several amazing sunsets in Cinque Terre

Now, obviously this is a common saying, but to be honest, I don't like it. And part of me doesn't believe it (or more accurately, doesn't want to believe it), but like all age-old sayings, there is some truth to it. Change is inevitable, and a necessary part of life. It is change that helps is grow and become the people that God created us to be. So even something that seemed so good at the time, must end and other things must take it's place. Just like a beautiful sunset turns into peaceful night.

Our four months in Europe were absolutely amazing! We had such a great time with each other and loved seeing the in's and out's of God's creation. It was so GOOD. But in this case, obviously not sustainable, unless someone wants to give us millions :-). Therefore, this GOOD thing had to come to an end. We will forever cherish this time we had together (literally 24/7) and will remember all the amazing things we got the opportunity to do.

To wrap up our four months in Europe, we spent a week in Cinque Terre, Italy.

The adorable town of Vernazza in Cinque Terre, Italy (home for 3 nights)

This was one place that several people told us we HAD to see if we went to Europe. So with that in mind, we scheduled a whole week here at the end of our trip, sort of like a grand finale. And it did not dissapoint. Cinque Terre, or "five lands" is a grouping of five towns on the Italian Riviera. Cars are not allowed in the towns, so the only way to get from town to town is by train, boat, or foot. In addition, there is a National Park so there are lots of hiking trails connecting the towns and going all over the beautiful cliffs, hills, and vineyards. And finally, what makes it even cooler, it's in Italy, so you have Italian food and gelato!!

Hiking above the town of Monterosso

We had a great time hiking from town to town and above the towns through the vineyards. Our only recommendation if you plan on going to Cinque Terre in the future - prepare yourself for crowds and book in advance. We luckily had booked a month in advance, but even that was difficult, and while we were there, we did have to strategically find places where the crowds would not be. It is no longer a "hidden gem" if you will, but nonetheless, it is still gorgeous, fun, and definitely worth going to.

To take a better look at this BEAUTIFUL place click HERE! We took lots of photos and hopefully the captions show up as well.

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.

The lesser known beauty of Northern Italy...

Northern Italy was absolutely amazing. I know we say that about a lot of the places we have been, but really, Northern Italy is incredible. We spent a few days on Lake Como, playing in the small Italian towns and of course on the lake,

Sometimes we had a little too much fun on the boat we rented for the day. Justin is just too funny, I can't help it.

and then we spent a week in the Dolomites. We spent a few nights in one of the central towns there called Cortina where we did our first Via Ferrata (roping in to a cable and climbing up huge rock peaks),

Here we are at the top, after the Via Ferrata (for more pics, click below on the link to the album)

and a 40 mile bike ride (don't worry, half was downhill) and then we did some backpacking. We hiked in for two nights to two different mountain huts or "rifugios." If we thought Nepal trekking was cush with all the tea houses, this blows that level of cushness out of the water. The so called huts were unbelievable, complete with full-staffed restaurants, bedrooms with small flat screens, Italian food, Italian coffee, and Italian wine! We had such a great time and we feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to do itl. If Northern Italy weren't so far away, we'd suggest going every year with all our friends and family :-).

We took lots of pics as usual and this time Justin even wrote captions for the Dolomite Album. He took that location on as his own little baby and planned most of our time there. It was great!

Click HERE for the Lake Como pics!

Click HERE for the pics of the super cool Dolomites!