The color red and fog // Bratislava

Some of my fellow classmates and I ventured off to Bratislava one Saturday. It was bit cold and overcast, but still fun to get out and do some sightseeing. The capital was less than an hour train ride away.

We wandered around until we finally found the old town area of the city. I was excited to observe all the bright red buses and trams along the streets. I love the different modes of transportation in Europe.

We found a nice little coffee shop in the center of town, enjoying some hot drinks and a pastry. After that, we explored the city as much as we could with the time that we had.

I was in awe of the beauty of this city, even if I didn’t have a lot of time. I love exploring new places and seeing what beauty I can find along the way.

Mystical Slovenia

As I walked down the hill and across the street, seeing this place for the first time was jaw dropping. I didn’t want to leave. I was blessed to stay for four days, though I would have loved to have stayed longer.

We traveled to Lake Bohinj from Budapest for a few days, passing by Lake Bled on the way. The weather for that weekend was cold with some rain and fog off and on, but that just added to the beauty.

This shot above is my all time favorite photo of 2022. I took a walk one of the days down to this dock to get some shots. It was super foggy out, and raining off and on. I was happy that there was some fog, as it added a new texture to the photo.

The last two photos are of Lake Bled. We grabbed some drinks at a cafe for a couple of hours before heading to Lake Bohinj for the weekend. I hope to get the chance to visit Slovenia again. It’s definitely one of my favorite places I’ve ever visited.

SNO // Summer Nightlife Outreach

My amazing SNO team in Vama Veche!!! I was so blessed to have an amazing team filled with beautiful people.

Our awesome fearless leaders, Bart and Roxana!

We would start our evenings with a time of praise and worship. We first had this time at the church we were staying at, but after a few days we decided to bring the worship to the beaches of Vama Veche. It was so much more powerful having this time right in the middle of the area where we had ministry.

Giong into this outreach, I really didn’t know what to expect. Some of my friends in Constanta that have been on teams in the past, told me about their experiences. When I heard that the ministry would start late in the night, I was super excited about that part, but it all worked out and I loved it.

Above, you can see the 4 signs that we would hold up on the street corner, where there was a lot of foot traffic. We would hold these signs, trying the lead people over to us, and try to figure out the message that we wanted to share. We had a bunch of Red Bulls and would shout: “Guess the message and get a free Red Bull!” Once a few people would stop and try to figure out the signs, others passing by would notice us, intrigued and stop to see what was going on.

If we were holding a sign, we would walk around, leading people to the signs, and going over to them to discuss the message. We tried not to give them the answers of the signs, but help them guess each sign with giving them little clues if they needed it. We did have a good amount of people guess the entire message with just a few clues and they need up winning a Red Bull. After we shared thoroughly the message at the end, making sure they understood it all, we prayed for some that wanted it and encouraged them. We handed out a lot of Bibles over those two weeks. We also invited many of them to an online course called The Alpha Course, where they could learn more about Jesus.

The first 3 days of the outreach was a time of learning and training. The second night of outreach, we started to put those things we had been learning into practice on the streets of Vama Veche. One of the things we did one night, that was new to a lot of us, was something called “Treasure Hunt”. We took time to ask God for a specific person on the street, for a specific piece of clothing, shoes, hair color, etc. For example, someone wearing the color orange, someone with pink hair and sandals, someone wearing sunglasses and a hat, etc. Some were vague and others were really specific. We would then write down all those things so that everyone had the list. We went out and walked around in groups of 2-3, looking for these “treasures”. If we found someone…wearing orange…we would walk up to them and explain what we were doing and ask if we could pray for them. Some were surprised at what we were doing, while others were so grateful and happy with what we were doing and received the prayer.

We prayed for so many people and it was beautiful to see how open the people were and so grateful for the prayers. Some were full of smiles after, others crying tears of joy. I was excited for times when I was able to pray over some of the girls that we ministered to.

Our last night of ministry we decided to set up our station right in the center of all of the night clubs. It was really powerful to be right there, even though it was extremely loud. But God really moved in and through many young people that last night.

In the middle of the outreach we were able to share about what we were doing at the church we were staying at. Bart, our leader, shared the message that morning and the rest of us shared testimonies, led worship, and shared a short skit of what we do during our ministry at night.

I loved doing ministry with beautiful souls, wearing our Vama Veche pants!!

We did it!! We made it through SNO Vama Veche 2022!! I was so thankful for this time and spending time with these amazing people. I learned so much from them and God used me in a mighty way. I was way out of my comfort zone for sure, but God used me on the streets of Vama Veche.

I know I could see the change in me from the beginning of outreach by the end of the two weeks. From the first time of hiding behind the signs to going out in the street, talking to people about Jesus and praying for them.

Shoutout to Bart for inviting me last year to be apart of SNO this year!!

Mangalia // Black Sea

During SNO (Summer Nightlife Outreach) we stayed in this town of Mangalia, around 15 minutes from Vama Veche, where we had ministry each night.

You knew what you were going to find down by the sea in Mangalia. Like in this photos, you’ve got Mickey Mouse, an iguana and a parrot. Who doesn’t want to see these things down by the water!!

Of course with every place I visit, I take time to go on photo walks and explore as much as I can. During the day it got pretty hot, so I had to work out my schedule as well as with the weather each day.

This was the view every time I went down to the water from where I was staying. A cool photo to capture for sure!

Je te vois

I love working with this girl!! We don’t have as much time together like I do with her big brothers, so I like to take advantage of spending time with her whenever I can.

Sorèze, France

If you ever get the chance to visit Sorèze, you won’t be disappointed. I fell in love with this place. This was actually the first place that Caleb would travel to. One of his friends Moms had a couple houses here. He stayed at one of her places and helped fix it up.

We went to the museum at Cité de Sorèze which is the building above, on the right. That place was a lot bigger than I had imagined. There was an area that showed things from an old Royal Military school under Louis XVI. There was also a large part of the museum showcasing a lot of the contemporary tapestry artwork of Frenchman Dom Robert.

I was ready to move here, it was one of the most adorable villages I’ve been to.

One of Caleb and Natasha’s friend used to live in this house (pictured above) years ago. When they would come to France for a visit, they would stay here.

Carcassonne, France

We spent the afternoon here in this lovely city, walked around, had some coffee, took in the sights. They hadn’t been to Carcassonne, so they enjoyed it just as much as I did.

For some reason, when I walked through the streets of Carcassonne, I couldn’t help but start to hum and whistle to some of the Les Miserables songs. The streets here reminded me of scenes of the movie. I would have started belting out lyrics but didn't want to embarrass my brother and sister in law, so I stuck with just whistling the songs.

These next photos are seriously some of my favorite photos taken from a car window. It started to rain more as we were driving through town. With the water on the window, the lights in the store windows or lights on the cars, brought so much unique artsy photos.

Some of them remind me of some cool paintings of light.

Cité de Carcassonne

I got to visit this awesome medieval citadel and it was insanely cool!!! It’s situated on a hill near the River Aude, in Southern France. It was occupied as early as the 5th century. The inner rampart was built in 485. The entire Cité is on 27 acres of land. The citadel held the Counts of Carcassonne back in the 12th century.

Now with tourists passing through, the buildings inside the Cité are filled with souvenir shops, restaurants, pubs, and small museums.

This place was so cool to walk around and explore. There is so much history in this Cité and there’s so much to learn about it.

Walking around Labécède-Lauragais

While at Caleb’s we took long walks every day and I really enjoyed the beauty around them. They had so many different trails and pathways to choose from, from roadside walks to forest trails.

This trek was one of my favorites. The trails were covered in the beautiful golden yellow leaves that had fallen from the trees.

Mr. Bottoms loved taking these long walks every day. He would be off his leash and try to be the first, getting ahead of us on the trails.

Some of the places we walked through were so magical and full of beauty.

I told Caleb, you really do live in a wonderful place.