"Quick" Updates; Spain, Switzerland, & Italy

Hi dear friends and family!

I am in Rome tonight... heading to Athens tomorrow morning to meet my MOM for a mother/daughter Greek week!! 
She's coming to spend Thanksgiving with me, and i think we're going to check out the cool stuff around Athens (like the pillars and buildings from a LONG time ago, and maybe visit some places like Corinth and Thessalonika, and maybe the Island of Patmos.
Those are 2 cities that Paul visited on his missionary journeys and he wrote letters to those people, which are now published in the Bible, and the Island is where John - Jesus' really close buddy - was inprisoned/sent to, but where God gave him the vision of Revelation, which is also in the Bible. ALL really good to read; being up on the topics that God thinks are important to know... like our faith in Him and what's going to happen in the future...


I really am looking forward to also just relaxing with my mom on an island some where - blue blue blue waters... ahhh.


Its chilly here, definitely fall, but it is still nice. That's what's crazy... i'm in colder weather now!! i haven't been in colder weather since i was in NZ in their fall (our spring), and australia - same deal, and CapeTown for their rainy/cold time... and i just saw SNOW in switzerland for the 1st time since i left home in January!!!!! whoah. it was BEAUTIFUL!!!
reminded me of Christmas and helps me get ready for it! Then guess what? On my overnight train to Italy, there was TONS of snow, and one of the railway worker guys got a big snowball and acted like he was going to throw it at me and this other girl i was with, so we ran out and had an all-out WAR at one of the stations!! It was SO FUN!!!! i haven't had that much fun in i don't know how long... playing, running, throwing, dodging, laughing!!
Ok, back to Switzerland... so i had a great week in Spain - a couple days in Madrid with my new friend Molly and a family from her church; they became my adopted family for a few days; i even had a grandma and grandpa; and my "grandma" read molly and me a bed time story about beautiful princesses known by the King because of their LOVE for Him! :)
Then off to Barcelona to stay with a friend from my growing-up days in Indianapolis at Church at the Crossing... Eric and his beautiful wife Gina - who were really really great hosts. So gracious and kind and helpful. It was great reconnecting with Eric, meeting his new wife - she is a great girl, and having lots of wonderful conversations.
Then I took my 1st official overnight train to SWITZERLAND!!!! Which is now my new favorite country. It used to be New Zealand, and specifically the south island, near Mt. Cook and Wanaka... but now it is SWITZERLAND. Amazing. That is all i can say. Mountains soaring up at 45 degree angles, straight from the edge of a lake or a carpet of green grass or rolling hills... dark wooden chalets that look like giant ginger bread houses, deep valleys that just "nestle" in the shadow of the mountains. It is really spectacular.
I stayed at L'Abri, a christian chalet (or a chalet run by people who follow/love Jesus), and who provide a place where people, mostly in their 20s, can come and really try to hash out their questions/issues/whatever about christianity. Really interesting and some good conversations. And it was great to meet the people there. I also got to PARAGLIDE over the ALPS!!!! WHOAH!!! i was a little scared before i did it, thinking i've come this far, i really don't want to crash and break my body... that would be sad. But, it wasn't scary AT ALL. A grandma could do it. The wind picks up the parachute even before you get to the edge of anything, so you're flying before you have to jump... it picks you up!!! and then you're SOARING like a bird over this amazing valley - full of green pastures and fields and then the mountains out in front of you, wow. You sit in this seat, like you're in a johnny-jump up chair, like when you were little - did anyone else have those, where a baby bounces around, hanging from the ceiling. That sounds bad; i mean the chair is hanging from the ceiling. Anyway, you are totally secure and your feet are out dangling beneath you and you're high up, but it feels like you're just sitting... not falling. It reminded me of when my dad and uncle would take my brothers and cousins and me up in their ultralights; like hang-gliders with a seat and engine; small airplanes, really, and we would fly over my grandparents' fields in Illinois in the summer and fall. it was so fun. we would drop a parachute man from up high, and whoever was on the ground would run and try to catch it as it floated down! in memory of those days, i dropped my glove from up above, and it hit within 20 feet of where we landed!
After more adventures (went to Interlaken, a swiss resort town, and rode a train up to the "highest point in Europe"... it was COLD and snowy up there! -15!) and meeting more great people, I got on an overnight train to Venice, Italy.
That is my new favorite city!! It is like disney land!! seems almost fake, like they made it for tourists!! cute, close-together streets, shops with beautiful, colorful, lit-up displays where you can spend a million euros on anything from jackets to jewelry to sparkely masks (they have a carnival in Feb where everyone wears these masquarade masks - BEAUTIFUL, SPARKELY, creations!!) to colorful pasta! Lots of fairy land bridges that go over fairly land mint green water with story book gondolas (those long canoe like boats with the 'driver' standing up in back w/ his cool venice boat driving straw hat on)... and God provided a way for me to RIDE in one of them, for cheap!! Normally it is 120 euros for an hour, thats OVER 120 dollars, choke... but God provided one other guy and another couple to come by and they agreed to go with me, so we got to split it 4 ways... which is MUCH better and it was SO worth it!!!!!! A dream come true!!!!! Thank you, God!!! I went to a concert that night; beautiful beautiful quintet - 2 violins (amazing "singing" voices), cello, viola and bass... wow. They played Canon in D by Pachabel... i was in rapturous wonder. ahhh.
Then headed out next day for Pisa... on the western coast of Italy (mid way down the "sock") - venice is up on the east coast, towards the top. I almost missed my train - running, running with a 30 pound pack... Jesus, please hold the train!!! and on.
whew!!! (i had accidently missed getting off at my boat stop, so had to get off at the next dock along the canal... and b/c its WATER in the "streets" i couldn't run back to my stop, i had to wait for the next boat... ahhh!!!! then get my backpack out of storage, then find the right train/platform number, then run to it!!!!!

I'll have to share more of the Pisa story for later (met a great family /friends from Florida - i recognized their American accent! Did you know we all have an American accent??!!!! And we explored the streets of Pisa, looking for that leaning tower, and w/ lots of help, looking at the map, and fun times later, we found it! Its still leaning! And its a lot taller than it looks like in pictures. And its next to 2 other cool buildings that never get any recognition. A church and something else that has a cool dome shape)...

Then the Rome story; God provided a MIRACLE to get me into the sistine chapel, I was in a REALLY long long line w/ tons of people that snaked around 2 sides of the building, and we had 10 min to get in before they closed the doors for the day... God, if you want me to get in, you can do anything - thinking that it was totally IMPOSSIBLE, by natural means to get thru this line w/out His help; and i was going to be REALLY bummed to not get in; i was in Rome for only ONE day and i wanted to see Michelangelo's famous paintings, of Creation, etc. We kept getting closer and closer to the door, and i kept looking at my watch, getting ready to walk away b/c i figured it wouldn't happen... then all of a sudden, we were in, and it was just 12:30! Maybe a minute and a 1/2 later, the doors closed behind us, and all the other people had to go home. They couldn't get in. Wow. Thank you, God. We (me and this chinese friend i met, miraculously - once in venice, he was one of the guys who came on the gondola boat ride, and then a second time, "randomly" but i know it could ONLY be God to cross paths w/ people 2wice like that in the HUGE city of Rome! We both walked up to the huge line to the sistiene chapel right at the same time. whoah. It was a good time of encouraging each other in our faith in God/Jesus, and i know God had it planned out!) got to see all the paintings - Rafael, Michelangelo, and some other guys - beautiful, totally real-looking paintings and wall hangings - like carpet w/ pictures on them, detailed amazing, real-life looking pictures of scences - and mostly scenes from the Gospels (King Herod killing all the Jewish babies right when Jesus was born, in an attempt to kill him, b/c he was afraid Jesus would grow up and take over his kingdom - he had no idea!; the miracles of Jesus; the crucifixion; Jesus rising back to life, leaving the tomb victorious!; Creation of Man (the famous one, Adam/man reaching out touching God - that is beautiful... but the amazing thing, is that God is reaching out and touching us... all through history, and the most dramatic and important and amazing is the story of the Jesus and the cross). There are thousands and millions of people are walking thru here every year - i pray that they would see these paintings and not just think they are history, or folk lore, or christian teachings... but really, God's real reality story of Him reaching out to us, to each of us.
and that their hearts would be open and receiving to His reaching out to us.He is amazing.

Goodnight you guys!!! God BLESS each of you. May you KNOW His abundant care and provision and deep deep love for you.

ericka :)