Belgium Part 4

On Saturday, we drove about 2 hours to Marie's grandparents' house in the country. It is a very nice house, in a peaceful town. Some of her mother's family was there, and we had lunch with them and hung out for a while. Then we drove to Marie's other grandmother's house and spent some time with her. It was nice to meet the people that are so important to her. We got home late that night, and then we left their house about 9:20 the next morning to get me to the airport. I did remember to get some pictures on Sunday morning out the windows of their apartment. If you look really close in the picture above, you can see that sculpture thing on the horizon.

My flight went from Brussels to D.C., then to Chicago, and to Minneapolis. Bop and Nanny picked me up in Minneapolis, then I spent the night there, and Monday morning, we drove to Brainerd to meet my mom and Katie. It was a fabulous trip, but it was so good to get home! And now that you have seen the last part of my trip, I have gotten all the pictures together to do the first part, so that will be starting soon!

Belgium Part 3

On Thursday, Marie, her parents, and I took the train to Bruges, which is about 20 minutes further northwest of Brussels than Ghent. Her parents took us to a very nice restaurant for lunch. Check out my dessert:

Homemade chocolate mousse. It was so rich and creamy and just perfect. I didn't get a picture of it, but after we had lunch, we went to a cathedral that has a real Michelangelo statue of Mary and the baby Jesus. I guess it is one of the few Michelangelos outside of Italy.

This is the square in Bruges. The really colorful houses on the far end are guild houses, and I thought they were so cute. This belfry is on the opposite side of the square. It dates from the 13th century. We could have gone up to the top, but we would have had to pay and it was cold, and none of us felt like climbing the 300-some steps, so we just took pictures.

This is a museum. We didn't go through the museums, just to the front desk to ask where the basilica was that we wanted to go to.

Of all the basilicas and cathedrals we went to, this was my favorite. It was called the Basilica of the Holy Blood. I loved how colorful it was.

The ceiling was wood paneled, which was different from all the other ones we visited.

Beautiful stained glass windows.

The painting at the front of the church behind the pulpit.

It reminds me of "The Nutcracker."

So I guess the name comes from what is believed to be some of the blood of Jesus which is kept there.

This is the "tabernacle" that holds the blood. After we got done here, we decided to try to catch the next train leaving for Brussels, which meant we had to walk very quickly to the train station. We actually ended up running half of the way. We got up to the platform right as the train was pulling in, so we all breathed a sigh of relief and got on. That night, Marie and I watched "Up" and talked for a couple hours in her room as she cleaned and organized (she was just getting back from 5 months in Germany for school). Friday morning, Marie had to run some errands, but I decided to stay at the apartment to get started packing. Then we went to her grandparents' house for lunch. They have a beautiful house full of wonderful old things and they are very sweet. Her grandpa doesn't speak any English, and her grandma not much, but she sure tries for all she's worth, bless her heart. Then we got on the tram across town to meet Amaury and go to the movie "Avatar" in 3D.

Marie and I sporting our 3D glasses.

Right by the movie theater is this big sculpture-thing that was built for the world's fair that was held in Brussels in the 50's. I think it's supposed to be a atom of iron. The balls have art exhibits in them, and the top one is a restaurant. It's very pretty all lit up at night. This is Marie with her boyfriend, Amaury.

Marie and I in front of the sculpture-thing.

The tram was empty when we got on because the theater is at the end of the route, so I decided to take a picture of it while there weren't any other people around to look at me funny.

Belgium Part 2

Wednesday was going to be our day to go into Brussels, and this is what we woke up to that morning. In the words of the radio announcer, it threw the city into "chaos." I laughed out loud when Marie said that. I guess it was almost to the point of schools being closed, and they were saying miles of roads were deadlocked.

Here's a closer shot. As you can see, it was less than an inch. However, after walking around downtown on the streets, I understood better why it was such a problem. On the old cobblestone streets, the wet snow was so slippery that we had trouble staying vertical on foot. We ventured out anyway, and we walked down the main shopping street, and went in many little shops.

Of course, I had to have a Belgian waffle while I was there. I had strawberries and whipped cream on it, and it was SO good.

Marie has chocolate and strawberries on hers. Just looking at these, I am craving another one.

One of the squares in Brussels.

Another side of it.

I don't know how many of these waffle stands we walked by. They make the whole street smell wonderful. We also went into a lot of chocolate shops, and to the Chocolate Museum. The museum showed the history of chocolate and how it is processed. There was also a man demonstrating the old-fashioned way of making chocolates, which was very interesting.

Ok, I almost didn't want to put this picture up, but I figured I'd better. This is one of the most famous symbols of Brussels. It is a statue of a little boy, and yes, he's doing exactly what it looks like he's doing. The story is that there was a nobleman and his son was missing or got lost or something. When the father found him, he was, um, shall we say, relieving himself. The father was so overjoyed at finding his son that he made this statue. Now it's all over on souvenirs and they have all these cartoon-y versions of it on everything too.

Some pretty gardens we walked by.Neat old buildings.

This is called the Old England Building. I guess that's because it looks like old English architecture.

Looking back down at the city from the Old England Building.

The Royal Palace. It was fun to see Marie's hometown, and I think she really enjoyed showing me around. After all this, we went back to Marie's apartment and went to bed early to get ready for the next day...

Belgium Part 1

And here they are, the much-promised pictures from my trip. I am starting with Belgium because I am waiting to get pictures from some other people on the team from Poland. So you'll just have to remember that this was the last part of my trip, and the first part will come later. On February 8th, we got on in a rented van at 3:30 in the morning and drove to Warsaw. There were a lot of emotions all around that morning. As a team, we were all just in awe of what God had done and we weren't ready for the workshop to be done. We had built such strong relationships with the students and the team, and it was really hard to say goodbye. But we knew that God was going to keep working and it was time to go. We left Warsaw a half an hour late, so I missed my flight from Munich to Brussels. Thankfully, there was another flight about two hours later, so I got on that one and got to Brussels around 2:30 I think. Marie and her dad were at the airport to pick me up, then we drove to their house and I got settled. Then Marie and I talked and caught up with each other for a couple hours. It was so good to see her again. The next day, Tuesday, we took the train in the morning to Leuven, about 25 minutes from Brussels. We walked around and saw some neat old architecture, did some shopping, and had lunch.

Me in front of a map of the city. The temperature was in the 20's or low 30's most of the time I was there.

I think Marie said this was the city hall.

Right outside the train station in Leuven. After we had lunch, we got back on the train and rode to Ghent, about an hour away. This is an old castle that was originally built in 1180 called Gravensteen. It is now right in the middle of Ghent. I think we went to 5 or 6 cathedrals in all. Almost all of them had these ornate wooden pulpits with carvings all over them.

Some Turkish guy in one of the churches wanted to take our picture. Actually, he wanted to take it with his camera, so I gave him mine too. Not really sure why he wanted our picture, I think he was just having a great time being a tourist or something. You meet all kinds.

All the cathedrals were so beautiful. I could not believe the ceilings three or four stories up, the carvings in stone and wood, the stained glass windows, the list goes on. But these churches so full of everything beautiful felt so empty, especially after spending two weeks with people who were so focused on bringing glory to God and living in the Spirit. No matter how beautiful the outside is, it's the inside that matters.

The city of Ghent is very beautiful, and the city is dedicated to keep it that way, so I guess there are pretty stiff penalties for graffiti. However, they reserved this alley for all the graffiti anyone wants to do, hence the name graffiti street.

After all our sightseeing, we stopped in a tea room and shared these crepes with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Then we walked to the school that Marie's boyfriend is going to. His name is Amaury. When he got done with classes, we walked to his apartment, then to supper at a pizza restaurant.

My supper, a Margherita pizza. Sounds exotic, but it's really just a cheese pizza. Very delicious. After supper, we went to McDonald's because Amaury loves McFlurries. Then Marie and I got back on the train and came back to Brussels. A very fun, full day.

Good to be back!

Hi everyone! It is so good to be back home! I flew into Minneapolis Sunday night and our wonderful grandparents picked me up, and then we drove up to Brainerd on Monday to meet our Mom and Katie, so I got back home around 3:30 that afternoon. I think I am mostly over jet lag now, but I am still trying to get back into the swing of things here. My time in Poland was incredible. It was the best missions trip I've ever been on. So many times, God absolutely took my breath away as He answered our prayers right in front of our eyes. As I post pictures, I will make sure to elaborate on that so you can stand in awe of His goodness. It was great to see Marie again. Our time together went so fast, and I saw a lot of Belgium in those 5 days. But even though this was a great trip, being home again and being with my family feels so good. I am really quite a homebody, and so it takes me borrowing a lot of strength from God to be gone for that long. Thank goodness He is infinitely strong enough to carry me through! The reason that I am not posting pictures right now is that I am waiting to get some more from different people because I didn't take very many. So stay tuned!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day surrounded by the people you love! My day flew by with church activities and babysitting, but I came home to a house filled with love--and for that I am grateful.

Julie's plane touched down safely tonight, so if all goes well, she will be home tomorrow afternoon. Praise the Lord! As soon as she gets over the jet lag, I will encourage her to start uploading pictures of her trip. I know she will be more than willling to comply! However, this means that my solo blogging days are over for now. I had a lot of fun being the sole blogger for three weeks, but I am ready to have Julie share the responsibility again. Maybe we'll work out some sort of 50/50 deal ;-).

I hope that my posts have encouraged you half as much as your comments have encouraged me. This week, as you eat your leftover Valentine's candy and watch the flowers begin to droop in their vases, remember the ultimate act of love committed by Christ on the cross and the fact that that love is yours to cherish forever if you are living for Him.

Romans 8:38-39

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So Very Much to be Grateful for....

Hello all! It's been a while since I (Amy) have posted anything, and I've been looking forward to blogging again. Yes, I am now officially eighteen. My dear Christian friends have been reminding me that this means I can legally smoke tobacco and join the military :-). I can also be tried as an adult and vote in upcoming elections. Don't worry--I only plan on exercising one of those rights (I hope you can guess which one! ;-). Thank you all so much for your encouraging comments on my birthday post. I had a great birthday! I went out for supper with my cousin Hannah, then went back to my house to open presents with my family. They gave me so many sweet, thoughtful gifts!

The past few nights, as I wrote in my prayer journal before hitting the hay, I realized how very much I have to be grateful for. All too often I am overwhelmed by the struggles of the day, and my prayers are consumed with pleas and petitions. I start to worry about the future, and I forget that I am praying to the God who created a universe, parted the waters, calmed stormy seas, healed the blind, and raised the dead! But when I remember those things, as well as everything the Lord has done in my own life, I am filled with such a peace and gratitude that words cannot even begin to explain. So tonight I want to share just a few of the things I am grateful for.....

More than anything else, I am grateful for the redeeming power of Christ Jesus my Lord. He has truly turned my darkness into light and given me life more abundantly!

I am so thankful for my parents, who have brought me up in a body of believers, loved me unconditionally, and corrected me with gentleness through the years.

I am very blessed to have two dear sisters who are also two of my very best friends.

I am grateful to be part of a church that teaches the Bible as absolute truth and that provides countless opportunities for my family and I to serve the Lord by serving others.

I am thankful to be surrounded by friends that care about me and my walk with the Lord. You all are a major source of encouragement and refreshment to me! May the Lord bless you as you give thanks to Him.

Psalm 146: 1 & 2

Praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD, O my soul.

I will praise the LORD all my life;

I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.