Bonjour! We just finished eating breakfast and are getting ready to debrief and say our goodbyes to Paris/Europe. I still can't believe it's already time to leave......we just got here! After many encounters with God, new friendships being made, and memories that will last forever, REACH 2012 is ending. See everyone later tonight!
Au revoir!

Au Revoir

Saying goodbye to Europe and Paris today as we'll be heading home soon! USA! see ya in the evening! WOOHOO!

Bonjour! We just arrived in Paris! The weather is beautiful here and we're waiting on the other teams to arrive! Can't wait to see everyone again and hear their amazing stories from their trips!
Au revoir, until next time!

Au Revoir to LLN and Friends

Bonjour! Today is our last day in Louvain-la-Neuve, and I am pretty bummed about leaving. We are going back to CTS tonight. We have had an awesome time while we were here in LLN. We didn't get much sleep, because we would hang out with our new friends every night after we had all eaten dinner until around two in the morning. We have made lifelong friends while we have been here, and some of them have already said they are going to come visit us in Alabama! Tonight we are going to go to the Maze which is the magic show with the Christian illusionist that shares his testimony with the show. I think the show is going to be awesome. We have been hyping it pretty hard while we were here. Yesterday we went around Brussels and to a university in Brussels and passed out tickets while the illusionist walked around and did card tricks and other small illusions. The reaction on the people's faces were priceless. I don't know much French, but I could tell they were amazed and had just had their mind blown. Some of them would say they had blocus (it is like dead day where we study except it lasts two weeks here) when we asked if they wanted to go, but when they would see one of the tricks they were hooked and said they would be there. I am really excited about tonight, but at the same time I am said that we have to leave LLN. God is doing some awesome things here in Belgium. I have never really had the desire to travel, but after this trip to Europe I have decided that my new hiking backpack is going to get a lot of miles on it in the coming years. Au revoir!

Bonjour! These past 4 days here at Louvain-la-Neuve have flown by. Last night was our last supper together, and we cooked them breakfast, including grits and biscuits! For our last night here, they surprised us with a scavenger hunt around campus, which was so much fun! I cannot believe that we have to leave this afternoon..... We have met so many amazing people and created so many lifelong friendships. It makes me so sad to think that I will not be able to see these people every single day like I have this past week.  God is doing some amazing things here through the Students for Christ group, and I cannot wait to here about how He uses them in the future.

Tonight, we will be in Brussels setting up for the Maze! Yesterday we were able to visit several schools in Brussels with some of the illusionists, handing out free tickets to students while the magicians performed some of their tricks. I am so excited to see how God is going to use these people and this event to reach out to the city. Later tonight, we are going back to CTS, so our blogging should be more consistent for the next few days.
Au revoir, until next time!

LLN, au revoir!

Hello today is our last day around LLN so everyone is saying their goodbyes! We've made some lifelong friends here and watched just how great Students For Christ on this campus is doing. There is great moral fiber running through this group and we'll miss them tremendously!

Wednesday was our Tex-Mex night and everyone loved it! I got a little homesick because my family eats this meal once a week it seems! But that didn't last too long!

Thursday we cooked up some mean bbq chicken and had some amazing potato salad and homemade chocolate chip cookies featured by the lovely Lauren Howell!

Last night was our last culture night and we cooked up a great southern tradition of breakfast for dinner! Scrambled eggs, biscuits, BACON, oranges, with jams and juices! Everyone was thrilled for the new experience.

The best part of these nights were of course the community- we had around 24 people on Wednesday that increased to over 40 on Friday! God was and always is awesome. I'm glad to see that many of the students here made deeper connections with other students, God, and . . . WITH US!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Bonjour! We have been really busy over the past few days, so I haven't gotten the chance to blog. We worked at CTS on Monday and half of the day on Tuesday. Their lawnmower has been broken since February, so the grass looked like a jungle in some places. We cleaned out all the flowerbeds, mowed a lot of the grass, and powerwashed a lot of the patios and concrete. We will finish all of that when we go back there for two days after we leave Louvain-la-Neuve. We arrived in Louvain-la-Neuve on Tuesday afternoon. (I'm going to refer to Louvain-la-Neuve as LLN for the rest of the blog, because it is a lot to type). LLN is a city that is built around a university, and it is a pedestrian city with most of the traffic and parking lots being underground. We walk everywhere here. I feel like we walk 100 miles a day (slightly over-exaggerated). While we are here we are staying with different students in the SFC (which is Students for Christ which is the European version of our Chi Alpha campus ministry) in their kots (that is what dorms are called here), and every night we are cooking for the students. We are cooking American food every night and the SFC students invite their friends and cokottas (which are the other students in their kots), and this helps them gain new members and spread the gospel by forming relationships with new people. Afterwards, we hang out with the students on campus until it is time to go to bed. Tuesday night we met at the Bonin household where they fed all the students and us. Last night we cooked tacos, tonight we are making bbq chicken, and tomorrow night we are making breakfast for them. During the day, we are promoting the Maze which is an American illusionist that shares his testimony while he does magic. The show is on Saturday night and we promoted it on campus today, and the next two days we will be in Brussels promoting it. Everyone is starting to arrive for dinner, so au revoir until next time!