I'm tired, but ready.

Well its over, and its just beginning. In about 4 hours Josh and I will wake up (at 3:45 am) and Leave England... (yeah... sorry I've been behind... I'll tell you how Switzerland ended up and how France was.)

uganda here I come.

(please pray that we will find energy in Christ. Neither of us will sleep much more than 4 hours tonight.)
love you guys...

all the way to the alps

So... lets skip past the boring parts and just summarize my three days in florence and cinque terra. Super hard. I began to be heavily conflicted by the fact that I was backpacking in Europe while people starved. Could I still be in GOD's plan? Needless to say, that question tore me apart, and the wrestling's pain has been ebated by the decision to rejoice in my blessings and redouble my efforts to glorify GOD in everything I do. (Although before we completely skip past those super hard days I will admit that Florence is a lovely, if not very touristy, city, and the beach at cinque terra (which is a collection of 5 villages along the coast of western Italy) was pretty spectacular. The sand glittered. Seriously. The water was torquoise. At one point I had swum out about 40 yards and looked down through the water and could still perfectly see the bottom. So i thought, hm... must be about 8 feet deep. NO. I don't how deep it was but I couldn't reach when I dived down the couple of times I tried.)

Ok... So now we are in switzerland, and it is baller beautiful. Today was the most relaxing, music, bible, prayer. crazy love, napping, swimming, and being amazed by GOD's creation, day yet! Tomorrow I'm going to try to rent a motor bike and rip it up through some mountain trails... ;). Just kidding mom. (well, no not really... it'll depend how much it costs... its better than skydiving though right?)

anyway josh and I have 4 more days in Europe before we travel to Uganda and its good. I'm so excited for the remainder of the time, but I'm excited to move on to what's next to!

thanks for the prayer. It helps. I love you guys.

Drew

p.s. read josh's post. It^s usually most detailed than mine. plus, its funny to compare.

p.p.s. I^m trying to learn not only to love myself, (which has been super hard in the past) but how to obey the command to rejoice in the lord always. NOt that I^m against rejoicing but sometimes we make excuses and take ourselves to seriously or too critically to remember that we're just supporting actors in this wonder, epic, descriptionless, love story.

hey dizzles,

The last two days have been pretty chill. Yesterday we went a just walked Rome for the majority of the Day. We saw a big ole castle and stuffed ourselves on pizza. The Trevi Fountain was also on the agenda so we stopped by and took some pics of that... (honestly, it looked like something that belonged in Vegas, but considering it was designed in the 1630's, its a mountain of impressiveness. Oh, and we stopped by the spanish steps. Lame. (Except for the nearby pirate looking ship with portholes that everyone filled their waters with.)

Last night we had fettucini Alfredo (a rare dish here) and pineapples for desert (a delicacy of sorts.) YUMMY!

Today we traveled to Pompei and Naples (but we're going to skip talking about Naples, becuase I don't want to come across rude.) Pompei was awesome though. Its a huge huge, brilliantly preserved archeological site, and it has a great view. It's just mind-boggling to walk around streets and buildings that could be up to 2500 years old. Also if you remember your history, people died pretty much instantly too. So, they have casts of their bodies... rrrreeeaaaaallllllllllyyyy weird.

Idk... I'm going to keep this post short, I'm kinda tired of typing already and people are waiting. So ciao!

drew

P.S. I began reading the book Crazy Love today. Please pray that GOD can use it to refresh my soul and sharpen my focus. Josh and I are on a unique mission field, and its hard to remember to seek, or even at least grab opportunities (especially when they hit you in the face and you're scared.) Pray that we walk as we should. Thanks.

Tonights post- The Sequel

ROMA!

Yesterday we went to the Vatican. It was big and old. Actually Saint Peter's Basilica is the biggest church in the world filled with lots of statues and paintings (although they weren't really paintings but giant mosaics with tiny tiny nearly unnoticeable pieces.... AMAZING!) I also saw a giant pinecone, lots of latin words, and the sistine chapel, which grew more and more fantastic every minute you looked at it. The whole story behind it just made it better as well. Oh, and just so you know... in the sistine chapel there is also almost as huge painting by Michelangelo called the Last Judgement. Look it up... it's a pretty tubular 40 foot masterpiece. Last night we had lasagna (Stupendous!) and gelato (which tasted like a magically transformed brownie melting in my mouth.)

Today was my favorite day of the trip. We saw ancient Rome. It was so cool to just sit and try to imagine what it must have been like. I'm telling you, to walk among the ruins of the "greatest city on earth" you can't help but appreciate the thing. Not only was everything massive and brilliantly designed, but there were so many flowers and pretty trees that gave shelter from that cancer giving orb of destruction (and life... I'll give it some credit.) The whole day we continuously crept closer and closer to the Colloseum, and to be frank I was nervous it wouldn't live up to its reputation. It did though. The coloseum is stunning. The ancient romans accomplished a stupendous feat in its design and construction. I got jeebers standing on ground level and imagining the place packed with 70,000 people crying for me wreak havoc with my short sword and hide shield. Baller. When I wasn't filled with bloodlust, I was overtaken with curiosity reading every sign talking about the history and functions of the arena. (I have so much to talk about with my younger brother tommy! and don't worry I took close-ups of multiple signs so you can read them too.) Josh and I proceded to bum around the historic district until some night photos presented themselves, and finished tonight with meeting our new roomates (the other 6) and now typing this blog out. haha.

feeling- good, thankful, tired, a little more in rhythm.

GOD is so good guys. I hope for all my friends still in school. The beginning and preparations flow smooth and excitement would be abundant.

welp my extra hour is up. I love and miss you guys.

drew

Tonight's Post- The German-Austrian Connection/How did they solve the problem of Maria? Shoving her off onto the engaged Captain? sneaky nuns

haha. I have 15 minutes on the internet... so here its goes...

We took the night train to munich and were crammed into a sleeping car with 3 new-age super awesome free-thinkers on their way to a psychadelic hippy trance festival in the middle of a forested valley in the name of love. Needless to say they were awesome... we talked about prostitution, the film Zeitgeist... and they showed more love towards me than I did to them. (Not that that's a bad thing but when people personify Jesus more than the christian they're talking too... who was trying really hard too... ugh...its just awesome)

Munich was cool. All of the buildings are at least 5 stories except for their parks, which are one story and multiple times bigger than central park! We saw the Olympic stadium; the huge fantastic, modern, incredible, futuristic temple to the god of BMW; and we picked random german things off the Dinner menu to munch on! (I got the farmer's feast with 4 meats and saurkraut, while josh received some quiche looking things... haha. sucker, should've guessed german better)

The next day we went to Dachau (the concentration camp.) It was unbelievable (in a literal sense.) I walked around numb the majority of the time... finding it impossible to imagine the occurences that took place in the very buildings that I stood in. Sigh... definetly only a conversation for personal interaction, but I will admit I thought alot about the sinful nature that resides in all of us. I felt in my flesh's heart forming rationalizations, and some apathetic darkness wanting to rear its head. Our flesh is a jacked up scary thing... we shouldn't ever think of ourselves above the evils that others have done, becuase that darkest potential resides within each of us.

-------Thank you Jesus for a hope to deliver us not only from the world, but also ourselves------

So.... Wednesday, in an attempt to climb every mountain, we went Salzburg, Austria! Salzburg was the most beautiful city we've been to by far and thankfully my confidence in the sunshine held through the rain threatened! We toured this huge fortress/castles that turned out to be the oldest preserved in all Europe. It was tightizlle. As was the marionette museum... just kidding... freaky little things! After the fortress, I was leading, so we ran down to Nonnburg abbey! (Sound of Music... Hello!) Anyways I wish it was one my favorite things... but we went to the wrong side and couldn't get in so we left, (only to realize our grave mistake as we left Salzburg. haha. Super lame in retrospect.) We did however do-re-mi through the park that the kids did in the movie!!! (and I posed on the fountain... the pegasus one.) Oh, and we saw where motzart was born, his first violin, his first piano (with the key's colors reversed...), as well as a slew of other artifacts in his personal museum! Not too bad for 5 hours in a different country, so after we said so long, and fair well, we jetted slowly to Rome.

Whew... at this point I'll admit it. 15 minutes just aren't going to cut it for this post... I still have the last two days in Rome to talk about. So go... take a breather before you read the next one.

oh, and if you're a friend scanning through these the day before I see you again, so you can claim you read them or something... eh! haha. lame.... but thanks for the effort! Love you too.

but to the rest of you... thank you for your prayers and your care. I love you.

drew

Please don't stop the music... or traveling... or suicide pace.

So.... lets recap the last 4 days.

I woke up thursday morning drowsy (probably due to the steroids wrecking havoc on my body in the name of vanquishing my poison Ivy that I contracted on the last day and a half of camp.) and began packing. After a stressfree :) couple hours my mom and dad took me to the airport and said goodbye. It was sad, but not too sad, because it didn't seem real.

Josh and I flew to Atlanta, and then to Heathrow, followed by the underground across london to the train station. We then joyfully/angrily dropped off our extra bags at storage for an arm and a nostril.

We Rode the superfast bullet train to Brussels (It was really cool actually.)

We arrived at 8:00 in Brussels and walked across the entire city, through a carnival, some parks, a sweet palace of justice, and a couple thousand people having a drunken dance party, and before arriving... thanks to a nice pity-filled belgium lady... at our hostel! We ended the night with a walk to the time square, an excited sighting of the MANNEKIN PIS (josh was not nearly as impressed), and delicious chocolate covered belgium waffles!

Saturday I woke up excited. It didn't matter that I smelled, or that our roommate came in quite inebriated (and later conducted a brilliant snoring symphony that I attended... free of charge!)

I was doing it. I was backpacking Europe with a friend, and ultimate freedom was mine.... boooohahahaha (evil/realizing-dreams/childish-joy-filled laugh.) We took lots of pictures of cool, gold old things and then left for Amsterdam.

Amsterdam was pretty awesome. We met up with my cousin Calley and my friend Liz and rented bikes for the day. While riding we saw the sights, ate turkish pizza, fed and cuddled the pidgeons, gaped at the canals, chilled on the roof of the YWAM mission, and then went clubbing. booya.

Today (day 4, Sunday) we woke up, walked late into church, visited a historic Holland village, and took pictures of huge windmills.

Tonight we're hopping on the overnight train to Munich!

Side Note: It was awesome seeing and experiencing things with Calley and liz. It was refreshing and now we share so many awesome new memories! I love them both very much. On a different note, hopefully as josh and I get more comfortable traveling we can start befriending random people. Keep praying that Jesus uses every second of our travels to teach us things and to plant seeds in others. Alot of people here don't even care about being "spiritual," and so I just pray that GOD can use my cowardice heart to at least shine for HIM with my actions.

Overall Feeling: good, tired, a little spiritually/emotionally empty, but excited and searching!

with much love,

drew

First Post!

Hey guys!

Well... since this is my very first post, I want to briefly summarize the manmade plans I have for the next fourth and a half months....

1. Go to Europe with my friend Josh Weed and backpack through Brussels, Amsterdam, Munich, Salzburg, Rome, Venice, Florence, Cinque Terra, Zurich, and Paris... From Aug 6th til Aug 25. (We're hoping to learn alot about culture, GOD, and ourselves during this part of the trip, and I pray that we can be intentional in the moments that GOD provides us the opportunities to share his love and glory.)

2. Fly down to Uganda on the 25th to live with a local family and take classes at Uganda Christian University. My classes will focus on culture, history, religion, and missions. The whole experience is indirectly connected with JBU and designed to put us out of our comfort zone.... but I'll explain more of all that later.

3. On December 18th we will fly to London and chillax until 22nd, when the United States and I will reunite.

Thanks for reading guys, and for those of you who believe that pray changes things (and even those who don't, cause it does) please exercise your gift to talk to our perfect Father! Goodness knows prayer is needed.

I'll miss alot of you guys.

love you,

Drew