India

The people and country of India have left a huge impact on my heart forever. For the sake of the safety of the national believers and church in India there are many stories and photos I will not be able to share publicly online. While believing and sharing the gospel is not illegal in India we learned there is still active persecution of Christians in India.  Once you choose to be a Christian in India you give up your caste (social status) and are demoted to the "Christian caste" and while Christianity is not a caste by any means this category effects every aspect of life in India. I have grown up in the church my whole life and I have even been on many mission trips before. Where this trip differed was the primary purpose was evangelism. This aspect in itself was a huge personal leap of faith and growing experience for me. While in India our team together shared the gospel with 826 people and 260 people turned their faith to Christ in just five short days. 

Doha, Qatar 

We started the trip off quickly with our first taste of "this is not like home" when landing in Doha. Since Qatar is a primarily Muslim country the religious holiday of Ramadan is observed. When the flight into Doha landed we were informed that eating or drinking in public from sunrise (430am) to sunset (630pm) was not allowed because of the fasting period for Ramadan. 

I quickly learned that for my time in India I was going to have to accept the fact an American walking into their villages was similar to a celebrity walking around in America. People would stop in the middle of the street and walk us around introducing us to neighbors and family members and of course everyone ended our time with the same question for a photo. There are probably thousands of photos of our American team throughout India. 

I had heard of Holy Cows before traveling to India but I never expected the sheer amount of cows or the free roaming of cows in the street. The side of major roads would be lined with cows which would then wander into the road. From what I could tell not hitting a cow may be the only traffic law in India, you can even go to jail for the offense so holy cows are no joke. 

Bus adventures: We spent hours traveling  the streets of India as mentioned before I do not think traffic laws exist. Roads were mostly just wide enough to pass oncoming cars by inches (quite literally there were times we had to reverse because our bus was to wide). Also the amount of honking was equivalent to giving a toddler control of your car horn. 

Himalayan Moutains 

Himalayan Moutains

Buddhist temple in Dharamsala, India  

Buddhist temple in Dharamsala, India

Dharamsala, India

Dharamsala, India

Golden Temple in Amristar, India 

Golden Temple in Amristar, India

Pakistan and India border ceremony. The ceremony occurs every day at 6pm and consists of military ritual and crowd chanting. 

Indian Soldiers 

Pakistan (begins at striped building).

Zürich Day 3

Last day of Zürich and the last day of the trip. It's been an amazing ten days exploring parts of Europe. I am so grateful for this experience and the new friends I have made. On our last day in Zürich Emily and I decided to rest up in the morning before our long day of traveling. Before lunch we walked around shopping before heading to Hilti a local restaurant that is 100% vegetarian but also has tons of vegan and gluten free options. The restaurant has the option of buffet style where you pay by the weight or all you can eat for the low Switzerland prices of about $50. In comparison a meal at McDonald's is about $15. I will never complain about the price of food in America again. Nevertheless Hilti food was absolutely amazing and I would be there everyday if there was one closer. After lunch we walked around town before picking up some chocolate and heading back to the hotel. Now this is where the adventure of the day began. We decided to go back up the mountain for dinner but this time we decided to take the train. After trekking up part of this mountain we took a short walk before getting on the rail car. The rail car took us to the top before another short walk to the restaurant. When we attempted to open the door we read the restaurant has unexpectedly closed early. Lucky there was a little park at the top of the hill to pass the time before the rail car returned. By the time we got to the bottom of the mountain it was almost 10:30 so almost all restaurant kitchens we closed. Luckily Hilti was still open so we got the world's best food two times in one day. Currently we are heading back to DFW completely exhausted but with the best memories and experiences. 

What's to come:

Monday morning I start my internship in Plano, TX at East West Ministries. I will be working in marketing and social media as well as traveling on a short term mission trip to India in mid June. 

Hilti Resturant 

The group 

Cheapest entertainment all trip. 

Cable car ride. 

Breathtaking views.

Zürich Day 2

After reading this specific post I'm sure it will be clear why I did not stay up last night any later than I had to to write a blog post. Let me start from actually Tuesday evening when we were discussing our hopeful plans for Wednesday. The idea to go to Üetilberg was thrown out there and we all extremely naive we're excited and ready to go! When we arrived at our end satiation we all got out and started walking up until we found the trail beginning. There were many varieties of paths with different difficultly and length. We're decided to take a bit of a longer path because it was considered easier than most of the other paths. We walked around taking pictures, laughing and having a good time. About two hours lager weal apparently missed where we were suppose to turn to go up and ended up making a giant circle on the bottom portion of Üetilberg. After what was to come that was from then on referred to as our warm up lap. After running into a few joggers, mountain bikers, etc (basically people who knew what climbing up this mountain entailed) we got back on a new path that should get us to the top. We climbed this trail which consisted of either steep incline with handrails or stairs for a good hour or so before reaching a resturant. From there we climbed up even steeper stairs for another 20 min before finally reaching the top. One we got to the top there was another observation tower, for some reason we seem to find those everywhere we go. After we made it to the top we had climbed about 110 flights of stairs accourding to our iPhones. Later that afternoon we decided to take easy and ride the water taxi around in a circle to get some picturesque views before going to dinner. That evening gown when we finally returned to the hotel I had only enough energy to climb in bed. Today (Thursday) Emily and I plan on going shopping and wandering around Zürich before we leave bright and early for the USA tomorrow. 

Views from the warm up lap. 

Before we knew what we had got ourselves into. 

The field was actually an old airport. 

Post warm up lap. 

Views from the resturant. 

Views from the top of Üetilberg. 

If you look closely you can see the alps in this photo by Emily. 

Travel Day & Zürich Day 1

Monday we spent much of the day traveling from Prague to Zürich which is why I did not blog yesterday. After arriving in Zürich we went to dinner before walking across the street to the movie theater to watch Pitch Perfect 2. Zürich is located in northern Switzerland so most people speak German but it's a bit of a Russian Roulette between German, French, and English when talking to people around Zürich. Pitch Perfect 2 was shown in English with German and French subtitles. I do not think I could have picked a more interesting movie to see in an international movie theater. For those who haven't seen the movie there are many cultural jokes made towards both Germans and Americans. The theater was smaller than a typical American theater and there were only about 20 people in our showing so naturally people could hear us talking before the movie and knew we were American. This was quite entertaining when jokes were made and the whole theater would turn and look at us. Also half way through the movie the screen just went black. Everyone else seem to know what was going on as we stared dumbfounded at each other. Literally mid scene intermission was called and everyone just took a little break before the movie picked back up. Tuesday morning we went on a walking tour of Zürich. Switzerland seemed to be picking up on the Texas flood as rain was coming down in sheets during our tour. I did not take many pictures today due to the rain, but hopefully tomorrow the sun will come out! For lunch we went to a restaurant recommended by our tour guide where we got the best hot chocolate ever. Switzerland is appeasing my inner chocoholic quite splendidly. My favorite thing about Zürich so far is the story book atmosphere. Perfect little buildings with flowers boxes snd crystal clear water sprouting from fountains. You can literally drink right out of any of the nearly 150 fountains located around frown. Zürich feels as if we are walking around a perfect Disney movie but man you pay for it here. An average hamburger is about $30 and Starbucks coffee runs about $9-$13. We are praying for sunshine for our day of exploration tomorrow! 

One of about 150 fountains located around town. Water is crystal clear and tastes absolutely amazing. 

Not even rain can get us down!

Hot Coco! 

Zürich, Switzerland

Prague Day 4

This morning we headed out to a little cafe before taking a hike up to Petrin Lookout tower. When I say hike I mean we should have actually brought hiking gear. After spending last summer working in the Ozarks Mountains at Camp Ozark I thought I would be prepared for what was in store today. Let me tell you though cobble stones and incline paths are not the smartest mix. After we hiked up a hill we climbed the spiral stairs to the top of the tower. Picture do not do this places justice at all. The views we got from the castle the past two days were just blown away by the views from the tower. After our hike back down the hill we found the cutest gelato shop. We spent some time relaxing (aka catching our breath) before wandering through local gallery's and shops. Tonight for dinner we went to a restaurant called Švejk Resturant U Karla which makes traditional Czech food all gluten free!  Tonight we are spending the evening packing to wake up bright and early to head to Zürich! 

Petrin Tower 

View of Prague 

Gelato shop! 

Gluten Free Czech Food!