Lexi Goes Adventuring

Nothing is coincidence.  Nothing is happenstance. Nothing is wasted.  God is going to use all of it. Katie Majors  Sometimes the things we pray for, just don’t work out. It’s painful. It hurts. And it’s not unusual to feel a wee bit angry or upset about it. One of the things I’ve learned though as I’ve dealt with disappointments in life is that nothing is wasted. No situation, no…

And yet there is still hope

January and I have a history of not getting on. Last January was one of the saddest, loneliest. and darkest times of my life. And this January? Well this January will be spent in Lockdown, thanks to the announcement Nicola made earlier this afternoon. While the last few days have been filled with that childlike joy that snow, ice, and this time of year often brings, it quickly disappeared when…

There’s Life Out Here

I’ve been in Scotland for almost two weeks now and in some ways it feels like it has been so much longer, yet in other ways it feels like I’m not even really here at all. Tomorrow marks day 14 and the end of my two weeks of quarantine, so if you happen to see a crazy person running around the Southside of Glasgow, yelling “FREEDOM”, it’s me.

Originally, the plan (or hope rather), was that…

There’s a scene in the 2014 film Kingsman: The Secret Servicewhere about 3/4 of the way through training, the main character, Eggsy, and the other trainees have to HALO (high altitude, low open) jump in order to move to the next phase of selection. One by one they jump out of the plane. Everything seems to be going well until Merlin informs the group that one of them doesn’t actually have a…

Wow a lot has changed since I first started to write this post 2 weeks ago. What started out as a light-hearted post about my summer missions plans has changed in light of the world we currently find ourselves in. Originally I was excited to tell you all about the different ministry opportunities I was planning on being a part of this summer and ask for you prayer and support, and you know what?…

Starting off with a Bang

I know this may come as a surprise to some of you, but for the first time in my life I find myself on an adventure with very little actually planned, and I am a planner. Not only that, but I’m also doing it alone. Now I know you’re probably going “but you go on trips by yourself all the time!” well, yes and no. Flying solo even internationally is nothing new for me, but nearly every other time…

When we go to Scotland as a family, we have one rule: we have to visit a castle every day and we have to sit in a pub every day. Thankfully, neither of these are very hard to find so we tend to do a pretty good job of following it. Since Itty and Erin are basically family at this point, we stuck to the rule and Erin would quite enthusiastically remind us of it about every 5 minutes.

The Saturday morning following Erin, Itty, and I’s adventure in Glasgow, we threw all of our laundry back into our backpacks, hauled our luggage back down the 4 flights of stairs, and took an UBER out to the airport where we collected our rental car. After a quick pit stop at Costco, (because why not?) we found ourselves heading north on the M90 towards Perth for a week of laughs, zero personal space, and of course, castles and pubs.

When Mum and I first visited Scotland back in the summer of 2014, we spent about a week in Perth and absolutely fell in love with the riverside city and the surrounding countryside. Since then, every time we have been back in the country, we have tried to at least drive through the town. It was here last summer that we met the Martins and the Crawfords after a Sunday church service at Tayside Christian Fellowship and first heard from them about camp in Hungary. So when it came to making our plans for this summer, we knew we wanted to be somewhere close to Perth and our friends there. Thanks to some help from the Crawfords, we were able to find a self-catering holiday let just up the hill from the River Tay and Perth, close enough to town yet far enough to feel like you were in the middle of nowhere.

The owners had converted what used to be an old stable block for Kinfauns Castle and turned them into 1 to 4 bedroom holiday cottages. When we originally made the plans and booked the cottage, we weren’t sure if Itty and Erin would be with us for this part of the trip, so we booked the two-bedroom and hoped for the best. If you’ve ever wondered how to fit 3 people in two single beds we would suggest pushing the two beds together, as well as being comfortable with zero personal space, having strong upper body strength to fight for your blanket, and oh bums to crack. It is genuinely a miracle that Erin, Itty, and I not only shared the two single beds but were squished into the backseat of a car for a week and didn’t want to kill each other. In fact, we only aggressively yelled when we decided to give running a try and I remembered a very important fact: I don’t run. 

For the two Sundays that we spent in Perth, we attended Tayside Christian Fellowship and spent the afternoons with the team that had been at Camp with us. I think being back with our friends from Camp was something that we had been looking forward to since we had left Budapest the previous week. After lunch at Jim and Carolyn’s, we gathered our bags that they had so kindly brought back from Hungary with them, and set about the task of washing ALL of our stuff. It seems that the day the Scottish team flew back to Edinburgh, it had absolutely poured, soaking everyone’s bags. Unfortunately, ours, even though they were hard-sided had not managed to stay dry. For the first part of our week at the holiday cottage was spent with nearly every piece of clothing we had with us strewn out on every possible surface in an attempt to dry it. Thankfully in all of the loads of laundry we did, only one pair of red socks snuck into a load of whites, so with pink-tinted clothes we set about to achieve our goal of a castle and a pub a day.

You’ll be happy to know that we achieved our goal of a castle and pub a day. We spent hours wandering the halls and gardens of Glamis Castle, the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Scone Palace, the crowning place of Scottish kings, and Blair Castle with its giant trees, amongst others. For us, it doesn’t really matter if it is an ornately decorated palace or ruins in a field, we love all castles equally. Just like we love all fuzzy Highland Cows equally. If you know me, you know I absolutely LOVE Highland Cows. From their wee legs to their fuzzy hair and everything in between. I may or may not have cried the first time I saw one in person 5 years ago. One of the things Erin and I discovered early into our friendship was our mutual love of cows, so one of the most important items on the list for Scotland was to see a Highland Cow. I wish I could share all of the pictures I took of her in the buildup to seeing these cows, but there simply isn’t enough room. It’s the little things in life that bring so much joy. Oh, and if you’re looking for gift ideas for either of us in the future, a fuzzy cow will do.

Mum, (and now Itty and Erin as well), are huge fans of the book and TV series Outlander, so when we found out that one of the towns used for filming wasn’t too far from us in Perth, we knew we had to go. Culross is this adorable, picturesque town with narrow cobblestone streets, ruins of an abbey, and a quintessential pub. It’s almost as if it has been entirely unaffected by life outside the city walls and it is just the same as it had been almost 400 years ago. Even though we blatantly ignored the menacing rain clouds on the horizon and ended up in the pouring rain, Culross was absolutely worth it.

While all of the touring was great, it was the evenings we spent with our friends that were the best part of the week. During the 7 days we stayed at the holiday let, we had the opportunity to see many of our friends who lived in the area and have them over to our little cottage either for dinner or just a drink afterwards. From silly jokes to discussions about theology or just local history, we covered it all. It really is the people that keep us coming back every chance we can get.

To more castles and pubs in the future,

Lexi

Songs for Scotland pt II:

Smack That – Akon, Eminem

Senorita – Camilla Cabello, Shawn Mendes

Lift Yourself – Kanye West

Sweet But Psycho –  Ava Max

If you know me, you know I love Scotland. The green hills, the food, the weather, (yes, the weather), but most importantly the people. No matter how much you love a place, it’s the people that keep you coming back. They’re the ones you connect with and build a relationship with.

Since we spent close to two weeks there this time, I’ve decided that the best way to go about this is to split the trip into two parts: Part I being our time in Glasgow and Edinburgh and Part II during our week in Perth. Otherwise, you’d never get through it.

As our plane descended into Edinburgh Airport, you could feel the excitement of Erin and Itty sitting next to me as they caught their first glimpse of the countryside sprawling out in every direction. None of us could stop smiling, Erin partially because she had just been reading Outlander and was dreaming of Jamie, while I couldn’t help but feel like I was home. We walked down the steps onto the tarmac, doing our best princess wave on the way, and were greeted by the cool breeze that let us know we most definitely not in central Europe anymore.

Because our flight out of Paris had been delayed and we landed later than we had anticipated, we spent our first evening in Edinburgh doing what we do best; sitting in a pub, people watching and eating good food. We checked into our Airbnb, which much to Erin’s disgust was on the top floor of a building with no lift, and set out to find a pub and see a wee bit of the city before the sun went down, which thankfully isn’t until nearly 11 in the summer.

Our first full day in Scotland was just that, full. We set out from our flat decently early and headed for the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle. Since Mum, Dad, and I had already seen the castle and are pretty familiar with the Mile, we set Erin and Itty loose to see the crown jewels and learn about the history of Scotland. While they were in the castle with the rest of the tourists, the rest of us meandered down the Mile and took in the sights of the Fringe Festival which kicked off that day. We also made a pit stop at the famous Elephant House coffee shop, the “birthplace of Harry Potter.”

Erin and Itty caught up with us after a while and we turned our sights on Holyrood Park and Arthur’s Seat at the top. In some ways, this was one of the most exciting parts of the trip for me because I managed to hike all the way up and down the hill without turning an ankle, which is not something I would’ve been able to say before ankle surgery in March. Oh, and the views from the top are SO worth it. From Arthur’s Seat, you get the best view of Edinburgh and Leith spreading out beneath you and the Firth of Forth. I think it would have been all too easy for us to just sit up there the whole day listening to Josh Garrels and enjoying the view, but we had things to do.

Once we knew the exact dates of our Scotland portion of the trip and where we would be for most of those days, we set about trying to meet up with some of the team that had been in Hungary with us, specifically, the guys in Glasgow. After some slight teeth pulling and back and forth, we managed to arrange to meet them in town that evening for dinner. So after a late lunch with Mum and Dad, the three of us girls grabbed a train from Edinburgh Waverly bound for Queen Street and Glasgow. With the expectation bar set low and no clue what our evening would hold, we sat in the beautiful sunny in George Square and waited to see how exactly this evening was going to go. The general consensus between the three of us was that if they bailed straight after dinner, we were just going to go out and enjoy Glasgow for ourselves because we paid for those train tickets, darn it.

You’ll be happy to know that our back-up plans and slightly salty attitudes were not needed. We had our last few moments of doubts as we watched the boys walk up to us looking like we’d shaved their highland cow, but those feelings quickly evaporated. Even though they had only just landed back in Glasgow from Hungary the afternoon before, Kieren and Gregor were willing to give up their Friday night to show three crazy Americans around Glasgow.

I fell in love with Glasgow that night like I never had before. The boys took us on a grand, albeit slightly unexpected, walking tour from George Square through Kelvingrove Park to the West End, all the while telling all sorts of ridiculous stories and catching us up on all that had happened in the week since camp. I could so easily go on an on about the different conversations about football and growing up in Glasgow and all that we managed to do in the 6 hours we spent in Glasgow, but that would have to be a post all on its own or we’d be here all day. All I’ll say is that I’m hugely thankful for friends who give up their evening to make us laugh and take us for pizza and gelato. (Stick a churro in it.)

When we left on the last train back to Edinburgh that night, we had no expectation of being back anytime soon.  Yet a week later we found ourselves surrounded by the sights and sounds of Glasgow once more. Kieren graciously sacrificed his peace and quiet on a Saturday morning to pick Erin, Itty, and I up from the train station and take us to a football (soccer) match with him and his Grandad. I’ve probably said it dozens of times at this point, but I’m genuinely so shocked by the boys’ willingness to spend extended periods of time with us.

Kieren has supported Alloa Athletic his entire life and spends his Saturdays from August to May traveling up and down the country supporting them, so when he asked if we wanted to make the trek to Greenock with him, we jumped on the opportunity. He even managed to pull a few strings and get us free tickets (Thanks, Gordon!).  As someone who absolutely loves football and tries to watch it as often as I can, I’d been looking forward to Saturday since we made the plans earlier in the week. While Erin had seen a US Women’s National Team match before, this was Itty’s first experience with the world of football. She spent the whole 90 minutes fully engaged in the match and asking every question she could. Although Alloa unfortunately didn’t pull out the win, we had a great time cheering on the wasps and I think we made Itty a football fan along the way.

We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening just hanging out with Kieren’s grandparents and then the four of us grabbed dinner together before Kieren dropped us off at the station and we rode the 45 minutes back to Perth. Since Erin and Itty had decided to spend the last few days of their trip before they flew out on Thursday Glasgow, I planned on going back down with them for the day that Monday so we all knew we would be back in less than 48 hours when we said goodbye Saturday night.

Monday morning just after peak hours we drug Erin and Itty’s cases to the station in Perth and were once again headed for the now-familiar Queen Street station in Glasgow. Because they couldn’t check into their Airbnb until later that afternoon, we checked their bags at the station and set off in search of something to do for the day until we were to meet up with Stevie. We originally set off for the Botanical Gardens since it was the one thing we hadn’t seen the Friday evening we spent with Gregor and Kieren, but instead found ourselves in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum out of the rain. If you’re looking for something to do in Glasgow on a rainy day, the art museum is free and in my opinion way better than our adventure at the Louvre had been.

Stevie met us at Kelvingrove and after a bit of a laugh trying to get a taxi in the rain, we headed once again to the West End and a cozy coffee shop. I think one of the reasons I love Glasgow and Scottish culture so much is because when we met up with our friends, there was never a feeling of being on a schedule and that they only had 30 minutes to see us before heading off to something else. We probably spent close to 3 hours that afternoon just sitting in Kothel chatting with Stevie about anything and everything like we had known him forever.

A little after 4 that afternoon we collected Erin and Itty’s bags from the train station and walked to 10 mins to their Airbnb in the Merchant City district. Once we managed to fix the bed after I broke it, (oops…) we went out in search of dinner before meeting up with Kieren at quite possibly the coolest bar I’ve ever been too. Two words: Gin. Bar. Oh, it was absolutely incredible. The menu was about 50 pages long and filled with dozens of different regional gins, tonics, and mixers. All-in-all, I think Glasgow has very easily become one of my favourite places in the world. The best part of the whole thing? Kieren doesn’t even really care for gin.

As I said goodbye to Itty and Erin and climbed on the train back to Perth that night, I couldn’t help but debate the idea of not boarding the plane the following morning and just figuring out how to stay in Scotland forever. I did board the flight the next day but was already making plans to be back in December.

Songs for Scotland:

Heaven’s Knife – Josh Garrels

Belter – Gerry Cinnamon

Real Love Baby – Father John Misty

  Lexi

    10 points to whoever guesses where the title is from.

Our flight landed at Charles de Gaulle (boke) at about 8 in the evening on the 30th of July and we emerged into the surprisingly chilly, smoke-filled air of Paris. Doing our best to avoid what quite possibly could have been a group of professional chain smokers, we grabbed an UBER into the city and headed for the home of our friends. Jean and her husband Philippe were kind enough to open their home to the insanity that is Erin, Itty, Mum, Dad, and I and allowed us to stay with the two nights we were in Paris. To give a little background, Mum and Jean had gone to high school together in Kansas and reconnected a few years ago while they were both back in Manhattan. We even got to see Jean and Philippe this past March at a wedding and shared with them our summer plans and they graciously invited us to come see them.

After the mission trip to London last summer, Erin was able to spend a few days in Paris and help Jean bake cookies at her shop in the 2nd district. She was probably the one most excited for this part of the trip and specifically about being able to go back for a few days to introduce Itty to Jean, and show us the city she had fallen in love with. All she had talked about since we had booked the flights from Vienna were the pastries, cookies, and wine, so you know we were all on board with that.

Since we really only had one full day in the city, we were determined to make the most of it. Paris is one of those cities that does not really wake up until around 11 which gave us the chance to take the morning slow and meander around the 2nd district, searching for baked goods and coffee. I went into this part of the trip realising that there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to make it through Paris without eating gluten and resigned myself to that the first night when we had pizza. I embraced the pain and ate the best cookies, pastries, and crepes I’ve ever had and honestly, loved every minute of it. Now, I’m not saying this just because I might be slightly biased, but next time you go to Paris, you HAVE to go to Jean Hwang Carrant for cookies. I still dream about her amazing Nutella cookies.

Once the city, and us, had come alive, we took our time taking in the architecture of the picture-perfect Parisian streets and the bustling life that filled them. We walked through the Galeries Lafayette with its stunning stained-glass dome and stopped by Jean’s pop-up shop in the Citadium near the Opera house to refuel after our walk. (I’m not kidding when I say these cookies are fantastic.) About mid-way through the day, Mum and Dad went their own way while the three of us set off in the direction of Notre Dame and hopefully, food. Once again we were reminded of the fact that Itty does not like our tendency to power walk. After a sad viewing of the cathedral and a disappointing lunch, we caught the metro in the direction of the Eiffel Tower with a stop to the grocery for wine and cheese on the way. Avoiding the mass number of tourists and dog poo, we spent the afternoon on a bench people watching and most likely being people-watched until Mum and Dad called to tell us they were underneath the tower. We had planned to walk back toward the Louvre together, but Itty, Erin, and I were in such desperate need of the bathroom at this point that we told them we’d see them there.

After we each spent €6 on Cokes for the sake of a clean bathroom, we hopped on the metro and rushed to the Louvre for our 8pm booking to tour the museum. While we were looking forward to the wide range of art the museum had to offer, we all know why we were really there. The Mona Lisa. Like any normal museum, they gave us a map as we entered and it even showed us specifically where she was supposed to be. Now, we were on a wee bit of a timeline since we had dinner plans in place but we still had time to take in a decent amount of what was on display. We scanned our tickets and started off for the Renaissance paintings, taking our time to stop and look at the sculptures along the way. There was a surprising amount of people at the museum for 8 o’clock on a Wednesday evening so it took us a little longer than anticipated to reach the correct room only to discover upon arrival that the Mona Lisa had in fact, been moved. Oh yes, instead of being in the room on the first floor of that wing, she had been transported to a room on the second floor of another wing. The map had lied.

Slightly annoyed, we turned ’round, grabbed Mum and Dad, made our way back downstairs and out of the wing. Halfway through the atrium, Dad tapped out and found a bench to sit on while the rest of us, with determination in our hearts, scanned our tickets for a second time and rode the escalator up. We get to the first floor and see a sign with a photo of the Mona Lisa and the number ‘2’ and an arrow pointing in the direction we were to go. Promising, right? Wrong. We rode the escalator to the second floor only to discover that we had to keep going up. 5 floors later, we made it. We wound our way through the ropes, excited about the chance to finally see what is probably the most famous painting on Earth. We had so many questions in our heads, “how big is it really?” “Does she smile?” “How do her eyes follow you everywhere?!” We turned the corner and there she was….well, I think. She was so far away in a giant glass case and security kept yelling at us to move even though there were only a handful of people in the room. We took a couple of blurry photos, tried to see if she smiled, and were shoved out of the room. All of that for a total of 30 seconds and a few blurry selfies. “Ballad of Mona Lisa” by Panic! At the Disco may or may not have been passive-aggressively played on Spotify as we walked down the 6 flights of stairs to the atrium.

After what seemed like forever to get out of the museum, we walked back to Jean’s where we ate dinner with her family and laughed about our recent trip to the Louvre and shared about the week we had at camp. The next morning we said our goodbyes to the family and caught our UBER back to the airport anxious for the beautiful, green countryside of Scotland that was waiting for us.

  Lexi

  This was also the part of the trip where we started to collect songs that represented different stages of the trip. For those of you interested, in Paris we had:

Au Revoir (Adios) – The Front Bottoms

The Ballad of Mona Lisa – Panic! At the Disco

Phantom of the Opera               (duh)

Now this being my first time in Vienna, I had very little idea of what to expect and pretty much all of it was based on the WWII reading I’ve done in my life. I expected the city to have modernized over the years, but I was genuinely surprised to see how it has almost split into two cities; Old Town with its historic buildings, narrow streets, and a wide variety of architecture, and the skyscraper-filled, steel city built further down the river.

We got off the bus and immediately set out to conquer the metro system and make it to our Airbnb. Everything was going smoothly, we bought our tickets, we caught the correct train going in the correct direction, and we had only wanted to fight one rude person. Now see here’s the thing, in almost any other European city I’m able to use the wonderful, magical app that is CityMapper. It’s clear, it’s easy, it tells you the exact time your bus/train/boat/space ship will arrive, it tells you exactly what colour the line is and it even tells you how many croissants you’ve walked off. Seriously, it’s great. Vienna however, for whatever reason, is not included in the list of cities which means we had to rely on the somewhat spotty service of Google Maps. This is where we ran into a small hiccup in our quest to find the flat. We rode the 3 or 4 stops to Schwedenplatz where we needed to switch lines to ride another 3 stops. It’s important to remember that wonderful, magical CityMapper tells you the COLOUR of the line to get on. Well, Google Maps does not. No, instead it tells you some random colour for the line with the name (ie U1) in very tiny letters that easily gets overlooked in the madness of trying to navigate public transport in a city you’ve only just stepped foot in. Oh, and it tells you that that specific train line doesn’t come into that station and you’re going to have to change stations. Lies. So we drag our bags, which thankfully were fewer and lighter because the AMAZING Scottish team took our two big bags back with them and we crammed just enough clothes and toiletries for 5 people for a week in backpacks and carryons, out of the station, over the tram tracks, and across the street to the river just to realize that we were actually supposed to be in that station. So I’m sure much to the amusement of those around us, we drug our stuff back across the street and the tram tracks and once more found ourselves standing in Schwedenplatz Station. So here is my shameless plug for CityMapper: get it. From there we had no major issues getting to the flat (well except for the fact that I apparently kept booking places on the top floor in a building with no lift…) and were soon showered and ready to go again.

As much as we love touring and seeing the sights, our main reason for coming to Vienna was to see friends. Becca, Phil, and their adorable kids have been living and working in Vienna for almost two years.  I’ve known the two of them since I was in late middle/early high school but it had been almost 6 years since I had last seen them. It was special to be able to spend time with their family in the city they now call home as well as hopefully be an encouragement to them as living overseas can oftentimes feel lonely and unrewarding. We were able to do dinner with them our first night in Vienna and met them the next day at Schonbrunn Palace.

Just like in Budapest, we grabbed a bus tour that Monday morning and used it to take us out to the palace and to get a feel for the city. Unlike our bus tour in Budapest however, this one I would not recommend. While you did get to see a decent amount of the city on the two routes it ran, the audio tour went into very little detail of the actual history of the city and instead went on and on about the same two composers. That’s all well and good, but there is a lot more to a city than two or three famous people. The best part of the whole tour was getting to see the architecture and street art on the way out to Schonbrunn. The palace itself sits at the base of a hill with the city sprawling out into the distance behind it. Even though it was an incredibly hot day (by European standards), we wandered around the grounds and climbed to the top of the hill to see the views.

After our time looking at the various sculptures and manicured gardens at the palace, we caught the hop-on-hop-off bus back to Old Town where we could change routes. Here’s where the already meh tour got worse: It was only supposed to be 6 or 7 stops back to where we needed to switch routes but because our lovely bus driver decided to get off and smoke a cigarette or twiddle his thumbs for 15 mins at every stop, it took us nearly an hour and a half. By this point, we were all tired, hungry, hot, and ready to be back at the flat. We eventually made it to the stop where we needed to switch buses and then had to wait another half an hour before it arrived. Slaphappy is the only way to describe how we were feeling. Backstreet Boys may or may not have been sung in the street and a tear may have been shed. We did finally make it back to the flat and were able to cool off and relax a wee bit before Mum and Dad headed off to watch the boys for Phil and Becca while Erin, Itty, and I made our way back to city centre.

We spent the next day just hanging out and finally made our way to a body of water to relax at, which is something Erin, Itty, and I had been trying to get to since we left Budapest. That evening we said farewell to Vienna and caught a flight to Paris and the next part of our adventure.

Things we learned during our time in Vienna:

Itty is not a fan of the fact that Erin and I not only enjoy walking cities but that we have a tendency to power walk everywhere we go. Erin and I are more than happy to walk for hours if need be in order to find the perfect place to sit down, which is exactly what we did. Itty, on the other hand, would have preferred that we take the 15 min metro ride and skipped the whole walking-through-the-city thing. 

Public beaches are a God-send when you’re in desperate need of a body of water and a place to relax. At €2 a person, a nice nap on the riverbank in the sun is the perfect way to enjoy Vienna without running around like a crazy person.

If you have time, try to see something arts-related such as the Lippizaners at the Spanish Riding School, the Vienna Boy’s Choir, or one of the many art museums throughout the city.  Schonbrunn is worth it but the bus tour isn’t. 

See you in Paris,

Lexi

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

Psalm 139

  CAMP

Wow. Just wow. When we embarked on this journey a month ago, I had no idea what was in store. All I knew was that we were meeting up with a team from Scotland to help run an English camp in a little town in Hungary and what I’ve seen is God work in ways far greater and higher than I could have ever imagined.

After our few days of rest and exploring Budapest, we caught the train (well a horribly hot and smelly bus and then eventually a train) to Miskolc in the northern part of the country where we were met by Dave, an absolute gem of a Scot who roped us into this adventure, and the Hungarian pastor Atilla, and his wife Margaret. We made a few pit stops to pick up some last-minute supplies and a birthday cake for Gregor before we headed the 45 mins further north into the green mountains of northern Hungary for the little village of Bodvaszilas. As we stepped out of the minibus in Atilla and Margaret’s yard, there was this oddly comforting feeling that washed over us. This is where we are supposed to be. From the minute we stepped out of the vehicle, we were welcomed by a small crowd of thick Scottish accents and hugs from all ’round. I have never in my years of ministry seen a team connect as well or as quickly as we did with the team of Scots, Hungarians, Slovakians, and Czechs. There was none of that awkwardness or standoffishness that often comes with the territory. We were made to feel a part of the group and it wasn’t too long before I came to love them as if I had known them all my life.

Since we arrived on that Saturday afternoon/early evening, we had some time to get a little bit acquainted with the local area before we launched headfirst into camp the following day.  While camp itself didn’t technically start until Sunday evening, our duties started bright and early Sunday morning with church where we were responsible for leading worship and then down at camp where we finished the last few details of set up as the kids began to arrive.

As this year was the 10th anniversary of camp, things were a little more special than the previous years. As someone who was just having their first experience at camp, it was so cool to hear the stories and see how God has worked through camp in this little town near the Slovakian border and in the lives of people that live in the surrounding areas.

Somewhere between 140 and 150ish kids attended camp this year, but the impact on the community doesn’t just stop there. In some form or fashion, either through the cultural nights like Scottish night or American night, or the concert put on in town on Thursday, or even just afternoon sports down on the football pitch, we would end up with locals joining in on the fun. Not only is that a huge outreach, but this is the second year in a row that a group of Chinese Christians from Budapest have driven the 3 hours to be a part of what God is doing there. Standing around camp you had a glimpse of what Heaven will be like; people from all different backgrounds, cultures, and languages coming together and laughing and worshiping the same God.

The Sunday through Saturday of camp was absolutely non-stop. We were up by at least 8 every morning for team devotionals before heading down the hill to camp where we would do breakfast with the kids, followed by a wee bit of free time and then morning activities. As a way to sort of wake the kids up and get everyone hyped for the day, we would start off with singing, silly games with Stevie, a quiz, and even a small attempt at Zumba with Gregor. (please, no more squat pulses.) We would round it out with a short testimony and then split off in our respective age groups for games and lessons.

Since the kids at camp ranged anywhere from 4 to 18+, each group functioned a little differently. While the younger kids focused more on games and crafts to tell the stories of the week, the older ones had more discussion. Our theme for the week was “ARE YOU WITH ME?” to which we would respond “I AM with you.”. We took our theme from Psalm 139 about how no matter what you have done in your life or where you find yourself, God is always with you. Even in the darkest valley, even on the tops of the mountains, He is there. To illustrate this, we taught the lessons of The Rich Young Ruler (Mark 10:17-31), The Woman at the Well (John 4:4-26), Peter denying Christ (Luke 22:54-62), and Zaccheus the tax collector (Luke 19:1-10). All of these people had made mistakes and many of them in the eyes of the world were beyond redemption. Yet Jesus took time to speak to every one of them and offer them the chance at forgiveness. Each evening after games and free time, we would gather in Atilla’s church for evening worship and evangelism where we would sing a few songs and then hear a message on the lesson that we had covered earlier in the day. When Friday rolled around, we had come full circle back to Psalm 139 and Christ’s love for us.

After evangelism in the evenings, we would go back down to camp for cultural nights and on Thursday, we had a concert in the town hall where a popular Hungarian Christian singer came and lead worship for us. Friday evening as kinda the pinnacle evening, we lit a bonfire and spent the evening chatting with the friends we had made through the week. Even though I don’t speak Hungarian and many of the kids only spoke a little English, it was super cool to see how you don’t have to have a common language to have a connection. It was a good reminder to step outside of one’s self and allow God to work in the space left. Mind the gap. 

I want to say a HUGE thank you to each and every one of you who prayed for us while we were at camp. It means so so much to all of us and I want you to know that your prayers worked. There is no way any of us should’ve had the energy to go at the week like we did or have the intentional conversations or the connections we did if not for God. Being involved in missions doesn’t just mean you have to get on a plane and fly across the world. There is so so much more to it than that and I want to thank you for going on this journey with us. 

We are already making plans to be back at camp next year, and God willing, we will have the privilege see most of these people again!

  Are you with us?

Lexi

Also, huge shoutout to Kieren for making the camp video this year! If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, definitely take a look, it captures the week beautifully. 

We spent most of the day wandering around the historic royal palace that sits on a hill overlooking the Danube River and the Pest side of the city. What was once a sad, derelict residence in disrepair is being lovingly restored and maintained as the Hungarian National Gallery. From the palace, there are stunning panoramic views of the city and the many bridges that connect the Buda and Pest sides. From there we say the Citadel on the hill and made sure we stopped by Heroes’ Square on the recommendation of a friend (thanks, Cynjn!). For being a large, metropolitan city of 2 million people, it actually never felt crowded or difficult to get around.

I feel like Budapest is one of those hidden gems of a Europen city that is finally starting to get the attention and respect it deserves. Every meal we’ve had here, from shawarma kebabs to spaghetti carbonara to risotto, has been fantastic, and we even found a gluten-free bakery just down the street from where we are staying (!!). The streets are clean and the architecture stunning with its history told in every building you walk by. I’m super glad we have been able to spend some time here exploring before we take a train to the countryside tomorrow and that we will be back in a week.

Tomorrow afternoon we will catch a train to Bodvaszilas near the Slovenian border where we will meet up with the Scottish team and finish the last few final details before camp starts on Monday. This weekend is really a time to focus our attention fully on God and what he has prepared for us in the coming week.

First, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has been and continues to pray for us. I am blown away by you and the love you have shown us. We have definitely seen God’s hand in the trip already and are so so thankful for your prayers. Secondly, please continue to pray for us, specifically as we prepare for the week of camp. We currently are expecting between 150 to 160 kids and are expecting a few more to join us in the next few days. Please join me in praying for everyone that will be joining us that the Lord would just speak to their hearts and that he would be in the midst of all we do. Pray that we as leaders (American, Scottish, and Hungarian), will be effective in sharing the love of Christ and that we will let his light shine through us and not be ashamed. Dave and the team have been working on this since last year and we are so so excited and thankful that we are able to join them on this adventure.

Adventuring on,

Lexi

Two Weeks to Hungary

Dear friends and family,

It is hard to believe that we are a little over two weeks out from our trip to Hungary! It feels like just yesterday that it was January and we were just starting to dream about the possibility of this trip and now here it is. As a team, we are in the last stages of planning and finalizing our mental packing lists before we throw it all into a suitcase and hit the ground…

One of the coolest parts of the day, (and that’s saying something because there was a taco bar and buffalo dip (if you’re looking for ideas, taco bars. just saying)) was having the opportunity to see people I hadn’t see in years. I sat there at a table surrounded by people I had gone to middle and high school with and I realized not only had I missed these people but also that no matter what paths we had taken we had all seemed to end up in the same boat. We’ve all finished our undergrads and find ourselves in the real world attempting to make friends and figure out what we’re doing with our lives. Yes some of us have jobs or post-graduate plans, but that doesn’t mean your life it all nice and dandy. You can dream and idealize about what your life will be like when you finish college, but the truth is, you have no idea. No matter how hard it may be at the time, we all agreed that in a lot of ways, college is easy. Friends are handed to you on a silver platter. You don’t have to have the answer to questions about who you are and what you’re doing and no one judges you for it. Eating a weird mix of foods because it’s what you had left in your fridge counts as culinary expertise and mac and cheese counts as dinner and dessert. No matter how much I complained about college and all the times I hated it while I was there, I miss it. There genuinely is no other time like it.

As we sat there talking about college and high school we all seemed to be saying the same things about what we loved and what we regretted during those times. So like the nice organized person I am, I made a list. Really this is more for me than it is for you. It’s for me to remind myself of these things when I feel myself getting panicky or stressy. It’s to remind myself that I’m sure as heck not the only one who feels this way. So here it is, The Things I Need to Tell Myself Everyday.

Stop caring about what people think so much. Yes, you’ve heard it said a million times before, but it’s true. Every single person at that table said that they wished they hadn’t cared so much about what everyone else at school had thought of them and would have done the things they were scared to. They wished they hadn’t just rushed home the minute the bell rang and would have invested more into the relationships they had with the people around them. They wished they had been more of who they are instead of trying to hide it to be “more likable”.

Be ballsy. Talk to that person. Send that text. Invite them out to lunch. The worst they can say is “no” but they could also say yes and you never know what might come from that.

Let go of the bitterness. When I left private school I was mad. I was mad at people there for stupid things and I was mad at the school itself for what I had believed it had done to me. Yes, all of those things I thought may have been true at the time, but it has been 8 years since I left and none of those things matter anymore. The truth is we are all different than we were in 9th grade and you never know what friendships you might reopen because you’ve allowed your perception of this person to change.

That Harry Potter birthday party you threw in middle school and were embarrassed about for the longest time just may be the awesome birthday party people remember. Ok so this one is super specific to me but it’s true. For years I was embarrassed about what people thought of me or remembered me by because of the parties I had had when I was in middle and high school (yes it’s stupid I know but my brain really likes to latch on to specific moments to torment me about) but what I found out this weekend is that those embarrassing moments for me maybe some people’s favourite memories involving you. Whether it’s the handmade wands you gave out as party favours or Corey yelling “DO YOU RECANT” at what I can’t even remember, you never know what people hold on to.

And most importantly, reach out. Follow up. If you say you want to get together, don’t just say it and never act on it. Call that friend. Ask about that job interview. Get coffee. It may be slightly awkward at first but it never hurts to be a decent human being and genuinely care about the wellbeing of others.

Actually the real most important one: God always has you. He is ALWAYS there and he doesn’t care if you have a job in your degree field and make tons of money or if you work part-time and live with your parents. He loves you so much and in the end, he’s all that really matters, so why aren’t we living for him?

So here’s to you, the ones who have been through it all with me. Thank you for continuing to make me look at myself and desire to be a better person and thank you for all the years of friendship we’ve been through and hopefully the many more we have to come.

Lexi

Last summer, the fam took a week long vacation to Scotland with one of my brothers and my sister-in-law. If you ask us, we would probably tell you that Scotland is our favourite place on earth and we would be there all the time if we could be. So since we were already in the UK for our missions trip to London, we decided to take some time for ourselves and drove (yes, drove) north for the week.…