Departure from Europe

So I'm sitting in my room at my cousin Katja's house in Germany looking around at my packed bags and my flight itinerary and can't believe that it has been just over 4 months already! Time sure does fly. I had an amazing month of traveling through Germany, France and Italy with Amy, which was followed by three amazing months of Bible School in the Austrian Alps. I was also lucky enough to spend the last week at my cousin's house and being able to meet many family members for the first time. I will never forget the amazing time I have spent here and can't wait for the new adventures that going home will bring.
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have a wonderful time with your families while celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, the Saviour.

End of Bible School

So sadly my time at Tauernhof has come to an end. It was a life changing experience and worth every minute! In a lot of ways it still feels really strange that I am not there. God worked on my life so much while I was at school. Some of the time it hurt but in the end its all worth it because God is molding me into the person he wants me to be, molding me to reflect the image of Jesus Christ. I know that he still has lots of work to do in my life but it is a process. While I have been at bible school I've come to the realization that often in my life God has become just a part of my life and not my life. One of the speakers, Tobi Kley said "God is a mountain; Our life and goals are an apple tree at the bottom of the mountain. Our lives are way smaller than the mountain. God needs to be the mountain in our lives, not just another apple tree."

My goal as I go home is to keep the focus that God is a mountain in my life, the biggest, most important thing. While living in the mountains every day I woke up and was continually amazed by them and it wasn't like I could just ignore them, because they are kinda big and always there. In the same way I want to be continually in awe of God and his wonders, continually looking to him and finding his beauty. I want God to be my life and not just in my life.

There is this awesome video that shows how I felt at times during bible school as God was working on me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXut0HxncvY&feature=autofb

I have now spent the last couple of days at my friend Jenny's in Germany and today I go to my family here in Germany. Its only 10 more sleeps until I head home.

Love you all and can't wait to see you.

Testimony

Hey everyone! Things are going great out here at Bible School. We are just starting week 9 which is crazy. I can't believe how fast time flies. We have had some awesome lectures and fun times. I am in an outreach group that sings in the hospital and also in local churches. We are doing a service tomorrow in which I am sharing my testimony. I am just going to share it with you as well.

'My name is Esther Reimer and I am from Manitoba, Canada. Growing up my Mom was a great Christian influence in my life and as a result I accepted Jesus Christ into my life at a young age. I really recognized my need for Jesus Christ when I decided to live my life centered on him, which he continually gives me strength to do. Through him I have found purpose for my life, my life is not meaningless but centered on my relationship with Him, His love for me and the plans that He has for me, which in Jeremiah 29:11 it shows his plans are to prosper me, not harm me and to give me hope and a future.

God has really shown his love for me this past year when within the same week my close friend, who was my mentor died, and my nephew was stillborn. During this time of pain I called out to God to comfort me and I felt him comfort me. I could actually physically feel arms wrap around me and comfort me even though there was no one else in the room. But even when I don’t physically feel Him beside me, I know that I can trust God to always be there for me, to strengthen me and give me comfort.

I came to Tauernhof to learn more about God and to spend time focusing on God without my busy schedule of university, work and friends but mainly with the hope of being able to figure out what God wants me to do with my life. While here God has used this time to show me how spending personal time each day with Him, fills me with His Spirit and reminds me to look towards Him for all my needs and that I do not need to look towards anyone else or to anything else in order to fulfill my life and that with all things I should do them to glorify God.

I am excited to go home and take all the things that God has been teaching me here and to share it with others. I want people to look at me and see the joy that God gives me and ask how they too can receive that joy. '

I hope that this gives you a bit of insight into how I am doing and what God has been doing in my lately.

Hello Wie geht's? I'm starting to learn German out here. My new friend Jenny is teaching me. Sadly we get so busy that I haven't worked much on it lately.

Ok so I am the worst blogger ever! Its been so long since my last post! Ok the speakers are amazing and I am learning so many cool things. I can't wait to get home and tell everyone what I have learnt. I am discovering new things about God and the bible. SO EXCITING!!!

God is teaching me so many new things about myself and showing me things that I need to work on in my life. This week the speaker talked a bit about our identity and how we tend to look toward others for acceptance and for our identity. I realize now how much I am doing this and how I need to be looking towards God for my identity!

I am meeting so many amazing people here that I don't know what I'll do when I go home! Sadly my way cool friend Jenny lives in Germany, so I'm sure there will be lots of skype sessions when I go home. There are also so many encouraging people and such a feeling of community that I am really enjoying. People you should totally check out bible school if you think God is leading you in that direction. Its amazing to have so much free time just to focus in on your relationship with God.

So I got interrupted with worship team practice so I totally lost my train of thought in this post.

Hope you all are having a beautiful fall. We are covered in snow here!

Capernwray!

So it turns out that I am really bad at blogging! Most people who are reading this will get a nice slide show of all my pictures (roughly 1100) when I get back. But I'll at least do a little recap.
In Nice we had some very nice weather and hung out on the beach. From Nice we went to Rome and were there from a Sunday evening to a Sunday morning. Rome had so many awesome ruins and churches almost everywhere you looked. We also saw this really cool capuchin monk crypt with bones everywhere! Then we went to Orvieto for a day. Had an amazing view and some really cool underground tunnels. Then we went to Florence and sadly it rained every day but one while we were there. Pisa we went up the tower. And then we went to Venice which was so awesome with all the canals. We then spent one day in Vienna and on the 20th I arrived at school in Schladming. Out of time though for the internet. Will give details in the next post which wont take as long.

Europe Travels

So it has been a long time since I've updated my blog!
So first we were in Berlin, which was a very beautiful city with a lot of history. We started off with a free walking tour which showed us the main attractions and allowed us to figure out what we wanted to look more closely at. Our tour guide was hilarious and couldn't help but bash the French (which he partially was) a few times. While in Berlin we also went to see a concentration camp just outside the city. From Berlin we went off to Bonn and checked out Beethoven's house. Then to Cologne which has the most beautiful dome! While in Cologne we also went to the Chocolate museum (very tasty) and also for a boat ride along the Rhine river. From Cologne we headed to Paris, France. Paris had a lot of stuff to check out and we also went on a free walking tour there as well. The Eiffel tower had an amazing view but there also was this church, Sacre-Coeur, just 5mins from our hostel that was on the top of a hill and gave a beautiful view for free. While in Paris we also checked out the Palace of Versailles, which is huge and the grounds are massive! Last night we took the train to Nice and we are looking forward to some relaxing days at the beach. It is hot out here.
Oh and for all you who are wondering if we've met any european men yet, that is a yes. Amy is able to keep them away because she has a boyfriend but sadly I'm not that lucky. Jean asked me back to his villa where we could get to know eachother better. He was an artist and apparently madly in love with me already. There was also Noel who asked me out for coffee and gave me his number. There is never a dull moment!

The Adventure Begins

So our flight from Winnipeg to Chicago was on a small airplane with only one flight attendant. Mark was not only a flight attendent but also a tour guide and actor. His deminstrations of the seat belt and how the oxygen mask worked was the best I've seen. In Chicago we explored the airport and had lots of fun on the moving sidewalks! We took speed walking to a whole new level. Our flight from Chicago to Frankfurt was long and filled with lots of crying babies with stinky diapers. We watched Monsters vs. Aliens and slept. Luckly our Ipods drowned out most of the noise, but sadly not the smell. We arrived in Frankfurt early and easily found our baggage and hopped on a train to Siegburg, where it wasn't as easy to recognize my cousin who picked us up.

My cousins live in Ruppichteroth, a small village near Köln. We spent most of yesterday half asleep but still enjoyed a walk and some ice cream with Elina, my cousins daughter who is the same age as us, ate some awesome food and went to bed at 8:30.

Today we explored the village by ourselves and didn't even get lost! This afternoon we are going to buy Birkenstocks and then have supper with my Onkel David and Tante Freida.

I'm all packed!!! Documents photocopied, flights confirmed and just working on typing up my itinerary while eating salsa salami. Things were a bit crazy today. Almost broke down and cried a couple times. God is amazing though and each time I cry out to him he's been answering immediately! Back to work though now. Hoping I'll be in bed in about an hour. Pray for a safe flight for Amy and I tomorrow.

Moving

So I'm up early again today because I can't sleep. Its down to 54 hours until I leave! At the moment all my stuff is packed up and ready to move back to Steinbach with my parents. Once I get there all I have to do is unpack, organize my stuff that I'm actually taking to Europe, repack and run a bunch of errands. All this in one day!

Today is a sad day though because I'll be saying goodbye to all my friends for the next 4+ months. I know I will cry! I've made some great friends at Oasis Community Church that I'm going to miss.

My next post will be from Europe! Oh My!

Eurorail Passes

The countdown is on! Less than six weeks to go before Amy and I leave. Today we got up early and bought our Eurorail passes and booked one of our trains.

I have a butt load of stuff I need to buy before I start packing. I also have to figure out what to pack. I'm also trying to decided which backpack to get. Just killed a massive spider, there are way too many spiders in my house! Here are the two bags I need to decide between.

The North Face backtrack 70L for $279.99 from Wilderness Supply

MEC Pangea 75L Travel Pack for $213 from MEC

The beginning!

So this is the start of my blog!  Right now the trip is still being planned but I've bought my tickets and paid for school so it is totally happening!

For those of you who don't know this already, I am going to Europe to do some traveling, visit family and go to Capernwray!  I'm leaving August 18 and will be home Christmas Eve.  I really want to spend Christmas with my family!  I'm traveling with Amy Wiebe, my roommate and friend.  We are going to Germany, France and Italy.  I will be attending the fall Bible School at Tauernhof  in Austria.  I might pop into Switzerland for a weekend during the school term and then after school is over I'm heading back to Germany to meet all my relatives!  I'm excited to meet all my cousins and their kids!  Should be interesting since the majority of them don't speak english!

I'll be using this blog to keep people updated and its so you all know that I'm still alive!  I'll still check my facebook and email but it wont be that regularly.  Luckily most of the hostels I'm staying in and the school has internet.  

I'm so EXCITED!!!  This is just another step that shows I'll be leaving soon.