Italy and Austria!!

Greetings folks!! Well, I recently ventured from the British Isles over to "the continent"...as you may know, I was asked to teach a class at the Calvary Chapel School of Apologetics in Austria, so I decided to add a weekend in Italy since I have a friend there and I was already "in the area!" Anyways, here are some shots of my little adventure...enjoy!!

To start off, here's a little shot of me in Venice...

...and here are the guys I hung out with! I actually was visiting Dave Downs (left), a friend of mine who is a missionary in Montebelluna, Italy. The Lord is doing a really neat work in that area, and I was able to attend a few Bible studies and such while I was there (unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, oops!). The guy on the right is Daniel, he's a missionary in Hastings, England...we all had a great time hanging out together!

OK so back to more pictures of Venice...for some reason this was the only part of my trip to Italy that I took pictures of, so you're only going to get some tourist shots...oh well!!

This is definitely something you would expect to see in a place like Venice, huh? All I can say is, this guy must have amazing balance! As you probably know, the city is literally built on the water with a system of canals running between the buildings.

Of course, what would a trip to Venice be without seeing some gondolas?

This city has beautiful architecture, like this amazing outdoor staircase!

There also were some unusual sights...like the massive overpopulation of pigeons at St. Mark's Square! If you had any food on your person, you would literally be swarmed by these guys...kinda like this lady is experiencing here! This must be where Alfred Hitchcock got his inspiration for his movie, "The Birds," because it's pretty bizarre!

OK so totally changing gears now...welcome to Austria!! Calvary Chapel owns the castle pictured here; it was originally the first Calvary Chapel Bible College in Europe, but now serves as a retreat center as well as the School of Apologetics. Talk about a prime location--right on the Millstattersee (Millstatt Lake) nestled in the Alps!! What a blessing to be able to go there and enjoy God's creation!

Here's a view of the village of Millstatt...as you can see, we didn't have all sunny days! :)

Here's one more shot of the lake from the Castle!

Of course, I wasn't there to just check out the scenery...I was there to work! :) I actually taught one of my favorite subjects, Missionary Biographies! So here's a shot of my little class, they were such a great group of students! Since the course was condensed into one week, it was a bit of a marathon (two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening), but it actually went very smoothly and I think the Lord used the class to encourage all of us! These folks were definitely eager learners...

...and pretty good ping pong players as well! If there was ever any free time, this is where everyone would be! I definitely improved my skills by hanging out with them! :)

So as you can see, we did get to hang out a bit outside of class...although eating a heavy meal after 10pm at this restaurant probably wasn't the best idea!



So that is my journey to Italy and Austria in a nutshell (believe me, I could show you lots more but I'd get carried away)!! As always, it's such an encouragement to see the work that the Lord is doing all over Europe...and as the time draws near for me to head back to the States, I certainly am thankful to have been a part of the work He is doing over here!!