Paris to Vienna to Martin....A Day of Travel and Celebration!

We made it to Slovakia today! Yay!

After spending the past few days in Paris exploring the Metro, the historical monuments, museums, Versailles, the Seine River, the Latin Quarter and many other places, we departed from our wonderful hotel in Paris, Hotel Cecilia, for the Charles de Gaulle Airport to catch our flight to Vienna, Austria.
While waiting to board, Breck did his special historical 4th of July devotional. The flight was short and once we landed, we were quickly greeted by Michaela! After many excited hugs and exchanges, we loaded into the van and were on our way to Martin! We made a pit stop along the way to have a wonderful picnic lunch before continuing on through the

beautiful countryside.  Along the way, we were greeted by green pine covered rolling hills with castle ruins up top rock outcroppings, fields of sunflowers, small picturesque village with quaint steeples and the river Tah as it snaked around us on the road.

When we arrived in Martin, we were greeted by Bohdan and Tomas and quickly found our rooms so that we could get refreshed before attending the closing ceremony for the VBS that had been taking place all week at the bible school. Well over 100 kids of all ages were on the platforms in many different color shirts. The theme for VBS was God's Promises, which help the kids focus on the future and what God has promised those who follow him. They sang a multitude of songs, some in English, some in Slovak and many that I was personally familiar with and was excited to sing along with them! (Rise and Shine, At a time like this, Praise Ye The Lord, Jesus Loves the Little Children and more!) It was a great presentation of the learning that had taken place in just one short week with all these children. Each had had the opportunity to grow closer to God as well as learn more English through song.

Those in our group that had been on the mission trip in the years past were greeted frequently by friends they had made in years past. Hugs, introductions and conversations were flying until we had to depart back to the hotel to prepare for the evening festivities surrounding the 15th anniversary of the Christian Center for Education. After we were all dressed to the nines, we ventured back over to the School and enjoyed an evening of celebration, music, comedic adventure and scrumptious food and jovial conversations. There are currently three groups from the States here at the Bible School, the Minnesota Group, the Washington (state) Group and the California Group. Each group is here to help the school with different projects and it was a wonderful evening devoted to seeing how the school had grown in part from all the missionary groups that had come through. Of course, we all know that the greater work that has kept the Bible School moving forward are the people who have devoted their life to the ideas upon which the School is based.

Tomorrow brings more celebrations and some free time to explore Martin and prepare for the two weeks of teaching to come.


The following pictures are all from our adventures in Paris!

 Our hotel in Paris

 View from our room, L'Arc de Triomphe is in the background.

L'Opera House

 A statue pointing at the Eiffel Tower

 Having an Expresso with Anne, our tour guide, in Trocadero Square. (Front Joyce, Priscilla. Middle Sara Martin, Anne Back Arianna and Sarah Bear.)

 Open Air Market near our hotel

 Priscilla and Me on a bridge crossing the Seine River

 Locks of Love

Eiffel Tour at Night on our Boat Cruise

Versailles (above) and Neputune's Pool at the Gardens of Versailles

 Dramatic view from Versaille looking down the gardens toward the Grand Canal

 The Colonnade in the Gardens

Fish bowl view of the Gardens

 The Citrus Grove in the Gardens

 Church of Saint Severin

 The Latin Quarter

Notre Dame as the sun finally broke through the clouds!

Hope you enjoyed a whirlwind tour of Paris!

Erica