Changes in Scenery

The last two weeks have been eventful to say the least. With about 1 week left of time in Europe, we got news that my Grams was really sick. She was in the hospital with double neomonia and a bad heart condition. When we heard this, we made a bunch of phone calls that turned into LONG conversations with airlines, insurance and ticket brokers. After a few days and a schedule that's new priority was "get home to grams," we stuck around the Frankfurt Airport to see if we could catch a flight. This is when it got ugly...but humorous. Over the course of 48 hours we were unsuccessful on 3 stand by flights and decided that we needed to save money and didn't want to stay too far from the airport. So what did we do?? Yes, we paid to simply sleep in our rental car in the parking garage of the Frankfurt Airport. It was about 12 degrees outside and after hanging a bunch of my clothes in the windows and waking up every 30 minutes to turn the heater on, we got arguably the worst night sleep in human history. See pics below...





The next morning we actually got the first flight back to San Francisco and after a short time back home in Santa Cruz, we packed up our car and headed down south to San Luis Obispo to see grams. By the time we got there, she had fought her way back to some better health, although still very weak and tired. It was great to get/give some hugs and kisses.



From there we were able to keep heading south down to North Hollywood and spend the night at my bro-in-law Jason's place. It was great to be with him, especially since he is leaving to move to Kansas City tomorrow. We soaked in our time together...



The next afternoon Janny and I drove up the mountain to Big Bear where I was speaking at a Junior High Winter Camp for the weekend. The weather was terrible on the way up(of course driving our Honda with no chains!), but once we got there, it ended up being a beautiful weekend. We were hooked up with a small cabin in the snow and had a great time connecting with students and counselors. Getting back in that context defintely sturred up some memories of all the years we had with our kids at Harbor Chapel. At the same time, watching all that the youth pastors did and were responsible for gave us great peace about our decision to step away from that role/context.

On the way back up north we stopped and gave grams some more love and now we are back in Santa Cruz trying to figure out what life will look like. We are both subbing and I will be coaching a local H.S. golf team starting in a couple weeks. Should be interesting!!

Computer Issues

We have some fun pictures and stories to add, but haven't had the ability because our computer with all of our pics has decided to no longer charge and when it does it overheats. Quality machine. We will get it back soon and give an update. It has been an eventful week or so!

More Travel Pics

Hello all!!

Since our last post we have been the island of Malta, Barcelona and then flew up to Germany where we rented a little car we call Hanz. Pretty funny seeing us drive around in the smallest car in history on the autobahn, with ice and snow all around us. We are now in the town of Heidelberg...Pretty amazing. We ran into a little hostel with a REALLY friendly owner names Martin. Fun talking to him about life, politics and a little about religion. He has a big group from Azuza Pacific coming next week to stay with him for 3 months. Random. Here are some pics.



Janny and I on a lunch boat ride on the Nile in Egypt.



Overlooking the Island of Malta. We were able to go to the shelter where Paul stayed after his shipwreck there.



Playing some cards with our new friends Dan and Monica



Trying to stay warm on a famous bridge in Heidelberg, Germany

Walk Through the Bible

Wow...We haven't had any internet access for a week now and we are currently in a small cafe on the side street of the VERY chaotic Alexandria, Egypt. The past week has been full of unbelievable sites, experiences and conversations. We don't have much time, so we will give a picture tour rather than a written tour. We will write more later, but since our last post we have been to and experienced: Rome, Corinth and Athens(Greece), Ephasus(Turkey), Cairo and Alexandria(Egypt).




At Vatican City just after the Pope came out and held a Mass for the Three Kings holiday.



In Ancient Corinth where Paul spent alot of time. This is in front of the Temple of Apollos.



Standing on Mars Hill where Paul preached next to the Acropolis in Athens.



Standing on street in front of the ancient Library in Ephasus where Paul once walked.



Janny and I on a camel in Cairo overlooking the Pyramids and the Spinxs

Montserrat, Spain

This will be a quick one as we are packing up a our backpacks and have to catch a train in a few minutes.

We are up in the mountains of Spain in a small town called Montserrat (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montserrat). It is known for its monastery that sits atop the cliffs overlooking the town. It is a small town of about two thousand people and we are staying in the one an only hostel in town. It is a beautiful place. Fog is thick and laying low in the mountains that surround us. There is a river that runs right through the middle of town and the poeple are very friendly. We just finished our breakfast of coffee, juice and crossant that comes with each night of staying here. Good stuff.

Our first night here, while searching for hot water for our cup of noodles we were eating for dinner, we ran into some new friends name David and Juan. They are brothers that were thilled to meet Californian´s. Through our language barrier, we used lots of hand motions and laughed for a couple hours. They want us to teach them how to surf and they made fun of our crappy Spanish skills.

Yesterday we took a cable car up the cliffs to the monastery. Jan was not a big fan of the bouncing, suspended and rusty tin can of a cable car! I wasn´t in love with it myself...It is a couple thousand feet high and it was freezing cold, but full of life and interesting history. There are 80 monks that live there. We brought up a bottle of wine and bread to have for lunch between audio tours that we went on. Incredible art and construction. For the most part, it all had to be rebuilt after WWII.

We still are having some trouble with jet lag...I was reading and writing at 3am. Not easy to wake up once I finally fell asleep.
After two nights up here we are going to catch a train back to Barcelona to continue the adventure. Hope you all are doing well!

Jon and Jan

Trip Update

Well...we are officially traveling once again and we love it. After about 22 hours of flights and busses. We made it to Barcelona, Spain. It was beautiful. Tons of energy and lights in the city for the new year. Of course, we were pretty tired once we got here, so I think we slept through most of the action and woke up before it all got going again. Kinda nice actually.

We love the new perspectives we gain while traveling. We have already had 2 rich conversations that stick out to me. One was with our hostel manager named Fernando. He actually studied in Fresno of all places. Really nice fella, who was really accomodating.

Last night while drinking some REALLY good Sangria on Las Ramblas(barcelona´s most popular street), we invited a gentleman who was selling roses to sit with us. His name was Justice(in English) and was from Pakistan. The conversation started by me declining the option to buy his flowers and he politely asked, ¨Are you another mean American? Why is the world so mad at you?¨ That led to a long conversation on a variety of issues. He was a very humble and understanding man with a very different story than our own. Hard to imagine all he has been through. Ironic his name was Justice.

We are now up in the mountain town of Montserrat outside of Barcelona. Beautiful area, with lots of cool air, rivers and huge mountains.

Hope all are well!