prague was intense. more on that later. if anyone wants to send us anything though...we would kill for a bag of blueberry bagles...instant pancake mix and syrup.... oh oh annnnd ranch packets. omg they are so needed. more from us later.

sorry we've been soo busy

Greetings from Deutchland. We are learning so much, making new friends and really growing in ourselves and our walk with God. This is such an amazing experience that we get to be apart of, its still hard to believe its real. Havent been out of the castle much lately, been busy with photo classes and such, but this weekend we are going to Prague in the Czech Republic ( my dream come true ) so expect tons of photos!!! Sorry for the short update but just wanted to say hi, send love and update a bit.

Tonight was rad, we started our first Bible study class. Who knew Philemon had so much information in such a small book.

Well there is so much to say, but Ill save that for another day. If you can just keep our hearts and finances in your prayers it would mean so much. Thanks for the support.

Love you all
Irish

Dresden and Herrnhut

little family in Dresden

"Beer Garden" in Dresden

more of Dreseden

House on the main street in Herrnhut

random old greenhouse in town

lovely Hannah at a cafe in Zittau "drinking" hot chocolate. It was like warm pudding.


Today we had our first day of class and made pinhole cameras. It sure was an experience. Gonna try to shoot with them tomorrow. More on that later. Love you all.

Irish

landscape around the castle in Herrnhut, castle is the tallest building on the right.

Corey, weird guy
dog outside of a tat shop in zittau
Dresden train station, Hauptbahnhof.
trees on the way to the castle

Moving day...

Wow, so much has been going on its hard to keep up with it all. Everyday more and more kids have been moving in. There are about 3 guys and maybe 12 girls here so far. I think there will be 40 of us total. There should be majority moving in today and then class starts tomorrow. I have met a bunch of really amazing girls. I can see so far in every way that God is going to use us in establishing relationships and what each girl can bring to this group. Its rad, I cant believe there are more that are going to show up too. Last night the girls moved their stuff into the castle...the castle is the main base, however there isnt enough room to house all 40 of us, so the boys will be staying in town at one of the flats we rent out. I unpacked today and set up my little room area, I feel right at home. This place is amazing, everyone is so nice and so excited for us to be here. Today we are meeting with Rebecca our Co leader she wants Keith and I to help assist in teaching the classes so she is gonna give us a run down of what goes on photowise here. Pretty intense, but I guess its about time we put to use all that Brooks knowledge and actually be able to share it with others.

Well more updates within the next few days. Love you all and miss you. Thanks for keeping up with us and supporting us. If you feel compelled please pray for our finances. We have enough for the lecture phase of the program but by april we are gonna need anouther 2500 each. I know its possible. All is possible with HIM.

<3 Irish

photos from irrish :)

more to come :)

These are pictures from Dresden, the closest "big" city to Herrnhut. Crazy town, we walked around the whole thing one day. Irish will upload her photos of here too.

Well we have finally made it to our base city, Herrnhut Germany. Its a small little village about an hour car ride from Dresden. We spent the last 2 days wandering around Dresden. It was a beautiful city filled with lots of Baroque architecture, it really felt like we were seeing history books come to life. Money ran a little short the past few days. We ate a lot of these jelly doughtnuts that were about a euro a piece and were the size of keith's head. They kept us full for the most part, but I wont be sad if I never have to eat one again. Thankfully money was wired to my account and we were able to splurge on a meal at burger king. The staff from our base picked us up last night and we went back home with them. Keith is being lodged in the mens staff house and I have my own room in the womens apt. Its quite lovely. We had dinner last night with our co leader rebecca, it was so thoughful of her to invite us in and get to know us a little better. Rebecca swears she isnt a good cook (i doubt it, but the girl can bake, WOW) so she had me make the pasta sauce. I would have to say that my weekly cooking lessons with Deb paid off. The sauce was a big hit! Thanks Deb :) We are living here til saturday, thats when we will be moved over to the caslte to live with all the other students. They should start arriving tomorrow and on throughout the weekend.

Would up load photos but its taking too long. Im gonna go wander to the store to get food.

first test of faith

praise jesus! managed to get u bahn tickets that should have been 140 euros for 39 euros. . . guess god swiped his frequent rail riding pass for us...

Dachau Concentration Camp

The little German lady at the front desk said, with chills, that everyone should go one time to Dachau concentration camp so that you could see and respect what went on there.

They said it was a place where you were beat nearly to death if you were caught praying...



Crucifixion

Barracks




Outside of detention cells. far left is the wall where prisoners where executed
Inside detention cells. no light, food every 4 days




Grounds: Barrack remains/foundations and Guard tower
Grounds


Jewish Temple

we made it.

after our 5 hour flight from sf to philly, a 12 hour layover , a wrong train and some crazy people not understanding you cant take water bottles on the plane, and 8 hours flight to germany...

we have finallyarrived in munich, or munchen as its called by the germans. this place is pretty awesome. we got off the plane found the train and headed on our way to the center of town. after a 40 min train ride we departed the train in marienplatz and gathered all our luggage and started off to find our hotel. after about 4 trips in the wrong direction and about 10 stops to re adjust our bags ( packing for 6 months leaves you with some heavy bags, a little to much to try backpacking around with, dont know how much we will actually travel before school starts, may just head to our base early) finally a lady on the street asked us if we needed any help, she lead us in the right direction which was get back on the train and go to stops back to Hauptbahnhof which is the acutal city center. We soon found our hotel. hotel monaco its a quaint little joint very homey feeling. the bed is rather comfortable and has down blankets, which is always nice. we treated ourselves a bit since we havent slept in the past 36 hours or so. we soon got to the room got cleaned up and fell right into bed. 9 hours later we awoke to growling stomaches and the need to get out. we wandered around town a bit, but everything was closed except for the indian restaurant across from our place. so needless to say our first german meal was chicken and beef curry at 1130 pm. we brough it back to the room where we sat and ate in a room with rose decorated curtains and this creepy baby angle chandiler above the bed. all in all excited to be here and ready to start this journey.

there is so much in store for us. the excitement to just be here, but what God is going to do and show us with being in YWAM is the best excitement of all. cant wait to get to the base and get this thing started.

well more from us later.....

irish and keith

Random shot from the gallery with out best friends. The night was a very successful. Raised some support for the trip and actually sold images! Keith is back home in Bangor. Ill be going up there on Monday. Crazy only 2 real days left in Santa Barbara!