Exploring the City

We spent most of our first two weeks in Vienna running errands, buying household items, setting up cell phones...you know, life stuff. Then one night we were at a Bible study and someone asked us "have you enjoyed doing some of the touristy things here during your free time?". We hadn't! This week, we finally decided to take advantage of some of our free days before school starts Monday, and we began exploring our beautiful city. Here are some photos of the buildings, places and views we've seen...

In front of Karlskirche

Nate's favorite place - the cheese store at the market

Some intricate graffiti near our apartment, along the canal

Stephanskirche - a beautiful cathedral in the city center

The winter palace, with a historical excavation in front of it

The gardens of the Schonbrunn Palace

A panaramic photo of the Schonbrunn Gardens

The canal path near our apartment where we've been walking and exploring

Amazed by the Ordinary

I have heard it said that photography does two things. The first is taking the experience of truly beautiful places and distilling it into a single image. It takes places about which most people only dream and captures the magic of that experience. The other is taking ordinary places and pointing out how they are extraordinary. Both of these are fun...there is something about finding unique angles to everyday objects.

This is why I love macro photography. It takes small areas of our world that we see every day and explores them up close. It shows us a whole new layer of complexity that is right under the surface of our own world. It gives us a brand new perspective on the objects we interact with all the time. It reminds me that I need to be

Today I came across a blog I follow. Josh posted two macro photos of dragon flies that were exceptional. Click the link to head over there and see them. I had one of those, "Wow!" moments when I saw them for the first time. I have seen dragon flies so many times, but I don't think I have ever seen them this way.

What gives you that feeling of wonder a curiosity?

Made It to DC

As you may have heard, Bethany and I are travelling these next few weeks. We are visiting friends in family in the Washington DC, Virginia and Tennessee areas. We have all of our things packed into our car as we move from one place to another. We are aiming to finally land in Atlanta where we will be for a few days before a 6 week trip for training and to participate in a missions conference in Minnesota. 


We have decided that Cheese Nips will be our mascot for this leg of the journey. I (Nate) have a thing for cheese, cheesy flavored crackers and some times cheesy jokes so this seems to fit us well! We are so grateful to everyone that is housing/feeding us and to those we get to spend time with on this journey. It is a blessing to spend time with everyone and to tell them how God is preparing us to minister in Austria!


We'll try to keep everyone posted as we continue on this grand adventure.

Here There and Everywhere

Bethany and I are embarking on a new phase of our journey. We began by leaving the relative safety of an apartment and full time work, and now God has another step for us. We are going to be even more nomadic as we travel down the east coast and then back and forth.

I have been thinking about what this means to go on a journey and I thought that these images would communicate this idea very well.