From Sweden, April 14th

Hello Family and Friends!

Hope you are all doing well and having some fresh experiences and quality relationships...

As we write this, we are realizing that our last "mass" email went out to about 5 people...sorry about that(not that anyone was anxiously awaiting our news anyway:)), maybe we will attach that one to the end of this if you care to read.

Things have been a whirlwind, but REALLY incredible as we have now been in Europe for about a month. We have been to about 15 cities and are now experiencing our 8th language...we start to get the basics(hi, yes, no, how much!!) down and we are off to our next destination. We are so grateful for this opportunity and know that we have been very blessed to have the chance to experience something like this.

We are currently in Amsterdam with Adam and Allison Buzard's folks (who are MORE than taking care of us), we spent the last 5 days in Jon's families' homeland of Sweden(also with friends), 9 days in Italy and 18 days on a cruise that stopped at about 11 Mediterranean and North African countries. Thank goodness for a REALLY cheap cruise fare and very hospitable friends we are getting along great on more than our expected bread and water diet!

It is hard to write a brief email on the vast experiences we have had since coming over here, but here are few highlights:

• Rome: We spent 3 days in Rome in a very basic bedroom in a Monastery about 20 minutes from the main part of town...let's just say it wasn't the area of greatest affluence, which probably fit us well. Our time their was highlighted by a very spiritual, historically insightful and to some degree haunting trip to the Vatican, Colosseum and ancient Roman Forum. Walking through such profoundly influential and history packed areas where breathtaking. Knowing of the violent and oppressive actions of the Roman Empire at the Colosseum and in the Forum, it was hard to know whether to smile or be somber in our pictures. Standing inside the remains of the palace of Nero, Julies Caesar, Domitian, Constantine, etc...was definitely Jon's highlight with all the study and teaching he has done on those characters. Jan was blown away by the art of the Vatican. She loved the Michaelangelo and Rafael art that filled St. Peter's Basilica.
  
• Cinque Terre: These are the "five cities" on the northwest coast of Italy. They are much more villages than cities(pop: 500 - 1000 people) and we really got hooked up my a local lady who found us wandering the street with our huge backpacks looking for a place to stay...it is off season, so she put us up in a two bedroom villa overlooking the main street, Via Roma, in one of the cities called Monterosso. We LOVED our time there...very relaxing times of the beach, beautiful hikes up in the hills between the villages and loved soaking up the very local Italian culture. We would go the local bakery, coffee shops and grocery stores about everyday.
  
• Barcelona: This was our favorite big city. Lots of energy and atmosphere. While we were there we ran into 3 local parades and 1 local dance in front of the cathedral that involved all the locals grabbing hands and dancing in circles. Jon also got his hair chopped off in a small hole in the wall barber shop.
• Stockholm, Sweden: Beautiful city made up of islands. We went to about EVERY museum and took a great boat tour of the area as we did our best to soak up the culture and setting of Jon's family heritage. It was freezing cold, but well worth the experience.

We are still looking forward to another few weeks of traveling packed with new experiences, perspectives and conversations. This has been a fertile time of individual growth for both of us as well as a beautiful opportunity for us to grow closer in our relationship with each other(We just tell each other when we need a break and go for a long walk!!). It seems that everyday we are challenged to evaluate our inherited norms and lifestyles, while being open to all the different and creative ways that Jesus message is being played out across the world...Good stuff.

Thanks for all the support and willingness to read this monster of an email! We love each of you very much and would love to hear the latest in each of your lives...we will have email for the next 3 days.

Jon and Jan

p.s. We attached a few pics of Pisa and Morocco