Paris pics continued again

Saint-Chappelle (a really old church)

Cool fountain

Notre-Dame

View from our window at night

This is how close people park their cars there-I'd be in big trouble!

Paris pics continued

The view from the Arc de Triomphe. It was pretty awesome (& a little scary!)

This is a really cool painting I meant to post with the Louvre picture because that is where it was. Of course it is of the crucifixion, but it is one of the first paintings that realistically depicted what the crucifixion was like. It had to be removed from the first museum it was placed because they thought it was too graphic and that it was blasphemous!

These next 3 are at the Palace of Versailles (where the kings & queens of France lived a number of years). If you've watched the most recent "Marie Antoinette" you'll recognize these pictures.

Paris Pictures

For those of you that don't know, we were able to go on a trip to Paris for our 2nd anniversary...with the help of some good friends we know with US Airways! It was a wonderful trip. It was kind of like a little adventure. We didn't have a lot of time to do a lot of planning before we left & neither of us spoke a lick of French--so there we were--two stupid Americans in Paris! We loved it though & were so thankful that God provided this opportunity. Here are some of the pictures--we took 832 so it was kind of hard to narrow it down to a blog post. Sorry, we are not in any of these pictures, but I promise we were there! We were strongly warned about pick-pocketers, so we didn't want someone to make off with our camera by asking them to take a picture! We spared you by not posting the typical tourists picture when you hold the camera away from your faces & take the picture--those were a little too close up for me to post on the world wide web.
Enjoy!

This is the street our little one-room apartment was on...very quaint & cute & with a view of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

The Louvre--the biggest museum I have ever been in!

The Louvre again.

The Eiffel Tower

The Arc de Triomphe

South Africa Retreat

These pictures are from our CCP retreat a couple of weekends ago. We made the long treck to Beaufort, SC. It was well worth it. The weather was amazing. The house was perfect for housing 20 people. Our time was mainly spent connecting. We had lots of free time & it was a great chance for the students to get to know each other better & to continue to grow as a team. We have one more retreat before we leave for the summer! We are getting very excited!

This is the picture that will be sent to our supporters...

And this one is my personal favorite...


We took a lot more pictures over the weekend but we had a problem with our camera/memory card so these were the only ones recovered.

Spring at PC

Spring is hands down my favorite time of year in Clinton. I think it is because I am a very nostalgic person & I loved my four years of college, and especially spring at PC. So everytime spring comes around I get the warm fuzzies of nostalgia and it lasts until the school year is over. Students start studying outside, and going on bike rides, and playing ultimate frisbee, and walking to Tropic-D for shaved ice. The flowers are blooming & the campus is so pretty. It's great. Enjoy the pictures (Ben and I took them the other week while on a bike ride after attending a campus worship service outside--it was a good day).

This first picture is of the new Biology building at PC. It is very impressive. It would have made my freshmen Biology experience a lot better had it been here 9 years ago.

The walkway between the new biology building & the old one (its quite the transition!)

The pretty pink trees that bloom by the library each year.

The front plaza.

Update from Ben

Hey guys, I just wanted to update you on something going on with our ministry this year that the Lord has recently showed us. Tonight we had prayer, which is something we do every Sunday night at 9, and there were like 25 students. First, this is a victory! We have had around 25+ students come all year to our prayer meetings which is a vast improvement from last year in which we had maybe 3 or 4 each time.
Anyway, the thing that I wanted to inform you all on came to my attention when, at one point in our prayer meeting, we had students share people they had hearts for and for others whom they wanted us to pray. Usually during this time, it starts off a little slow and there are a few minutes of silence before someone shares and often in very general terms, but tonight students began to immediately share! They were sharing not only about fellow students for whom they were burdened to take the gospel, but also stories about how they had already shared and wanted to continue to be faithful to love those people through pushing them toward the cross! As I sat and listened to one student after the other share, the Lord hit me with the reality of what a reason to rejoice this was! Each of these stories and the ones like it not shared were major victories in the kingdom, regardless of the outcome! Each heart aching for the lost, each faithful step taken to express the gospel to those around them, each earnest prayer to hurt more was a victory advancing the Kingdom of God in the hearts and minds of students at Presbyterian College!
After many more stories and prayer requests, I interjected my thought and encouraged the students to recognize the work that Grace/Christ/Holy Spirit was doing amongst us. So often, it is easy for our students to think that a victory is just someone coming to faith or getting someone to come to one of our big events, like the Atlanta New Years Conference or the Summer Leadership Project. What I explained to them was the reality that God was at work meeting people where they were with the gospel through them and this was a great reason to rejoice! These other things are great things, but each faithful step before things such as these are just as necessary and important!
It was such an awesome time to rejoice over what God had done and was continuing to do and such a great time to give the students and myself the perspective to see the ways in which God was at work among us. So, just wanted to share that with you guys and encourage you in the same way to see the faith steps God has and is asking you to take and know that each one is a product of His grace and a reason to rejoice. peace, Ben

All dolled up

I (Kaye) went to take pictures of some of our students as they got ready for their ZTA Crown Ball. ZTA is a sorority at PC and a lot of our girls are members. Each spring they have a formal & so I went to watch them get "all dolled up" & to take some pictures for them. Here they are...did I mention that these girls are single & very godly?!

The lovely ladies...(Ashton, Ali, Brittni)

The lucky gentlemen...(Peter, Brinck, Rob)