June 4-5, 2014

Wow.  So after a rough week, Wednesday was a very muchly needed fun day.  It started actually earlier this week.  On Monday, my room mates and I woke up to some carefully placed roses and notes outside our door.  We had recieved invitations to a creative date on Wednesday night and in the note was an RSVP of a queen card that we had to give back to the guys (a creative date, in case you don't know, is something the guys in our group will do to exalt and encourage the ladies.  Even though it normally has some sort of romantic feel to it, it is literally a huge friend date with a group of guys and girls.)  It was so cute!

But anyways, Wednesday rolled around and we were all excited.  But first, we had to do what we had come to do.  So, I went sharing with this wonderful woman named Stormy.  We had a fantastic chat with each other and then we tried sharing and talking.  After many no thank yous and some shallow spiritual conversations, we finally got to talk to two girls.  Even though it was only a 25 minute conversation, we provoked their minds and I could visibly see their brains working to comprehend what we were telling them.  And all in all, they looked genuinely interested.  Time will tell if they actually are, but I feel like something we said clicked.  Also, just spending time with Stormy really encouraged me in every way possible.  It was such a beautiful day.

However, the best was yet to come.  After a fabulous dinner, we prepared for a night out.  What we were actually doing, we had no clue.  But all of us were excited.  At 8 we were ready to go.  It started from the hostel and as we were about to get on the bus, we received our first clue.  A slight scavenger hunt then began.  We traipsed around the city to all of our favorite spots until we received our last clue and ended up at the castle.  There, we searched for "the man with the strings" where we found a huge surprise.

In a hidden alcove under the bridge to the castle was a candlelit area with chocolate, strawberries, bananas, nutella, and peanut butter.  The men served us our deserts and we just enjoyed the ambient music played by the guitarist (which was also one of our guys.)  Then there was sparkling grape juice, a toast, individualized encouragement, a speech, and a song all written by the guys for us.  After those things, we just had fun hanging out and getting to know each other.  It was quite the evening.

Stormy (left) and Brad (right)

Thursday was more of a relaxed day.  I went to my favorite tea shop and hung out with the Lord for a good chunk of time, and then we went sharing.  As an official photographer on the trip, I needed to get some shots of students evangelizing.  So, I tagged along with Stormy and Brad (both of whom I had shared with before) and we went out to talk to people.  We ended up meeting a doctorate student and had a solid hour and a half long conversation with her.  And I got some awesome pictures.  But it was really neat to be able to be a part of the evangelistic process without participating extremely.  Just listening to Stormy and Brad share with this woman was so encouraging to me.  It was pretty incredible.

After that, the rest of the day was fun.  All the ladies had dinner together and then we took photos of ourselves with random Slovenes to get our name out there.  It was pretty fun, but very exhausting.