48 Hours in PARIS

From the top of the Eiffel Tower (which really is incredible to see in person)

Notre Dame at night

inside and in the day-
pretty amazing

Jumping for joy at Sacre Coeur

Along the River Seine

Ever seen the movie French Kiss?
Triumphing at the Arc de TriompheThe ever mysterious and infamous Louvre Museum

3 hours to search
Inside the Louvre

Venus de Milo

Winged Victory (Nike) of Samothrace

Hmm...should we be more impressed? The Mona Lisa

The often ignored HUGE and impressive painting on the wall directly behind the Mona Lisa

Time for some delicious chocolate crepes from a street vendor. YUM.

Some French Scenes:

Found out later that this bookstore is incredibly famous and many well-known authors frequented it- Cortney just thought it looked amazing! Too bad we didn't stop...

On the way up to Sacre Coeur, near where Amélie was filmed

Small village in the French countryside on the train from Toulouse to Paris

January SFC Prayer Weekend in FRANCE

Our apologies that we have been a little behind on the blogging lately. Lots going on so haven't had the time and lots to share with you from the past months! We'll try to give you a somewhat brief update and mostly try to communicate some highlights through pictures.January 22-26 we attended our annual SFC Prayer Weekend. Each year, the last weekend in January, university missionaries in a different country in Europe host this even for SFC staff. This year we were blessed with getting to travel to France! We spent the weekend in Toulouse where our dear friends are native SFC workers, and despite the rather chilly and rainy weather and high winds, it was an amazing time as always. And we definitely worked hard!

Friday morning and afternoon: participated in a seminar/discussion on the theology of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament and how this should influence our SFC ministries. It was a very enlightening and challenging time. We then began the typical prayer routine:

Friday night: breaking into small groups and praying for each individuals personal needs.
Saturday: praying and fasting as each country gave a short presentation on what is happening with their student ministries, where they hope to go in the future, and ministry prayer needs- we spent 9 hours straight together praying! Saturday afternoon we were able to spend a little time getting a tour of downtown Toulouse.

Sunday: combined business meeting and prayer for SFC. Needless to say, we were quite exhausted by the end of the weekend, but also incredibly encouraged and with fresh vision for the semester.

We always love being with what has become our SFC "family" here in Europe. It is such an amazing group of people and we feel blessed to be a part of such a loving and enjoyable community. It has truly made a huge difference to us since we moved to Norway.

Cortney giving the Norway country report

Gathered around a country map to pray for it and those working there

Our Norway team being prayed for

Kelly and Cortney with Nadine who is pioneering student ministry in Seville, Spain

St. Sernin's Basilica

Strolling in downtown Toulouse

Eating French dinner creps

After the weekend, Kelly and the two of us had to take the train to Paris to get the best flight back to Trondheim. We had decided we couldn't miss the opportunity to see this amazing city, so we decided to spend 2 nights in a hostel and try to see as much as possible of the city's sights in less than 48 hours. Yikes! We'll post some pictures of our Paris adventure in the next post- we had a blast and went home with aching feet!