Rome and More Africa....

My husband, Caleb and I went to Africa on a mission trip and Rome about a month ago and we blogged the trip while we were gone as some of you have already read about on earlier posts. I have still been trying to catch up from being gone and thought I would take a little break tonight and go through ALL of my photos from the trip. Oh how I wish I was back there again. I miss it already! Just looking through the photos brings the emotions back to the surface of my experience in Africa. I just love the people there! They are so warm and kind and I miss their smiling faces. It just reminds me again of how fortunate we are and how much we take for granted. They have so little but are so happy! We miss out on the simple things in life because of all of the "stuff" we worry about. Does it really matter in the end....what we have....what we wear...! Do we reach others for Christ by these "things?" Certainly not...Christ's light shines out through our heart, our smile and by the things we do for others, not by what we do for ourselves. I am so guilty of worrying about the silly things often times and the Lord has to show me the BIG picture. These fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in Africa are part of the BIG picture. I heard a quote not too long ago that comes to mind...."People will not remember you by what you did, they will remember you by how you made them feel." This has really stuck with me and has made me want to not just sit around and let life pass me by...but make a difference in people lives.

I will put some more of the Africa photos first, and then I will show you some of our Rome experience. All I can say is WOW! What an adventure to be in such an amazing city! Rome was everything I thought it would be and more. Caleb and I had such a great time. We even went on a "date" one night and broke away from our group....only to me falling asleep at dinner and then falling asleep again on the rooftop when we went up there for coffee and dessert! I couldn't believe I was in Rome with the date of a lifetime (you couldn't pick a more romantic city) and couldn't keep my eyes open. This was at the end of our 2 week journey and the small amounts of sleep was finally catching up with me. My sweet Caleb forgave me for being such a dud...thank goodness. :) Anyway, I will put some captions on the photos and take you through Rome. I didn't put photos up of everything we saw or else this blog would be never ending. I put up some of the highlights of our 3 day journey...enjoy!

This photo below is of a little boy eating sugar cane. I didn't taste any, however Caleb tasted it and said it was like eating sweet wood. They give it to the kids to occupy them. The little boy below was pulling the strips off and he would suck on them to get the juice out and then he handed it off to his friend and his friend would suck on the piece again for any more juice. You can the next photo is of the other little boy holding the scraps. It was so cute watching them eat it. A mother giving her baby a bath.

These were the tents that we stayed in while we were on the safari. It was actually really neat... except for the spider I caught crawling across my feet on my way back from the bathroom in the middle of the night...and the millipede curled up under my bed that I found the morning we were leaving. Glad it was the last day and not the first day! :)This was the inside of our tent.He was cracking me up...he kept posing for me! He was quite the model. I caught several great photos of him.

Mind your head meant watch your head. We kept seeing signs that said "mind your head" and "mind your step". I liked this one...

This was a monkey that was at one of the places we stayed. You could wake up in the morning to monkeys swinging from tree to tree and making noises. I didn't find it annoying; it felt like you were in Africa!

Okay this is the beginning of Rome...

The was the hotel that we stayed in...

We ate breakfast up on the rooftop. It was a beautiful view of the city!

I took a lot of photos of doors. They were so BIG and beautiful. It is really hard to grasp the size of these doors. They were enormous!

Just a really cool, old place :)

The was the inside of the Colosseum...WOW! It is so crazy to be standing inside the Collosseum. It was amazing!

I loved this cross that was engraved into the stone.

The Collosseum at night.

The best restaurant we ate at while we were there! It was so delicious!!!

The Mamertine Prison where Peter and Paul (from the Bible) were held prisoner before they were executed in Rome.

This is inside the prison where they were held (underground). I can't tell you the feeling of knowing that you are standing on the exact same rocks and are in the exact same place of people from the Bible. This was underground and you can see the hole from the top of the photo where they would lower them into. The column in the photo is the actual column that Peter was chained to. Anyway, it was quite a spiritual experience.The top of the Spanish Steps...you can't see the actual steps in this photo.

Another cool door...

This ivy was so neat! It was hanging down over the street and COVERING this building.

The was a portion of the aqueducts that carried the water throughout Rome many, many years ago.

The is a portion...ONLY a small portion...of the Vatican.

The Vatican again...

This was taken inside of St. Peters (inside Vatican City)Last, but not least...here is the Sistine Chapel. Oh my gosh...this was the highlight of my trip to Rome. When I studied many, many semesters of art history while getting my degree in art, this was one of my favorite pieces of art work that we studied. It has the iconic "Creation of Adam" as the center point on the ceiling. I felt like I had to pinch myself while I was there. It was amazing to witness such an amazing piece of art.

The hand of God giving life to Adam.... LOVE IT!

This was the exit of the Vatican Museum...

Well I can't forget my sweetie! I woudn't have wanted to share this experience with anyone else!