And it’s all come full circle…

It really is incredible isnt it? Its been six weeks, and I am back at the Hostel where I spent my first night in Europe. When I got off the bus from the airport, I didnt spend two hours wandering, I knew right where to go. But because I’m that type of guy, I went ahead and threw on the same songs that played when I got off the bus six weeks ago. And this may make you, reader, very sad, but I dont know what jamaica will bring, but there is a good chance that this will be my last blog.

Because of this, I feel like it is necessary to skip over London, which was amazing, and just talk for a moment about my last month and a half. I will say that I went and saw Les Miserables at Queen’s theatre, and it was soul shaking. Everytime it gets to the end and Jean Valjean sing “to love another person is to see the face of God” I get chills all over.

And if my trip has proved anything, it is exactly that. My greatest wish is that I could find some words to really capture the heart of what Im trying to say, but it seems that any effort to do so would seem as fruitless an endeavor as attempting to write a worship song. But what I’m begining to realize is that worship songs in the first place have less to do with the words we are singing, and more to do with the heart we approach them with.

And such is life, too.

What we say while we are here–the activities we partake in–they mean little compared to the heart we bring to each and every situation in our life. Going to Europe to hang out for a few weeks does little until you learn the power of a moment… until you can learn to actually experience the moment you live in, not merely exist in it. And that is completely a heart thing.

I realize more now how moments seem to slip through our fingers, like sifting through sand for a shell, somehow overlooking the vastness of the beach all around us. The biggest problem with all of this, of course, that sometimes we don’t realize we’ve lost a moment until its already gone.

Much in the same way, we sometimes don’t really understand how much we have, or how much we love what we have until it’s removed from us. This is why understanding perspective is so important. And perspective may be the thing this trip has taught me most. Is any of this making sense? I hope that it does. And maybe I’ll now be able to continue developing a better understanding of it now that this trip has gotten me started. But this whole notion began developing early in my trip, in Dublin. Sitting down, looking up at a cross on an steeple, I carelessly wrote this down in my journal. And Ill be the first to admit that it isnt really a poem. There is no real rhyme or rhythm behind it. Just thoughts from a wanderer:

Perspective is a funny thing

I don’t pretend to understand.

Until you learn to swap your sight

With the eyes of a hypothetical soul

Will never be understood:

That the furthest point on a glowing horizon

Is only free space to one already there—

That any place you might find yourself

May be that glowing horizon to another—

That the highest peak of the snowiest mountain

Has a beautiful view of its own looking back—

That the most flawless of buildings in all of its fame

Might find more renown once it lay down in ruins—

That being one drop of rain has no more glory

Than being a very small part of the vastest of seas—

And

That the highest cross

On the tallest tower

Of the oldest cathedral

By the greenest lawn

In the most colourful garden

In the sight of the most inspired onlooker

Within the most magnificent city

Is still only a perch to a bird.

I don’t really know what any of that means. Nor do I know if it will make any sense to anyone else. But I do know that being here has made me see things differently. And Ive gotten to see a lot of amazing things. Ive hiked in the Alps, Ive jumped off waterfalls, Ive explored ancient prisons. Ive seen Di Vinci and Michalangelo. Ive walked by the leaning tower and through the gas chamber of a concentration camp. Ive had deep conversations with people I’ll never see again. Ive gotten lost. Ive gotten found. Ive seen the Eiffle Tower glitter at night while eating crepes. Ive seen the most famed architecture and awed over the most beautiful lanscapes.

But nothing…. nothing, in this world anyway, compares to knowing that you have a home to return to. That you have a mother, father, brother and sister who love you and would support you through anything. That you have friends who care enough about you to sift through your babbling on the computer to find out what’s happening in your life. That people actaully go to God to pray for you – for saftey – and for wisdom – and for perspective. And somewhere in all this, that you might not be able able to really make out entirely, there is this a huge webb of love that we all have for each other. And to be a part of that webb. To be deep inside it, somewhere in the shadow of light that God has casted to hide us from darnkness-

That is what it is all about.

Thank you all for your prayers. This trip has really been life-changing. And now, to Jamaica for a week, and hope to see you all when I get back a week from Saturday. Oh, and by the way, I apologize if that was way to sappy, its just my last night here and its making me all… well… sappy I guess. And ask to see pictures and hear stories. Because Ive got a lot of ‘em.

“I DON’T WANT TO LOSE HEART!!!!! I want to believe… as he does…”

Anybody?  Anybody?  Oh, come on.  This is probably my favorite movie quote of all time, and you can’t pick it out… so sad.  Remember, in Braveheart, Robert the Bruce sells out William Wallace because of his father’s decisions and he is so angry he starts screaming at him.  Wow.  What a great scene.

And now, for me, it has all come to life.

Being in Edinburgh these past few days has shown me just how special of a place Scotland is.  And now I understand why it was so important to Mel Gibson that he help to get his country’s freedom.  What a guy, eh? I ended up spending a lot more time here than I thought I would, and for reasons I’m not entirely sure of.  There is something about this place that is truly captivating.  It is definitely very homely.  And most of the Scots here you can understand.  Sure they speak english in Scotland, but so do the people on the Dell Computers Hotline, and who can understand them?

But I really dont know what else to say about this place.  Its been cool to see some historical stuff.  I understand Braveheart a bit better now, although I wasnt able to make it out to the battle fields (another trip, right?).  Edinburgh Castle is incredible, and you can see it from almost everywhere in the city, whcih is really cool.  And I have about 14 million pictures of it, too.  So hopefully a few of them will turn out well.

Hmmmm… what else do I say about Scotland.  They have Scotch Whisky here… everywhere.  I went on the Scotch Whisky Experience which teaches you about its history and stuff.  That was really cool.  But I guess thats about it for now.  I’ll have to tell you all more about it when Im home, which is in olny two weeks.  Can you believe it!?!?!  I know I certainly can’t.  But tonight I head to London, and then another night in Dublin, and then to DC for a night, and then Jamacia, and then RDU and Wilmington.  Wow.  Winding down.  Mixed emotions.

Pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Beni soit le nom du Seigneur. Beni soit ton nom.

Ok.  So let me apologize, I know it has been awhile since my last post, but Paris was keeping me quite busy.  I’m having a really difficult time understanding how there is only two weeks of my trip left.  One more week of Europe – One more week of Jamaica – and then I’m home.  So weird.  And then I get to start figuring out my next trip : )

Anyway.  Lets talk about Paris.  Where to begin….  Ok, well I got to see my friend Hannah, which was really cool because it has been more than a month since I have seen someone that I know.  Its always good to see a familiar face.  So we got to go around with seeral of her friends and see all that Paris has to offer.

Paris is pretty much was I expected.  But I mean… my expectations were through the roof, so I dont mean to sound dissapointed if I do.  Versailles was incredible.  The hall of mirrors… seriously… it isnt a surprise the people wanted to overthrow the monarch… they were spending mad cash – but at least it makes for a cool visit today, right?  The Louvre.  What can I really say.  How about nothing, just try to make it out there sometime in your lifetime.  While I was there I stole the Monna Lisa, but I felt pretty guilty about it, being that it is a priceless world treasure, so I brought it back before anyone noticed it was gone.  Thats how I roll.

The Eiffle Tower is cooler than I had imagined.  And really, the whole city is just incredibly beautiful.  Its huge, ill say that much.  But it was really quite awesome. 

On Tuesday night, I had a chance to visit Passion Paris – a part of Passion’s (a big Christian Conference) world tour.  And again (this is becoming the theme of the blog) there are few words that can even begin to capture the magnitude of the impact of what I experienced.  But if I had to choose a few that might attempt to explain, they would be:

Beni soit le nom du Seigneur. Beni soit ton nom.

In engligh that reads:

Blessed be the name of the Lord.  Blessed be your name.

Although the night was mostly in english (Giglio did have a translator for his talk), all of the worship leaders made an effort to sing some of their songs in French.  I made a few very poor efforts at joining in, but mostly I stood and listened, soaking in the moment.  What can be a more powerful reminder of how big God is than listening to a thousand French college students sing to God with the same intent as me, but in a completely different language.  Ultimately what  realized, however, was that the language of worship is never different, regardless of how different the words may be.  Worship transcends language.  It is a state of one’s heart, not the arrangement of one’s words.  Just another small lesson Ive been able to learn on my journey through Europe.

Beni soit ton nom.

Raff

 

 

The Casablanca References Begin…

Ilsa: But what about us?

Rick: We’ll always have Paris. We didn’t have…we’d…we’d lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.

Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you…

Rick: And you never will. But I’ve got a job to do, too. Where I’m going, you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of. Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that. Here’s looking at you, kid.

“Nie Wieder”

“Arbeit macht frei”

Any takers? No? It´s German. It means “Work brings freedom,” and it is spelled out in iron across the gate leading into Dachau Concentration Camp, the first concentration camp set up by Hitler in Germany, and the only camp to exsist throughout all twelve years of the dictator´s reign. Today, it is junxtaposed with other words, deeply inscribed in stone on the oposing side of the camp: NIE WIEDER – NEVER FORGET. It´s both a reminder and a command to those of us who have the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of history, not be punished by them.

Dachau has come to stand for all of the suffereing caused by the Nazis from 1933-1945.  A quarter of a million people from 34 different countries suffered there – that is approximately the amount of people it would take to fill Raleigh´s RBC Center 13 times over.  People were starved, shot for no reason, forced into sucide, tortured, and worked to death because they were born a little darker, or thought a little differently than everyone else. 

I know, however, that I am not telling you anything you didn´t know before, because this is the type of thing that we are all taught in school, or watch on the Hstory Channel.  But here is what I can promise you – no amount of text or statistic can ever compare to breathing in the oxygen inside of a gas chamber and then walking across a building into a crematorium.  Today, my visit to Dachau reminded me that something as regular and simple as a pulse may be the greatest thing to be thankful for.

And somewhere, buried deep down within that thought, is redemption.  Sixty-five years ago, Dachau was one of the darkest places in the entire world.  Today, however, the sun was shining brightly across the grounds.  Yards people would have been shot for walking on are now a deep shade of Christmas-tree green, and is decorated with a variety of multi-colored flowers.  Monuments have been erected where executions once took place.  Clouds blotched the sky a perfect white, but did not begin to hide the vast blue sky that lay behind them.  Dachau – one of the most horrific places in the worlds history – is oddly very beautiful.

Perhaps the most beautiful thing of all, however, are the hearts that visit the place.  All traces of mal-intent have vanished.  Today, hundreds of people flock to Dachau to see what they have heard about.  And all of them, myself included, leave different than from when they arrived.  These people, willing to learn – willing to remember, are what beautifies the place the most.  And all of it – the people, the flowers, the sunshine, the sky – it all works together to one purpose – one goal.  To show people that as evil a place as the world can sometimes be, with the right intentions, evil can be transformed.  It can be learned from.  This is not to say that any amount of visitors or flowers can ever make up for the tragedies committed at Dachau – but it does show that good can win.

If my experience today at Dachau has taught me anything, it´s this:

                  Where beauty uncovers what tragedy´s stolen-                          

                  Where memory illuminates what ignorance hid-

                  Where brokenness reveals what our pride closed our eyes to-

                                     It´s there we find hope for tomorrow.

                                     NIE WIEDER.

 

The hills are alive with the sound of music…

Wow, so Vienna is pretty amazing.  I now understand why Captain von Trapp was so upset about leaving.  It has really blown my expectations away.  The more I blog, the more I realize how much of my trip I leave out – like I hardly talked about Roma at all, and it was astounding in every way. But this is cool because it means Ill still have lots of stories to tell when I get back.  But here are a few pictures.  A couple from Venice, there is the Sistine Chapel, and Michalangelo´s Pieta, and the two at the bottom are Sigmund Freud´s nameplate at his office, and lastly Beethoven´s grave, and he was a really great Dog (all his movies were so good) so I´m glad he got such a nice place of burial.

 

 

“The last time I saw your father we were in the library. He was very close to tracking down the Knight’s tomb. I’ve never seen him so excited. He was as giddy as a schoolboy.”

“Who, Atilla The Professor? He was never giddy, even when he was a schoolboy.” – Oh, come on! You don´t know what I´m talking about?  It´s Indiana Jones, brotha.  Remember? Dr. Jones goes to Venice with his father´s diary, trying to find his dad, whose life´s goal was to track down the cup of Christ?  Well, hopefully you do remember the brilliant scenes in which Indy searches beneath a church for clues to finding the grail, because then you will be able to appreciate that I WENT TO THAT CHURCH!

Why was I so excited about that?  I just left Venezia, one of the world´s most renown cities, and I´m excited about one measley Indiana Jones reference.  Come on, Rafferty, that´s pathetic.  Well lets talk for a moment about Venice.

First things first, VENICE IS THE WORST CITY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD TO GO TO…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

if you are single.

Seriously, though.  If you have never been, eveything you have always imagined it to be… that is exactly how it is.  At least for the most part.  I heard a lot of people say it was dirty, and the water was gross, but this is not true.  It may not be crystal blue, but it is certainly a lot nicer than Falls Lake.  I would show you pictures, but I dont have access to a USB port in this Viennese internet cafe that I am in.  So, sorry.  They are coming as fast I can get them up. 

But Venice really is almost everything you have ever imagined that it was.  So I won´t bore you much with what you already know.  It´s uber-romantic.  Everyone there is either deeply in love or trying to peddle off fake prada and coach bags to the couples in love, or occasionally you might find an American backpacker who is lost somewhere in the dense, complicated, labyrinth they call Venice.

That is one thing you dont expect about Venice.  You will spend at least 94.637% of your time their lost, but it is surely the best city in the world to be lost in.  There are no street names, and there are yellow signs on the building walls trying to guide people to the city´s most famous areas.  So one might view high up on a wall:

                                                                        Per S. Marco ———>

                                                 <———-Per S. Marco

It is very interesting.  But you are in Venice, so who really cares.  Oh, and trying to utilize a map in Venice is as futile as an effort as running an Apollo mission to the moon using a compass and two-way walkie talkies.  Not happnin´bro.

Ok, but seriously.  Venice will meet your every expectation if youve never gone and you decide to go.  I know that the sky is the same everywhere, but there is some about a Venetian sky that really draws people back.  It´s an amazing place.  But ok, I have to go.  I joined the Vienna Boy´s Choir, and we have an event in just a few minutes.  I have the lead solo on Edelweiss, and I need to work on my best Captain von Trapp impersonation. 

I´ll try and holler at ya´ll (ps everyone here makes fun of yall quite a bit – but ill have the austrians saying it in no time – its gonna hit europe like the plauge) a little later today.

PEACE OUT

Rafferty

                                                                      

                                          

 

Sorry for the delay in posting, but you probably wont hear from me unitl sometime tomorrow.  Venice is amazing, but expensive.  Talk to you all tomorrow.

 

Rafferty

When in Rome don’t do as the Roman’s do…

Because if you do, then you will miss out on some of the most incredible, jaw-dropping, astounding (I just used three adjectives that all mean pretty much the same thing – probably not needed) things that you have ever witnessed. This is a great place to be a tourist. And can I also just say – wow, and I thought I ate a lot of pizza at home!

Anyway, I don’t really want to go into all of the things I have done and seen here already. I will tell you that the Roman Forum and the Colosseum are infinitely greater to behold in person. But standing there, looking over the edge of the wall in the Colosseum, it took every once of energy for me to not jump into the middle, pull a sword of my shirt, hurl it at a group of tourists screaming, ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!!!! But I didn’t. I simply stood incredulous, witnessing Roma’s greatest attraction, almost as old as Jesus. That is outrageous. Also, I’d like to let everyone know that I got really lost last night, and I didnt have a map, and I didn’t know where my hostel was, but I got so lost that I actually got to see the Pope. Thats pretty rad, wouldn’t you say. One hour off the train, and Ive spent one hundred percent of my time in Rome lost, and I already ran into Benedict XVI. Freakin’ awesome.

Anyways, here are a few pictures from my trip until now that I havent put up yet….

And the ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED thing was from Gladiator. Some of you don’t know this movie. Sinful.

Oh, and one more thing. I want to go ahead and publicly admit that although its kind of nice to away from most of you goonies, I have the greatest mother in the entire world, and I miss her very, very much….

All Roads lead to Roma….

This is it.  I’m very excited.  Probably the most powerful city of all time is only a few hours away, and to me, walking where Julius Caesar walked is about the coolest thing imaginable.  So I have little left to say.  Now, I can only hope for good weather.  Here are some pictures from Florence, and perhaps a few more from my trip…

ok, maybe not.  The computer I am on in running windows 98.  but hey, whats a decade between friends…

check back in a few hours for more pics…