Villers Abbey with Emi

Well . . . a little while back when there was more than one person(me) on staff here in Belgium we used to go to this abbey once a month for some solitude time. We would go out there with our Bibles, journals and Ipods and spend a few solid hours just being alone with God. I used to sit under this MASSIVE tree that stood right in front of the entrance to the former church. It was a great place because even if it rained I didn't get wet(the tree was that massive). I LOVED it. I mean it's great to spend some time every day but every once in a while it is so REFRESHING to spend a chunk of time alone with Christ. Enough time that all the thoughts, worries, things running through my head have time to run and there is still time to actually spend quality time talking to God.

I hadn't been out there since all the staff left. Somehow those types of things get pushed aside when you are the only one here. So today was a gorgeous day and I was trying to think of something I could do outside and the Abbey came to mind. So I called my friend Emi up and asked her if she was free(she graduated last Friday and is pretty free til she starts college in Sept). She said sure so I picked her up and off we went.

Now remember-I had not been there for over a year and even then I wasn't usually the one driving so sure enough I got us a little lost- but as they say-getting there is half the fun! This is what we found on our back way adventure! I so wish I had an artistic bone in my body because I would LOVE to paint the colors in these pics!

Does it not totally look like I photo shopped this? There is no editing to this pic-the day was that perfect!

There were NO cars around so we just pulled over on the cobblestone road!

We ended up getting to the Abbey a little while later and explored the grounds. While we were exploring we ended up going up a bunch of stairs and then walking around for a bit. Instead of going back down the stairs I decided we needed a little more adventure. So in our flip-flops:) we went down this kind of steep hill and climbed over some fallen trees and found our way to the bottom. I don't think Emi knew what an outdoors girl she was until today:)

Here's a picture of the abbey from the hill.

and a pic of the inside of the abbey-you can see how huge it is-that's Emi is at the bottom right.

After we walked around we sat on a bench in the shade and chatted for a bit. It really was a great day!