Day 2: A Full Day of Touring

 After a better night's sleep than expected, we began our morning with breakfast and then Dave led us in a short devotional through Psalm 29. We prayed together and then we packed up from Frankfurt and headed 30 minutes west to Mainz. There we visited the Gutenberg Museum where the first 'movable type' press was invented in 1452. The original goal was to print Bibles (150 copies) for the wealthy and speed up the process of Monks hand-scribing Bibles (which took 3 years), Gutenberg came up with a way to do it in 6 months. We had the opportunity to watch a demonstration of how the printing press worked! We marveled at the invention of this press, which printed 180 Gutenberg Bibles between 1452 and 1454. Forty-nine originals still exist today. We learned that Gutenberg's motivation for printing these Bibles was not for the gospel to be spread or for many to have God's printed word, but rather for greed! Only the wealthy could afford a printed bible during this time, so he worked hard to print what he could to make as much money as he could. Wow! We marveled at the way God orchestrates and uses men, even men like Gutenberg, to accomplish His will. The invention of the printing press began the rapid transformation of information in all walks of life, setting the stage for Martin Luther to translate Bibles into German in 1522.  So much history was in this museum! After touring the museum and walking around this beautiful area, we checked into our next hotel, ate, and then headed out to Rudesheim am Rhein where we took a river ferry down the Rhine. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and saw some castles, vineyards, and small villages along a 5-mile section of the river. We ended the evening with a typical German dinner (Schnitzel) and gelato (of course) and then walked around this darling area before heading back to our hotel for bed. Tomorrow we head to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which is in Bavaria, Germany, on our last tourist day. As much as touring around Germany is amazing, we are looking forward to getting to the conference and meeting the children and teens that we have the opportunity to serve this week. Thank you for praying for our team. :) 

Enjoy all the pictures...there are WAY too many to share!

                                                         Outside the Gutenberg Museum

                                                                          Printing Press

                                                       Demonstration of the printing press.

                                                              He printed the Gospel of John.

                                                        Rudesheim am Rhein- On our boat tour

                                                                  down the Rhine River

Dinner together

                              

                                                                        Gelato...of course!