Fun but full times!

Greetings from the very snowy land of Austria! I hear in TX things are quite cold too. :)

February's been a fun month so far. All of the university students have the whole month off, so it's been fun hanging out with friends!

Jeff and I got to experience ice skating at the "Rathaus"- a huge and beautiful civic building and center.

We went with our Austrian friends Julia and Mario. It's been a blessing to have Christian couples to hang out with, and for them too!

Times at Mercy House of Prayer continue to be very enriching and encouraging. I've been serving on Tuesday and Thursday nights, doing some cleaning, sometimes running the worship slides and eating up good times with Jesus. I've also been helping make some banners to decorate the prayer room. Here's the first one I've finished! "Gnade" means mercy, or grace.

I've also been enjoying some "Stilleziet"- quiet times in the mornings with Jesus. I love these flowers with our green curtains, watching the snow fall and soaking up the everlasting love that God has for me!

Hehe, this is a picture Lindy took of me on our walk around Stockerau. I found it symbolic with how God's also teaching me to shut my ears to the teachings of the world and of the devil and open up my heart to listen and believe what God says!

:: Faithful ::

Life has been quite full! A really good kind of full.

I've been feeling really connected relationally now- with my church, with people from MHOP, with Christine and her family, with my team. Praise God!

I look forward to going to church on Sundays. I love the warmth of the people there, the simplicity of the worship, and I find it cool that they don't have a pastor, but several elders who take turns preaching, and most of the congregation is involved in some sort of responsibility for the "Gemeinde" (fellowship/congregation). During the service there is always an open time for people to pray where they are, for whatever is on their heart. I like that everyone can participate. For the first time, I prayed out loud a simple prayer in German. My heart beat so fast, afraid of making a mistake in front of so many people, but I was really excited to be a part. It was so cool! Afterward several people told me they were so excited about it, and a friend told me that people at church feel very respected by me because I seek to communicate in their "Mutter Sprache" (Mother Tongue). Praise God! God has been so faithful to be faithful in me! When all I have is a desire to do good, but not the strength of wisdom to carry it out, God has led me, answered my weak prayers and connected me so well here with the Body of Christ. This is truly His doing!

Sunday afternoon Christine invited Jeff and I to join her, her husband, her son and her son's girlfriend for lunch at a Heuriger (a typical Austrian restaurant). It was so much fun! We laughed a lot and learned quite a few German jokes, as Christine's husband is quite the joking man. I'm so blessed by Christine's love, care, and joy in our friendship, and am so happy that she's invited me (and Jeff!) to connect with her family. Please continue to pray for this relationship. May God direct our conversations that the truth about Jesus and His Kingdom may be revealed, and that Christine would find true life, and her family too! They are so generous.

In feeling so connected here in Austria, I've actually been having the thoughts that I could live here! I think that's the way it goes- we're relational beings, so wherever we connect relationally, it just seems right to live in that place. God can make that happen anywhere, but please pray for me as time in Austria is growing short and the future awaits. Can't wait to see what God has! Hmmm, but it truly is good to enjoy the Lord and His faithfulness right here, right now.

Thankful

Wow, I had such a refreshing time with God today. He always comes at just the right time and gives you what you need! I was pleasantly surprised to find myself alone in our flat, and was thankful for the space and time God gave me to be with Him, to pray, to work things out that He's doing in my life.

It's been incredible reflecting on this last year and seeing all the ways God has come through. For real! This last year was one of the most challenging years I've ever had. I recently realized that I was bitter and angry towards God because I thought He had let me down and hadn't given me what I needed. But then I realized that He DID; I was just expecting Him to answer differently then I gave up on Him and got offended at Him right before He answered my prayer! It's been so refreshing to repent of my offense and unbelief and to have my heart flooded with the memories of how God answered prayers of all kinds. Some of them being...

Strenuous and tense relationship conflicts in my flat being resolved! God has brought so much healing, reconciliation and sincere love to our flat. Praise God!

Awesome relationships with people here in Austria. God has blessed me so much at my church with a wealth of awesome Godly girls my age! I have been so blessed by them and have loved being able to also encourage them. He's also blessed me with many families who invite me over for lunch after church. What great hosts and wonderful people! I love my friends here. They were somewhat long in coming, but God made it happen (and He helped overcome the language barrier too)!

Relationships outside of my church with people here. The local pool that I work out in has helped with that immensely! God has been faithful to bring people across my path for me to love and to be a witness about Jesus to.

Also concerning the pool, God has been helping me overcome my struggles with my self-image and has provided a healthy way for me to work out. I'm still a work in progress, but God has brought so much healing and truth to my insecurities and continues to set me free to be who I'm created to be!

My financial support has been continual and faithful throughout my whole time here. I have never had a lack! Praise God and thank you for being a part of that!

...and so many more things!!!

God truly is faithful. He is so patient, gracious and kind and endures with me and my weakness. He is so full of love and good-will. I'm so thankful that I get to know Him!

:::House Church:::

We had a very thought-provoking class this week; the title: Church Planting Movements. It was taught by a missionary to India and who shared on principles of the massive outbreak of Christianity in China. What a cool concept and strategy they have going on! The big idea of it is

training people to be trainers.

Sound strange? Instead of being a missionary and just winning people to Jesus, be a missionary, win people to Jesus then train them to train others, not only to win people to Jesus but to train those people to train others too! So it's this big organic movement where everything that is needed to sustain the life of the "cell" is there from the beginning. For instance, instead of having a linear perspective (becoming a Christian, getting baptized, being discipled, evangelizing after a long time, being in leadership...etc.), having an "organic" perspective. Let me elaborate on this...

It starts with a small group of people, maybe even all missionaries to begin with. They are committed to meeting together in a house (no extra finances, comfortable, being a Christian isn't seen as Sunday only thing, but penetrates your every day life) for church consisting of worship, fellowship, ministry, discipleship, evangelism/missions. These people are bold, being intentional to love and reach out to those they encounter during the week, and are prepared to share with anyone their story (testimony) and the gospel. Prayer is central to this, but they share and win people to Jesus, inviting them into their house church. Once it grows, they multiply and keep each church small, (better accountability and participation for and from all) and keep multiplying and reproducing.

You can't reproduce what you aren't.

I love this idea of church being our everyday lives, of the body of Christ living with vision and intentionality, of seeing the Holy Spirit work as everyone is sharing and stepping out to sow the seed.

I love the concept of house churches. It provides such a great atmosphere for all to be involved and participate (the smaller the group, the easier it is to be vulnerable!), that way there isn't one pastor who is overworked. I love the idea of everyone using the gifts the Holy Spirit has given and functioning as a body.

This class really fueled me up to take my ideas of "church" to God and let Him define them. Who knows what the future holds, but I'm looking forward to experiencing more and more the fullness of God through His church.

The servant of Abraham

I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Isaac and Rebekah (Gen 24) this morning. What a great romance, what divine provision, what consolation in great sorrow!

I learned several things from this story, but what impacted me the most today was about Abraham's servant who went to carry out the mission of finding Isaac a wife from the land of Abraham's relatives.

I love his eagerness to do good, his desire to please the Lord and his master, and his respect for God and his ways. I like how he asked God for specific things in order that he would know which woman was the right one. Then, "Before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold Rebekah came out...", doing exactly what the servant had asked of the Lord (Gen 24:45)! Here is part on an interesting commentary on this chapter by Matthew Henry:

"Those that would have good speed must pray for it.

This day, this affair.

We must, in all our ways, acknowledge God (Prov. 3:6). And, if we thus look up to God in every undertaking which we care about, we shall have the comfort of having done our duty,
whatever the issue may be.
It is our wisdom to follow providence and our folly to force it."

Today I enjoyed acknowledging God in all (maybe not all but more than usual! :) my ways...

...asking for people to talk to at the local pool as I worked out, since I hadn't connected with anyone there in a long time.

Two people initiated conversation with me!

...asking for connections with my teammates because I felt lonely.

I had dinner and a 2 hour conversation with Lindy then the
dudes on our team came to hang out. :)

Just little things, and sometimes God doesn't answer right away, and some prayers receive a no, but I'm learning that in SO MUCH God says, YES, and even better than that, the journey of

asking
seeking
knocking

is far more lively, enriching and fulfilling than the life of not

expecting
engaging
participating.

I'm thankful for the companionship of Christ. :)

Frohes Neues Jahr!

Happy New Year everyone! I sure had an interesting New Year's Eve- our team and some friends all went to the 1st district in Vienna to experience "Silvester in Wien" (New Year's Eve in Vienna). It's quite a popular destination for tourists (especially Italians!) so the streets were flooded with people, enjoying the fireworks, live music and food/drink stands.

Stephansplatz (the place where the main cathedral in Vienna is at the heart of the city) was like a war zone of fireworks! We were amazed how freely people were able to set off fireworks in the middle of downtown, among such historical buildings and so many people!

Other than celebrating with friends, this has been a good time for me of digging into knowing God. "The marathon pace" has really been on my heart-- not setting huge spiritual goals only to fall short, but rather with consistency, faithfulness and at a medium-pace seek the Lord in an intentional way. My biggest desire is to KNOW GOD! Not just knowledge about God, but to truly know Him.
The more we seek Him the more we find Him, and the more we find Him the more we love Him.

I want God's values to be my values, God's emotions my emotions, God's ways my ways. His Kingdom is all that will remain in the end. I want my life to be ruled by Jesus now! I've realized this takes a lifetime, being conformed into the image of Christ, but I truly believe this lifestyle is a lifetime well spent.

It's been cool getting vision and motivation from God, through prayer, for these next 4 months in Austria. I have a growing passion to invest in intercession at Mercy House of Prayer and to serve the leadership there as much as I can. I'm also looking forward to tutoring 3 missionary kids in English once a week and continuing with the girl's small group and youth group.

"I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year,
with Thee, O Father, as my harbour,
Thee, O Son, at my helm,
Thee, O Holy Spirit, filling my sails."

Please pray that I would have a tender heart to the Lord, responding to His direction, filled with His Spirit that He might reveal His love, joy, peace and righteousness to all I encounter.

Blessings on your new year!

Weinachten (Christmas!)

Alas, I fear I have spent too much time at the Christkindlmarkt (Christmas markets!) and not enough blogging! It's truly been magical here, and I've been drinking it up! See what I mean?....






Other than enjoying the festive Christmas season, I've also really been enjoying CHRIST. Wow, what a difference He makes. These have been an intense last few months for me-- God has really been purifying the way I relate to and love people. Living in community sure does expose a lot! It's been hard, uncomfortable, painful, but today in our Church Planting class, I realized that this is God's plan for discipleship! Praise God that He is discipling me, growing me and conforming me more to the image of Christ. Some things I've been learning...

Is it more important to be RIGHT or to LOVE?

The only way to not be anxious: "I must carry all the care and trouble and the circumstances to the living God, and then wait upon Him until I get sight of my God undertaking and taking complete charge." --Andrew Murray

Assumptions are no good, and when you're interacting with people very different than you, it's important to over-communicate!

May God give us all broken and contrite hearts. May we continue to surrender our entire lives into His hands that we might truly live. May He direct our hearts into His love, that we may truly live for what He intended us for.

Love to you all!