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!

Kaiser Smarren

I got to try a new Austrian dish today! It's called, "Kaiser Smarren." It's very similar to pancakes, but cut into pieces and oh so tasty!

This is my friend Christine who made me this delightful dish!

I've had the privilege of going to her house every Thursday for lunch and I practice my German with her and she practices her English. It's so fun! She also teaches me to cook, so when I come home, I'll have a whole heap of Austrian recipes for you to try! :)

She's a great cook :)

Pray for me as I meet with her weekly, not only that I can grow in German and in gaining a better understanding of the Austrian culture, but also that Christine would experience the real and relevant love of God through me.

*Much love!

Schönbrunn

An Austrian palace to explore with my best friend!

Jeffrey :)

Fall is so beautiful!

The colors, the crisp air, holiday's just around the corner...

Please pray for Jeff and I as we continue to walk in God's ways here in Austria, and also as we consider what the future may have in store... :)

I like this boy a whole lot.

Ich freue mich auf das Treffen!

I had a wonderful time yesterday meeting with my friend from the pool, Christine! It works so good because she wants to learn English and I want to learn German. We went to a shopping center and looked at different items and learned their words in the others language. As Christmas (Weihnachten in German) time is coming, I got to learn about some of their Christmas traditions and the things they celebrate. In Austria, the big day for them is Christmas Eve- that's when they get all of their presents and have family dinners and such. They also have several other folklore tradions throughout December that originate from the ancient culture in Europe.

One of them is celebrated on December 5th, called Krampus. This is a German word meaning, "claw" and is represented by a demon who accompanies Saint Nicholas. Instead of giving gifts to good children, the Krampus gives warnings and punishments to the bad children. Kind of scary! But hey, so is Halloween (which actually has only been celebrated in Austria for the past 6 years).


On that happy note, after learning about Christmas traditions from the decorations we saw in the stores, Christine took me to her house for lunch. We had a great time, talking in English and German about all sorts of things. She said next time we'll exchange family recipes and she'll teach me to cook an Austrian cake. :) She told me that she was so happy when she met me at the pool, and thought that my eyes were so shiny and bright and full of light. Pray that she discovers that this comes from Jesus and that she finds a living knowledge of Him!

I think we will meet together every Thursday, and she's excited to teach me to knit and sew and things like that too. Praise God! Such an answer to prayer for an Austrian friend. :)

Stift Klosterneuburg

On Tuesday, our team had an awesome opportunity to experience what we've been learning in class (We've been taking a "Local Area Religions and Christianity" class from a missionary who has been here over 40 years!):

we got to visit Stift Klosterneuburg, a very old and large Roman Catholic monastery located just outside of Vienna.
Even though its huge, it's only 1/4 as large as Leopold III intended it to be! This is a drawing of the original plan:

Beautiful grounds!
An amazing painted ceiling.


It was so great! A priest named Daniel gave us a special tour and he was great- definitely seemed like a Jesus-loving believer. :) He was very honest and had an awesome perspective about Christianity and really knew the heart behind all of the symbols and traditions of his faith. It was so cool to see firsthand what we've been learning in class.


The picture below is a treasure to the monastery: the Verdun Alter, an amazing etched story board depicting the Types and Ante-Types of the Bible. Daniel did an amazing job of going through each one and describing the stories it depicted.

They even had some multi-colored priestly garments on sale for only 245,000 euro!

All in all, it was a wonderful experience. The monastery is only 30 minutes away, so we're looking forward to keeping in touch with the priests there and learning from all they have to offer. It was some great fellowship with them as well, and really interesting to hear of the different ways people love Jesus.

First graphics project!

Whew, it was a busy weekend! Jeff and I got to help out my church by making a "Geschenkkatalog" (gift catalog) for their new building project. It was 79 pages of different items people could tear out and donate money towards. It was quite a project, but thanks to Jeff's stellar Adobe skills it turned out quite nice! It was a challenge because it was all in German but I learned so much about the new programs and am excited for future endeavors. :) Here is the cover:

I didn't do the background (got it from an awesome free Christian graphics site: http://www.creativemyk.com/) but I hope to learn to make things like it. :) Thanks again to all who helped get this wonderful mac for me! It's been a great help and tool!

God is as faithful as the Seasons are to change!

Herbst ist heir (Fall is here)!

It's getting quite chilly, but I'm enjoying the turning leaves and the fall festivities of Austria! It's harvest season so there's much talk of grape picking and all the restaurants are filled with "Sturm"- half-fermented grape juice and "Kurbis-suppe" (pumpkin soup). My favorite sight so far was when I passed a big group of people outside, sitting at a big table placed right by their field, enjoying good food and Sturm in the early evening.

Another favorite time last week was "Lange Nacht Der Museen"- the Long Night of the Museum. All the museum's in Austria were open until 1 am and you could visit as many as you wanted with the purchase of only one ticket! Me and a few teammates had a great time.

The armor display was my personal favorite. :)

God has been so good! This has also been a great time of connecting with more Austrians and God has provided for new friends! Below is a picture of some of them. I have been hanging out with my friend Lia (on the far left) often at our favorite cafe in Stockerau. It's so great because she speaks excellent English and is a believer, so we're able to relate in a really meaningful way. It's also great because she always asks how my German is going then we speak in German for quite a while and she helps me with different questions I have or with pronunciation. She is so patient!

The girl on my right is name Corrina, and I have become friends with her and her family through the Stockerau church. I went to their house for lunch after church and it was awesome getting to practice German and also be able to answer their questions about what I'm passionate about and how I'm interested in being involved in their church. They hooked me up with some graphics projects to start working on and said they'd be thinking how else I can help. They also invited Jeff and I to join their family skiing after Christmas!

Another fun thing for me is pilates! Last night quite a few teammates joined me and we had a great time!

I think the boys especially had fun. :)