Johnstein!

Slavery has significantly negative connotations in the modern mind; and rightly so, especially when we are faced with the reality of sex trafficking today or the historical case of slavery in America. John MacArthur points Christians to an understanding that has a deeper historical context in his latest book "Slave". MacArthur exposes the reality of salvation by grace through faith in this amazingly researched and harmonized book. This work is an exploration of what authentic Christianity should looks like. It breaks down to the basic premise that our relationship with Christ is rooted in a slave/master relationship. It is more than simply being servants of Christ. It means that we take our identity from our master. It means that we do what he commands regardless of the level of sacrifice expected.  This book is more than a "spiritual development" book. It is a primer explaining the Christian life, starting with Biblical truth, drawing on the collective wisdom of...

I am sure that this will add to the flurry of Thanksgiving related posts scattered on the interwebs...but here it goes. This drastic change in our lives has definitely helped us to focus on all these things that we are truly thankful for. An obvious part of this move to serve in Vienna has been leaving our friends and family in the states. It is amazing what distance will do to remind you how grateful you are to have someone in your life. We are so thankful for all of you who have supported us in this transition. Rebecca and I were talking recently about how much supportive emails, notes, and packages have meant during this time of transition...Thank you! We are also especially thankful for the wonderful love and support that has been shown to us by our new family of friends here in Vienna. We have been accepted into their families and this has definitely helped us in our transition. I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve God in this place. My expectations of wh...

The day before this picture was taken, all of this student's teachers gathered together for a meeting with his mom. This t-shirt was his response. I'd say the meeting went well. Please pray as he and I are now meeting once a week to work on prioritizing correctly so he can continue to improve in his studies...and stay true to his shirt.

Hey everyone...I have had the great honor of being asked to write for a blog that a few of the guys I work with started a couple of years ago. Well, not so much "asked"...but I wrote something for it anyways! ;) Layzmen Blog I hope you enjoy...and feel free to get involved in the discussion! - Michael

I have found that my “devotional life” is one of my greatest spiritual struggles on the mission field. Fortunately, there are many sources of assistance that we are able to turn to. Over the last year or so, I have been working through a sequential devotional book and receiving devotions via email. I received a copy of “I Lift Up My Soul” from a book review club I joined recently. Obviously, I haven’t gone through each day, but I have been using this during my devotional time for about a week. The basic layout is similar to many devotional books that I have had he opportunity to read, but I did appreciate that is “forces” you to use your Bible. Shocking, I know. Most devotionals insert the focus verse without any context. Dr. Stanley directs you to turn to Scripture first, and then provides a quick and thought provoking story or explanation that helps the reader truly interact with God’s holy Word. One thing that I really appreciate in this devotional is that each day’s study is ...

Today (Nov 10) is Justin's birthday. Obviously, the birthday of your child holds a special meaning. Over the course of the last three days, I have been reminded of how exciting a birthday truly is. His excitement reminds me of the excitement we felt in anticipation of his birth, and, I think the excitement that God feels as his children enter into relationship with HIM. Justin seems to think that we will forget that today is his birthday. I base this on the simple fact that he has reminded us no less than 5 times/day since Sunday. I'm not sure exactly why, he hasn't quite been this excited about his birthday in the past; maybe it has something to do with this being the first birthday in Austria...I'm just not sure. But the joy that he carries (and expects from everyone around him) in anticipation of this day is a bit infectious. As many of you are aware, Justin was born in the middle of our senior year in high school. We were so emotionally unprepared (being so youn...

We had a pretty amazing opportunity with the school yesterday. The bands Good Weather Forecast (GWF) and The Insyderz came to Vienna and ICSV to put on an assembly at the school, and then play a show that night. This ended up being more than just a great concert...it was a great opportunity for the kids at ICSV to be ministered to in ways that us teachers could imagine. This all came together at the last minute. The Insyderz were/are one of my favorite bands from my high school days. I noticed on Facebook that they were gonna be in Germany this week, and after realizing that there would be no way to get to any of their shows, I sent an email to their drummer asking if they'd be interested in scheduling a quick stop in Vienna. To my surprise, they said they would love to! This set off a whirl-whind of planning and promotion. Oh, I forgot to mention, this all happened/started exactly 11 days ago! They agreed to not only play a show, but to also come to the school in the morning and...

As many of you know and/or remember, we were not planning to return home to the states until Christmas of 2011. After prayer and discussion, Rebecca and I decided that we should spend Christmas with our family in So Cal. A couple of reasons for this decision: -We are still needing to raise support. We feel it would be more beneficial for us to go "back" to raise support with positive motivations, rather than being "asked" to return by our school/sending agency. -We really would like to see our friends and family! Although we really feel encouraged and validated in our call to serve here in Vienna, we miss our loved ones. We will be arriving at LAX at 6:15 PM on December 23rd. We will return to Vienna on the 9:15 flight out of LAX on January 5th. After the 25th, we would love to be able to connect with as many of you as possible. Breakfast, coffee, lunch, dinner, dessert, just hanging out, walking around, whatever...Rebecca and I just want to be able to see an...

Hey everyone...It has been an amazingly busy couple of weeks. Since Justin's class' cultural celebration, we have been very involved with school events. I hope I can remember them all as I list them...and this is in as close to chronological order as I can recall: - Fri 15 Oct. - Helped the Junior class cook and serve dinner for the first big fundraiser of the year. - Sat 16 Oct. - Had dinner with the pastor of the church we have been attending and his lovely family. We had lots of fun watching football/soccer, talking theology and politics...They from England and its interesting to get a bit of insight to British politics and the British outlook (at least his version) on American politics. - Sun 17 Oct. - Laundry and Church - Mon 18 Oct. - Rebecca went out with a friend and I went to a support raising support group with some of the other missionary staff at the school. - Tue 19 Oct. - Rebecca went to the consulate to get an important document ordered for Justin and...

As I mentioned in last week's prayer request post, this past week was Spiritual Emphasis Week (SEW)...This year the school invited Scott Davidson and Chad Martin (along with Scott's wife Katrina). Scott and Chad have a blog/ministry called "2 Guys and a Bible" and have started a more focused ministry called "The Redemption". They are both involved in church ministries in the States (well, the Davidsons are in Canada..) During SEW we have chapel every day and there are various activities planned for the SEW team to interact with both staff and students in order to get a clearer understanding of what God is doing at ICSV. We have had a great time getting to know Scott, Katrina, and Chad and have been very blessed and encouraged by their ministry here. They focused on Jesus (usually a pretty good topic) and how He is Supreme, The Redeemer, and a mighty warrior. They finished off this week with a more focused discussion, splitting up the boys and the girls to ...

So, apparently I have to turn on the heat in my class...I have yet to actually do this, so my classroom is pretty cold. Not uncomfortably so, but enough that my students have resorted to bringing blankets to class.

Enjoy our pictures from the ICSV Staff Retreat!

Hi everyone! We hope you are all doing well. We are just about to head out on our very first ICSV staff retreat! We will be going to a retreat center run by one of the local churches in Vienna. As we prepare to leave, there are a couple of things that we would love to have you, our prayer support team, lift up to our Savior. 1. Safe travels for the staff this weekend. Also, that we will have a Spirit led, Christ-centered time of devotion and fellowship. 2. One of Michael's students, Max, had to miss school today (Friday) because he had to travel to Germany to be with his father. His father has become very ill. God has put this student on our hearts for a variety of reasons. Just yesterday, during a presentation about his culture, he told the class that he is an atheist, but being at ICSV has got him thinking that maybe God DOES exist! This young man is searching and aching for God's Grace. Please pray that he will be open to the Spirit's lead and that Max will experienc...

Hi everyone! Again, it seems like my posts on the blog are never as regular as I'd like them to be...but things are busy. Today (Saturday) was a very long day that started out with our weekly grocery trip...well, that's not really true, because we actually end up going to the grocery store on a daily basis, but we usually make one trip a week that we stock up on some stuff for the week. It's our "pull-cart" trip and it usually the only time we buy a lot (which never is that much) because it's the only time we actually have our little pull cart along (which doesn't hold very much). We had to hit two different grocery stores to get some specific grocery items before rushing off to Justin's soccer game. Justin has the privilege of playing on the ICSV middle school soccer team as a 5th grader. Initially, we figured he (and Willem, another staff kid) would only practice with the team, but they have both have been getting some playing time. Today they pl...

Hi everyone... The first week and a half of school has been absolutely amazing! We have had some great opportunities to begin building lasting relationships with the students that God has brought to Vienna to be educated at the International Christian School of Vienna. Rebecca has been adjusting well to her role as secondary secretary. She is learning quickly the many demands of her new role and is doing quite well in supporting us teachers and the rest of the staff. Rebecca hard at work I have been really enjoying my classes. I have a total of 43 students spread out over 4 periods. The students I have represent 14 different home nations, with many of the students who are "Austrian" are first generation, so they are of other nationalities as well.  I have also had the opportunity to begin working with the soccer team...again, many nationalities are represented on the field, truly an international squad. Here are some pictures of the team training at the local club...

I realize that it has been quite a while since our last post. Much has happened during the course of this transition. While there have been huge struggles, God has been faithful keeping us going and providing so many opportunities here in Vienna. There is so much to share, but I will try to keep it somewhat brief… Our Transition Praise God, our transition has been relatively smooth. There have been some struggles, especially within the context of our interaction with neighbors, but for the most part we have been enjoying the many new adventures. The apartment building that we live in is about 12-15 minutes away using the U-Bahn, and 15-20 minutes by foot. There are two school families (Beth & Josh Wells and the Reynolds family) who live on the floor below us, and the elementary principal (John) lives on our floor. Also, there is a family (Thomas and Mollie Gardener…along with their two boys Thad and Ian) in the next building over. We have spent a lot of time with the Wells and th...

Hey everybody! Click on the picture above to see ALL our pictures from the first week and a half in Vienna...Enjoy!

...and here we are completely unprepared!

Some views of our new apartment; including the walk from our U-Bahn stop to the building. Our first walk through the inner city of Vienna BBQ at the Richards family home. They have been at VCS (now ICSV) for 8 years. One of their daughters will be in my AP class this year. We had a great time of fellowship and dinner. Smores for dessert - Austrian style - were great. Part of being a teacher at ICSV is manual labor. Enjoying a knockoff Chipotle burrito at a park in inner city. Pretty dang good...and, it was the last day before they were going to close the restaurant for 3 weeks, so we got extra meat and sodas for half price! BBQ at the Spooner's house. Awesome place on the Alte Danau...unfortunately, it rained the whole day. Still very fun!

So it has been awhile since we have had the opportunity to update the blog…and as I sit here typing, I realize that I’m not exactly sure when I will be able to post what I am writing to the actual site…. I figure I should give you a rundown the last 2 days in Vienna (our first days in the city!). I’ll try to chunk it down into bite-sized chapters…I hope you enjoy! Departure from LAX, and flight to London Had a pretty easy time getting our baggage checked and then going through security…in between the two, we were able to meet up with Amanda Howard and had a chance to sit down and talk with here and her family as we waited. I’ve included some pictures of us waiting in the terminal… The flight was uneventful; little bit of turbulence, decent meal, movies galore, and minimal sleep. I was able to sleep a little, but Justin didn’t sleep until we were about 7 hours into the flight, and that was after a little mini-freak out session (his legs were hurting him and cramping). Arriva...