Who are these kids at ICSV...

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, and also doing some plyometric training in the halls outside my classroom (forced inside by the rain).

Plyometrics in the hall...taking up the entire hallway after class

Justin has been enjoying his class very much. He is enjoying his German class and has been enthusiastically working to use new phrases as he learns them. He has been joining me during soccer training sessions, and is hoping to maybe play with the middle school team.

The hall of flags has been recently updated with all the flags representing the countries and nationalities that make up the student body (and staff - the Venezuelan flag is for me!). The picture below was taken today, and I have included a "map" of the hall of flags as well for your reference.

Row 1: South Africa, Sweden, Korea,  Russia, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Japan, Venezuela, Germany, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Dominican  Republic, Italy, Hungary
Row 2: Columbia, Fiji
Row 3: Egypt, India, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, Poland, Mongolia, Philippines, Kenya, Costa Rica, Romania, Netherlands, Namibia, Nigeria, Scotland   

Row 4: Cuba, United States, Austria, Peru  

The flags of China, Iraq and, Ghana are not up, but have been ordered.

37 Nationalities are represented at the moment at the school.

27% of the student body is Austrian

24% of the student body is American

As you can see, this school where God has placed us in ministry has many opportunities to reach the nations. We had High School chapel this morning, as I joined in the time of worship, I was struck speechless by the fact that God (for reasons still unknown to me) chose Rebecca, Justin, and I to come to this place to serve him. 

As the the believers in the school raised their voices in praise to our savior and creator, I thought of the many students who are not believers who quietly stood in the room. My silent prayer was that God would continue his work in these students lives and that his Spirit would dwell in their hearts.

I pray that you will lift all these students in prayer; pray for the believers, that they will continue to serve as shining examples of God's grace; pray for the unbelievers that they will come to know Jesus as their savior and that their voices will soon join in singing praises to our Creator-God.