We'll be home for Christmas!

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 and talk with you; see how life is going with you and share what God is doing in Vienna.

Also, this is a "working" trip for us. We would appreciate any help in setting up dinners or dessert meetings when we could share our ministry to Third Culture Kids in Vienna with your friends and family who have a heart for missions.

We're really hoping that we have tons to do :) so please send me an email if you'd like to set something up...whether it is a huge deal, or just getting together to catch up, we want to get it planned.

Thanks and we look forward to seeing you all soon!!!

Comments

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

Almost a Year - A reflective poem by Rebecca

It’s been almost a year since we got on the plane. Knowing that we were leaving friends and family; we would never be the same. What has it been like leaving everything we know? Laughter and tears; sun and snow. Up and down; love and fear. All while trusting God for the reason we are here. Relying on support and prayers from the ones you care for, Though scary, freeing, challenging; it means relying on God even more. I’m so thankful to be part of a team who sees that Christ is our need Whether they can see the impact first hand or not, they have blessed students at ICSV. The students and families are so precious, eager to learn and understand What it means to love the Lord with all their hearts and to follow His command. At times I feel so left alone and wondering why God has called me here But then I talk to a student, or go to a school event, that’s when it all becomes clear. God never said life would be easy or even how we think it might be We just need to rely on Him, as He

Clowns and Hospitals

Many of you might remember the 1998 film starring Robin Williams that chronicled the early career of Hunter "Patch" Adams. He began using humor as therapy in his sessions and opened a free hospital in West Virginia. Here is a clip from the film... Fast forward 13 years to a hospital in Vienna, Austria...to a children's surgery ward. As we were sitting talking with some visitors we noticed Justin had more visitors... They proceeded to hand out musical instruments; here's the problem...this was less than 12 hours after Justin's surgery. It really hurt him to laugh at this point...and he still felt horrible After that nonsense, the clowns made 2 more appearances; once when they delivered lunch, and once later in the day when we had our friend Tom Mason visiting. Tom is a fellow missionary serving as a pastor at a local church and a teacher at ICSV. He is also a amateur magician. Pictures of him doing tricks have found their way onto this blog

Johnstein!

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