Johnstein!

The Thanksgiving holiday has come and past...it's definitely been interesting celebrating this very American holiday in a foreign land. In fact, I think over the last two years, I have had more "Thanksgiving Dinners" with all the fixings than the previous 4 years in the states....and they are all unique... First, we attended a dinner celebrating the 25th Anniversary of ICSV on Tuesday night where we ate, you guessed it, a Turkey dinner. The next day, I was walking through the cafeteria when I noticed that the students' plates were piled high with Turkey and mashed potatoes...so I decided to buy lunch in the cafeteria for the first time. For Thursday, we were approached by a couple of members of the class of 2012 to host a Thanksgiving celebration for the students who didn't have anywhere else to go...we agreed, but realized that our flats were entirely too small for a group of 26. We decided to have the meal in my classroom. Good times. While it was not an...

The first two concerts promoted by Rennbahn 924:1Core Productions are now officially "in the books". We had a great time putting together these concerts and seeing God's glory shine. The first concert was held on November 1st and featured Write This Down from the US, About An Author from Germany, and Before We Get Buried from Linz (a town in Austria about 2 hours away from Vienna). This concert was held at a concert venue downtown and had about 50 people in attendance. Very few school people attended this concert so the majority of the people at the concert were from outside the school community. group shot with the bands Less than a week later we hosted a concert featuring Showbread from the US, Safemode  from Sweden, Before We Get Buried  (again), Skrypt (a student from ICSV who is a very talented young man who writes and performs hip/hop and rap), and Kristi-Anna Eldridge. It was great to not only be able to host established bands, but to give oppor...

Rebecca and I are now concert promoters in Vienna! We, along with 5 other folks here in Vienna, (4 of them ICSV/VCS graduates) have started a verein (association) that is focused on attracting Christian bands to play concerts in Vienna. I am the Director of the verein and Rebecca is the Secretary. You can read more details about the establishment of this ministry by clicking on the picture. Our first official concert will be held on Tuesday 1 November. Write This Down and About An Author will be on a tour through Germany and we are the only stop in Austria. We are also very excited to be able to present an up and coming Austrian band from a town about 1 and a half away. Check out the videos below to get an idea as to what type of music the bands play.  ( Warning:   these bands are "hard-core" bands. They rock hard and scream, at times) WRITE THIS DOWN (USA) - Tooth & Nail Records. Alarm the Alarm We Shot the Moon ABOUT AN AU...

We were able to have Kailyn's dedication on the final day of our staff retreat that was held a few weeks ago. This was a huge blessing for us to be able to do this with all our "family" and friends from ICSV present and praying for our little girl... Our friends the Kleins were very helpful in documenting this very special day...Matt recorded the video... ...while Tricia took photos.... Click on the picture to see more pictures from the dedication We were so grateful that we were able to share this very important occasion in Kailyn's life with all our ICSV family...it was quite humbling to have everyone praying together for our little girl. A special thanks goes out to Tom Mason and James Devenish for leading the dedication...

Speechless. There's really no other way to describe how I felt at the end of last week. Some of you will recall my endeavor to blog at the end of every day. Well, this failed miserably.  Mainly due to the fact that I couldn't truly find a way to describe the events of the week. I figure that I'd give it a shot now that I've had a couple of days to process what happened...so here goes... The Holy Spirit absolutely filled our school over the course of the week. Students' hearts were open to the message and testimonies of all the speakers. They were willing to stay after chapel and open up their hearts to the teachers. I, myself had the privilege of having some pretty amazing conversations and prayer time with individual students. It was a great joy to see the clusters of students who stayed after to pray and minister to each other...and all the teachers who were skipped lunch to simply sit and "be there" for these students. This week was such a ...

One of the great things about this year's SEW is that the middle school and high school chapel is a combined event. Today, the middle school worship team led the time of worship...with Justin as the drummer! Although this isn't his first chapel playing...it's the first time I have heard him play as part of the worship team. Pretty proud moment to say the least. Incredible that Justin is part of a group young people helping to lead the entire secondary school in worship. Our director James Devenish (aka The Guv) presented his testimony within the context of finding Grace despite the restrictions of religion. He told us of his childhood...and the juxtaposition of a very loving, pleasant upbringing, and the fact that his grew up in the Exclusive Brethren. This was an excellent reminder that we are not called to a religion...rather we are called to live in joyful worship of the ONE who has extended this Grace, an unmerited gift, that allows us to live eternally. Ho...

Spiritual Emphasis Week (S.E.W.) is a great part of the school year at ICSV...historically, the school has brought in speakers from outside the ICSV community to speak to the students ( click here to see my posts about last year's SEW ), but this year it was decided that members of our own community would share their testimonies about how God has worked in their lives. Today's theme was Jesus is the Miracle - We had two members of our staff (both elementary teachers) speak about how God saved them from death, when death was the only expectation or prognosis by the doctors. As you can probably imagine, todays testimonies were very intense. The fact that these two ladies should very well be dead is amazing, especially to see how God has used them. There have already been many conversations with students about how God works in ways that seem impossible...even foolish, to believe. But our God is capable of more than we can imagine. Please continue to pray for this weeks spe...

It is expected in Austria that mother and baby stay in the hospital for 4-5 days before going home...definitely different from the 1 night/24 hour turnaround and checkout when Justin was born. Today was our 4th day of Kaitlyn's life and we were able to return to our apartment after a 3 night, 4 day stay in the hospital. After the first night, when Rebecca got zero sleep due to her roommate's baby, we decided that a private room was necessary for her sanity...the second and third nights were much better in the sleep dept and I was able to stay with Rebecca and Kailyn. Justin stayed at the Klein's house on Thur night and then after school on Fri went home with the Schra family. Our experience with the hospital in Klosterneuburg was amazing...the midwives, nurses, and doctors were very attentive without being overbearing. Kailyn was only out of our presence once (while Rebecca was seeing the doctor for a checkup and I was getting Kailyn's Austrian birth certificate)...

We have been living the last couple of weeks on the edge...knowing that Kaitlyn could be born at any point created a very surreal feeling. After getting in bed last night at 11:00 PM, this surreal unknown was shattered at 1:00AM when Rebecca woke up to the beginning stages of labor contractions. After waking me up with a very cliche "I think it's time" we called our good friend Thomas to give us a ride to the hospital...we arrived at the hospital at 2:30 and three hours later we were holding Kailyn in our arms! What an amazing experience. The midwives were so gracious and caring. The rest of the hospital staff were also equally helpful throughout the day. We will probably be in the hospital for a few more days (Austrian hospitals like keep mothers and their babies for 5 days or so)...but Kailyn is incredibly healthy and active. What an amazing blessing and answer to prayer. Please enjoy the pictures belowm Rebecca having a little fun in the midst of contraction...