Required New Year's Post...CHECK!

Wow...so this post is coming pretty late but... this is the time of year that we all reflect on the past year... we take time to remember all the good times, vow to forget the bad, and resolve to change something for the coming year. Up until this year, I never really cared that much about New Year's...sure, it was fun to go over to someone's house and "ring" in the new year, but there wasn't much retrospective analysis.

Being that this past year was probably the most life changing year of my life has necessitated a certain amount of retrospect this time around. So here it goes.

We've gone from being "settled" in Apple Valley; enjoying our jobs, home, friends, and life to...and I'll try to hit the main points:

February - being obedient to God's call to the mission field, flying to Des Moines to meet with the recruiter
April - Committing to Vienna and putting in our notice to our school, effectively quitting our jobs
May - June selling the majority of our belongings, moving out of our home, humbling ourselves and looking to our family, friends, and church body to support us financially in our work, purchased tickets for the flight to Vienna
July - Pre Field Orientation in Houghton, NY, lots of goodbyes
Aug - Lots of hellos, moved to Vienna, started teaching, got a visa!
Sept-Dec - Too many events to name them all...road trips with soccer team to Slovakia and Hungary, organized and hosted a ska concert, coffee house evenings, too many other school events to mention, Christmas markets.

I really intended for this to be much more introspective, BUT then I came down with the chicken pox...so this will have to do.

Here's to the the big years in our lives...and the "normal" ones. They are all full of God's blessings and gifts, even in the years where it seems that nothing goes right.

Love you all!

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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