Austrian Baseball...

Even in Austria, Baseball season is in full swing. Justin is playing at the American International Baseball Club (AIBC) with the Major Twins and with the Vienna Lions in the Schülerliga Ost of the Austrian Baseball Federation.

Justin did well in his Austrian baseball debut. This is the first of his four hits that he had in this game

This is his fourth his of the day...a double to right

He also pitched three innings with no earned runs and 4 strikeouts. Not bad!

I am playing on the Vienna Mets in the Regionalliga Ost. This team plays in the third tier of Austrian baseball and serves as the farm club for the Vienna Metrostars in the top division (the ABL). The pictures below are from a pre-season game agains the Piratas del Caribe (that's right)...

team before the game

I played catcher for the entire 9 inning game...

Our schedule is now packed with baseball as Tuesdays are the only days of the week where there is no potential for baseball related activities. Its been great for all three of us as it has allowed us to make new Austrian friends...hopefully our Deutsche will improve as well!

All these innings of baseball have lead to an increase in photo shoots for Rebecca!

It turns out that playing baseball in Austria is pretty serious business; both Justin and I are now official card carrying members of the Austrian Baseball Federation and stats, results, and standings for our club teams are regularly posted within a day of a game being played.

You can check out the results and stats for both Justin and I on the Homerunners Baseball Club website. We are part of the same system, so there is a really good chance that in 4 or 5 years we will be able to play together on the same team.

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and baby makes four...

that's right...our little family will soon become a foursome. We have found out that Rebecca is 6 weeks pregnant! There is definitely "something in the water" as all the families that live within our block have recently had a baby or are currently pregnant. Our baby will be the 6th baby born to ICSV staff in a span of less than a year (first one was born in early November and we will be welcoming our new addition in September). So, kind of unexpected, but a pleasant surprise nonetheless!

Fly on the wall and shipping possibilities

We left Gjakova yesterd to go to Pristina for the night before our flight back to Vienna today (Thursday)...but before we left, Berat invited us to join him at the Bethany Christian Services Community Center for an event as part of the USAid celebration of 15 year anniversary of providing development assistance in Kosovo. We helped Berat do some last minute set up stuff, but mostly, we just sat around waiting for the show to start. Maples and Faisal spent a lot of time with some of the young men and women who were waiting to present their vision to the USAid Executive Director. Soon, the delegation from USAid arrived and took a short tour of the center, in the middle of the tour, Berat took some time to introduce the Baseball camp to them...and then graciously introduced me. The delegation was surprised and excited to hear that there were some baseball opportunities. We spoke for a short while and it turns out that the Executive Director used to oversee the Denton Prog...

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...

Johnstein!

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