Johnstein!

Most of you are familiar with the concert ministry that we have been involved in for the last two years, bringing Christian bands to Vienna...well, one of the first bands we were involved with is preparing to release a new album. Good Weather Forecast is a band from Germany that has visited us in Vienna 3 times now. They have become good friends and we are excited to be a small part of their ministry. As they were preparing to record their album, they approached us to see if we could help out. The album is called Dream City, and they wanted to use the "dreams" of their fans to underscore the meaning of their album. The band gave of their time and talents to play for a benefit concert last year (which raised almost 1000€); after the concert they asked students to share their dreams. They set up lights and cameras in my classroom and we stayed up late having students share their dreams. The following video is the result of that filming session... All but 2 of the peopl...

I recently finished reading a book that really encouraged me;  Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis  written by Terry Lindvall. While the book is a thick academic tome, I believe it really discusses some of the necessities of humor in a very accessible way. This is not a book that you read casually; this academic study of C.S. writings cannot be understood with out a pen to underline and write notes in the margins. Despite the repetitive approach, Lindvall slickly introduces subtle nuances in his analysis. While this is great for the detailed reader, his subtle insertion of new ideas sometimes is lost through the distraction of redundancy. One of my favorite chapters is entitled "The Quiddity of Life". Quiddity is an idea in philosophy in which you study the "whatness" of something. Lindvall states that "The commonplace becomes quite startling and marvelous when one actually pays attention to it and forgets oneself"...in fact, it is...

The last couple of weeks have been full of events to keep us busy (as always, it seems), challenges to keep us humble, and community to keep us grounded...and through it all God continues to remain faithful in confirming our call to ministry here in Vienna... We were able to celebrate Rebecca's birthday at one of our favorite restaurants (one of very few Mexican places). We had a great time...we laughed entirely too much...if that's even possible. It was a bit bittersweet as this restaurant (like so many other places in the city) reminds us of many of our friends who have left Vienna recently... Rebecca and Tawni enjoying their beverages... Back to school night was a success...Rebecca and I had the opportunity to explain our vision for student ministries with all the parents in attendance and I was able to share some time with some of my students' parents. As Kailyn's birthday party was the next morning (we decided to host it at school), we enlisted the help of...

A year ago we were hanging out in the hospital in Klosterneuburg, Austria...the bells from the 300 year old monastery building (although the location has been a monastery since the mid 1100's!) rang as our baby girl opened her eyes for the first time to look around and explore her world...looking back on this year she has had quite a beginning...here are some highlights. - Austrian birth certificate - Visit to the consulate to get US citizen born abroad certificate and passport - Staff retreat into the Austrian Alps...9 days old. Dedication service with all our ICSV family - First rock show - Switchfoot - Trip to Czech Republic for her brother's baseball tournament - First international plane trip with mommy to the US right before Christmas - First long distance train ride (to Prague) - Second rock show (and running the merch table with mommy) -  Good Weather Forecast - First move (2nd apartment) - Second long distance train ride (to Innsbruck) - Trip to Croatia - ...

So much of what we do as educators is about helping students understand who/what they are. We do our best to help them; we rejoice in their victories and we grieve during their loss. Over time we see them grow; yet most of the time we don't even have a clue as to how deeply these kids change. Sometimes you're able to catch a glimpse...sometimes they let you in. At the end of their Senior year, I had the students read "Till We Have Faces" by C.S Lewis. As the cumulative project, they created a retrospective book that documents the changes that occurred during their time at ICSV. Last year's projects blew me away. While I am fairly close to these kids, it is still amazing to see all that they have dealt with and how they are stronger as a result. There is not much more I can write...these projects left me speechless. Really though, it reminded me why it is such a privilege to serve at this school in Vienna, and how we can we rejoice in the REALLY small...

Wow...basically 3 months since the last update. So, bullet points it is! - Took the senior class to Croatia. - Enjoyed a great grad ceremony with an amazing Salutatorian address by Nicholas Hamm. - Our second year at ICSV ended well, but lots of hard good-byes to friends and students. - Flew to America with 3 mostly empty suitcases to spend the summer with family, friends, supporters. - Michael spent a week in Monterey for an AP European History conference - We were able to visit Apple Valley Baptist (twice), 1st Lutheran Long Beach, and St. Paul's Orange - Family vacation at the Welk resort with ALL the members of the Johnstone side of the family - Lots of food... - Flew back to Vienna with 4 completely filled suitcases - Destroyed by jet lag (took a full week to recover) - Welcomed new staff (Michael made 8 airport runs in the course of 10 days) - Helped newbies get settled by taking them to get registered in Austria, helped them shop, set up internet acco...

This semester presented a new challenge for me. Sixth Grade History. I quickly found out that a sixth grade class is a lot different from a seventh grade class; and even the lessons I learned from teaching the seventh graders had faded in my mind after two years...but that's all water under the proverbial bridge. This opportunity to teach sixth graders meant that I was back in my wheelhouse. Teaching History is what I love to do. And teaching history in a city like Vienna is a dream come true...well, actually, not even a dream come true. I never even had the gall to dream such a dream. Anyways, teaching the sixth graders meant that I got to teach them about the Romans. So...I got to thinking that it would be cool to do a field trip. Well, it just so happens that modern day Vienna used to be the site of a Roman fortress and civilian outpost called Vindibona...there are a handful of archaeological digs throughout downtown Vienna that serve as a window to the past. There is al...

Sometimes I am overwhelmed by all that goes on here in Vienna. During the moments of cultural awkwardness,  the challenges of ministry, the frustrations of fatherhood, or the depth of God's faithfulness; I sometimes feel that I am missing something. That's how I feel tonight...but for a good reason. We just returned from a mid-week getaway to Woergl (a small town near Innsbruck) where I (along with three friends) participated in a shoot for an episode of "Extreme Water Parks" produced by the Travel Channel! This all started last week ago. Well, actually it started about a year ago when our friends Jeremy and Kristi Wilson were filmed for an HGTV show featuring Americans living abroad. Recently they were contacted for help identifying people to be a part of this water parks show.  At 5:18 pm last Friday, about a week after I responded to a facebook post with an assumption that nothing would happen, I received an email from the production company asking if our fami...