Johnstein!

I realize that it has been quite a while since our last post. Much has happened during the course of this transition. While there have been huge struggles, God has been faithful keeping us going and providing so many opportunities here in Vienna. There is so much to share, but I will try to keep it somewhat brief… Our Transition Praise God, our transition has been relatively smooth. There have been some struggles, especially within the context of our interaction with neighbors, but for the most part we have been enjoying the many new adventures. The apartment building that we live in is about 12-15 minutes away using the U-Bahn, and 15-20 minutes by foot. There are two school families (Beth & Josh Wells and the Reynolds family) who live on the floor below us, and the elementary principal (John) lives on our floor. Also, there is a family (Thomas and Mollie Gardener…along with their two boys Thad and Ian) in the next building over. We have spent a lot of time with the Wells and th...

Hey everybody! Click on the picture above to see ALL our pictures from the first week and a half in Vienna...Enjoy!

...and here we are completely unprepared!

Some views of our new apartment; including the walk from our U-Bahn stop to the building. Our first walk through the inner city of Vienna BBQ at the Richards family home. They have been at VCS (now ICSV) for 8 years. One of their daughters will be in my AP class this year. We had a great time of fellowship and dinner. Smores for dessert - Austrian style - were great. Part of being a teacher at ICSV is manual labor. Enjoying a knockoff Chipotle burrito at a park in inner city. Pretty dang good...and, it was the last day before they were going to close the restaurant for 3 weeks, so we got extra meat and sodas for half price! BBQ at the Spooner's house. Awesome place on the Alte Danau...unfortunately, it rained the whole day. Still very fun!

So it has been awhile since we have had the opportunity to update the blog…and as I sit here typing, I realize that I’m not exactly sure when I will be able to post what I am writing to the actual site…. I figure I should give you a rundown the last 2 days in Vienna (our first days in the city!). I’ll try to chunk it down into bite-sized chapters…I hope you enjoy! Departure from LAX, and flight to London Had a pretty easy time getting our baggage checked and then going through security…in between the two, we were able to meet up with Amanda Howard and had a chance to sit down and talk with here and her family as we waited. I’ve included some pictures of us waiting in the terminal… The flight was uneventful; little bit of turbulence, decent meal, movies galore, and minimal sleep. I was able to sleep a little, but Justin didn’t sleep until we were about 7 hours into the flight, and that was after a little mini-freak out session (his legs were hurting him and cramping). Arriva...

Hey everyone...we will be heading to the airport pretty soon. Our flight leaves at 5:35 tonight. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel. We should be landing in Vienna around 6:00 tomorrow night (local time). I will be updating the blog as soon as I can when we get there. The next stage of the adventure begins!!!

Hey everyone! As many of you know, we are moving to Vienna, Austria to serve at the International Christian School of Vienna. We are scheduled to leave on Saturday July 31st. We will be serving as missionaries at the school, and as such, will not be paid a salary from the school and must raise our support. For those of you who may not be familiar with this, it means that we must raise a team of supporters who commit and pledge to faithfully give financially to help support us in this mission. Currently we have 53 people who have committed to support us, all at levels ranging from $10-$250/month. The vast majority of our support is found in the lower ranges. We are dependent on this support for a couple of reasons; obviously, we will have bills to pay, but the level of support is also necessary for the requirements of our work visa in Vienna. Ultimately, we are asking you to prayerfully consider joining our financial support team. We are so blessed by all of you who feel led to su...

Thursday was our final full day of PFO...our final sessions were good, looking at assessment in an international classroom (could have used more "case studies"). Also had an interesting "International School Panel" with some of the participants and staff who shared info about their particular schools and talked about some of the challenges and blessings specific to their school. In the afternoon session, Dr Egeler presented a short video that juxtaposed the stories of the Lost Boys of Sudan, with the Lost Children of Rockford County...It was amazing to see the reactions within the context of losing part of your childhood and the role that their faith and dependence on God played in some unthinkable situations. The afternoon session was short in order to give us time to pack up and get ready to leave, and also so we could get ready for the international banquet... It was so hot that even the fire alarm system in our dorm building thought it was on fire and went...

I can't believe that tomorrow will be our last day of sessions...it's amazing to reflect on everything that we have done over the course of our time here. Today was no different, of course. We had the opportunity to learn about meeting the needs of English Language Learners...unfortunately, this is such a vital part of the credentialing process, most of us teachers have been saturated with this knowledge. I must admit, I had some moments where my eyelids decided to drop...it was a very long two hours to say the least. The session after that was one that I have been dreading the entire two weeks. This session was focused on the topic of "Moral Purity"; essentially the tactics and temptations of a sexual nature that Satan uses to drive missionaries (and others) off the field. The reality of this is very scary; understanding the ramifications of falling prey to this, and the way it could absolutely destroy family, ministry, and self confidence really drives us to prote...

Another good day...I feel like a broken record. It's just that we continually seem to be met by God in our need. Today we had a couple of very helpful sessions, one on the need for focused mentoring of our students and one on some of the steps that must be taken in order to protect the children in our care from falling victim to predators (peer or adult). Both very applicable and useful sessions. Again, I feel as though we are on overload now; I think that I am approaching the point of saturation where I just can't handle any more information. I am waiting for the point in this week when the presenters will start a session that I have already sat through in a previous conference or something that doesn't apply to me...but I have a sneaking suspicion that this moment will not happen. We had another breakout session led by the Dyers, the couple from Australia, focused on balancing a multi-cultural classroom. It is amazing how different this is going to be from even teachi...

After a couple of nice, low key days, we started off the morning with a simulation...I knew it was gonna be tough when they took us into the simulation and told us to leave everything in the lecture hall and go to the bathroom. Essentially we were locked in a room with 20 other participants and given the scenario... We were to imagine that we were serving in a country experiencing chaotic political turmoil. Bullets were flying and the neighboring countryside was becoming more and more chaotic. Over the course of the next two hours, we were given varying tasks with increasing stress and intensity. We were told we had limited food and supplies and had to organize in order to prepare for a long term period of isolation, as we couldn't be assured as to when it would be over. As the exercise continued we found ourselves beginning to chip away at the trust of the person who was giving us information. My group had a young man who volunteered to escape as a "spy" but was quic...

Hey, friends and family... We had a very nice, relaxing day today...we had a great church service today with our fellow PFO participants. We all met in the concert recital hall at the school and worshiped, singing the songs we have been learning throughout the last week. These songs are all written by Evan Evans (I know, awesome) and are all written in a male/female choral format. These songs sound amazing and the melodies stay in your head all day...our friend, Dan Basnett, has recorded some of these songs throughout the week...he keeps promising to upload them...when he finally gets around to it, I link to it (so get going, Dan!). For now, you can still check out his blog . Also, while you're at it, check out the Overby's Blog as well Evan Evans not only led the worship time (along with his wife and daughters), but he shared the message with us. He spoke about our prayer lives as we serve, reminding us of the amazing power that prayer, in the name of Jesus can hold. This...