Johnstein!

I am sure that this will add to the flurry of Thanksgiving related posts scattered on the interwebs...but here it goes. This drastic change in our lives has definitely helped us to focus on all these things that we are truly thankful for. An obvious part of this move to serve in Vienna has been leaving our friends and family in the states. It is amazing what distance will do to remind you how grateful you are to have someone in your life. We are so thankful for all of you who have supported us in this transition. Rebecca and I were talking recently about how much supportive emails, notes, and packages have meant during this time of transition...Thank you! We are also especially thankful for the wonderful love and support that has been shown to us by our new family of friends here in Vienna. We have been accepted into their families and this has definitely helped us in our transition. I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve God in this place. My expectations of wh...

The day before this picture was taken, all of this student's teachers gathered together for a meeting with his mom. This t-shirt was his response. I'd say the meeting went well. Please pray as he and I are now meeting once a week to work on prioritizing correctly so he can continue to improve in his studies...and stay true to his shirt.

Hey everyone...I have had the great honor of being asked to write for a blog that a few of the guys I work with started a couple of years ago. Well, not so much "asked"...but I wrote something for it anyways! ;) Layzmen Blog I hope you enjoy...and feel free to get involved in the discussion! - Michael

I have found that my “devotional life” is one of my greatest spiritual struggles on the mission field. Fortunately, there are many sources of assistance that we are able to turn to. Over the last year or so, I have been working through a sequential devotional book and receiving devotions via email. I received a copy of “I Lift Up My Soul” from a book review club I joined recently. Obviously, I haven’t gone through each day, but I have been using this during my devotional time for about a week. The basic layout is similar to many devotional books that I have had he opportunity to read, but I did appreciate that is “forces” you to use your Bible. Shocking, I know. Most devotionals insert the focus verse without any context. Dr. Stanley directs you to turn to Scripture first, and then provides a quick and thought provoking story or explanation that helps the reader truly interact with God’s holy Word. One thing that I really appreciate in this devotional is that each day’s study is ...

Today (Nov 10) is Justin's birthday. Obviously, the birthday of your child holds a special meaning. Over the course of the last three days, I have been reminded of how exciting a birthday truly is. His excitement reminds me of the excitement we felt in anticipation of his birth, and, I think the excitement that God feels as his children enter into relationship with HIM. Justin seems to think that we will forget that today is his birthday. I base this on the simple fact that he has reminded us no less than 5 times/day since Sunday. I'm not sure exactly why, he hasn't quite been this excited about his birthday in the past; maybe it has something to do with this being the first birthday in Austria...I'm just not sure. But the joy that he carries (and expects from everyone around him) in anticipation of this day is a bit infectious. As many of you are aware, Justin was born in the middle of our senior year in high school. We were so emotionally unprepared (being so youn...

We had a pretty amazing opportunity with the school yesterday. The bands Good Weather Forecast (GWF) and The Insyderz came to Vienna and ICSV to put on an assembly at the school, and then play a show that night. This ended up being more than just a great concert...it was a great opportunity for the kids at ICSV to be ministered to in ways that us teachers could imagine. This all came together at the last minute. The Insyderz were/are one of my favorite bands from my high school days. I noticed on Facebook that they were gonna be in Germany this week, and after realizing that there would be no way to get to any of their shows, I sent an email to their drummer asking if they'd be interested in scheduling a quick stop in Vienna. To my surprise, they said they would love to! This set off a whirl-whind of planning and promotion. Oh, I forgot to mention, this all happened/started exactly 11 days ago! They agreed to not only play a show, but to also come to the school in the morning and...

As many of you know and/or remember, we were not planning to return home to the states until Christmas of 2011. After prayer and discussion, Rebecca and I decided that we should spend Christmas with our family in So Cal. A couple of reasons for this decision: -We are still needing to raise support. We feel it would be more beneficial for us to go "back" to raise support with positive motivations, rather than being "asked" to return by our school/sending agency. -We really would like to see our friends and family! Although we really feel encouraged and validated in our call to serve here in Vienna, we miss our loved ones. We will be arriving at LAX at 6:15 PM on December 23rd. We will return to Vienna on the 9:15 flight out of LAX on January 5th. After the 25th, we would love to be able to connect with as many of you as possible. Breakfast, coffee, lunch, dinner, dessert, just hanging out, walking around, whatever...Rebecca and I just want to be able to see an...

Hey everyone...It has been an amazingly busy couple of weeks. Since Justin's class' cultural celebration, we have been very involved with school events. I hope I can remember them all as I list them...and this is in as close to chronological order as I can recall: - Fri 15 Oct. - Helped the Junior class cook and serve dinner for the first big fundraiser of the year. - Sat 16 Oct. - Had dinner with the pastor of the church we have been attending and his lovely family. We had lots of fun watching football/soccer, talking theology and politics...They from England and its interesting to get a bit of insight to British politics and the British outlook (at least his version) on American politics. - Sun 17 Oct. - Laundry and Church - Mon 18 Oct. - Rebecca went out with a friend and I went to a support raising support group with some of the other missionary staff at the school. - Tue 19 Oct. - Rebecca went to the consulate to get an important document ordered for Justin and...

As I mentioned in last week's prayer request post, this past week was Spiritual Emphasis Week (SEW)...This year the school invited Scott Davidson and Chad Martin (along with Scott's wife Katrina). Scott and Chad have a blog/ministry called "2 Guys and a Bible" and have started a more focused ministry called "The Redemption". They are both involved in church ministries in the States (well, the Davidsons are in Canada..) During SEW we have chapel every day and there are various activities planned for the SEW team to interact with both staff and students in order to get a clearer understanding of what God is doing at ICSV. We have had a great time getting to know Scott, Katrina, and Chad and have been very blessed and encouraged by their ministry here. They focused on Jesus (usually a pretty good topic) and how He is Supreme, The Redeemer, and a mighty warrior. They finished off this week with a more focused discussion, splitting up the boys and the girls to ...

So, apparently I have to turn on the heat in my class...I have yet to actually do this, so my classroom is pretty cold. Not uncomfortably so, but enough that my students have resorted to bringing blankets to class.

Enjoy our pictures from the ICSV Staff Retreat!

Hi everyone! We hope you are all doing well. We are just about to head out on our very first ICSV staff retreat! We will be going to a retreat center run by one of the local churches in Vienna. As we prepare to leave, there are a couple of things that we would love to have you, our prayer support team, lift up to our Savior. 1. Safe travels for the staff this weekend. Also, that we will have a Spirit led, Christ-centered time of devotion and fellowship. 2. One of Michael's students, Max, had to miss school today (Friday) because he had to travel to Germany to be with his father. His father has become very ill. God has put this student on our hearts for a variety of reasons. Just yesterday, during a presentation about his culture, he told the class that he is an atheist, but being at ICSV has got him thinking that maybe God DOES exist! This young man is searching and aching for God's Grace. Please pray that he will be open to the Spirit's lead and that Max will experienc...

Hi everyone! Again, it seems like my posts on the blog are never as regular as I'd like them to be...but things are busy. Today (Saturday) was a very long day that started out with our weekly grocery trip...well, that's not really true, because we actually end up going to the grocery store on a daily basis, but we usually make one trip a week that we stock up on some stuff for the week. It's our "pull-cart" trip and it usually the only time we buy a lot (which never is that much) because it's the only time we actually have our little pull cart along (which doesn't hold very much). We had to hit two different grocery stores to get some specific grocery items before rushing off to Justin's soccer game. Justin has the privilege of playing on the ICSV middle school soccer team as a 5th grader. Initially, we figured he (and Willem, another staff kid) would only practice with the team, but they have both have been getting some playing time. Today they pl...