Opportunities

English camps are quickly approaching (and we are still short 2 male cabin leaders in case you are interested). We have about four more weeks until we will head out and we still have quite a list of things that need to be accomplished during that time, so please be in prayer for that. This will be our first time taking a program staff role for a camp so it will definitely take some adjusting.

This last Friday night before we left for Pfiju some of the guys that Seth plays basketball with ended up coming to the Lighthouse for a few hours. It was very encouraging that they came along. It was challenging at times since they all come from the Middle East and are learning German now but we were able to communicate enough to play some games and have a good time. Please be praying that God will bring them back and create opportunities for us (especially Seth) to share more about God. Also that others that Seth has been meeting through Basketball will begin coming to the Lighthouse as well. This is also a great opportunity for the Christian youth that already come to the Lighthouse to branch out, make new friends and also share about their relationship with God.

There are a few girls from the youth group that I have developed a closer relationship with. God has been blessing these with many conversations about Him! Yesterday I met with one of the girls for the first time in a one-on-one setting. It went so well! God really blessed the conversation and definitely gave me the words to say as well as the right questions to ask! We learned a lot about one another and our relationships with God as well learning about various resources that are available to us that can help us to grow closer to God. In the end we decided to start to meet on a weekly basis. Please pray for this, every Monday, that God will give me wisdom and help us to both be vulnerable as well as help us to encourage one another.

Today we had the opportunity to spend time with some neighbors that we hadn’t yet had the chance to. They are an elderly couple that pretty much only speak German. We went over to their place for Coffee and Tea. We had a great time getting to know them, even if we didn’t always understand everything that they were saying J We pray that God will give us more chances to get to know them better in our last couple of months in this apartment.

Also today! Seth and I took a little hike up the mountains and had a picnic for supper. It was a lot of fun being in God’s creation and a beautiful day for it as well. We hadn’t been hiking in the mountains since everything got so green so it was like we were seeing a whole new place. We sure do live in a beautiful place!

This weekend we went to Pfiju. Which is the country wide youth conference. There were about 300 christian youth from around the country and about 25 from Innsbruck. It was a great time for us to get to know many youth better as well as to have various deep conversations with them as well. We had a great time learning more of how we are valuable to God. We were encouraged as we are understanding more and more when we hear speakers. Seth even was a part of the talent show one night. There was a good time had by all.

You can be praying for Alyssa for wisdom as she had a long conversation with one of the girls this weekend. Hopefully God will continue to develop this relationship and help her to be an encouragement.

This last Friday we had a new team member join us from the states. Her name is Jennifer and she is from Iowa. She will be here for 3 months and is here to help through camp. Please be praying for her and that God will bless the time that she is here. She was able to come along to Pfiju so she has been able to meet many of our students since most all of them were there.

(this is the group from our state which is Tirol and then one other as well)

Adventures

These past couple of weeks have just flown by. It is officially spring here in Innsbruck, raining almost daily. It is crazy to see the mountains at this time of year. Everything is all green except there is still snow at the tops. Lilac bushes are in full bloom and they seem to be everywhere.

(The view once more from our living room window. It looks a lot different now than it did when we first came. I sure am going to miss this view when we move in a couple of months.)

About two weeks ago we were on the train headed to Speyer, Germany to meet our friend John Garske (from Seward, NE) who was there for a Christian conference. It was amazing to see how God worked so that we could attend the conference as well. We grew and were challenged those four days that we were there in Speyer. It was a beautiful little town, much more like Nebraska or Kansas than Innsbruck is. Monday morning we took the train with John back to Innsbruck (and started our 4^th German class the next day). He stayed with us until Friday morning when he flew home. We had a great time showing him the town that we live in as well as some of the ministries we are a part of. We also did a little traveling, to Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and Italy. By train these are two hours or less away so we took a couple of day trips. It was our first time traveling to all of these countries; they were beautiful and fun to visit. We were definitely encouraged having John with us for a week or so.

(This is in Switzerland and behind us is flags from 4 of the 5 countries we visited while John was here. Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Lichtenstein. If only they had Italy too!)

Friday morning John flew out early in the morning, we had German class all morning and then headed out for Seefeld, Austria with our team. (Luckily this was only a half hour away). We enjoyed spending the weekend there with Dave, Cathrin, and Carrie. We did many team building activities, had lots of meetings, and great food. We left there feeling encouraged and motivated. We came home and have had the privilege to spend time with Tara Sharp who is currently staying with us until tomorrow. It has been great to have her, getting to know her better as well as be encouraged by her (hopefully there has been some of that the other way as well). Tara was apart of our team for the last five years but now has a different position through Reachglobal where she is the head of the camp division. She is also from Nebraska and went to Timberlake for any of those of you that don’t know her.

It is nice to just relax for a few days but that won’t last for long because on Saturday we go to Pfiu (I don’t know if that is spelled right) but it is a Christian youth conference, I believe for all of Austria. Most of our youth is going. I am excited to see how God uses us while we are there for the few days.

Please be praying for us and that God will use us. That we will be intentional about sharing with others about God and what He is doing in our lives. Be praying that God gives us more opportunities as well. Thanks for all your prayers!

Praise God!

We have a very big praise! Apartments are generally pretty hard to come by here in Innsbruck but He has provided our next apartment! We signed the lease yesterday! We will be living in an apartment that friends of ours will be moving out of the same week that we need to be moving in. Praise God! We will be living in an apartment building that is owned by a man that goes to our church and it is filled with other believers. It will be a small one bedroom apartment but that is all we need. We will not have the amazing view that we have now but we will be right down the road from the famous old city and a little bit closer to the Lighthouse. We will be moving in at the end of July during the few days that we will be in Innsbruck that month due to English Camps. Our friends that live there in the apartment now actually are Americans and will be moving back to America at that point. They have decided to give most all of their furniture and possessions to us since they will not be taking them on the plane. This is such an amazing opportunity for us to save money and time from searching for furniture! It’s crazy that we can be here for 2 years and spend next to nothing on filling our apartment! Praise God!