God is working

Last Friday I found myself at the airport with a group of about 20 as we said goodbye to Viki, since her and her family are moving to London. Viki is one of our youth students that I have been meeting with on a weekly basis for a while now. It is awesome to see how God has been molding her. It is such a blessing to witness the processes of God working on her heart and her slowly surrendering different aspects of her life over to Him. As with us all though, God is not finished working in her life. Please pray along with me that God will build up a Christian community there in London around this family and that they will continue to open to where and how God is calling them. Also that I will have wisdom on my ongoing roll in this family's life.

This week, our German has been put to the test more than ever before. It is clear that our German is developed enough that people we are around noticed and the majority of the time everyone now speaks German with us. As I look back on the calendar, I realize that we had just about 4 full days in a row where we had pretty much no English interaction except for with each other. Part of that is because we took a road trip with my good friend Maria (who doesn't speak very good English) and went to Ost tirol for a couple days. It was a very good and fun trip but it was also very difficult. We do well with German when we are talking one on one with people or with a small group but once you add in a few more people (and a new dialect) it can be very exhausting. By the end of the trip, I was pretty well spent. We did overall have a great time. We were in a smaller town than Innsbruck, everything was within close walking distance but it was still in the mountains so we were also able to do some hiking, which was not as easy for me as it once was but it still was a beautiful sight to see.

This week I have also gotten the opportunity to spend some time with a few of the girls from the youth group and it has been amazing to watch as conversations change to German. Honestly I really prefer that because it helps me better learn and its in an environment where I can ask questions. However these are all girls that have all expressed to me that they wanted to speak more in English because they want the practice. In fact a couple of them I had hardly ever heard them speak in German before this week. It is cool to see how God is creating more opportunities to get better in German but I also don't want to lose out on the ways He can use us because we speak English. 

Also this week Rebecca (a youth girl) and I were able to go through all the baby things that have been given to us so far and see exactly where we are at and what we would still need. I just want to say how incredibly blessed we are (particularly by the Green family). Our list of needed things is very short (about 10-15 things) and we have not yet had a baby shower. It is awesome to see how God provides.