Birthday celebration

Thanks to all of you who prayed for Seth's birthday! The day before Seth had a bunch of guys that got together and played various sports including American Football. He was very excited to keep up the tradition of playing for his birthday even when he is in a group where only one other person had any idea what the rules were for the game. We had a great day and were blessed with a day spent with many friends. I didn't officially count but we must have had 50 people in our home throughout the day. At one point we had over 25 in our living room which was a little much but then as more people came we moved half of the party outside to play games. It was great fun. The one thing that was a little difficult is that we had church at 5pm. Many of the people that were there normally go to the same church as us so they came along but then there were some that normally don't come but since everyone else was going them came too. This included two guys that we had met through German class. I believe it was both of their first times in a church. I got the opportunity to talk with one afterwards and he had lots of questions about what we believe and what the difference is between us and the catholic church. We had a really good discussion. Please pray that God provides more opportunities! After church about 15 people came over and we played card games together. A guy that Seth had met through basketball ended up coming even though we hadn't seen him since before the summer. He played for a while and then sat and talked with two other guys for two hours about God. Both of the guys got to share their testimonies. One thing is for sure, God had bigger plans for Seth's birthday than I did. I am excited to see how God continues to use us and those around us.

In the Lernhilfe (tutoring program) we had two more students register this week and last week we had a new helper volunteer. We really have been blessed but please continue to pray that more kids come! On Friday the middle school youth group had a city game that began at the Lighthouse and they invited all of the kids from the Lernhilfe as well to join. Four kids ended up joining and had a great time. It was counselor hunt in the old city. So there were lots of leaders dressed up running around the old city that the kids were supposed to find. Seth dressed up but I went with a group of the younger kids so nobody would get lost. We had a great time and my team even won!

Thanks also for the prayers for Dave he is feeling much better and has been back to his normal activities this week! Some prayer requests: Continued guidance on where we would want to have the baby. We have a tentative plan and are touring the place next week. With this place we would also need to find a different doctor because ours will not come here and deliver (or we could just take whoever is on call), so pray for wisdom with that. Also this Saturday evening we have small groups and since the main female leader is gone for the youth group, I will be leading. I am going to do it as a team with a youth and we are going to try to lead all in German. So please pray for wisdom and that God will really bless us especially me with understanding and being able to communicate in German. Also this next week a youth girl that moved away a couple months ago will be here visiting for the week. I have been meeting with her weekly for a few months now and since she moved it has been over skype. She is wanting to spend a lot of time together since all her friends will be in school during the day so please pray for the time that I will have with her! Thank you all for your prayers and keeping up to date!

Alyssa

Frauenfreizeit and Seth's birthday!

This last weekend I was gone again but this time for a women's retreat (I'm pretty excited to finally be home for this weekend). It was for Christian women within our state, Tirol. There were 65 women there! It was really cool to meet so many women pursuing God. Many were from Innsbruck but there were only three that were from our church. It was great meeting women that are attending the other churches in Innsbruck as well as many of the mom's of our youth kids. We had a speaker from Germany that was speaking on how to hear God's voice. I really enjoyed what she shared and a lot of it was challenging and very practical for growing closer to God so we can better distinguish when He is calling us to do something. I was sharing a room with Cathrin (our team leader's wife) and had a really good time getting to know her better and getting the opportunity to talk through my thoughts about our baby's birth and what facility we would want to go to. She had a lot of great input and shared different possibilities that I hadn't heard of yet. Since then Seth and I talked it over and we now have a plan and will be taking tours and meeting with those that we will need to over the next couple weeks. So if everything goes according to plan and we like this idea as much as we think we do, we will have an official plan about 7 weeks before the baby is due :)

Tomorrow is Seth's birthday! Normally in the states we would celebrate together and then normally have a meal with each of our families to celebrate (not always on our birthday). Knowing that we wouldn't get that chance to celebrate with our families (at least not for the next couple months), we planned a party, inviting just about everyone we know here. You can pray that it will be an encouraging time and lots of people will come to help celebrate! Seth is also organizing a football game as well. He would normally try to do this each year around his birthday in the states. It was always something that he really enjoyed and there weren't too many injuries. Here though very few people actually care about football or even know the rules. There are a few guys that said they would be coming and lots that said they would maybe come. Please pray that enough people will come for them to play football (although if they didn't have enough they would play basketball and Seth is fond of that too) and that it functions well with so few people knowing how to play.

Please also continue to pray for our team. Dave is still sick, which is 2 weeks now! He has a conference that he needs to attend at the start of November. The plane tickets are already bought, please pray that he is healthy enough to go.

Thank you all for your prayers!

Alyssa

Geminde Wochenende

This last weekend we had our church retreat. We drove about 2 hours away and were up in the mountains with almost 50 people from our church. Going into it I was a little nervous for all the German that would be spoken through the weekend but for the most part it went very well. There were a few situations where we struggled to understand which can be frustrating because that is generally the things that we want to understand the most. However God really used this time for us to grow closer and get to know those in our church better. We had a speaker from Germany that was there which is a blessing because people from Germany are generally a lot easier to understand than those from Austria, they speak in less dialect. I was really challenged by the things the speaker shared as well as with the small groups that we would have after each talk. We talked about the role of the church as well as what we are called to as believers. We talked about prayer and the importance of praying together and for one another as well as being intentional with those we are living around to share Christ's love. We also took a good look at ourselves and the areas that we are not willing to give control over to God. There were four great messages as well as great times of fellowship together. Most of the weekend it was raining and cloudy but the last day it cleared up and we were able to see how truly beautiful this area is. We were also able to go on walks through the mountains. 

This week we were able to have our first team meeting since before the summer that we were all together. It was great to have everyone there but I also have some prayer requests for each of us.

Carrie - Her sister had her baby yesterday, it was an emergency c-section and there were a lot of complications considering she has diabetes and after they found out she was pregnant they discovered a tumor that was growing on her uterus that was the size of a softball (which they have not yet been able to remove). Her sister experienced a lot of blood loss and the baby had problems breathing but almost 24 hours after the birth they were able to be united together. Please be praying for their health as well as Carrie's heart as she is here and unable to be there with her sister while she is going through this tough time.

Dave - He has struggled with bronchitis for the last 6 years or so, sometimes being so bad that he was sick at home for almost a whole winter a few years back. It has been something he has struggled with for a while but last winter was able to stay healthy pretty much the whole winter. However he has been sick with bronchitis for pretty much this whole week so far. Please pray that his health returns and that he stays free from sickness for the rest of the fall and winter.

Cathrin & I - Tomorrow we are driving a couple hours away and will be attending, for the weekend, a Tirol wide (that's our state) Christian women's conference. We are excited to be able to get to know some of the other believing women in Tirol. We ask for prayers of safety while driving as well as for our time there.

Seth - This weekend with Dave sick and Cathrin and I gone, Seth will be at the Lighthouse as the only scheduled leader for the Friday hangout time. Please pray for guidance for him as well as that God will bring other leaders there to just spend the evening as well as many youth!

Also be in prayer as Seth's birthday is coming up in only 10 days. It will be strange not being around our family during this time. Please pray that Seth will have a very special day here and be able to celebrate it with many friends. 

We also have a big praise! We have been in need of a couch since we moved into this apartment and have been looking around a lot but been discouraged with how expensive couches are. If we knew we were staying here longer term then we may have been more willing to spend more but for only a year and two months more it seemed silly to spend the money. However a couple days ago Carrie (our team mate) was having coffee at a friends house and one of this first things they said was do you know anyone looking for a couch? We just can't seem to get rid of ours and we no longer have the space for it. Through the connection, next week we will be getting for free, a sleeper couch. God has really blessed us in so many ways with providing things that we are needing!