Feeling Encouraged :)

This week as flown by! Being gone for half of last week in Vienna meant we had things to catch up with when we got back and had packed days until our day off on Monday. This week has been days full of meeting with people, catching up on our Ministering in a Muslim context class (still are), youth group, graduation ceremony, a surprise baby shower through skype (which was awesome!), skyping with the family for their early Thanksgiving celebration, doctor's appointment, hospital tour, reports, as well as other things. I have genuinely enjoyed this week and am currently very excited for the various ministries we are a part of and people that we are getting to know. I went through a time of being homesick and even though I still don't like being so far away from family, I have not been struggling with homesickness. What a blessing! It is amazing the support groups that we have both in the states and here :)

We still have a little more than four weeks until our due date, but at our doctor's appointment this week, she said there were signs that a lot of time mean the baby will be coming early. Honestly I think this is just what we needed to hear so that we would kick planning and preparing into high gear. God knows so much better than we do. We'll see though if this little one comes early. I wouldn't mind being able to snuggle together as a family for Christmas. Overall with preparations for the baby things have been going very well and we have been very blessed. We are not overly nervous which could only be from God. Today though we took a tour of the hospital that is our back up plan if it doesn't work out with the birthing center. It was a great tour and was nice to see the place so we know what it will at least look like. However, it made us a little nervous with our German. Granted it was a large group taking the tour which is the hardest setting for us (we do much better with one-on-one). It would be amazing though if you all would be in prayer for the language barrier and that wherever we are at when we have the baby, we are able to effectively communicate and are willing and bold to ask questions when we don't completely understand or are uncomfortable with something.

Praises

These past two weeks have been days full of praises. It has been a time of being able to connect back with some people that we haven't seen in a while as well as a time of new learning and developing. A few of these blessing consist of being able to spend time with some of those from our German classes again, starting to plan our baby shower, making some set rules for the lernhilfe (after school tutoring program) so that it is consistent throughout the week with all of the different leaders, and starting our Ministering in a Muslim context online class (which has been awesome for the small things as well as the big things for all of those that we know that come from a Muslim culture).

Another big blessing was going to kind of like a flea market for only kids items but it is organized by a church or school. You can bring things to sell or just buy. We decided a while ago to go with cloth diapers for our child and since they are rather expensive so we decided to go to this flea market to see if they had any. We were able to find a box of barely used cloth diapers, some were even new for 30 Euros when normally they would cost altogether over 200 Euros. God really blessed us. We still only have about half of what we need but we are trusting that God will provide!

The last few days we took half a week of vacation and took a little trip to Vienna. It was our first time going and we were able to see some friends while we were there. It was really nice to have a little break and just be able to be tourists and enjoy our time together. It really is a beautiful city!

We went to the zoo with our friend Adam. In this room there were bats flying all around us. Really cool, kind of scary considering they would run into us frequently...however in this picture you can't see any bats. Unfortunate.

Also a few things to pray for is the situation with Seth's friend that is in prison. We are learning more things and realizing that Seth is able to help a little bit. Be praying for the situation, it is planned to have a court case in early December but we are hoping that it doesn't come to that. Also today I am meeting with the other female leaders of the youth group to discuss what we want to do with the girls small group considering the 20 girls that are coming is not small. Please give us wisdom on how to split things up. Thank you all for your prayers!

Small Group, Birthing Center, Viki!

We have had a full week since I last wrote. First off I had asked for prayer with the girls small group. It is crazy to see how God organized this all perfectly. He provided a youth girl that was interested in helping lead and prepare for the group with me (which we ideally would like to do more of). I had decided to do as much as I could in German and then she was willing to help translate when I needed the help. I was really nervous leading into it but trusting that God would provide. It didn't help that 21 girls showed up this week for small group. However God really helped to calm me and be able to communicate what I needed to before we split up into smaller groups for discussion time. There were even minimal times that translation was needed which was a huge blessing that could have only come from God. Looking back there are a few things that we would have changed but that also makes me excited to lead again sometime. Please continue to pray for the girls small group. Seeing as it isn't very small we are needing to decide how we should divide it up to help foster more discussion and openness. There are many different ways that we could go about doing this so please help pray for guidance.

This week we made progress on our plan for where we will have our baby and it changed from last week. This system is very different here than in the states and it has been a challenge at times to understand the process. However we have been very blessed with the people in our lives, especially Cathrin, giving wisdom based on her experiences as well as those of friends as well as blessed with a doctor and midwife that are very honest and helpful. We ideally want to have the baby at a birthing center here in town, however if the baby comes before December 17th, it will not be an option so for a back up plan we have the hospital here in Innsbruck (the last step is to visit and register at the Hospital). We really like the birthing center the best and pray that God will provide so that we can have the baby there. One things for sure, every day we are getting more excited to meet this little kick boxer inside my belly and ultimately pray that we are blessed with a healthy baby.

Viki came to visit this week and is flying back to England as I type. She is the youth girl that moved a few months back but I have had the privilege of staying in contact with since she has been gone. God really provided a lot of opportunity for me to spend time with here this week which was a big blessing to both of us. She was also there for the small group and brought a friend as well. Please pray for this relationship and that there will be a way to connect her friend to some of those in the youth group so we can then be seeing her more often.

Some more things to be praying about in the next coming weeks. Considering we are going to be experiencing our first Christmas here in Austria, we have absolutely no Christmas decorations. I am not very exciting about spending a lot of money but I do love having a lot of decorations. So we have decided to make most all of our decorations. This is challenging me to be creative but it also a way that I have decided to include some of the youth girls. I have decided to do weekly get togethers where we all make decorations together. This has not yet started and also requires a lot of planning and preparation on my part. Please help pray for me in getting ready since I would like to start in the next couple weeks and then also pray for a blessing on the time with the girls. Pray also for our baby shower which is now starting to be planned. For wisdom on who to invite and what it should look like, considering it is not really a part of the culture here. Also pray for Seth and I as we started an online class about Ministering in a Muslim Context. Please pray for that as well and that God would really help us to learn a lot and be able to practically apply things in our daily life.