Praises!

Just a few praises to hopefully help encourage some of you! As well as to thank you all for your prayers!

- Last week we went in to get our VISAs. Praise God we had everything that they requested of us plus more. We were planning on having to wait a few weeks for them to come in but praise God we were able to go in and pick them up on Wednesday without any problems!

- I (Alyssa) have really begun to connect to God through German worship music which is a huge blessing!

- We were able to take our personal retreat day for this past month and spend part of it at the zoo here in Innsbruck. It was an awesome time for us to have together as well has getting to explore the area a little more!

- God has really been blessing our relationship with our neighbors. There is a family that lives below us that when we first met was a little awkward (we interrupted dinner and they had company and so on). However, God definitely used it to start a relationship. The couple's daughter is about our age and we were able to go out to eat with her and her boyfriend on Sunday and we are now planning on being at her birthday party this Saturday. We have also been able to get to know her parents a little bit. They only speak German and it has been great opportunities to practice what we know! The mom even made us some knodle which was quite delicious! We have also been able to get to know our neighbors across the hall. There there is a woman and her two young girls. Be praying for God to really use these relationships!

-It has been crazy to see what God is doing through our relationships with those in our German class! A few of the guys from class have gone with Seth to play soccer which is awesome! We were able to go running with one of those sames guys as well, since he does not live to far from our house. There is a couple in our class that has shown interest in what we believe and the husband even came to bible study with us this last Wednesday. He came with many questions since he had grown up in a Muslim country. Be praying for conversations that we have. Also be praying that he will continue to keep coming to bible study and that God will provide a way for his wife to come as well.

(the blond in the middle is our teacher)

- Today we had our German class over to our home for a meal! What a blessing it is to have a large apartment right now! It was the last day of class and everyone brought something to contribute. It was awesome to try different kinds of foods! There was SO much food and for some reason everyone decided to leave all the left overs at our house! Our fridge is packed to the max and there is even more we have put in the freezer or is ok to sit on the counter. I'm pretty sure we have enough fruit and bread to last us a month! ...too bad it won't last that long. We had a great time together and pray that these relationships continue to develop. Some of these people will continue on with us with the next German class that starts on Monday but probably only half the class. However those that we are closest with are going to continue for at least one more class. The couple I mentioned earlier is planning on doing all 6 with us. Praise God!

Not the most flattering picture but I think that was everyone besides me

- God has really been blessing the Friday night ministry at the light house! It is a time for the high school youth group kids to bring there friends just as a time of outreach and fellowship. There have been many people (like 15-35) every week since we have been here although that is apparently a newer development. It's awesome to get to know the friends of the youth. There is particularly one girl that I (Alyssa) have begun to connect with that is not a part of the youth group. Be praying for that!

- Sunday there was a meal after the church service and we ended being at a table with German only speakers. I think that was the first time where we have really been able to converse with people only in German. It amazed me how many things we were able to talk about! It was a very big confidence boost for us with our German!

- Seth's cousin Ismael is coming to visit tomorrow! Be praying that God uses that time! He will be joining us on some ministry things. We will also be doing some sightseeing which we really haven't done a lot of so we are pretty excited!

Thank you all for your prayers! Sickness seems to be going around here like crazy! Be praying for our health as well as the health of our team (Seth has been feeling better but our team leader and his family have all been sick this week).

Visa

Yesterday we went to the government office before our German class in the morning to apply for our Visa. Carrie, our team member met us there to help translate to make the process go smoother. Right as we walk up to the waiting area they come out asking for the next in line....and well we were the line (this was a blessing since its a rather long process and only two employees that can input the request so even if you are the only one waiting you can wait for an hour). While we were there everything went smoothly, we had every document that was requested. Praise God! We paid and were told to pick them up in a week (even though we were expecting for it to take four weeks)! We have had many blessings so far. Please continue to pray that the process goes smoothly as we pick up our Visa and nothing unexpected comes up.

Also be praying. We have invited our entire german class to come over for a meal. Be praying for opportunities to share about God and the words to say considering for many our only common language is German. That is going to be a week from Thursday. Also be praying, some of the guys from class are interested in coming and playing soccer with Seth and some guys from our church tomorrow night. Also a couple from class are interested in coming to an English speaking bible study through our church this next Wednesday even though they are catholic. Please be praying for all of these opportunites that God has been blessing us with as well as language learning. German is going well but we still have a long way to go.

Sorry for the break in updates. We have had a busy last week and a half but a blessed one as well. Last weekend we had a youth retreat that was put on by our team. It was a great opportunity for us to get to know the youth and our team better. This was a retreat that was meant for believers. The theme was our mission as believers. There were many challenging messages given (even though we might not have been able to understand all of them). Seth spoke during one of the chapel times. He spoke with a translator which is very different but he did very well and many of the youth really engaged in the small group discussion groups that directly followed his talk. We lead the games together ranging from icebreaker games to tackle football (american) to Alpha Wolf in the snow on the side of the mountain. A good time was had by all and we began to build relationships with many of the youth. (be praying that those continue to grow)

 Yes this was an excellent series of pictures but if you look at my face on the left...the ball had fallen out and nobody seemed to notice but me (the snow helped hide it) but I was able to return it for a touchdown but just barely...

 There were literally hundreds of amazing pictures taken of this game. There are more that we are tagged in on facebook if you want to look at them!

Once we arrived home (after little sleep) we were back into the full swing of things. With German classes each morning followed by the after school tutoring at the lighthouse. German classes have been going well, we are understanding most of what the teacher says (she only speaks in German). We are doing well with keeping up in class and are working hard at studying on our own. God has definitely been blessing us in our language learning. We are understanding more and more of what people are saying outside of class too. Language learning will be a continual challenge, in our class we are learning high German which everyone here can understand but they speak their own Tirolean dialect. This dialect is very similar but we will still need to learn more after we are done with our German classes.

Please be praying for us as we are seeing exactly where and what God wants us involved with as we are here. We have had many opportunities and need to start narrowing them down. We appreciate all of the love and support that you all have shown us!

Alyssa

German Classes have begun!

We will now be in class Mon-Thursday mornings until summer. Going into the class we were excited about the idea of knowing German but a little nervous about the process of getting there. We had learned a little before hand from living here but didn’t know much. I am blown away with how much we have progressed. We serve an awesome God! We are working hard at applying ourselves and even though we have learned a lot it is still very hard to understand much of what people are saying when we’re not in class. But we are recognizing more and more words all the time and right now at least for me (Alyssa) it is exciting. So far the four hours of German class each day has not seemed like a lot. Our teacher is very good and breaking up the morning with various activities, the time just seems to fly by. I can only explain that as being from God.

Our class is different from any that I have ever been in before in the sense that it’s not English based. I have been in numerous Spanish classes and especially the more advanced classes we rarely spoke in English but our books had the vocabulary translated to English and if we didn’t understand something the teacher would explain in English. This class is not like that. Probably only half of the class can even speak English and there is only one other that it is their first language. There are people from Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Spain, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, and Serbia. Our books are only in German, no English. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work but our teacher is very good at communicating what a word or question means with only using German. We are blessed that she does know some English so we are able to better understand but if she has explained and someone doesn’t understand they are supposed to look up the word in their personal dictionary. The class moves quickly but I feel like we are both keeping up quite well. Pray that continues.

Also be praying for our opportunities to be a witness to the people in the class. Pretty much the first question that anybody asks us is Why are you in Innsbruck? This has been an awesome opportunity in the class especially to share with people God’s calling in our lives. There is a couple from Iran that we have talked with the most so far of the people in our class. Be praying for more opportunities to spend time with them, even outside of class. They have never been skiing and since they learned that we are beginners as well they were interested in going skiing with us. So be praying. That leads well into my next story…

On Monday we went skiing for the first time while being here. God blessed us tremendously with skis to borrow as well as extremely cheap used skis to buy. I had gone skiing once before in the states with my family when I was in middle school but it was only a couple days and we didn’t get much passed the bunny hill. This was the first time going skiing for Seth. Our team leader, Dave and his son Jakob (He’s about to turn 7) decided to help us learn and took us to Mutters. I quickly caught on and remembered much of what I had learned. Dave was working with Seth trying to teach him the basics while Jakob and I would race to the bottom (Jakob won every time but I like to think I was competition). Soon Jakob got bored with the bunny hill and wanted to go down the main slope so we all decided to go. Dave gave us a pep talk before hand saying that you can make any slope less steep by zigzagging across it. Seth was not ready to be off the bunny hill but we all went anyway. The next couple hours consisted of Seth falling countless times, poles flying, skis coming off, taking a break for cookies, lots of stops and Seth lying in the snow. At one point Seth thought he may have really hurt his knee but we were getting close to the end so he just tried to go as slow as possible. He did end up walking down the last 100 meters (it was pretty steep). Praise God nothing was broken and his knee healed up nicely in the next couple days…however he is still pretty sore.  He is open to going again and we are excited about maybe going with the couple from German class, it will be nice going with other beginners.

Seth however was not the only one to crash this week. We have bikes that we have borrowed from people. They are turning into our primary mode of transportation. They are very nice to have to get places quickly. So far whenever it has been snowing we have avoided using the bikes just for safety. This Tuesday we rode our bikes to class in the morning and we didn’t realize it was going to but it snowed about 3 inches while we were in class. We didn’t have much of a choice so after class we headed out on our bikes. It was just a couple blocks later we were turning (with a bus following us) and my bike slipped through the slush and I found myself lying in the road. Praise the Lord I wasn't hurt and I was able to jump up quickly and move over to the sidewalk. God really protected me. Thanks to all of you that have been praying for protection for us while we’re here. I think we’re going to make a point of leaving our bikes at home when it is snowing or raining.

Be praying! This weekend is a retreat for the youth kids. This is going to be an awesome opportunity for us to build more relationships. We are in charge of games and then Seth is speaking on Saturday night. Be praying that God will use and guide us while we are there!

The walk along the river to the place where we got our skis (this is also the way we take to church and when we run)

There will be more pictures yet to come and even some video of skiing!

Just going to share a couple God sightings from the last few days. On Friday we were going to register that we were going to be living here with the government and then we would receiver or paper of residency (called a Meldezettel). Once we received this piece of paper we would be able to get cell phones (although we were waiting for Seth’s cell phone to come in the mail since it was ordered online we just needed to activate it then), internet, and bank account.  So we set out early for the Rathaus (government building, a 25 minute walk) when we arrived there and waiting to meet with someone, we realized that we had forgotten our passports. Frustrated we left and Seth walked to a place nearby where we had a bike stored and rode home to pick them up. Once he had gotten them and was about to leave he noticed that there was a man across the road delivering packages. He waited to see if he was coming over to our apartment just hoping that his phone would be there so we wouldn’t have to wait until Monday. The delivery man did come over and Seth right away asked if he had a package for him which he did! It’s funny how God will work some times.

We were able to get registered without a problem and were off to open a bank account. Things went smoothly there but it did take longer than planned. By time we were done we were already late to open up the lighthouse for lunch and hadn’t gotten phones or internet yet. So it was decided that I would open the lighthouse while Seth and Dave (our team leader) would take care of the rest. The process proved to be much more complicated for Seth and Dave than expected. I didn’t hear from them for nearly 4 hours. However at the lighthouse, only one student showed up and her and I had a great time playing games and sharing about our lives. The first opportunity I have had to really get to know one of the students. Praise God! (We did eventually get our phones taken care of that day but are still working on getting our internet)

On Saturday we had the whole day just to ourselves! So we decided to take a little trip to a town about half an hour (by train) up the mountains called Seefeld. It was a beautiful city with the snow falling. We had a great time walking around, shopping and eating. We had some skype calls planned for a specific time which we needed to be back to Innsbruck for and we had checked the train times to know which train to talk. So as we were winding down we headed to the train station a little early. As Seth made a pit stop, I figured I would take a glance at the train schedule just one more time. As I was looking a noticed that a train had pulled up (It was a small train station). All of a sudden I realized that I had read the schedule wrong and that there should be a train leaving in one minute to Innsbruck and there won’t be another one for an hour! I looked at the train that was currently there and it said Innsbruck on it. I was prepared to yell for Seth from the bathroom door and right as I was about to, he came walking out and we barely made it on the train before it began to pull away. It’s funny to me how God organizes even the little things in life. We are so blessed.

Our first week!

So far being here in Innsbruck has been full of new and exciting things. Nearly every day we are in some kind of new situation generally where we are understanding little of the conversation going on around us. Some days it seems like we are understanding more and more of what people are saying and then there are others that we feel like we don't understand anything. We start our German classes on Feb. 11th. So we are working on German ourselves for now which is helping but we still cannot communicate a lot. Be praying that God continues to give us a desire to learn the language and that it will come quickly!

Our first full day in Innsbruck we took a bus to Rum (which is a small village right outside Innsbruck where our team leader lives). This was are first time on a bus and it was just the two of us. We were told which bus to get on and what our stop was. We were also told there would be a screen saying the next stop and when you see your stop you have to push the red button otherwise the bus will not stop...seems easy enough. First we got on the wrong bus but the bus driver corrected us and showed us where to go....then we couldn't open the door so the bus driver did it for us :) This bus driver didn't speak any English but after some confusion we had a ticket in hand and were on the bus. Quickly we noticed there was no screen that said the next stop. They were announcing the stops over the speaker but quickly it got too loud that we couldn't even hear it. So we had no idea what to do and it was dark. After we were on the bus for a while, we noticed we had left Innsbruck and were now entering another town. The bus came to a stop and I saw a sign on it saying Rum! Thank goodness others needed to get off there as well and had already pressed the red button. Praise God! Since then we have been on the bus many more times and it has gone much smoother (they all have had the screen saying the bus stops which helps)

We have been blessed many different ways since we have been here, from the apartment we live in to the next apartment we will be at, as well as bikes we can use for free (for now), never getting lost (although we might not have been sure of the way to go). We have an awesome team that has been helping us out along the way but also encouraging us to branch out and get out of our comfort zone which has been very beneficial to us learning the city as well as the culture.

We went to church for the first time here this week. The church we are attending is probably about 40 people and is German speaking. This week our team leader Dave was the one who preached so he gave us a copy of his notes in English and then his wife Cathrin translated the rest for us. Some of the worship songs were the English song but then the words translated into German so there was at least one thing that we familiar :) 

Every day we have been helping out at the Lighthouse mostly with the Lernhilfe (assisted learning) this has been a challenge as well as a blessing. We mostly work with middle school age kids (who generally speak little English). So mostly we help with English homework or play games with students that don't have homework. Many are not believers so be praying for opportunities that God presents.

There will be many more stories and pictures to come!

(the view from our living room window)

Here is the video of our apartment!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUp-oSe0kUs&feature=youtu.be