Sorry it has been so long since the last update, time just seems to fly by. Right now is Easter vacation for those in Innsbruck. Schools and many businesses are closed down for a week and a half. However we still have German classes except for next Monday. It is good though to be continually in classes to help learn more. This Wednesday we are going to head out on the train to the town of Linz, Austria. We will be helping out with a leadership training conference for young people. Four of the students from our youth group will be attending which we are very excited about! Seth & I will be the ones in charge of cooking for the group of about 20. Be praying that everything goes smoothly for us as we take on this new endeavor. The train ride lasts about 3 hrs and we will be gone Wednesday afternoon to Saturday afternoon. Please be praying that God really uses us there and that he molds these youth kids to be more like him! Also be praying because right now I am sick, Lord willing I will be all better by Wednesday afternoon

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When we come back on Saturday we will be attending the Baptism of a couple from our German class at the Catholic church. The husband has come to the bible study we attend before. Please be praying that it will work out for him to keep coming back and that their relationship with God will continue to grow and that they will keep seeking until they find the answers to their many questions.

Sunday April 7^th there is going to be a race here in Innsbruck! I am very excited! There will be 3k, 5k, 10k, 15k, and 21.1k. I believe I will be doing the 10k J and I think Seth will run as well but probably the 3k. There is an organization here in Innsbruck called the “Stadt der Hoffnung” which is the City of Hope: Initiative Innsbruck. It is a group of believers that have come together to spread the hope of Christ! This group is calling all believers in the city to come to this race and where the shirts they have made that say Hope runner on them. Most all believers I know of are planning to either run or come wearing these shirts. Please be praying that God will use this time and provoke those around us to be asking questions!

There is an English speaking women’s bible study that meets here but it has always been Wednesday mornings and we have German class every Wednesday so I have never been able to attend. However about a month ago the switched it to Friday mornings which is the one day that we do not have German class so I have been very excited to start attending. However every week I have been prevented from going, the first time we had a meeting, then we had a makeup German class and now this week we have the leadership training conference. Please be praying that it will work out that I will be able to attend this bible study regularly.

Also we are still searching for people to help with summer camp! If you know if anyone that would be interested in coming for about 2 weeks and help with either being a cook, cabin leader or program staff please let us know!

Thank you all for your prayers and your encouragement!

Alyssa

German Class & English Camps

We have now had a whole week of our second German class! It is very exciting to be understanding more of what we hear. We have a new teacher for this class and even though we liked our last one it is nice to learn to understand a new voice. From our last class probably only 8 people continued on to this class and also about 8 new people joined. Be praying that we continue being motivated to learn German and that soon we can be connecting and meeting with youth to help us learn more.

We had our first English Camp meeting this week! Summer is soon going to be upon us. We are most likely going to be program staff at the camp in Salzburg. However one of the groups that was planning on coming and bringing about 8 people as staff has fallen through for the camp in Salzburg. So we now have openings for cabin leaders, SWAT team leaders, and cooks. So now there really is no telling exactly what we will be doing. We are very excited to be out at a camp once again!

The past few days have been as full as we can get them. Seth's cousin Ismael has been here and we have gone hiking, rock climbing, walking all round town, visiting people, going to a birthday party, starting a new German class, made some auhhentic Austrian food, played soccer and somehow managed to work a little in there. We have really enjoyed this time and chance to do some touristy things. We haven't really done any of that so far so it was nice. Ismael leaves today and is heading off to visit more friends and family around Europe. It has been a blessing to have him here for a time.

We did start our second German class on Monday which is exciting. We now have a new teacher so it is challenging at times to understand but that is also good. Please continue to b  in payer for our learning. We both did very well on the test we took at the end of our last class. It is hard though to have motivation at times to practice outside of class.

Thanks for all your prayers

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!