Things have really started to pick up! Thank you all for your prayers for two weekends ago. We had a lot of events that were going on over the weekend which kept us very busy but they had great turn outs! We had a Christian band, called Liz and the Lions, that came and did an open air concert in the parking lot. Many people came and many more people stopped and stayed instead of continuing to walk past. God really provided and we pray that some of those people will come back to the events that we have in the future. Seth and I had a great time getting to know the band as they ended up staying at our place. It was an encouragement to have them here and be able to share about what God has called us to. And we got to hear where God was calling them as well.

I have been meeting with a youth girl one-on-one for a few weeks and it has been awesome to see how God has been opening doors. It is neat to see how God can use a relationship when we are being open and vulnerable and following His calling. Not only have I been able to challenge, help processes, and hold her accountable but she has been doing many of the same things for me as well. Please be praying for this relationship and that God will continue to use it to help spur us on closer to Him.

This last weekend we had Matt arrive from the states and he will be staying here for 3 weeks. He will be making promotional videos for everything: After school Tutoring, Lighthouse, Friday Nights, English Camps and then one for our team as well to show our supporters more about our life here. We are very excited to share that with you all once it is finished! Matt’s mom was also here over the weekend since they had just finished visiting family here in Europe. She stayed with us over the weekend. It was really a pleasure to get to know her as well as an encouragement. She reminded me a lot of my mom, including how she enjoyed playing Dutch Blitz. It was a blessing to have her here for the weekend and have her show us love in so many ways even though we had just met.

The countdown has begun and we will be leaving for English Camps in exactly two weeks! Things are coming together well but at times it still seems overwhelming. Please be praying! We still need 1 more guy cabin leader as well as at least 1 more cook. We are doing the shopping tomorrow for all the supplies that we need, I think it will set in a lot more after that. Which reminds me…we need to go buy a printer. Please be praying for Seth and I, this is our first time being a part of the Program Staff at a camp. We will have a lot more responsibility. I am also going to be in charge of training the cabin leaders how to do the English lessons as well as taking care of the budget and finances. Both things that I know I will enjoy but also new territory for me.

This weekend Seth and Matt were a part of a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. They played on a team along with some people that Seth had met while playing.  It was a lot of fun to watch them play. Seth did great! They were only a part of the fun league but they won that division!

Also this weekend (we had a busy weekend) we were able to go to Hall (a town 10 minutes away by train) and have lunch with some people from current and previous German classes. It was fun to all be together as well as to try some Iranian dishes.

I know this post is already long but briefly I want to ask for some prayer with things that will be going on this week. Tomorrow, I will be a part of the girls youth group bible study as we talk about relationships. Thursday, Jen and I organized a Volleyball game mostly consisted of youth girls so be praying that enough people come and it will be a good bonding experience. Also the weather is beautiful and Seth wants to go out and play basketball a few different times. This weekend Seth might be taking a couple of the youth guys camping Friday night be praying for guidance with that. And then Sunday we have Elise coming to visit us from our home church in Seward, we are excited to have her and her friend stay with us for a couple of days and pray that God will keep them safe through all their travels. Also on Sunday Cathrin’s cousin will be coming and staying with us for 3 weeks…we however will only be here for one but pray that all goes smoothly especially as we will be very busy with preparing for camp. And then finally, in the two days after camp we need to be moving to our next apartment. So since we have such little time we are going to try and pack everything up before we leave for camp. This leads to a lot of things, right before we go so please be praying that we will use our time wisely and that God will bring everything together. Thanks so much for all your prayers!

Alyssa

This last week we finished up our 4th German class and this week we started our 5th one. This will be the last class we have before the summer (because here summer doesn't start for another month). This group is almost completely the same as our last one which is nice. It is exciting to see how far we have gotten with our German since we first came here a little over four months ago. We are definitely far from perfect but we are at the point that we can communicate most things pretty well. A lot of the grammer is getting ingrained in our minds but it is difficult to always think of it while speaking. It is crazy to think that after this class there will only be one more that we will take after the summer. It feels like we have so much more to learn but I think more than anything we have so much more vocabulary to learn and that will come.

This weekend we have lots of things going on at the Lighthouse that we are needing to set up and host so please be in prayer that many people will be coming and that God would be glorified. Particularly there is an open air concert that we are hosting Friday night in the parking lot/walk way. There are constantly people walking through this area so please be praying that many will stop and enjoy the concert.

The weather has taken a turn for the better! It has been raining nonstop for the last 3 weeks or so but yesterday and today have been gorgeous! Seth and I have been getting opportunities to meet with youth as well as people from German class. Please keep praying for opportunities. Thank you all for your prayers. I hope to write more in a few days!

Opportunities

English camps are quickly approaching (and we are still short 2 male cabin leaders in case you are interested). We have about four more weeks until we will head out and we still have quite a list of things that need to be accomplished during that time, so please be in prayer for that. This will be our first time taking a program staff role for a camp so it will definitely take some adjusting.

This last Friday night before we left for Pfiju some of the guys that Seth plays basketball with ended up coming to the Lighthouse for a few hours. It was very encouraging that they came along. It was challenging at times since they all come from the Middle East and are learning German now but we were able to communicate enough to play some games and have a good time. Please be praying that God will bring them back and create opportunities for us (especially Seth) to share more about God. Also that others that Seth has been meeting through Basketball will begin coming to the Lighthouse as well. This is also a great opportunity for the Christian youth that already come to the Lighthouse to branch out, make new friends and also share about their relationship with God.

There are a few girls from the youth group that I have developed a closer relationship with. God has been blessing these with many conversations about Him! Yesterday I met with one of the girls for the first time in a one-on-one setting. It went so well! God really blessed the conversation and definitely gave me the words to say as well as the right questions to ask! We learned a lot about one another and our relationships with God as well learning about various resources that are available to us that can help us to grow closer to God. In the end we decided to start to meet on a weekly basis. Please pray for this, every Monday, that God will give me wisdom and help us to both be vulnerable as well as help us to encourage one another.

Today we had the opportunity to spend time with some neighbors that we hadn’t yet had the chance to. They are an elderly couple that pretty much only speak German. We went over to their place for Coffee and Tea. We had a great time getting to know them, even if we didn’t always understand everything that they were saying J We pray that God will give us more chances to get to know them better in our last couple of months in this apartment.

Also today! Seth and I took a little hike up the mountains and had a picnic for supper. It was a lot of fun being in God’s creation and a beautiful day for it as well. We hadn’t been hiking in the mountains since everything got so green so it was like we were seeing a whole new place. We sure do live in a beautiful place!

This weekend we went to Pfiju. Which is the country wide youth conference. There were about 300 christian youth from around the country and about 25 from Innsbruck. It was a great time for us to get to know many youth better as well as to have various deep conversations with them as well. We had a great time learning more of how we are valuable to God. We were encouraged as we are understanding more and more when we hear speakers. Seth even was a part of the talent show one night. There was a good time had by all.

You can be praying for Alyssa for wisdom as she had a long conversation with one of the girls this weekend. Hopefully God will continue to develop this relationship and help her to be an encouragement.

This last Friday we had a new team member join us from the states. Her name is Jennifer and she is from Iowa. She will be here for 3 months and is here to help through camp. Please be praying for her and that God will bless the time that she is here. She was able to come along to Pfiju so she has been able to meet many of our students since most all of them were there.

(this is the group from our state which is Tirol and then one other as well)

Adventures

These past couple of weeks have just flown by. It is officially spring here in Innsbruck, raining almost daily. It is crazy to see the mountains at this time of year. Everything is all green except there is still snow at the tops. Lilac bushes are in full bloom and they seem to be everywhere.

(The view once more from our living room window. It looks a lot different now than it did when we first came. I sure am going to miss this view when we move in a couple of months.)

About two weeks ago we were on the train headed to Speyer, Germany to meet our friend John Garske (from Seward, NE) who was there for a Christian conference. It was amazing to see how God worked so that we could attend the conference as well. We grew and were challenged those four days that we were there in Speyer. It was a beautiful little town, much more like Nebraska or Kansas than Innsbruck is. Monday morning we took the train with John back to Innsbruck (and started our 4^th German class the next day). He stayed with us until Friday morning when he flew home. We had a great time showing him the town that we live in as well as some of the ministries we are a part of. We also did a little traveling, to Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and Italy. By train these are two hours or less away so we took a couple of day trips. It was our first time traveling to all of these countries; they were beautiful and fun to visit. We were definitely encouraged having John with us for a week or so.

(This is in Switzerland and behind us is flags from 4 of the 5 countries we visited while John was here. Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Lichtenstein. If only they had Italy too!)

Friday morning John flew out early in the morning, we had German class all morning and then headed out for Seefeld, Austria with our team. (Luckily this was only a half hour away). We enjoyed spending the weekend there with Dave, Cathrin, and Carrie. We did many team building activities, had lots of meetings, and great food. We left there feeling encouraged and motivated. We came home and have had the privilege to spend time with Tara Sharp who is currently staying with us until tomorrow. It has been great to have her, getting to know her better as well as be encouraged by her (hopefully there has been some of that the other way as well). Tara was apart of our team for the last five years but now has a different position through Reachglobal where she is the head of the camp division. She is also from Nebraska and went to Timberlake for any of those of you that don’t know her.

It is nice to just relax for a few days but that won’t last for long because on Saturday we go to Pfiu (I don’t know if that is spelled right) but it is a Christian youth conference, I believe for all of Austria. Most of our youth is going. I am excited to see how God uses us while we are there for the few days.

Please be praying for us and that God will use us. That we will be intentional about sharing with others about God and what He is doing in our lives. Be praying that God gives us more opportunities as well. Thanks for all your prayers!

Praise God!

We have a very big praise! Apartments are generally pretty hard to come by here in Innsbruck but He has provided our next apartment! We signed the lease yesterday! We will be living in an apartment that friends of ours will be moving out of the same week that we need to be moving in. Praise God! We will be living in an apartment building that is owned by a man that goes to our church and it is filled with other believers. It will be a small one bedroom apartment but that is all we need. We will not have the amazing view that we have now but we will be right down the road from the famous old city and a little bit closer to the Lighthouse. We will be moving in at the end of July during the few days that we will be in Innsbruck that month due to English Camps. Our friends that live there in the apartment now actually are Americans and will be moving back to America at that point. They have decided to give most all of their furniture and possessions to us since they will not be taking them on the plane. This is such an amazing opportunity for us to save money and time from searching for furniture! It’s crazy that we can be here for 2 years and spend next to nothing on filling our apartment! Praise God!

Cultural differences

Since most everyone who reads this will be receiving an update by email in the next couple days, I wanted to share a little something different. Obviously we have moved to a very different culture than our own. It has been very interesting to see some differences, here are some little things, some are silly, that we have noticed.

- A lot of people here eat cough drops like they are candy. A lot of the time they will share with others, who also are not sick J As a kid I really liked the taste of our cough drops and I would enjoy it when I was sick because it was like I got candy, so I can kind of understand.

- It is common that for a married couple you have a queen size bed but then you have two twin size blankets…

- It is normal to have your toilet in a separate room from your shower or bath tub. That makes sense to me, very practical but the funny thing is they put the sink with the shower. So in an apartment like ours you use the bathroom and then walk to the other side of the apartment to wash your hands.

- Austria is very spiritually dark but they still have many catholic roots that come through. For example, all stores are closed on Sunday. Students get a week off school for Easter and then some adults do as well from work. School is also closed for Catholic holidays like Jesus’ ascension.

- Very few places have air conditioners which isn’t as big of an issue as it would be in Nebraska or Kansas sense it tends not to get as warm here. It is important to open your windows at night to cool your home down. The funny thing to me is that there are no screens for the windows…

- As a whole people here tend to be more health conscious with the foods that they eat. But majority of the bread available to buy is white. The rest is mostly Rye bread. Whole wheat bread has been very difficult to come by, in fact most of the time we make our own.

- If you are invited over to someone’s home for lunch at noon, you should expect to stay until about 3 so you can have coffee and dessert.

- We use peanut butter for a lot of things in the states but here it is not as easy to come by. They also don't put peanuts in food, instead they use hazelnuts. 

- I’m not exactly sure what it is with the washing machines, but their cycle lasts for about 2 hours…and it doesn’t seem to get your clothes very clean unless you put prewash liquid on every little spot. It is not common to own a dryer.

- I have yet to see flour (or much of anything) sold in a large quantity. In fact the biggest bag of flour probably only has 8 cups in it.

- In the states when you buy ground beef you buy based on the percent of meat to fat…however here you buy it based on the percent of beef to pork. The all beef is really expensive so normally some kind of mix is sold.

- When you are either coming or leaving, you should shake everyone’s hands, including the children. And then if you are good friends, you give hugs. (This isn’t for when you go to the grocery store, but at youth group, spending time with friends, or at the after school tutoring)

- I have yet to see a home that has carpet. Everything is wood floors, which is beautiful, and then depending on the family they have rugs in the rooms as well.

- High school students here are more like college students in the states. Their school schedule is based on what classes they want to take, most are finished with school around noon but then have one or two later days in the week. They are allowed to drink alcohol at the age of 16.

- In the majority of pastries there is apricot jam in the middle. 

- All of the high schools are different (they are specialty schools) but there are some that you can choose that are like an apprenticeship school. So from what I understand you have school half the time and then work half the time.

- Their stores for the most part are separate. You have grocery stores which will have a small selection of non-grocery items but not much. Then you have stores that carry your toiletry items, shampoo, lotion, vitamins, etc. Then you have your Apotheke which carries your medicines both over the counter and prescription.

- The government building here in Innsbruck is in the same building with a shopping mall. J

I thought you might enjoy reading some of the differences that we are noticing and experiencing on a small everyday scale. There are many more.