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.

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!

German

Learning another language is not always so easy. God has blessed us so many ways in our language learning process. We have been bold in this new language and learning relatively quickly. Something that I have noticed though is it is especially hard to be yourself in a different language, to feel that comfort or make jokes. Our german teacher told me once that for every language you can speak you have a different personality. I didn't really believe it but thinking back on the last 8 months, it's true. We are not generally as talkative and it takes a lot more motivation to initiate conversation at times. However I have been seeing this slowly change, which is really exciting. We have been talking more and more in German and depending less on our English, even with many of our friends and the youth kids. Recently I spent a few hours with a friend on a walk and I really felt like I had been myself, even though it was all in German. I definitely think part of it is because I feel very comfortable around her but also I'm getting more comfortable with the language. Also this week I have been the coordinator for the tutoring program that we run and even though I was really nervous to talk with parents and the other helpers, God has given me the courage and allowed me to communicate all that I needed to. Praise God!

Yesterday was a big moment for me to see how far Seth had come in German. We had our English Camp church service. So all the families from everyone at camp was invited to all come together. Our team here organized the service and there were probably 250 (I'm bad at guessing) but it was definitely way more than normal. We each had our tasks that we were in charge of and Seth's was to interview some campers and leaders up front so everyone could hear about some of their experiences. It was all going to be in German and he had prepared all of the questions in advance. I expected him to simply read the questions but man was I surprised. He was himself, almost just as much as he would be in English. He was telling jokes and responding well to their answers. It was really cool to see everyone laughing. It probably sounds small but recently German has been really encouraging and helping us to feel more like we belong here.

But also, just about every time we are feeling encouraged about how much of the language we are understanding, we are then in a situation where we realize how much more we have yet to learn. Last night was one of those nights where we were spending the evening with six or so college students. They were mostly all speaking in dialect and we understood very little. I think it is good though to have those moments, not to get too confident and to be continually in the learning mode. You can definitely be continuing to pray for us in this process because it will definitely continue to be a barrier that we are needing to overcome.

Thanks for all your prayers with the Lernhilfe. It has been going great so far and we have been having more kids signing up all the time. It has been a challenge at times as I have been talking with parents as well as the various volunteers but God has been providing! Be praying though for more kids to come!