New House, New Baby, New Ministry

For this month's update, we'd like to share a quick video of a tour of the new house and prayer requests for us. We are so appreciative of your prayers during this major time of transition for us. Thank you!

We're not in Kansas anymore...

Our life has changed a LOT in the last month. And some of those changes we are still experiencing for the first time!

Our new (to us) car

First, we purchased our first car in Austria. After not owning a car for 4 years, it's been a new experience to navigate car ownership in a new country. And to get used to getting around in a vehicle again! (I have yet to learn how to drive a stick shift car...so more changes to come!)

After the car, we signed a lease on a townhouse outside of Vienna and started the moving process.

Holding up the house keys! 

Signing the lease!

Now, we are living in the townhouse and beginning to feel settled. But the changes keep coming! Although we are living just a kilometer from the border of Vienna, we can definitely say we are not in Kansas anymore. Living in the town of Gerasdorf feels completely different than our former city life.

Here are just a few things we are getting used to...

• People are kinder and friendlier here! A lot! The Viennese do not have a reputation for being very polite or offering a very high standard of customer service. We got very used to this. But so far, nearly every service person we've interacted with in Gerasdorf has been polite and helpful. Each time, we've been so surprised by it. Today, we went to register at the local government office and the women working there were so kind and friendly. They emphasized that we could call anytime if we have questions and they even cracked jokes! We commented on the difference between our experience here and in Vienna, and they promptly said, "Yes, we hope it's different. That's something we're very proud of." The people of Gerasdorf appreciate having access to a big city, but living in a small town...and they show it through their kindness.

• Bugs! It is very uncommon to have windows here in Austria with screens on them to keep bugs out. In the city, this was absolutely no problem and a few flies here and there never hurt anyone. But here, there are more bugs and bigger bugs and at night, especially after a hot day, opening the windows can mean insect galore. I had mosquito bites after just a few days and Ellie got her first, as well. Guess we have to be more strategic around here in the summer about window opening!

• We have to be more strategic with going shopping and getting places. Thankfully, we can still walk to the post office, grocery store, bakery and pharmacy. But anywhere else requires a little more planning or a car trip. The bus only runs every 20 minutes, so we don't get home as quickly. We don't mind, but it's an adjustment. The other day, I was in the city for a doctor's appointment and proceeded to get errands done at 6 or 7 different stores, just because I wasn't sure when my next opportunity would be. This is a new experience!

• We can see the city skyline from here, but from quite a long distance. Otherwise, we can see other houses, apartments and a big open field. No more busy streets and tall buildings!

• Having a house is a bit different than an apartment. We are still getting used to climbing up and down flights of stairs (and trying to remember to bring something upstairs so you don't have to climb the stairs over and over again). We are dealing with water heater issues and mowing the grass in the yard. Mozzy is also adjusting. He has yet to poop in the yard, and we're not sure when he is going to figure out that he's allowed to...so we have to keep taking him out on walks. Having a house is a HUGE blessing, but it comes with some lifestyle changes!

• We have more space for our family and for ministry. We finally have enough storage space for our baby things, outdoor equipment and many other items, that were previously very difficult to access in our basement storage locker. We feel less crammed and have more space to entertain and show hospitality. We have space for our growing family. We are very thankful that God has provided this larger space that seems to be a better fit for us and for the work we hope to do here.

Anticipating Transition

Change is hard. Even if you are transitioning into something wonderful and exciting, change can be tough on everyone. Nate and I both seem to struggle with patience when a big transition is approaching...the closer it gets, the more we have trouble waiting for the transition to be here and finally happen.

There are many times in life where are are forced to be patient as we wait for a major transition. I was thinking back recently on the weeks before our wedding, the final weeks before moving to Austria, the last few weeks before Ellie was born, and so on... All of those times, it was so difficult at the end to live in the moment, rather than let impatience win out and lack contentment. Even when a difficult transition is approaching, I often just want to get the change over with and start figuring life out in my new reality, rather than continuing to wait.

This last week has been presenting a similar challenge. We are enjoying our time in CT, but as the flight back to Austria approaches, it feels as if time has slowed down, and it is hard to wait for this next big change to occur. After 7 months of life away from home, we are ready to begin settling back in to life in Vienna and that makes it hard to be content where we are at. We will surely miss many things about the U.S., especially time with friends and family (and easy, free babysitting!), but we forget to be thankful for the blessings of our current reality when we are too focused on the next step.

Can you imagine what it must have been like for Jesus to go through life, anticipating the sacrifice he would need to make at the end? He didn't even begin his ministry until age 30 (talk about patience right there!) and all that time, he knew that he would need to suffer and die a gruesome death. If I were him, I would have just agonized over the waiting and wanted to get it over with. Naturally, Jesus is the ultimate example to us of patience in the face of waiting and transition. He depended on the Lord, even when he struggled with his emotions about the coming sacrifice and death. He regularly retreated to be alone. When he ministered to people, he was focused on them and living in the moment, rather than rushing through so he could move on to the next thing.

May we live our lives in the moment, as Jesus did, right where God has placed us now, being patient as we wait for each new stage and transition!

Emotional Ups and Downs

As some of you already know, I (Bethany) flew back to Vienna at the beginning of January to renew Ellie's visa. It seems a bit silly and extravagant to fly back for only 3 days just to file paperwork, but we saw no way around it. And in fact, I was pretty excited about the whole thing. I enjoy flying and the thought of travelling on my own without a toddler to entertain sounded very relaxing! I was also excited to spend time with our dog and see some friends. Sounded like a good plan.

Little did I know the trip would be one of the most physically grueling things I've done in a long time. I came down with some sort of weird virus the last day of our Florida trip. It started out as a 5-day low grade fever and then morphed into bad cold symptoms, a headache and general achiness. By the time I boarded the plan to Amsterdam, I was not feeling any better and this did not change throughout my time in Vienna. Jet lag plus sickness made for an exhausting 5 days. It was a big disappointment to me after anticipating this trip for months.

I knew going into the trip that my time there would be emotional. We miss Vienna and our home a lot. We miss our dog, our friends, our church, our routine and speaking German. We are thankful for the opportunity to be back in the States, but it no longer quite feels like home to us and it's difficult to be on the road so much. So it was difficult and emotional to go back to Vienna and get a short taste of home without being able to stay. It was hard to say goodbye to the dog again, knowing he doesn't understand why we've left him for so long. (I know he's less broken up about this than I am, but still...) It was difficult to see friends, only to say goodbye all over again.

In some ways, walking down Vienna's streets also felt oddly normal. Nothing has changed; life still goes on there as it always had. It was home, not some magical place I was visiting. The normalcy was kind of refreshing. But the whole visit also felt like some sort of other-worldly experience that wasn't actually happening.

I filed Ellie's visa paperwork, thankfully still competent enough in German to understand the office personnel. I had an appointment at her pre-school, where she starts in September, did some shopping, met up with friends, and then got back on a plane to head home. By the time I landed in Minneapolis, my head was pounding, I couldn't stop coughing and I couldn't hear out of my left ear. (The customs agent made fun of this, because I had to keep asking him to repeat himself. He thought it was funny...I didn't laugh.) Add that to having just said goodbye to my home again and I was emotional wreck. It was not a fun day.

Things have leveled out now, with the help of antibiotics, sleep and some time to process. I am very thankful, despite the difficulties, for the chance to go back and reconnect with our home city. I'm thankful Ellie got to spend extra quality time with Papa and her grandparents while I was away. I'm thankful we have a home and a dog to go back to in June, a country we've grown to love and a culture and language we've slowly begun to understand. I'm also thankful, though, that this emotional roller coaster of a trip is over and behind me. Just like the rides we rode at Disney World last week, these twists and turns left me feeling a bit jostled and thrown around. Time for a few days of normalcy before the next change happens...

We're in!

We made it, and we're in! Last weekend, our church officially relocated to our new location in the Meidling district of Vienna, and we have already celebrated two Sundays there. We are so thankful for the new space! It has already been a blessing to us as a congregation to meet there, with more open space, cleaner classrooms and room to grow. We look forward to the space being a blessing for many others soon.

Click below to see this month's update video about the new building, the relocation and how you can be praying this month for us and our church!

There and Back Again

Last week was a whirlwind for me (Nate). WorldVenture hosted a Global Summit in Estes Park, Colorado that I was able to attend. This was an organization-wide conference to discuss changes that are happening and to offer input on how these changes would be implemented. This post could go really "inside baseball", which in turn would make it really boring. So instead, I want to offer a few quotes, ideas or themes that really struck me from this conference.

1. The Pastoral Difference
The CEO of our organization gave the initial greeting/message when we all arrived and one idea he offered really struck me. We were talking about the concept of ethos and who were as a community. He said that as a leadership team, they are a community of shepherds doing organizational leadership, and not managers. This concept resonated with me. I think we often see organizational leadership within the church that grabs whatever is popular or trendy within the corporate management world and pulls it into the church. To hear that instead they see their roles as pastors and shepherds first and managers second, was very powerful to me.

2. Encouragement is Gold
This whole week was spent with people who have become my peer group. There were so many times sitting around a circle or at a meal and asking questions like, "what is the visa process like for you?" or "how do you convert money into the local currency?" (our first answer is a lot more interesting than our second) was so encouraging. Having people to compare notes with about language learning faux pas and cultural differences that you have come to love and cherish, was something that was very special.

3. The Home Office
Every organization has invisible walls. Accounting never talks to anyone, or IT does their job through magic and no one is allowed behind the curtain. For us, the biggest wall is between those that are spread across the globe and those that serve in our home office. Everyone is aware of it, but these sorts of events can bring divides to the forefront. The great thing was to see these walls continually torn down and understanding and care to be built in their place. There are many people in ministries and organizations across the globe that work hard in obscurity so that the world of God can move forward.

4. Setting Matters
This conference was held in Estes Park, Colorado. If you have never been there (it was my first time), I cannot explain how beautiful the setting was. Longs Peak stood majestically in the distance and all around were beautiful mountains and rock faces. It created a restful and God focused atmosphere for us to meet (even though we spent most of our time inside in meetings or fighting jetlag).

All this to say, I was encouraged at what God is doing through WorldVenture across the globe. We are excited to be a part of what God will do through her to reach the nations.

YMCA of the Rockies

Hearing from the WorldVenture leadership team

Local wildlife

Seeing Change

The above is a simple time lapse video of my pregnancy from start to finish. As you can see from the first half, it took me awhile to really start showing and to look like I was pregnant! (And I got lots of comments about it throughout the pregnancy. I knew I was smaller than most people were expecting me to be!) But by the end, there was no mistaking it - there was a baby in there that needed to come out.

Watching this video gets me thinking about the concept of change and growth. In pregnancy, it's hard to really notice a change in a woman's body from day to day, because the baby's growth is so subtle and slow. But when you compare the beginning to the end, the growth is major! All of those little changes over time add up to a major change, and the contrast is evident.

This is also true for our spiritual life. Not every day is a huge turning point or an extreme jump in one direction. Most of the time, walking with God is about small steps that we take every day to draw closer to Him. We may not be able to notice the growth every day, but there are times when we can look back and see the major change God's been working in our life and how different we are today than we were weeks, months or years earlier.

Sometimes change goes in a negative direction, too. We may not notice the small steps we are taking away from God each day, but then we look at our life and see how far we've slipped over time. This kind of slow change can be insidious and dangerous.

May we make small choices and take small steps each day toward God, so that we allow Him to work the BIG changes in our life!

Learning From Colleagues

Yesterday, we helped some friends pack a container as they head back to the States to start a new season of ministry. It has been a bittersweet time to watch them go through the heart-wrenching stages of saying goodbye to friends, co-workers, and the city that's been their home for the last few decades. 

I am often unsure whether it is harder to say goodbye to your home country and previous identity, or to leave the place into which you've poured decades of sweat and love. As we have watched our friends process this change, I have made a few observations. Mostly, these are things that I hope can be said about me in the future. They could even be called "ministry goals," though they are probably too general to be considered that. So here we go... (to see the panoramic image full screen just click on it.)

1. Grieving is a skill - like sharing, grieving is not something the we are born being able to do well. Our hearts mostly shrink away from loss. It is messy and painful to grieve, but it brings our heart to a place of health that can't be found any other way. Loss that is not acknowledged and processed will continue to weigh us down. It has been wonderful to watch our friends weep tears of pain and tears of joy. They have celebrated the work that God has done through them and the stories of lives that God has changed. But they are also mourning the separation from people that they love and care about. Both of these are important.

2. Where you start is rarely where you finish - Over their time in ministry here, their role and ministry vision has changed. They have even changed missions organizations along the way. As we have talked to more and more people about their journeys through ministry, we have found this is more and more the case. God moves us through different seasons of life and ministry as we grow and mature. This is not to say that we should constantly look for the greener pasture. I see our plans more as a child's coloring book that is loosely sketched but waiting for a creative color-er to come and fill in the details of a given moment or time of life. 

3. It is worth it - Life in general is full of change. Any of our friends that are expecting or recently have had a child can affirm this. We aren't the person we were last week or last month. Crossing oceans and cultures adds another level of change and transition to life. One of the temptations as relationships change, people come and go or life situations change, is to say that it is too hard and then to disengage. The challenge with this is that it insulates us from the community and connection that we can have through Christ. As we have gone through the transition process coming here, God has taught me that it is worth the risk and pain to engage and dig into relationships. The people we saw coming out to help our friends was a reminder that relationships are worth it. The pain of saying goodbye is worth the blessing of friendship.

Constant Change

The interesting thing about language schools is that they operate month-to-month. In some ways, this is great. At the end of every four weeks, you have the opportunity and freedom to decide if you want to keep going, switch schools or take a month off. It's nice to have the flexibility and to avoid committing to long stretches of time. But this is also difficult. As soon as you get used to how things are in your class, they change!

Our class in May, with our entertaining teacher in front!

We had a good rapport with our group in May. It was a small class, which offered us lots of opportunities to speak and practice. We have a fun group that laughed a lot. But sadly, things needed to change when the month ended. 3 students decided to wrap up their studies (at least for the time being) and about 5 new students joined the group. We are still getting used to the new "vibe" in the classroom, as well as having less opportunities to speak. We are also starting over with new relationships. It's hard to keep starting fresh and experience constant change, but such is our life here now!

Please pray for us as we get to know new people. Pray that we would be willing to invest, even when we know some people will only be here in our lives for a short time.

Finding Routine

I think one of the hardest things about moving around and living in different places is a lack of routine. Constant change is taxing for the brain to handle and it can make cultural adjustment much more difficult. Having a regular schedule is comforting - it feels like home. Discovering a routine means learning the way to do things in a new place, so you don't have to think so hard about it anymore. Having a routine means you can focus your mental energy on other things.

After a couple weeks in England, we are finally finding a routine and, therefore, feeling more settled. With our semi-weekly tutoring sessions, church bible studies, a weekly team meeting, church services, and study time, our schedule is filling up! We are thankful for this regularity. We were also able to get an affordable 3-month gym membership, so we can stay fit (and mentally healthy) while we're here.

Here is our weekly schedule right now:

Sunday: Prep for church service; Set-up at 3:30pm; Service from 4:30 - 6pm
Monday: German study in the morning; Tutoring session in the afternoon
Tuesday: 10:15am bible study; 7:15pm bible study; prep for Wednesday team meeting; German study
Wednesday: 10am Team meeting, with occasional afternoon team prep work
Thursday: German study in the morning; Tutoring session in the afternoon
Friday: Sabbath (rest day!)
Saturday: German study; prep for Sunday

What do you find comforting about your daily or weekly routine?

Photo credit: dhester from morguefile.com

It is Good to Have Goals

So disclaimer number 1 here is Bethany and I are NOT pregnant!



I stumbled upon an article recently from Backpacker magazine about carrying babies along on backpacking trips. It lead me to a few other articles.  Seems this is a whole new niche of backpacking and outdoor adventures.  These people strap 30 lbs of gear to their back and then a 20 lb baby to their front.  Now, they usually will cut their distance in half and aren't usually hiking over rough terrain...  I really like this concept. I aspire to this when we have a family.

I know that having kids is one of the hardest things that you could ever do, but I think there is something intrinsically healthy about doing something like this. I think when some people have kids, they feel as though their life has completely ended.  There is a turning inward that happens, much of which is natural and similar to what happens when two people get married.  But I also know that in times of massive transition, we need to fight for things that help to keep us sane, even if they can look harder and more daunting than the hill we are already climbing.

I think that is something we are learning right now.  Through seasons of difficulty, we need to push beyond the immediate comforts we hold to into greater communion with God and stronger community with others. Often those first things that we cling to are the least healthy.

Photo credit: jeltovski from morguefile.com

Who moved my cheese?

In December of 2004, I finished my last semester at Wheaton College and came home for my final "Christmas break" before starting full-time work. I remember very clearly how I was feeling at that the time - the mixture of emotions I faced as a major life change was on the horizon. I was sad that my college experience was over, uncertain about entering the working world, disappointed that I was graduating a semester before most of my friends, and exhilarated that "real life" was on the horizon. Change was both scary and exciting.

To help process this change, I purchased and read the book Who Moved My Cheese. This book helped me process how to cope with and process the approaching transition , seeing the positive in it rather than focusing on what I felt like I was losing as I said goodbye to a phase of my life.

I have been revisiting many of these feelings and thoughts in recent weeks as I approach another major life change - leaving my full-time position at One Smooth Stone. I have worked at OSS for almost 6 years and concluding my time there will be the first in a series of changes and goodbyes as we prepare for Austria. My colleagues have become good friends and over my 6 years, I have grown up there, going from bright eyed, naive and fresh out of college to experienced in our industry, married and a least a little more mature (or so I'd like to think...)

Saying goodbye to One Smooth Stone will be hard. I have so many memories and walking away will mean I will not be making more of them. This can easily feel like a loss. But at the same time, I am overcome with excitement about what I will gain. Leaving my job means getting to Austria is that much closer and I am eager to begin our life there. I guess that is how change is - full of emotional contradictions and a rollercoaster of feelings.

What I keep going back to is my constant - God's unchanging nature. The same God who walked me through my departure from college and the last 6 years of my life will be with me through this transition and will go with us to Austria. It says in the book of James, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." God does not change. Ever. If I'm the mouse and God is the cheese, I never have to worry about the cheese moving...no matter what. When I am struggling with change in the coming months, my prayer is that God's constancy will be my on-going comfort and solice - my rock to stand on.

How do you cope with change?