WorldVenture Team Retreat

Every year the week before Easter, our WorldVenture Austria team escapes the city and spends 5 days together in the mountains. After 2 years of cancelled retreats due to Covid and after several new team members arriving or joining us, this year's retreat was especially important and blessed. We've known for a long time that one factor in helping missionaries stay and thrive on the field is a supportive team, and our goal is to foster that amongst our missionaries. Our time together really helped us all to grow closer, and we were blessed by times of teaching, prayer, games, outings and meals together. Our speakers for the week were Dougg and LeAnn Custer, former long term missionaries to Austria who were able to encourage and challenge us, as well as share meaningful stories from their time serving here.

My (Bethany) parents came for a visit and were able to attend the retreat and do the childcare for the 4 youngest kids. They had a blast and so did the kids! Many special memories were made, and we were so thankful for the rest and meaning time we had together.

Here are a few photo highlights:

Meals together - so many great conversations!

Praying over each missionary unit together

The kids enjoying time by the lake with their special friend "Cookie", the swan

Playground fun

Riding the funicular up to the salt mines in Hallstatt

Enjoying the Hallstatt view

Ready in our jumpsuits to go into the salt mine!

Posing with the mountains

The kids performing their bible verse and song from the week

E-bike excursion

Our crazy crew!

Spring Getaway 2017

We just returned from our annual WorldVenture team retreat. This is a longstanding tradition for team Austria, allowing us to get away together for 4 days for a time of learning, refreshment, prayer and retreat. Here are a few highlights from our time together:

Team game time

 * We played a few games together that Ellie could participate in. It's important to us as a team to include the kids in activities and time together, so they feel like a part of our team as they grow up. Ellie had fun with "hot potato" and a game where we guessed what objects were that we picked out of a bag while blind-folded.

* We watched video messages/sermons each day as a team and discussed them.

* Each family had a time of sharing about the last year and how we could be praying for each other. We had a focused time of prayer for each family.

Being commissioned as the new field leaders

 * Nate and I will be stepping into the team Austria field leadership role in the coming months (something we will write more about in our coming updates and probably a separate blog post). The group prayed over us and commissioned us as the new field leaders.

* Ellie got to spend our meeting times playing with our friend Mallory, who joined us for the retreat to provide childcare. They did lots of crafts, played on the playground, went swimming and had an all-around great time together.

* We took an excursion to a local chocolate factory and samples lots of delicious chocolate.

* We went swimming almost every day. Ellie is obsessed with the water, so she begged us everyday to swim in the hotel pool! Maya had her first swim and loved it.

* We survived four days staying in a hotel, despite some horrible night sleep from Maya. After several weeks of sickness, Maya was struggling to get back to sleep on her own at night. This has improved since returning home and we hope it doesn't repeat itself in the future when we travel! Unfortunately, the sleep deprivation made the week a bit difficult for me...but such is life with a baby!

Overall, it was a good time away. We will be planning the Spring Getaway for our team next year, so
we will soon begin to think about where and how we will spend our time in 2018. We hope to continue the tradition of getting away as a team to worship, pray, rest and spend time together.

Church Retreat

This year marked our third annual retreat with our church in Meidling (the 12th District). We enjoyed the time spent eating, worshiping, studying and playing together. The speaker who joined us especially challenged the group to be praying about what is next for our church as we move into our new building. Who will God reach there? What do we want people to experience and see when they encounter us there? What are we leaving behind and what are we taking with us? These are valuable and challenging questions to be asking ourselves and praying about.

It's fun to look back on the last two retreats and how each year has been different. At our first church retreat, we were exhausted by speaking German all weekend, I was early in my pregnancy and we were just getting to know people. Last year, Ellie was 5 months old and pretty high maintenance, so we were not as engaged. I remember spending lots of time listening to the baby monitor! Nate played guitar last year and was introduced to the church as the new intern. This year, we were able to be more involved in the retreat and Nate is getting close to wrapping up his year in his internship already!

Here are a few photos from the weekend:

Playing at the back of the seminar room during a session

Nate leading the Sunday morning service

Hanging with Papa while he preps for Sunday morning

Hiking. We found cows! (One of Ellie's favorite animals)

Very friendly Llamas

Llamas!

Group sessions & discussion time

Hearing from our speaker, Axel

2014 Church Retreat

We just returned from a 4-day retreat with our church at a hostel an hour outside of Vienna. It was a great weekend of worship, quality time, game playing, eating, chatting and listening to a great guest speaker.

What was most encouraging for Nate and I was thinking back on the same retreat last year and how different our experience was this time around. Last year, we were exhausted from speaking German for 4 days straight (and I was exhausted from being early in my pregnancy!). We didn't know very many people, so it was a lot of introductory conversations. We could barely follow along with what the speaker was sharing, and we took naps during all of the breaks!

This year, however, was totally different. Ellie was with us, so I ended up being a bit distracted by caring for her. But aside from that, we got so much more out of the content that the speaker shared. Speaking German for 4 days was basically a non-event for us both - it's not longer very exhausting or taxing to communicate in our new language. Nate helped lead worship by playing guitar for half of the group sessions. We were able to deepen relationships with people we already know, as well as meet some new people. Many people enjoyed seeing Ellie and we also took her for her first swim in a swimming pool. Nate was introduced to the church as the new intern, and he got up and spoke for 5 minutes about his background and his goals and hopes for his time serving in the church! (A year ago, this would have been a huge challenge.) It was an all-around great weekend, and we're so thankful we could attend.

Here are some photo highlights from our time:

Worship time and hearing our speaker

Nate's discussion group, with Ellie as a participant

Nate helping to lead worship

Ellie's first time in a swimming pool

Enjoying the water

Nate running from a cow on our group hike

Retreating

The house was across from a Christian retreat center (castle!)

In December, we took 3 days to get away from Vienna on a spiritual retreat. WorldVenture allows us to do this once a year, and we are so thankful. They know how stretching and challenging ministry overseas can be and how valuable it is to get away. I know for me especially, it can be really hard for me to relax at home. There are always tasks to be done and distractions to pull me away and keep me busy. So being out of the house in a place where I don't have to worry about cleaning, cooking or my to do list is so valuable.


We were blessed to be invited by some friends-of-friends to stay at their house 2 hours outside of Vienna in the mountains. We had never met before, but they welcomed us with open arms. Not only that, but they understood our reasons for getting away and gave us the space we needed. Each day, we spent time reading our bibles; memorizing scripture in German; praying over specific aspects of our life, ministry and friends/family; having independent reading time; and together reading the book Radical by David Platt. The book led to some great discussions. We also got out for a hike each day, and we did our best to avoid technology, except the occasional email on our phones.

View of the lake from one of our hikes

Being in the stillness of the mountains and having a simple agenda was so refreshing for the both of us. It helped us to connect with God and each other in a way that we really needed, and we returned home refreshed. To be honest, it was really difficult to get away during such a busy season of life and during the holiday season...but I think it's during those times that we need these things the most! We were so thankful for our retreat and hope to repeat this in the years to come.

Church Retreat

May 30 - June 2, we traveled south to attend our church's annual retreat. It is a longstanding tradition in many of the evangelical churches here to have an annual retreat where the whole church is invited. It's a wonderful opportunity to go deeper in relationships, build community, and be challenged together by a speaker. It was a wonderful four days, filled with sermons, worship, game playing, meal times together, hiking, and lots of rest in between!

It was our longest experience in German to date and, therefore, quite exhausting for us. But a huge blessing, as well! It helped us to feel more a part of the church community and to meet many new people. And of course, it was a wonderful opportunity to practice German. We look forward to continuing these relationships throughout the year!

Breakfast time with new friends

Mealtime discussions

Worship time

Our speaker, Tom Hoppel, was also a talented musician!

As soon as the rain stopped, we ventured out for a hike!

Chatting in the coffee area of the hostel

Hiking

Scenic overlook

This photo is hilarious. We were obviously not ready to be photographed!

Two Years Later

On Friday, we returned from a week-long retreat in mountains with our WorldVenture team. We attended this retreat on our Vision Trip two years ago, and it was so special to return with our team to that same guest house in Grundlsee, this time as team members! I kept thinking back to our first impressions of Austria in 2011 and all that we were taking in during that trip. It's amazing to look back and see how far God has carried us on our journey these two years.

Here are some highlights from our time this past week with our team:

Leading worship for the group each morning and evening

Going on a hike and finding an old water mill

Toplitsee - a lake nearby that supposedly has Nazi treasure hidden at the bottom...

The whole group!