Better is the End

Today in my (Nate) Bible reading I finished up Ecclesiastes. Solomon's words rang true in my heart as I read, "Better is the end of a thing than its beginning." Today we closed the first chapter of our interns' summer here with us in Austria. This afternoon they got on a train with one of our former interns and her sister and headed to the Salzburg area to start the second half of their ministry.

These times are always bittersweet. We know that God has been working in their hearts. It is fun to see their understanding of the culture grow and to see how their questions change as they learn and experience more and more. We are blessed and honored to be able to build into these gals and serve them through their time here. 

As we sent them off, we prayed for the students that were going to be in their cabins, that they would continue to seek them out, that they would work hard to build relationships with their campers despite low language confidence and busy schedules. We prayed that they would have energy and push through when times are challenging. 

We are excited to go and visit them after their first full week of camp. We know that this will be a great debrief time to process with them the things they are learning.

Will you pray with us and for them in this season of ministry? Thanks for lifting them up!

Do I Really Need to Learn this Lesson Again?

Patience. It's something that I definitely lack, and I don't think I'm alone in this. I've always been a do-er and a task-oriented person that likes to complete things. This has it's advantages: I get things done quickly and efficiently most of the time. But it's disadvantages are also numerous: sometimes I do tasks too quickly (and not carefully), and I don't like waiting for things to be done. When something is moving more slowly than I'd like, it's tough for me to be patient.

Since August, our patience has been greatly tested with two things in our life: our car and our basement. Even as I write this, these things sound mundane and minor, but I've been surprised how much stress they've caused me and how much I am struggling to be patient with these two things.

First, the car. We purchased the car in early August and it has had persistent problems ever since. It has broken down on the road once and returned to the mechanic at least 5 times for more repairs. We've spent much more money on repairs than we planned, and there have been many days we have not had the car available to use, because it was being fixed. The car story just seems to drag on and on. What's more, driving the car has been stressing Nate out, because he has been worried about it breaking down again. The day he picked Maya and me up from the hospital to come home, the car was sputtering, and he was praying, "God, please just let me get my wife and newborn baby home safely".

Then there's the basement. We had flooding in our basement the night we moved into our house. This was on September 10th, and the basement drying process isn't done yet. A professional company was hired by our landlords to get all of the moisture out of the basement, especially the standing water under the tile floor. Each time a deadline is set to remove the equipment from the basement so we can use the space again, something goes wrong: an appointment is missed, the drying is not yet complete, the devices need to be re-set...you name it. Having these professional drying devices in the basement means that it's approximately 95 degrees F down there, and Nate can't work in his office space. It means our basement guest room can't be used, and we have our first guest coming this Friday. It means the whole basement is a mess, and this drives me crazy. This also means we've been dealing with our renter's insurance company and our landlord's insurance company, which is stressful (especially in a foreign language). We're still not sure who is going to fit the bill for this professional drying process.

I've been asking God a few questions through all of this...first of all, why does all of this stress me out so much? And why do all of these challenging things seem to hit at once, while we're dealing with a move, a new baby and a new ministry? But more importantly, why haven't I learned to be more patient already? Why do I still struggle with waiting and trusting? God, can you help me keep these small things in perspective?

There is something about living cross-culturally that adds a level of difficulty and stress to all of the normal stressors of life. It magnifies small struggles and makes them bigger. This is why we need God's patience and peace to pervade our attitudes and reactions even more. Please pray for us during the times when our patience is tested, that we would display Christ-like attitudes and not our own!

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!

Transition to "Rural Living"

Our new home - the town of Gerasdorf

As we wrote in our last update, we are preparing to relocate for our first church plant. We have known for almost a year that the northern part of Vienna (the 21st District) would be the target area for our church planting project and when we returned from our home assignment, we started looking for housing.

It turned out to be quite difficult to find something in the city close to our target region.

Townhouse kitchen

Most of the housing there was limited and there weren't any houses for rent in our price range. We were able to give up the search and wait until the spring to relocate, but then we decided to look just outside of Vienna, in a small town called Gerasdorf bei Wien. Gerasdorf is just over the border and offers trains and buses to the last subway station of the U1 in Vienna, so it's a direct suburb of the city.  There was more available there and because it's not as urban, options tended to be houses and townhouses, rather than apartments.

We are excited to share that we found a townhouse that seems like it will be a good fit for our ministry and our family. We have not signed a lease yet (still negotiating the details), but we have a signed offer agreement regarding the rental amount which is pretty binding. So we officially feel comfortable sharing this news.

We are excited about moving into this townhouse for a variety of reasons:

Back of townhosue with terrace and balcony

• It is only 1 kilometer from the Vienna border and the area we'd like to focus on for church planting
• The townhouse has a small yard for grilling and entertaining, plus an open layout downstairs. Both will allow us to host bible studies and show hospitality more easily than we can now
• The townhouse can be reached by bus without paying an extra fee for in-Vienna travel (it is inside the same "zone"), which means it won't cost extra for anyone to get to us
• We can still walk to one grocery store and bakery. This was important to us!
• We will have enough space now to accommodate an office for Nate & a guest sleeping area (basement) and three bedrooms for our family. We hope to be in this house for a long time!
• Moving to a suburban area means we are going to buy a car. This opens up new options for us in terms of getting around, travelling and accessibility
• We will have more storage space, which will be a wonderful blessing to our family. It has been hard to find space in our apartment for baby toys, clothes, suitcases and camping/climbing equipment. Soon, we will more easily be able to access these things!



Townhouse backyard  and garden shed

• We will have space for some "luxury items" that I've been dreaming about, such as a dryer and a deep freezer (since European fridges/freezers are small, this will allow me to freeze meals before the baby comes or buy food in bulk, taking advantage of sale items)

We have found a potential car to purchase and will soon be busy packing, disassembling furniture, taking down light fixtures and getting ready for the big move. We will have both our apartment and the townhouse in September, so we can take our time relocating and painting both places.

It is an exciting time for us, but every transition comes with a bit of uncertainty and trepidation. We have really enjoyed living in our current location, right in the center of the city with easy access to shops, restaurants and public transportation. I (Bethany) am a bit nervous about feeling isolated out in the "country" with a big open field right across the street. 

Open living area downstairs

Despite these reservations and the time it will take to adjust to a new lifestyle, we are confident that this is where God wants us. We have submitted to Austrian church leadership and through conversations with them, we feel good about taking this next step. Would you please pray for us and with us, as we experience yet another major life transition? Please pray for...

• A smooth transition and plenty of help with relocating, painting the new house and painting our old apartment white again
• Grace and patience as we adjust
• That we can feel settled there before the baby arrives. Pray that the baby stays in for long enough! (Due date is October 11)
• Pray for energy for Bethany throughout the move and transition
• Pray for Ellie, as she also adjusts to living in a new place
• Pray for God to prepare the way for us in this new place!

Reflections: Our First Week Home

We are home! It has been a very busy but productive first week back in Austria. Being back here feels just as good as I was expecting. There is something about being back home that gives me a sense of peace and a feeling of being settled that I have missed so much over the last 7 months.

Although we didn't have long to get over jet lag and get settled before life picked up again, we at least had a few days to run errands, sleep and get organized. Some things we accomplished included:

• Picking up Ellie's visa that I applied for back in January. All set!
• Unpacking and finding spots for everything we acquired while we were in the U.S.
• Sorting through our belonging at home and putting back all of our decor items that were moved while we were away
• Buying groceries and stocking up on basic household products, like toiletries, paper towels, etc.
• Planting our balcony garden with herbs
• Planting our community garden plot
• Getting lots of items ready for the interns, like binders of documents, cell phones and a gift basket

It was a busy busy few days, but we are all settled and back into the swing of things, with our interns here and Nate preparing for a sermon at the end of the month.

Here are a few photos from our travels and our first week back!

On the plane! We had a very smooth flight. Ellie enjoyed activities and then slept for about 4.5 hours.

We're here in Vienna! With so so many bags....

Planting and watering our balcony garden

Back at the dog park with Mozzy. We were so excited to be reunited!

Ellie decorating signs for our interns

Baby is 22 weeks! I had swollen ankles after the flight, but now things are back to normal. 

My helper planting our vegetables in our community garden plot (in a raised bed).

Visiting Schönbrunn Palace with our interns and seeing the roses.

Our interns are here!!

Nate got an immersion circulator for his birthday in March and has been so excited to try it out!

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!

One Week Away

We are just a week away from our departure from the U.S. back to Austria! Watch below to get an update from us on what's coming up and how you can pray for us. Thanks!

It's on the Horizon...

It's finally here. We are approaching just one more month in the U.S. and starting to prepare to head back to Vienna. There are so many thoughts and emotions tied to this upcoming transition, some of them conflicting. I am simultaneously excited to return home to our life, our community and our dog, as well as sad to leave our family and friends here. I am excited to speak German again, but also intimidated by going back into a culture that is still somewhat foreign, where I have to concentrate a more to accomplish daily errands and tasks. I can't wait to have a space again just for our family, but I have enjoyed being spoiled living with family - easy, free babysitting, and few cooking and cleaning responsibilities. I look forward to returning to my friends and community in Vienna but will deeply miss our friends and family here in the U.S.

When you are away from somewhere, it can be easy to idealize that place. I think I have done that over the last 6 months with our return to Vienna. I have been fantasizing about returning ever since we left. Some friends, also missionaries, recently reminded us that even though we really look forward to heading back home, moving back to Vienna will also mean going through a cultural transition and it may not be as smooth or ideal as we expect. This has been on my mind a lot lately. I have missed home so much during our home assignment, but it's been good to process the transition and think about what might be hard to get used to again when we return.

Amidst these thoughts, we also have some logistics to think about! We have packing and shopping to do, so that we can bring back our favorite and most useful products from the States. We have preparations to do for our summer interns, who arrive just 5 days after we get back to Vienna. We want to hit a few more items on our "bucket list" before we leave our passport country and get on the plane. Would you pray for us? Pray for a smooth transition and that God would prepare our hearts for all that is ahead, whether smooth or not!

Photo credit: aselaneli from morguefile.com

Emotionally Intelligent

After our first week in Colorado at Renewal Conference, we came to the WorldVenture home office and spent a little more than a week there for a debrief seminar. The debrief seminar was a chance to connect with other international workers and share about our last term on the mission field. We also had the chance to visit with supporters, friends and family in the Denver area.

One thing we addressed was especially valuable to us. We talked about emotional intelligence, which is our ability to read a situation and a person emotionally and take that into account. This is also valid for our own emotions. It is our ability to take in and understand the information that emotions provide and act in a way that takes that information into account.

American culture on the whole has not had a great relationship with emotions, especially my (Nate's) gender. We see some emotional expressions as signs of weakness and someone that accesses that part of themselves as out of control.

The challenge is that our emotions are a part of us, just like anything else. When our finger hurts we pull back from the source of the pain. When something feels good, like a massage at the spa, we want to go back again and again. Our emotions give us cues to what is going on in our hearts. One example the presenter used was really powerful.

Our trainer talked about a pastor trying to decide between two future ministry opportunities. With the first option, he explained it very matter-of-factly. He went through the advantages and disadvantages straightforwardly. Then he got to the second option. His eyes lit up and his whole countenance changed. You could tell this second option accessed something deep within him, and he was very excited. At the end of explaining the two options, he finished by saying that he wasn't sure which option was for him or which direction God was leading.

The counselor pointed out the difference between the two and said that maybe he already had a decision. His emotional reaction had displayed what his deep desires were. That doesn't mean that is where God is leading this man 100%, but it should be a clue. Furthermore, recognizing this is a big part of emotional intelligence. It is the ability to read the clues that our own and other's emotions are giving and then taking those into account.

One good question in the face of all this is:

How has this helped us?

Our lives are full of change and transitions. Often we don't notice to toll those transitions are taking on us, but our emotions are a very helpful cue. I have seen many times over the last few years where my own personal emotional reaction to a situation goes far beyond how I would normally react to that situation. These emotions are an important clue that I have something I haven't thought about or processed.

Ultimately, there is a continuum to emotions. We can either shut out all emotions, or we can overindulge in them. In German, there is a phrase, "you can fall off either side of a horse." This is as true with emotional engagement as any other part of life. When we shove our emotions down, we are setting ourselves up for them to explode or come out sideways. When we go to the other side, we can wallow in self pity or become overly sensitive. But when we healthily engage our emotions, we can fully experience the life that God has for us.

How has emotional intelligence helped you handle situations in your life?   Leave your answers in the comments below.

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...

Saying Goodbye...again

Send-off at church this morning

I'm not gonna lie...Sometimes, being a missionary is really exhausting. Case in point: We said many many goodbyes at church this morning. As many of you know, we are preparing for a 7-month "home assignment" in the States. We will fly back Thursday morning and spend the time there updating churches, friends and supporters on our ministry here in Austria and what God is doing. We hope to spread the word to more people about the needs here and in western Europe in general. We will also, of course, spend quality time with friends and family and serve in the churches where we are at.

I really dislike saying goodbye. Perhaps that is a universal thing...but I think I especially dislike it. I sometimes avoid goodbyes entirely, which I know is not healthy, but I do it anyways. And sometimes when I'm saying goodbye to someone (especially for a long time), I have no idea what to say so I end up saying weird or awkward things. Not great.

I don't think we, as people, were designed for goodbyes...for parting. We were designed for relationship and connection, made in God's image to be in community with one another. But we are forced, throughout our life, to be painfully separated from others through distance, conflict, death, and a variety of other changes in circumstances. It doesn't feel right - it feels unnatural. And saying lots of goodbyes makes me yearn for Heaven, when we won't have to do this anymore.

It was especially hard to say goodbye to our church community this morning because when we return in June, life will be different. We are preparing for church planting and will eventually move on to start a new church in a different area of Vienna. Just as we have really hit our stride in ministry and community in our church, we must uproot ourselves again to start over. And this, after doing the same thing by leaving our home country, family and friends 3 years ago. It hurts.

And right now, we are preparing to travel back to the States, where we will say many hellos but also many goodbyes. In every place, we will connect with people and then leave them again. As you might expect, we approach this home assignment with many mixed feelings. We are excited to see everyone and be back in our home culture, but we know it will be an emotionally challenging time of many transitions and goodbyes. And all the while we will be missing our home in Austria and everyone there.

All of this is very tiring and challenging. But what has brought me comfort in the last few weeks are the words of a blog post I read recently about this home assignment phenomenon, called "The Far Side of Somewhere". Please read this - it will really help you understand the thoughts and feelings we are missionaries experience in a circumstance like this. This article really preached truth to me when it reminded me that God is present everywhere we go - in Austria, in every location where we will visit in the States, and everywhere else. He goes with us and before us. Amidst transition, that brings me a lot of comfort.

I invite you to meditate on Psalm 139 with me and remember, too, that no matter what transition you are going through right now, God is already there. You cannot escape his presence. Praise the Lord!

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

Video Update

Hi friends and family!

This video update is long overdue. Obviously, the new addition to our family has made it a bit more challenging to record videos this year! Take a look and listen to what's new in our life and ministry and how you can be praying for us. Thanks!

Last Day of Class (for a while)

Last Friday was our final day of formal language classes for a while. It was bittersweet as we said thank you and good bye to the teachers we have worked with for so long. It is amazing to think of how fast the last 12 months has gone and how much we have learned.

So the question out there is, "what do you do now?" The answer is complicated. We are working on self-study tools like flash cards (my favorite app is Anki), duolingo.com, livemocha.com, and homework sheets we get from our private tutor. We will also meet with our tutor and language helpers during the week to increase our conversation and communications skills. We'll transition towards learning more about cultural values and practices. This dives into my (Nate's) background and degree at Moody, and I am very excited to continue to explore these concepts. And it is possible that I will take another course in the spring after our little one arrives just to keep sharp on my grammar.

We are nervous and excited to start this new chapter in our learning. Would you pray for us?

Light at the End of the Tunnel

A wintery fall has come to Vienna, like many parts of the US, as well. Leaves are changing and falling from trees and the air is crisp. I personally love this season. As a warm-blooded person, it is nice to move out of the dog days of summer and be able to put on sweaters and long pants. I also love making tea and feeling cozy warm instead of sweltering hot. I am getting carried away here, but you understand where I am coming from.

Another part about fall here in Vienna is that it  brings back all kinds of memories for us. We arrived last October and began getting used to life here. Since then, a lot has changed. We have learned and experience so much. It is amazing how God has provided for us. We are so thankful for all the people who have welcomed us with open arms and helped us to understand this new and different world and for those that continue to lift us up back home in so many ways.

Thinking back to those first weeks and months here in Austria, I don't think I could have possibly imagined what it would be like to be where we are today. To be honest, I had a lot of doubts and fears that went along with this. Most of these spanned the unknown between imagination and reality. By that, I mean that we had spent a great deal of time preparing for this transition. We had attended hours and hours of training, read books, and talked to so many different people that had been through the language learning and cultural adjustment process. It is one thing to talk to others or imagine what it will be like, but it is an entirely different thing to strap on your big-boy-boots and get to work. As I think back on that person and that time, I really believe we had no idea what this was going to be like. This is the reality in most areas of life, but after a year in the middle of this transition, I have seen this sharply. My perspective has changed, and yet I am still me. My marriage doesn't feel completely different, but the miles behind us have driven us closer together as we have shared defeats and victories together.

The key phrase here is, "I couldn't have imagined." I couldn't have imagined what the last 12 months would hold for us. And now we stand on the edge of another big step: finishing up "formal" language Formal here is in quotes, because with a second language you never really stop learning.  But we will move out of the phase of ministry where our primary goal is learning language and culture and move into the next phase. We'll be talking more about this in the coming months, and we covet your prayers about this, but I (Nate) will hopefully be starting an internship in an existing church here in Austria.

This will be a chance for us to work within the existing church and get some valuable ministry experience before we join up with a church planting team in the future. We'll also have the chance to learn from those that have been in fruitful ministry for a long time here. Needless to say, I am really looking forward to this next stage! But I also know that there is no way I can truly know or imagine what lies ahead.

In the face of all of this, we can finally "see the light at the end of the tunnel." It is both very exciting and a bit odd. It feels like so long ago that we left the States, and even longer still that we began this process. God has been so good and faithful to us. Join us in celebrating what he has done in the past and the wonderful future he has for us! To HIM be the glory!

Photo credit: nazka2002 from morguefile.com

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.

Drilling In

One thing that is completely different about living in Austria is the walls. Most homes I have seen in the US have sheet rock walls. They tend to be relatively thin and require a nail, a sticky hook thing, or maybe a picture hanger like this. Hanging pictures and curtain rods isn't that big of a deal.

Here, most things are made of concrete or really thick sheet rock. So we need to use these to anchor things to the wall. They are little plastic wall anchors. But first you have to drill a hole. To get through the concrete, you need a special masonry bit and a hammer drill. We had a teammate that was given an extra hammer drill that he gave to me when we arrived. That tool has been a wonderful help! It is an intense process drilling holes here, full of tons of measuring just to be sure you don't make a mistake.  The great thing is once most things are attached to the wall, they aren't coming down anytime soon!

As I have drilled all these holes, I have been processing what it means to settle. Bethany and I moved a lot when we were first married. As we look forward to our 4th anniversary, I realized that much of our marriage has been focused on getting to Vienna. Just as it was challenging for us to lift up our roots in the States, we are feeling the tension of putting roots down here.

The first thing I realized is that drilling into concrete takes time. If you try to drill the holes all at once, your drill bit will get hot and burn out. In the same way, connecting to a new neighborhood and city takes time. Building new relationships, getting to know a new church and even figuring out how to go to the doctor (they actually make house calls here!) are all things that take time to figure out. It has been helpful to remind myself that even if we just moved across the country, we would still have some of these same challenges. Culture and language differences make this a bit more complicated, but it is the same basic principle.

The second thing I have realized is we can't rush through any of this. We have to experience the highs and the lows of this process as they come. I made this mistake with my first masonry drill bit. I wanted to get the holes drilled fast and get things done. I didn't pay attention to the tell tail signs of stress on the bit. When metal gets really hot, it starts to turn a shade of blue. From then on the metal becomes weaker and effectiveness slowly decreases until the bit is completely spent.

In our training in Colorado, we talked about the process of learning a new culture. It takes 1,000,000 mistakes to successfully cross cultural barriers. If we try to go too fast, we'll make 100,000 point mistakes instead of the normal 2 or 5 pointers. And we can also burn out ourselves and not be useful anymore, just like the drill bit.

This process hasn't been easy, and there have been many instance these past few weeks that made us feel like this final leg has been the hardest. In the face of all of this, we have hope that God will continue to walk with us and guide us.

Photo credit: mconnors from morguefile.com

A Busy Month!

This month has really been a whirlwind. Here are some of the things we've been up to...

More goodbyes

This is a post I wanted to write last week, but we've been swamped... sorry for the delay!

Although we were excited to move back to Austria this month, that also meant more goodbyes. We know living the life as a missionary will always involve a lot of goodbyes alongside the many hellos, but that doesn't make experiencing it any easier. We were blessed with a wonderful community in England and we're thankful to have spent time there.

Here are some of the things we said goodbye to last week...

Friends from church and our fellow WorldVenture missionaries

Our German tutor, Ulla

The opportunity to teach and preach in English!

Some wonderful kids

Baby sheep! (Many pastures had lambs just born before we left)

Not pictured: 

• Assembled furniture 
• Delicious cheddar cheese
• A proper cup of tea
• A (temporary) sense of stability!

We're still here!

We usually try not to go this long in between blog posts, so we want to reassure you - we're still here! Our apartment in Vienna does not have internet yet (we think we'll receive the equipment in the next few days), so it has been hard to keep up with all things electronic.

We arrived in Vienna last Wednesday and hit the ground running...

• Visited IKEA and another large furniture store on Thursday
• Got the keys to our apartment on Friday. Then went to IKEA and ordered all of our furniture, (yes, ALL!)
• Painted the apartment on Saturday
• Went to church and cleaned up a bit Sunday. Then moved our stuff over to the apartment and started sleeping there! (And found out the heat wasn't working yet...)
• Monday morning, our furniture was delivered. And the heater was fixed.

And this has been our life ever since...

We took today as a rest day and are spending time at a friends' house where we can use the internet (they are out of town). It's has been glorious. We really needed to rest and get away from the chaos of our apartment.

Tomorrow, we are back at it!

One Lonely Sweet Potato

Today is our last full day in England. We have many mixed feelings about leaving. We are so excited to head back to Vienna and begin to make it our home, but we will miss the people we got to know here. At this point, it feels like we have become experts at winding down a home. Bethany expertly planned out our last week of meals so that all we have left is this one sweet potato (and a bunch of very strong English mustard that we won't be eating). She did a pretty spectacular job. 

Usually this sort of sight would mean we are in real need of a run to the supermarket. We do our best to have fresh fruits and veggies in our kitchen to cook with. But today, this lonely sweet potato was another reminder that we are moving on. It reminded me that things are changing again. It reminded me that we won't get to cook in this kitchen again, but that we have new kitchens to look forward to. 

I hope I have come to a balanced view of transition. I have to embrace the good things that are to come: we have so many things to look forward to with our first spring and summer in Austria. But I also have to mourn the losses. Yesterday in our language lesson, our teacher taught us how to say, "if we had had more time, we would have....", and we worked on filling in the blank and then explaining why we didn't visit Stonehenge or go for more walks in the city. (Most of our reasons had to do with English weather, which is a different conversation all together.) I must mourn not having sheep for neighbors, and watching the cats stalk around the garden while I do my German homework.  I'll mourn our time with the church here and knowing that we are really making a difference with our colleagues. These are important things to remember, but we must also celebrate the time we had. 

As we have been planning our new apartment in Austria, I have thought about Psalm 84. Here are the first two stanzas:

 1How lovely is your dwelling place,
    O Lord of hosts!
² My soul longs, yes, faints
    for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
    to the living God.

³ Even the sparrow finds a home,
    and the swallow a nest for herself,
    where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
    my King and my God.
⁴ Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
    ever singing your praise!

Whereever we live, we need to remember that our dwelling place is with the Lord. 

Ok, off to finish packing!