Blog Update & Maternity Photos

One of our primary communication goals since moving to Austria has always been to communicate regularly with our partners, supporters, family and friends in America. When we were first raising support and preparing, this was pretty easy - we had no kids and our full-time job was getting ready to move to Austria. Then during language learning, we were still able to regularly set aside plenty of time for this task. But as family life and ministry have intensified over the years, it's become more and more difficult to maintain all of the lines of communication. I'm sure this is no surprise to those of you who have been through these transitions before or who have also gone from couple with no kids to a family life that involves children. The demands placed on us have increased, and we have had to get by with less communication. 

We have continued our monthly email newsletters and in all our 10 years in Austria, have only missed one month. This has always been really important to me, and I see it as our primary method of communication with our key contacts and supporters in the US. Writing these monthly emails takes priority over lots of other tasks. What's been more difficult, however, is maintaining our blog and Facebook page - aspects of our communication that are helpful but perhaps the impact is less concrete. 

Another challenge, however, has been about maintaining privacy. As we go further in ministry, many of our key stories and things we might blog about involve specific people with personal lives of their own. We see God working, but we also want to respect the privacy of the friends and neighbors we interact with and, as such, we are often hesitant to share personal stories or post photos of people on the internet. When we draw this line, it means that we have less stories to share publicly, and this limits what we can put on the blog.

All this to say, we will continue to post on the blog here and there, and we see it as an especially practical place to post personal/family photos. However, the blog will include less ministry-specific posts and more family-related or WorldVenture-related posts. Occasionally, you'll also get to read posts from us about something we are learning or mulling over. We apologize for the change, and if you are disappointed (I doubt anyone reading this has strong feelings on the matter, but you never know...), please be sure to subscribe to our monthly emails where we share more in-depth updates and prayer requests about our work in Austria.

So...in keeping with this new reality, here are some recent photos of a maternity photo shoot we did to capture the upcoming arrival of our third little girl in December. We are thrilled to be welcoming her into our family after nearly 4 years of secondary infertility. (If you want to hear more about this journey, feel free to message us personally). God is a miracle worker and we are so thankful!

Oops! Sorry for the delay....

Hey friends! Life has been pretty hectic around here lately and, hence, there's been a break in our blogging. Sorry about that! In an attempt to catch up a little, here is our life in photos recently...

Nate preached his first sermon at the Floridsdorf Church, where we've been attending

Maya started eating food (or trying to)

We went out on a date for the first time in a few months

Maya got bigger and snugglier

Ellie learned to write her name and has started learning German in her pre-school

We led worship together at a church planting conference in Vienna

We made connections and heard challenging messages at the church planting conference

Maya enjoyed her exersaucer

A Visit to Encounter Church

Last Sunday, we shared an update at Encounter Church, one of our partner churches here in Connecticut. We love this congregation - they are so passionate about missions and being engaged in the work going on in Vienna. We really enjoyed giving an update and connecting with many people after the service. This was our last Sunday service presentation and our last time wearing our traditional Austrian dress on this Home Assignment, before heading back to Austria (which is good, because I couldn't button the dress all the way, thanks to being 18 weeks pregnant!). Encounter Church was a great way to close out our visit to the U.S.!

An Update in Pictures

We have been here in MN for 3 week already! Time is already flying by and we've had a full schedule. We have been very busy developing content to share with small groups, supporters and churches. We have been writing thank you notes and sermons, making posters and PowerPoint presentations, and everything in between. They say you are supposed to rest at the beginning of your Home Assignment, but so far it hasn't been possible! But we look forward to things slowing down in December for us.

Here are some photo highlights from our time here so far (can you tell Ellie is pretty popular around here?):

Our little "Ellie Bear" trick-or-treating

Touching fish at the MN Zoo

Ellie playing in the box from Oma and Opa's new dishwasher

Nate helping to install a new dishwasher in Mom & Dad's house

Sticker and coloring time

Riding a train at a local mall 

Our table set-up at the Friendship Church missions conference

Nate and his brother, Neil, playing with our Austrian table decorations

Enjoying the playground near Oma & Opa's house

Before the Chaska, MN Turkey Trot 5K

After the race. Go, Team Johnson!

Doing the monkey bars

Down the slide with Papa

Playing during "toddler time" at an indoor sports center. 

Radio Silence

It feels like a really long time since I have sat here, and shared my heart with you all. I have sat down a few times and tried to write something, but never got far enough to post it, but finally that time is here, so here we go!

About 6 months ago our church started the process to move from our now former location to a new worship space. We had known for a while that the previous facility wasn't meeting all of our needs, but space is a difficult issue here, and most churches struggle to have adequate worship space. Often times they need some sort of multi-use building that is a church on Sundays and a pre-school or offices the rest of the week.

After much prayer, searching, and struggle, we landed in our new home. The challenge was this new space was empty commercial real estate with cement walls and pipes coming out of the ceiling. So we started planning and dreaming.

A few months ago, things really started to kick into high gear. The last month or so has been a whirlwind of activity. It has been really fascinating to work at the construction site. I am just handy enough that I can make really great mistakes, but I am no expert craftsman. It has been hard to find a balance between "regular ministry," this special project, and family life. We knew that it would be temporary, but certain things have fallen by the wayside (i.e. this blog).

At the moment, I (Nate) feel like I can come back up for air and reconnect with life again.

We are very excited for what God will do through this new space and in the new neighborhood. There continue to be challenges and we still have many kinks and new systems to work out. We know that God has great plans for this church and we are praying that he will walk with them through this new stage of impact.

Here are some photos including me using power tools! Click the images to see them full screen. Thanks so much for your prayers and support!

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!

We're Still Alive

Sorry for the recent blogging hiatus! Life was quite hectic in March and at the end of the month, our time was filled with getting ready for our second big trip over the ocean (read about the first here). We flew back to the States on March 31 and are staying for two weeks to celebrate Nate's brother Neil's wedding. We are so thrilled to be here celebrating with Neil and Caitlin, and it's been a really special time connecting with family.

In other news, things with our church relocation back in Vienna are going strong, and this is still a big prayer request. When Nate returns on April 14th, he will hit the ground running with this, attending meetings with the contractor and architect, coordinating volunteers and helping with the renovations himself. He will also be preaching in May, so you can pray for him as he prepares!

When Nate flies back to Vienna, Ellie and I will be staying two more weeks in the States visiting my family in CT. Ellie still flies for free (since she is under 2), so I figure this is probably the last time we can take a trip like this. We are looking forward to seeing everyone out there again! Ellie did really well on the flights here and has adjusted well to the time change. She has warmed up to Oma and Opa (Nate's parents) and has enjoyed some great one-on-one time with them on our trip. She is not walking yet, but getting closer everyday. She is now regularly standing without holding onto anything, so that's a "step in the right direction".

Just for fun, here are a few photos we took of Ellie today. Thanks for your prayers for us!

Merry Christmas from the Johnsons!

For this month's prayer requests and update, we have posted a video. Enjoy and merry Christmas!

May Update Video

Watch below to see this month's quick video update and hear how you can be praying for us and our ministry.

Joining Forces with the A-Team

One important way that we communicate with our friends, family and supporters is with a monthly email newsletter. We spend a lot of time thinking about and writing our monthly update, and we pray each month about how it will impact, engage and move in the hearts of its readers. If you're not already on our mailing list, I would encourage you to sign up using the form on the right!

This month's update gives a great overview of our recent visit to Colorado. I thought it would be fun to post it here. Enjoy!


Dear friends & family,

We are back in Connecticut after a productive trip to Colorado last month. It was exhausting, wonderful, encouraging, and a great time of learning and growth. We processed so much information in such a short period of time, we feel as though we are still working through some of it! We also spent time with friends, some we have known since the beginning of our missions journey and some brand new.  Click here to see a video of our time in Colorado.

Here is a brief overview of what we did and how God was working through our trip!

TRAINING
During our first four days in Denver, we attended a final workshop with WorldVenture staff called “Pre-departure Training”.  We explored some of the major transitional issues that we’ll face as we leave one culture and head to another, addressing issues like learning how to mourn and properly say goodbye to people, places and seasons of life. It was another stage of realization that our huge life transition is quickly approaching, and it provided some helpful tools to process.

 

SYMPOSIUM
Over the following weekend, we attended the Missions Symposium 2012 at Denver Seminary (click the link to access conference materials).  These sessions were very valuable, and though we didn’t attend some of the sessions due to illness, we plan to spend more time processing through them. We heard from Christopher J.H. Wright, author of the well-known missions text The Mission of God; we are very excited to read his book and fully digest his thoughts on missions!

RENEWAL CONFERENCE
The second week was spent at the WorldVenture Annual Renewal Conference, which kicked off with a two-day prayer summit. It was a valuable time of corporate prayer for the missionaries, the leadership of WorldVenture, and God’s direction in all of our lives. We also had some "family business" time, where we discussed issues our organization is facing and new opportunities ahead. More than anything, this conference reaffirmed our love and commitment to this great group of WorldVenture men and women!

At Renewal Conference, we spent time with fellow appointees, men and women who are at a similar point in their preparation process.  It is always encouraging to spend time with people who understand the challenges and joys of heading to the mission field. We are consistently blessed by their support and friendship.

THE A-TEAM
Sadly, we did not see Mr. T and his infamous “A-Team” during our Colorado visit. But we got something even better...we got to spend time with our Austria team, the real A-Team!  All but two families from Vienna were in town for the week, and Bethany used her organizational skills to coordinate a dinner at a local German restaurant (which our team members were quick to point out is different from Austrian food!).  It was fun to see many of our team members in one place, as well as to meet some former Austria team members.  What a wonderful legacy of ministry we are stepping into!  

Thank you for your continued prayers, as well as your generous support that opened the door for us to attend Pre-departure Training and this conference. Have a great month!


Blessings,
Nate & Bethany Johnson