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| Viennese Melange served on a traditional sliver platter |
Coffee is a big part of Viennese Culture. Legend has it that the first coffee houses sprung up in Vienna sometime after 1683 when the hastily retreating Turkish army left large amounts of coffee in their wake. Since then it has been a cultural tradition to sit for hours in a coffee shop, playing cards, talking politics, and especially reading the paper. It’s no surprise then, that Christians would take advantage of the Vienna coffee culture to gather study and discuss the scriptures. A few years ago, in fact, some friends of mine started a Bible study group in one of the Vienna Starbucks locations. In the next four years they have expanded to all but three of the eleven Vienna locations. What’s most exciting is that because of the open nature of the groups it has become a non-threatening venue for all types of people to explore the message and claims of the Bible. From time to time the SBUXfellowship has asked me to help out with teaching some of their leaders and before we had to leave Vienna for our visa purposes, Liz and I were looking at helping out with this group in some way. Just recently we had one of the leaders over at our new apartment and he mentioned that one of the three locations that they didn’t have a study was only a block from our place. I said,” That’s funny, I’ve been praying about starting a bible study.” So since then we have been praying about starting a study at the Starbucks in Millennium City mall. I’m really looking forward to see what God will do with this. Please be praying that people who might not normally feel comfortable going to a church might come and hear what God has to say to them through His word.