Have you ever heard the story about the leaky bucket? In case you haven’t, I’ll tell you the short version. There was a leaky bucket that was ashamed that he wasn’t doing a good job since he could only deliver half of the water a normal bucket could because of his holes. However, one day he noticed that because of his daily routine of bringing water from a stream, there were many beautiful flowers along the path where he had leaked. Yeah, it’s a cheesy story, but I have to say I’ve been feeling a bit like the bucket lately. Despite how well things have been going for us here in Austria, sometimes I wish we weren’t starting over again. Instead of having a laser-focused action-packed ministry, I’m learning culture and language again while doing a Bible study here, a meeting there, refugee center once a week, while throwing in the occasional project for a little variety.

However, like the bucket, faithfulness (and of course GRACE) can make up for our inadequacies. Just the other day I was reminded that even though David was anointed as king at a young age, it took him many years of hiding in caves and running around like a crazy man before he became king. God was using this time to build his character– it was not wasted time. In the midst of my discouragement last week God had me stop and look at the flowers I had watered along the path that I’m beating. Last weekend we had some visitors in from our missions office to do a presentation on Biblical leadership training. Russ and I had spent several weeks beforehand inviting people who we thought might be interested, and we weren’t getting many commitments. But as the day of the meeting came and I looked around the room, I saw a couple of guys from my Bible study, some other friends from the refugee center, and the pastor of the church we attend.

I don’t know what the fruit of last week’s meetings will be, but I am encouraged to see what God will do. So if you don’t mind I’m going to grab my leaky bucket. I’ve got a path to water.

It feels like spring is just around the corner here in Austria as the sun is actually out for a change and the snow is finally melting. Not everyone is ready to fully let go of winter here, however. Winter sports are a very big deal here. EVERYONE is following the Olympics and you can hardly turn your head without seeing some news paper headline about Lindsey Vonn (who spends extensive time here training) or the fact that Austria finally struck gold in the Olympics. Liz and I had quite a cultural experience watching the Men’s super G with a group of Austrians. All eyes were glued to the TV and everyone cheered when the an Austrian was up gasping at every falter or missed turn. You would have thought it was the Superbowl. After it was over they all sang songs about skiing…who knew there was such a thing!

It seems ever Austrian knows how to ski. It’s no surprise since not only do they get a week off in the winter so that families can go skiing (with the excuse that they are saving on energy by not heating the schools that week giving rise to the holiday’s name Energiewoche –Energy week). Not only that but starting around Jr. High age all of the kids take a field trip to the slopes each year with their school. A minimum of two solid weeks of skiing per year…not too shabby. Liz and I both having grown up mostly in flat country are at a decided disadvantage. Not wanting to be left out when our church offered an opportunity for a ski retreat this weekend Liz and I took some snowboarding lessons earlier this year. We aren’t in our twenties anymore, so we’ve got just about every kind of protective pad you can think of, but if you think about it an extra prayer or two wouldn’t hurt either.

Aside from learning about Austrian Ski culture, we’ve been working at getting our visa. Everything went smoothly on the first day. We showed up at 6:45 am to stand in line for the doors of the visa office to open up at 8:00. After that we rushed in with our forms and grabbed a number and waited some more. I was prepared for a long day of waiting, but we were out by 11:00 so I was pretty pleased. Now more waiting as they process our documents. It’s a long ordeal and we still have to occasionally travel out of the E.U. to keep our tourist status, and bring in more documentation when they ask for it, but I’ve been encouraged with how things have gone so far. We got a very nice case worker and she seems to genuinely want to help us out which a pretty rare quality in a government worker.

Ministry has been going strong as well. Liz is still in full-time language. I’m not taking any classes right now, but I hope to start taking a part time class and then find a language partner to get some more practice in. I just started helping with a Bible study for some Nigerian Refugees a couple of weeks ago. They are all young guys who are helping out with a Children’s ministry in the area. They are all faithful guys and have been a real joy to get to know.

We also still go to the refugee center once a week and do the worship there and I’m still preaching there once a month. I preached last week, in fact, on the Philippian Jailer in Acts 16. There was a lively discussion afterwards with many of the men from Afghanistan. I’m curious to find out what was said. I talked with a young man from there who speaks English. He asked me about St. Valentine and lent and told me about his two year journey to Austria (much of it on foot!) It is heartbreaking. He seems curious and open yet holds very fast to his native religion and beliefs.

We will be leaving to go down there soon so I’d better cut this short. If you think about it, pray.

It was after lunch and Matt had left the house for an afternoon meeting. Feeling oddly energetic after a full morning of German class, and after having gone to bed at 12:30 the same morning following a late night at the Oasis, I decided to straighten up the home a bit. To me, there isn’t a better feeling than clean sheets. “All right,” I thought, “Time to change the bedding!” As I ripped off the old bedding, threw it in the hamper, then got out a clean sheet and duvet cover, I thought, “I’m so thankful to have two sets of bedding.” Since laundry here is hung up to dry, it’s very convenient to have two sets of bedding. I continued in “straigthening-up” bliss as I put on the clean fitted sheet. I remembered how I used to think that our thin, European-style foam mattress which sits on wooden slats fitted into the bed frame was strange, but now I enjoyed how lightweight it was. It was very nice that I could, all by myself, easily and quickly put on the fitted sheet!

Next came the more difficult part: fitting the duvet cover on the duvet. I had never done this myself, since Matt is so skilled at it. “But,” I thought, “how hard can it be?” After all, I had remembered Matt saying that it’s like putting on a big pillow case. So I unbuttoned the cloth buttons of our Ikea duvet cover and spread the cover flat on the bed. I tried to stuff in the duvet as uniformly as I could, but soon I discovered that there was no way my short little arms could stuff the entire duvet up to the top of the cover, a distance of two meters or so, without literally diving in with my whole body and doing the army crawl. Hmmm…I took a moment to think. Aha! I bunched up the mass of duvet and cover and marched down the hall to the living room. I stood on the couch, and holding the partially-covered duvet above my head, I began to shake and turn the whole mess in a clockwise manner, in order to get all of the nooks and crannies of the cover filled. Twenty minutes later, parched and sweating, I had achieved a small victory!!!

Here’s a story that was published in the Smithsonian, about a Polish family who came through the Traiskirchen refugee camp just outside of Vienna, to escape the Iron Curtain. Here’s a picture of the front gate of the camp. The Oasis, the refugee ministry where we volunteer on Wednesday nights, is located in an old storefront not far from the camp. Please pray for Matt as he is preaching at the Oasis this Wednesday night.

Plans for new refugee camp to help Traiskirchen – General News – Austrian Times Online News – English Newspaper

Governor calls for immediate action on refugee camp – General News – Austrian Times Online News – English Newspaper

We have started going to the Oasis (Christian-run Refugee Center) on Wednesday nights. This is when the Gospel talk happens, and there is basically a church service. Matt and I have recently taken on the responsibility of leading the worship music with guitar and piano. Matt is also preaching the message there one Wednesday per month. A couple of weeks ago we had the privilege of taking along one of Matt’s classmates, Jenny, at her request. She is from Moscow, and was happy to help in translating the talk into Russian for the Georgians in the audience. She was also very curious about what goes on at the Oasis since she had heard Matt talk about it at language school.

It was a great experience for us and for Jenny. We got to deepen our friendship with Jenny, and she got to interact with refugees and Christian workers. Jenny talked a long time with a woman from Russia who was very well-educated and had owned her own business. Unfortunately, this woman had to flee Russia because of threats from the local government due to her political views. Jenny was surprised to find out that a woman like this could become a refugee. Jenny’s comment reveals the discovery that poverty and hardship doesn’t just come upon the uneducated or upon people to whom we can’t relate. As believers, we realize we must confess any pride of thinking we have provided for ourselves or that we are better than people in poverty and unstable situations.

Matt and I are continually challenged and blessed by our time at the Oasis. We are also excited about bringing other friends with us on Wednesdays. Jenny has since returned to Moscow. Pray that we would continue to keep in touch with her. Also, one of Liz’s American classmates at the language school has expressed interest in coming with us one evening. Pray that he would be able to come and that God would use us in his life to bring him closer to knowing Christ. Pray for Matt as he is preaching tomorrow night. Continue to pray for the refugees to find their hope in God during their unsettling time of waiting for the government to tell them whether they can stay or if they have to go. Pray for a Georgian family in particular, with two school-aged children, who have been here about 2 months in the refugee quarters. They are desperate to receive a “yes” from the government.

Sorry if any of you were in suspense, but, “ta-da”, we found our mop! It was waiting for us in a hardware store way across town. We were so excited! We were glad to welcome this mop into our home, unlike this woman. Now, who wants to come over and use it?

It has amazed me to see how things are moving here in terms of refugee work. Before we came to Vienna, I expected to go to the refugee camp once a week for a while and perhaps slowly get other people involved in ministry. However, from the moment we landed here, I have been struck with how much is happening in terms of ministering to the “stranger” here in Europe. After only a week of being here, Liz and I were invited to a baptism where seven Afghans and Iranians were making it known publicly that they embrace Jesus as Messiah and that His death alone cleanses them from their sins.

Right after the baptism service we hurried from one church to another, at the very far end of town, to meet some people who had just started a refugee ministry of their own. This married couple, who has been here for nearly 3 years, desires to get the Austrian Church involved in Refugee work. They had just that afternoon trained some girls from their church to teach German to refugees. We also discovered that they were from Texas also and even knew one of my old college friends. We were intrigued, and asked if we could meet again once our trip to Slovakia was done and we had had some time to settle in.

We finally caught up with each other again just over a week ago in downtown Vienna in a Starbucks near the celebrated Vienna Opera House. We had just signed up that day for language classes at a school that they had suggested. They were eager to hear what we thought of the school and who our teachers would be. They were glad to hear that I would have one of their favorite teachers. They shared some more of their vision with us, and it’s amazing to me how similar it is to ours. Not only do they regularly visit the Oasis, the ministry near the refugee camp, but they also do work with refugees who have already been given asylum here in Vienna. They also seemed very interested in our plans as well. Who knows if or how we might work together in the future, but it has been very encouraging to see how God is working here in Vienna through refugee ministry.