Author name: Matt Eck

Check out our August 2010 newsletter

Liz and I wanted to send a quick update to let you all know that we are
expecting! Liz is 7 weeks along and aside from the normal fatigue and
queasiness is doing fine. Please be praying for the baby’s development and
that Liz will be able to get plenty of rest.
-Other News-

We were unable to go to Romania last week because we felt it would be wiser
to stay in Austria until we receive our residence permit. We are still
waiting, but we hope to be hearing back from the visa office soon. Please
pray that the rest of the process would go quickly and smoothly.

Thank you so much for your prayers,
Matt, Liz and…..

I wanted to share a quick update about language learning. When you live in a foreign culture and desire to interact with people in their heart language like we do, language learning is a life-long endeavor. However, the first months of our being here has been dedicated to focused language learning. In two weeks Liz will finally be finished with her time of focused language learning. For the last eight months she has been faithfully going to language class every morning, four hours a day Monday through Friday. It may not sound like much, but believe me there is nothing more mentally taxing than struggling to express yourself in a new language for four straight hours a day. She has progressed very well and I am quite proud of her. She started from zero and now has full-on conversations all of the time. We are looking forward to the time it will give us for ministry.
I have been done with language classes for a while. Since I majored in German I only needed a refresher course to get me back in the groove. However, I have found that since I have been out of language class it’s sometimes hard getting practice. The majority of our ministry at the moment is among refugees, who may or may not speak German. Because of this I’ve been trying to find a language partner, someone I can practice my German with in order to keep it sharp. Just this last week the Lord provided me with a guy from our church who has the time to meet with me twice a week. This has been a great motivator to continue to improve my German skills. Please be praying that we can find a similar situation for Liz as she finishes. Pray also that our ministry would grow and branch out more into the German-speaking community here as we wish to be light and salt not only to the internationals, but also to the nationals as well.

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 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.

Almost a year after we both said I do, I thought I would re post the story we sent out to announce our engagement…

Here’s the story…

Matt Tells about the Beginning

For those of you that don’t know I have been courting a sweet girl named Liz Fiene for the last seven months. Liz and I met at an after-Thanksgiving party that she and her roommates, Joy and Tiffany, threw for their single friends in Moscow. Soon after that, Liz and her roommates moved down the street from me and my roommate Randall. We all quickly formed a friendship and it wasn’t long before we all started coming over to each others’ apartments regularly. Before too long, I started noticing things about Liz, like how much of a servant she was, and how she always seemed to make sure that everyone who came over to her apartment felt welcome. She also had a real heart for missions and really enjoyed the work that she was doing in Moscow. After a time we started writing each other messages back and forth on the computer (thanks to Facebook!) and it seemed to me that the interest that I had taken in Liz was being returned. It wasn’t long before I had made up my mind to ask her out.

Liz’s First Impressions

I had also started noticing what a quality guy Matt was. I was impressed by him–his humility, his strong walk with God, his foreign language ability, how he served me and others, and how he noticeably cared for others. I was definitely intrigued!

Matt Tells about the Courtship

In March, I asked Liz if she would be interested in pursuing something deeper than friendship, and believe it or not, she said yes. However, there was a bit of a catch. Strictly speaking, her organization did not allow her to date while she was on the field. The very next day we talked to her supervisor and he didn’t have a problem with us developing our friendship by intentionally spending time together in public or with other people around.

The next several months were some of the best months I’ve had on the field. Liz and I shared long walks, participated in ministry events together, and we even took up dancing together. In short, our budding relationship really started to grow. We were quickly moving past the friendship stage. Later on in the summer I even got a chance to “meet the parents” as Liz’s family spent some vacation time to come visit her. It was during that time that Liz’s supervisor called us back to have a meeting with him. He found out that the no-dating policy was stricter than he first realized and that there was a very real chance that Liz could get sent home because of the relationship. It was a very intense week as we wrestled with the decision before us: go home early or stay with the fear that Liz could be sent home at a moment’s notice. We decided that since we were way past the friendship stage of our relationship and already discussing the future we would try and quietly finish out the fall and head home in December.

That was the plan up until October 8th, when Liz got a call that the national supervisor found out about our relationship status and that Liz would have to leave the field in a week. It was hard to hear, but we can see how God had prepared us for this. None the less Liz was faced with the decision to head home early because of our relationship and had to busily prepare to leave Russia after having lived here for a year.

In the meantime, I had a decision and preparations to make of my own. I’m not exactly sure when I decided this, but by the time we made the decision to leave in December I knew that Liz was the woman I wanted to marry. I had it in my mind to pop the question the day after Thanksgiving, but that was obviously not going to happen now. At first I did not know what to do. Would proposing now be the perfect way to send Liz home, or would it only add to a very stressful situation? Well, thanks to good counsel I decided the time was now, and that Tuesday I asked Liz out on a date (technically our first) so that we could “celebrate her birthday” early. On Wednesday I got Liz’s ring size from her roommates and bought the ring, and by Thursday the stage was set for the proposal.

Liz Tells about the Proposal

I had been in “get everything packed and finalized” mode, and was oblivious to all of Matt’s behind-the-scenes scheming. He showed up on my doorstep Thursday with a huge bouquet of roses and a shopping bag with birthday gifts (what a genius!)–I had no idea that the night would turn into more than a birthday dinner! While eating in a nice restaurant that was a special place for both of us, Matt gave me the choice of what we would do next–either hit up Red Square one last time, or go to the University Overlook (with a great view of the city), or stay inside to have dessert (since that day the weather had turned very cold–right at freezing). Since I had pulled out my heavy winter coat for the occasion, I decided that I would like to go to the overlook with Matt, which I later found out was the place he was hoping to take me all along!

We walked there from the restaurant, and it was a beautiful night. Everything was perfect–even the wide, tree-lined sidewalk was vacant except for us. We reached the overlook, and the city lights were beautiful. Hardly anyone else was around. I took my gloves off to take a picture of us, and apparently, that inspired Matt to go ahead with the proposal (access to my ring finger)! So after I took the picture, Matt pulled out from the “goody bag” a poem that he had written, and began to read it to me. I think after the first line was when I started weeping. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. I kept saying, “You wrote that? That was amazing!” We hugged, and then we told each other “I love you” for the first time. Then, Matt said he had four more words he wanted to say to me. At that point, he got down on his knee and pulled the ring box out of the bag and asked me to marry him. I said, “YES I WILL MARRY YOU!” It really was perfect, everything about it! I was so surprised and kept saying, “I can’t even believe it!”

So that was Thursday, October 11, and on Monday, October 15, I flew back to my hometown of Liberty, MO (Kansas City area) to start the wedding planning. Matt will come back to the States early December after finishing up his work in Moscow. We are planning an April 12th wedding and will then live in Denton, TX for about a year, preparing for international mission work with his church (Denton Bible) in either Moscow or Vienna, Austria. Thank you for your friendship and your prayers as we begin this exciting time of life together and seek God about the next steps!