So, this is Christmas

This was my first ever Christmas away from home and boy oh boy was it interesting. We all knew that our team was the closest thing to family we have and decided to make sure that Christmas Eve and Day were spent all together. We did the usual things, watch A Muppet's Christmas Carol, ate food, made cookies, decorated the house, bought a Christmas tree, gave and received gifts, had a massive pillow fight, you know, all the "usuals."

There were of course some very unusual things about Christmas that stood out the most. Being away from family, friends, and my home-church really made things feel strange. I was able to Skype with my family, which is still a technological miracle to me, but it definitely wasn't the same.

On Christmas Eve however, I did receive something that made the strangeness of this week completely worth it.

On December 24th while everyone else in my apartment was cooking and preparing for our evening festivities, I was alone in my room spending some much needed time with God. I've felt so strongly lately how important it is to meet with God first thing in the morning. He's been showing me the importance of being faithful, day to day, and I felt so strongly my need for His presence on Christmas Eve. This day could so easily be filled with hustle and bustle of cooking, wrapping, and other things and I didn't want that to be the case. I knelt down by my bed to beg for His grace and strength for the day when....

God showed up. Mightily. Powerfully. Thinking about it makes my hair stand on end.

I came away from that time with an even stronger burden to know Him. To know Him in and out. To meditate on the Word day and night. To be more aware of what is to come. For the first time in my life I could honestly and wholeheartedly, with no hesitations or regrets say I didn't want any other life than one dedicated to following my Lord and Savior. I'm in this no matter what and there's no turning back.

This moment with Him was so timely due to some of the things that had been going on in my mind in the weeks leading up to this. I had been thinking so much about my past, that I'm not too proud of, and a bit concerned about whether or not I've truly changed. I was afraid that I was going to go back to my old way of life in the future because I didn't feel really committed. Now I am assured. God's plans for me are not going to be messed up by my apathy and trouble with commitment. He loves me and will keep me even with my mess ups, failures, doubts, and selfishness.

He never fails me. My eyes are set, my pace is steady, I'm singing a new song.

Frohliche Weihnachten!

On Friday night the ministry I help out with threw a big Christmas banquet. It was a lot of fun to help out with all of the behind the scenes work with a bunch of Austrian believers. Many people came and enjoyed a hot meal with coffee and a delightful dessert to follow. There was worship, caroling, and a few performances by little kids. I enjoyed seeing my usual friends and giving and receiving gifts. Here are a few pictures so you can catch a glimpse.

Blessings from Hungary

So, my delightfully spunky friends from Magyarország finally came to visit this weekend. It was so great to be greeted by their curly locks and laughter. We spent most of the day Saturday at the different Christmas markets in Vienna and then some relaxing time in the sauna. We talked, laughed, sang, prayed, and enjoyed life together. It was plenty of fun and we're already scheming on how they can reserve us for another long weekend in Hungary with them.

Egészségünkre!

Unexpected trio

I would like to introduce to you my Austrian fathers I adopted.


This is Ferdinand and Ludwig. They come to the homeless dinners on Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings and we've become great friends. For some strange reason they've really taken a liking to me and want to hang out with me even outside of the dinners! I've gone out to eat with them a few times and it was so much fun.

What blesses me the most about my friendship with these two guys is their generosity and genuine care for me. They both have two very different financial situations but are still in no place to be spending extra money on random American girls. These are the friends who have supplied me with sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving, an advent calendar and wreath for Christmas, and other special Austrian gifts. They make me feel very loved and cared for as they truly treat me like a daughter.

It's so neat how God can take people from very different situations and make something new and lovely out of it. I don't look at them differently because I know one of them sleeps under a bridge and is in a heck-of-a-lot of legal trouble. I don't look at them differently because they have to go to homeless dinners to get by. And they don't judge me for my nose piercings and terrible attempts at speaking German :) We make a great trio.

Torn

I've discovered that lately I've been living like a true 21 year old. Some how my flat-mate and I haven't gone shopping for food in a couple of weeks but are still surviving. I've noticed that I eat about one real meal a day and usually hold myself over with peanuts, olives, cheese, or ice cream throughout the rest of the day. I also never say no to free food. A mother's nightmare right?

Lately I've felt very strangely split between two worlds. I still have over 5 months left of my internship, but yet I'm preparing to go home. It feels so funny to be buying plane tickets and planning out my future at Bethany College and at home in Pennsylvania. I also feel like I should be heading home soon since it is the Christmas season. This will be my first Christmas away from home and it definitely feels very strange. I'm excited for what it will be like here, but I know it just won't be the same as home with family.

Also, this month will be exciting as I will entertain a few much anticipated visitors. In one week two very lovely, beautiful, and sassy Hungarians will be visiting me for a weekend. I'm so excited to show them around Vienna and make an attempt to show them the same top notch hospitality that they showed me while I was in their country. Then, on December 31 two of my most special friends will be visiting me for one whole week. I cannot hide my excitement when thinking about that wonderful week with them.

In honor of my fond thoughts of home :

Fresh

On Monday we visited our priest-friend Daniel's parish. He is the priest of the third largest church in Vienna and we got to get a tour.

We then spent a lot of time talking about Catholicism and how most Austrians believe/think. It was really interesting to get his insight. It was also enlightening to hear his view on the different symbols in the Catholic Church. There are so many that sometimes it can seem confusing, or may seem like the symbols are the religion. But with the way Daniel explained, it all makes a lot more sense. I'm thankful for these moments that help me to pray for the people I am surrounded by. Austrians need God and being a "Catholic Nation" does not mean that they know Him.

We also enjoyed a quaint thanksgiving feast yesterday. It was a lovely time of fellowship, football, food, friends, and freedom. :)

The wonder of it all

Nothing extremely exciting or blog worthy has really happened in the past week, but there sure have been a lot of lovely little moments. I'd like to share some of the highlights.

November 17th brought the celebration of Emily's day of birth. We spent the day doing things that reminded us of her. We had a tea party where we all dressed up and decorated our kitchen/living room accordingly. I discovered that I really enjoy making origami birds and we used them in the decorations.

Vienna is preparing herself for the Christmas season and she's pulling out all the stops. They've already begun to decorate the streets and it's so magical looking. Also with Christmas comes many markets with good food, drinks, music, and shopping. I'm very excited to celebrate Christmas here.
The weather has been surprisingly nice as of lately and has beckoned me to take many walks to soak up what little sunshine is left before the very gray winter rolls in. One sunny Sunday a few teammates and I went on a walk down the heavily painted Donau Canal. It was a lovely day.

I've discovered a fun way to practice my German and have a good time with friends. One of the families here on the OM team is Swiss and has three small kids. They have a computer game that helps young German speakers to practice spelling, pronunciation and grammar. Even though the game was definitely designed with children in mind, it's helpful and fun to work on with my little Swiss friends.

Blogs don't have to be perfect!

You know, I would blog a lot more if I didn't feel the need to make them really elaborate, eloquent, and super exciting. I need a new outlook on blogs.

So, a quick re-cap of life here in Stock-town as of lately. I've been working a lot more in the second hand shop as well as hanging out at the homeless dinners. I really love it a lot. I dearly love all of my homeless buds and now look forward to seeing them each time. I used to dread it. I hated the feeling of embarrassment with my lack of German, or the awkward situations with the few men who like women a little too much. I would let those moments get to me, and it would ruin all the good times I had. But now I'm adjusting my mindset and seeing it as a learning experience for my German, and an opportunity to show love to people even through their sin or inappropriateness. I really want to post pictures sometime, but I've never felt like the timing was right to snap a few photos at the dinners. I'm not sure how they would feel about me taking their picture. We will see.

Some friends and I went to a Tinariwen concert last week and it was awesome! It was really refreshing to be in a concert setting again since that was how I spent a good portion of my high school career. We danced, sang, and admired as this semi-famous African band played the night away. If you're interested you should check out some more information about them. They have a crazy story!

Set Apart

The other day my team and I had the opportunity to visit a Roman Catholic monastery near Vienna called Stift Klosterneuburg. It was founded in the year 1114!! It's so hard to fathom something being that old in my American mindset since our country is so young in comparison. This visit would've been pretty boring since I feel as if all the old European buildings are starting to look the same, but we had an insider tour. Our team supervisor Robert has a friend who is a resident at the monastery. The men living in this amazing building are called Augustinian Canons and are unlike monks but yet not your typical priest. They are dedicated to prayer and have made a commitment to live in this community in poverty. They have no possessions of their own and live a quite simple life dedicated to God. Some of them are priests over parish's and leave the monastery to attend to their duties for a parish.

I learned so much from our guide and new friend. His name is Daniel and he's a New Yorker who's been living in the Stift for 6 years. He taught us a lot about Austrian history, cultural differences, and Catholicism. It was an unbelievable breath of fresh air to meet someone who may look, act, and live completely different than me, but share the same passionate love for God! We laughed as he talked about a lot of the assumptions people have about priests, one of them being that priests don't eat. He was completely down to earth, real, and a joy to be around. We all hope to keep in touch with him and hang out sometime in the future. Since he is a priest that does eat food, he invited us for pizza sometime. :) I'm thankful that there is a unity found in Jesus Christ that goes deeper than some disagreements of how things should be done.

Celebrate October

October is by far my favorite month of the year. I remember my dad telling me it was his favorite when I was a little girl and I noticed that we did end up on a lot of walks during that time. Now, here I am, over half way through with October and I must say I've enjoyed every bit of it.

October has also been repeated over and over in the mouths of my teammates as the time when our lives would finally settle down in Austria. It's true. We've been getting back into ministry and organizing our lives after a long time of meandering all over Europe. It's been nice to be reunited with my homeless friends and Calvary chapel buds. I can't deny that I am a bit antsy to go on another journey. :)

Luckily, I've been finding adventures without having to leave the country. In the beginning of October I had the opportunity to help harvest grapes at a farm in a tiny village not too far from Stockerau. It was most definitely a tasty cultural experience with a nice gift of freshly squeezed grape juice. Truly the fruit of your labor!

Litér Part 2!

The wonderful people in Litér invited us back for a short weekend outreach that we just returned from last night. I must say, I've never found a place where I've felt so genuinely loved and cared for like this. These people have only known us for a little over a week and have totally brought us in as if we were family. The outreach was with kids ranging from age 5-17. We spent the whole day with them on Saturday for an English/Bible camp. I was with the youngest group of 5-9 year olds which made English learning a little bit difficult. I had many of the same kids that were in my group last time which made it so much fun. Our main focus was on the story of the shepherd and the lost sheep and we even prepared and performed a skit based on this story. I hope to visit Litér at least one more time before leaving Europe. It has been by far my favorite place I've visited since arriving.



The following video is during our afternoon meal when our lovely Hungarian host families decided to teach us a folk song. In return, we taught them an English kids song. It was hilarious!

Croatia

Almost as soon as my vacation with my parents ended we left for a week long team retreat in Croatia. We were in a town called Hrvatska in a quaint pension 5 minutes from the coast. I spent some lovely moments walking along the Adriatic sea and plunging into it's cool, clear-blue waters. The focus of the retreat was to recap what has gone on so far and prepare for an awesome second half. The director of our internship and his wife came to give us insight on relationships, conflict resolution, and encouragment to squeeze every bit of goodness we have left on this journey in Austria. We all had a lovely time relaxing, enjoying the outdoors, hiking, and playing loads of games. It was truly a retreat.

I had the pleasure of hosting my wonderful parents for a full 12 day long vacation! It was very nice having them around, especially after such an intense summer. I will admit it was challenging to be the constant translator and tour guide, but traveling around with my parents was a lovely time otherwise. We visited Prague for an overnight visit that included a tour of castle grounds, discovering the old city, amazing food, and medieval atmosphere. Then, after spending some days exploring my more familiar city of Vienna, we head out for a trip to Innsbruck and Salzburg in southwestern Austria. We got to experience amazing views of the Alps and a fun Sound of Music tour. We also took a detour at the end to find the town where supposedly our roots started. Here are some pics of my time.

On Friday we leave for Croatia for our intern retreat. When we return we are heading to Hungary for a weekend and then hopefully will be done with our traveling for a very long time. I'm excited for these next couple travels, but am a little nervous for our time of settling down. I'm not sure if I'm ready for this next season, but God knows and He'll prepare me for anything.

My summer in Hungary has come to an end. We finished up at a conference near Lake Balaton. Our job was to play with the kids who came to the conference and whoever else that stopped by on the beach. I must say that it's really nice to have your main priority be fun and games and silliness.

This summer was full, crazy, fast paced, exciting, and splendidly tiring all at once. Even though there were moments where I wanted to leave desperately, I know that God totally had us there for a reason. It was not an accident that we didn't get our visas. God showed and taught me new things about myself, the people around me, and Himself. He provided for me in my insecurities, fears, and doubts when I tried to depend on myself. It was an awesome time to learn, love, and live life fully. I'm thankful for the whole experience and am looking forward to this new season of life.

In 4 days my parents will be here in Vienna for almost 2 weeks! I'm so excited to hang out with them and show them what my life here in Europe looks like. After that we have a week of class and then on to our intern retreat in Croatia! Praise God for all of these opportunities ahead of me.