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!