Thanksgiving with Family

We spent the week of Thanksgiving with Michelle's Brother's Family in Medical Lake, WA. We had a great time and great food. This pic is of the nieces making chocolate covered marshmallows. There was probably more dessert than anything else. The girls were enjoying dessert all week. We had snow the first day there and then lots of cold weather. We saw a lot of deer and birds before eating the turkey. We even went shopping the day after Thanksgiving, which for my european readers is a big american tradition, although a crowded one. I will post some more photos on our web album site. Use the link on the right.

Busy week ahead of Thanksgiving

Well, we had a great service in Lake Stevens, even if I wish I was with Martin who commented about the great time they had in Graz yesterday. We have a busy week ahead with a service in Forks on Wednesday (about 4 hours away) and meeting friends Thursday and Friday. Saturday we head to Oroville, only a seven hour drive. Then all next week we will be with family preparing for Thanksgiving in Medical Lake.

Off to Lake Stevens WA

Just a quick note to let the readers know that we returned from Port Orchard and spent the day recuperating yesterday. Today it is off to Lake Stevens Assembly of God. We only have a 40 minute drive this morning, so that should be refreshing.

I know it has been forever but we're busy

I really don't know if anyone reads these posts, but they probably haven't for quite a while. Very bad blogging on my part. Anyway, I'm sorry. We have been quite busy traveling and doing ministry, but I hope to make time now to regularly fill you in on what we are doing. This week we have been in Port Orchard, WA. We are participating nightly in the missions convention of CLC in Port Orchard. We have been in three homes so far this week and will again be sharing in a home group tonight. We also participated in "Missionary Squares" on Wednesday night with 7 other missionary units plus Buddy Barrel! This weekend we are off to Lake Stevens to share in the Sunday am service. BTW we have also updated our ministry website with some pictures and info, as well as our last newsletter.

Michelle's Surgery

Michelle had surgery on her left shoulder this week to remove a calcium deposit that had been causing pain for the last four years. She is currently recovering from the surgery and will start rehab on Thursday. Living with one usable arm this week has been quite a challenge for both Michelle and I.

September travels

The past three weeks we have been in Pasco, Camas and Toledo, WA. We are looking forward to the coming weeks when we will be in Ridgefield and Vancouver, WA followed by Malone and Aberdeen, WA and then on to Medical Lake, WA.

Where have we been?

Ok, I apologize. We haven't entered a single blog since we got back from Austria. Well, we've been busy OK, and well, I've been kind of lazy too. We have been all over the place in the last 9 weeks since we got back from Austria. We had some great times back with Family and our church home. I performed a wedding for my stepsister, and we started traveling. We haven't been to that many churches so far, but we have been around. We left on July 8, the day after the wedding for Springfield, Misery (spelling mine) and had 10 days of heat mixed with frigid AC. We then headed to Richmond, Virginia. With stops in St. Louis, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. Not a straight line you say? That is correct, but straight lines are no fun. In Richmond we had a great time with Michelle's mom and step dad. We never stopped and can now tell you all about 1. the first British settlement in America, 2. colonial America, 3. The home of Thomas Jefferson, 4. What Washington DC looks like from the outside of every monument, 5. The largest city in Virginia is Virginia Beach, which is a blast when it is sunny, and 6. Busch Gardens Williamsburg is full of great rides. After 10 days in Virginia we headed to Indianapolis for the 52nd General council of the AG. It was a lot of fun/work and after all that we were finally headed home on August 14. We stopped to see Mt. Rushmore (well worth the trip and $8.50 to park) and then drove to Medical Lake, WA to spend time with Michelle's Brother, his wife and their 3 daughters. All this before a church service this last Sunday in Goldendale, WA. (Check your map). Now finally home we are back in business with itineration (read travel/fundraising) and calling churches. I hope to share more of our adventures in much more real time in the weeks ahead.

Final Sunday in Austria

We said goodbye to the church in Graz today. It was hard having to say goodbye and know that we will not see most of the people for at least a year. We will miss the church a lot and look forward to being able to return soon. We leave on Tuesday for the US and a year of itineration. We can't wait to see our family and friends in Seattle. We fly from Vienna to Copenhagenen and Copenhagen to Seattle. Coming soon our adventures in America.

Visitor in Graz

We had a great weekend with our Area Director Jim Sabella and his family. We hosted them and Jim spoke in Church on Sunday. We are getting ready for the transition from Austria back to the USA. We will be going through reverse culture shock and getting used to life in the US after 3 years in Austria. We look froward to it while at the same time wishing we could stay in Austria.

Spider man review

Okay it took me a long time to write it but Spidey was awesome. You must see this film. Most importantly what does this movie tell us about sin, anger, revenge and the church's place in forgiveness? What about the prayer offered? See the movie, answer the question yourself.

Spider man

We are headed off to see spider man tonight. We had a sighting a few weeks ago that I wanted to share with this photo. I'll report on the web hero tomorow.

Paris Trip

Michelle and I had a great time in Paris and visiting her Family, Missionaries John and Nancy Lecossec in Gien, France at a Gypsy convention. We saw all the important sites in Paris, you know the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc d'Triumph, Champs Ellysees, Planet Hollywood, Disneyland Paris, Notre Dame, Starbucks, yeah that is about all the important places. Click on the photo below for our photos.

France Trip 2007

Easter

We had a great Easter Yesterday. We had three guests over and ate Raclette, a swiss meal with lots of cheese, and then we went for a hike up the Schlossberg in Graz. I have a link here to some of the pictures. Please comment if you know what time the clock on the clock tower says the picture was taken.

From Easter photos

Passach Fest?

We had a great time Friday night celebrating a messianic Jewish passover in the church. The meaning of the feast and its correlation to the communion celebrated by Christians was powerful. We had a great time of fellowship and food as you can see from these photos.

Celebrations

You know people really like to celebrate. We have been celebrating people lately. We have celebrated the birthdays of the members of our student group. You might not think that they want us to make a big deal about a birthday, but when you see their faces you know the joy you see is not false. I have included a picture from our last party-group meeting. You can see all the pictures I have uploaded by accessing the web albums link underneath.

From Birthdays

Renovations

The 12th to 16th of March we worked on repainting and renovating the sanctuary of the local church. The room is pretty high so it meant a little high ladder work. The pictures tell the whole story.

Renovation

From Alan's Birthday

Morgane and I shared a Birthday party this week. She is from France and has a Birthday just two days after mine. It was a great time after our groups meeting. The best thing I got was one of our students found Dr. Pepper and brought me a six pack. It is amazing some of the stuff you can't get in Austria. Now if I can only find Mountain Dew and Root Beer.

A trip to Vienna

We went to Vienna on Thursday to meet with all the other missionaries serving in Austria. It was a wonderful time to have fellowship with everyone. We also got to eat some of the very best ribs in Austria. In fact I am having the leftovers this morning for Breakfast. I also got to meet with the team that led focus in February. We return to Graz today (Saturday).

A photo of last weeks outing to a church on the top of a nearby hill. Pictured are Jaco, Morgane, Irmi, Robbie and me. We rode our bikes up, took over an hour, and then back down, five minutes. There was a wonderful view of Graz from the top.

Fasching?

Austrians celebrate the Tuesday before lent a lot like people in New Orleans, a lot of costumes and colorful parades. It is the end of the party season that starts on November 11 and the beginning of the Catholic Lenten season. We have experienced three of these Fasching Dienstags so far but this is the first with pictures.

Focus 2007

Finally a picture of focus. I am able to upload a photo now, so maybe more to come soon. We had a great 4 days at Focus 2007, a retreat for the young adults of the Austrian national church. I was the main leader for the first time this year. We had a great turn out with a total of 30 people attending. We had wonderful times of worship, prayer, seeking God and preaching. Who spoke? The leadership team because no one else accepted our invitation. We saw God's hand in leading us this way as it challenged the young adults to really lead and invest themselves in this time. I was so encouraged to see so many hungry for more of God. God showed up and the testimonies afterward were incredible.

What is he thinking

Our fearless SFC Europe leader. What is he thinking in this picture. Send me your guess and the best guess will be rewarded.

European Student Ministries Prayer Weekend

We spend the last weekend of January every year meeting together with other student ministry leaders from around Europe for prayer. This year it was great. We also had the addition of some world wide leaders in student ministry in attendance. An added day of discussion about ministry issues was very powerful. The fellowship and encouragement were great, but the highlight has to be the time spent in prayer for one another and the various national needs.
I have included a pic of our prayer times.

New Years in Graz

We celebrated New Years with our students in Downtown Graz. We have a great view of the Schlossberg and the main downtown fireworks display. We had ten people over to celebrate and watched all the fireworks from our balcony and open windows. Most everyone stayed until 4 am and we even had a little bit of waltzing to celebrate at midnight, an Austrian tradition.