They asked me to give the new staff a tour of Vienna. So I pretended to be an expert for a few hours (they are all new and so if I said anything that was incorrect it's not like they'd know the difference anyway).
I'm reading a book right now called The Velvet Elvis by a guy named Rob Bell. You should all read this book. I don't agree with everything in it, but it has been a breath of fresh air in terms of "Christian" books. One of the things he talks about is the kavod of God. Kavod in Hebrew means glory but actually denotes weight or significance. Isaiah says, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty. The Earth is filled with His glory."
We can see the glory of the Lord all around us. David said, "The Earth is the Lord's and everything in it." And later he prayed, "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence."
Rob Bell points out in his book that some people think missions is "taking God somewhere." While I somewhat see what people are saying, if we have truly understood the scriptures we realize that God is all around us. Not in some pantheistic way, but to quote Steven Curtis Chapman, the "fingerprints of God" are all around us. And not just for us believers, but unbelievers as well. The Earth is literally FILLED with His glory. Look for it.
Paul understood this. He brought the truth and the Word of God, but he also pointed out everyday things. He was a tour guide. If you read Acts 17, Paul observes that the Athenians had many gods they worshipped and thanked for all of the good things in their lives. Paul tells them that there is one God and He is the source of all of these things. He even goes on to quote one of their poets in sharing the truth with them. Paul meets the Athenians where they are and speaks to them in a way they can relate to. He infuses all of the life experience and practice of their reality with meaning by linking it to God, the most real thing.
I'm learning that I'm not taking God anywhere. He's really big and doesn't need a ride from me. He is already intimately involved in what is going on in the lives of my kids. In Colossians it says that in Christ all things hold together. In a sense, anything we do or experience involves God's active presence.
As Christians maybe we need to stop trying to "take" God and start to "observe" what God is already doing. In Romans it talks about all people having a knowledge of God from what has been made. Let's start relating to people from the good things God has placed in their lives. The things that surround them that they can't deny. Let's speak the truth to them in love and make ourselves available to God for His use in other people's lives.
So this weekend I was a tour guide. I think I'll keep trying to be one the rest of this year.
Thad is very excited about his "baby broder"
"Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them." Psalm 127:4-5a
Davis and Weston. Both are MK's from the US. Davis' father ministers among Iranian ex pats and Weston's dad is the president of RCE, our mission organization.
Thomas showing Marson some grilling secrets. Marson is an MK from the Philippines and his father is the Pastor of a Phillipino church that meets in the VCS building. 
Jannica, Paola, and Mariam enjoy their picnic time together. Jannica is from Taiwon and her parents work with Chinese Christians in Vienna. Paola is from Mexico and her father works with OPEC. Marian is from Pakistan and her dad works at the International Atomic Energy Agency.The more time we spend with these kids, the more we see what an impact VCS has on the nations. Everyday we share the love of Christ with kids from every continent and they in return bring that love back to their home nations. What a blessing to be part of this ministry!
Our little guy turned 2 last week and so we had some of his friends over for a party Saturday. Several of our fellow teachers came as well as one of the other staff moms. Thad was very excited to see his friend Rebecca and share his toys and cake with her. Mollie made some awesome cake with the help of one of our friends (our oven is kaput) and designed them to look like Thad's favorite things in life....balls. Our son is currently working on being a sports prodigy in both basketball and soccer. Unfortunately, he seems to have natural basketball skills. Matt and Stephanie Richards (VCS Basketball Coaches) gave Thad a little basketball hoop and he can usually make 3-4 out of 10 shots from 6-8 feet away from the goal (no kidding!!!). He even puts backspin and arch on the shot (I am really not kidding...ask Tom and Karen...they saw him make 3 in a row on the webcam).
When Mollie asked Thad what friends he wanted to come to his party he immediately said "Oscar" and "Salil." Oscar and Salil have been babysitting him the past few times we've been able to go out. They are both great kids and have really ministered to us in how they care for our little boy. They came to the party and brought Thad a tricycle for a present. Thad was thrilled. He calls it his motorcycle like the ones that he sees on the streets. We were so thankful to the Lord for how he provided that tricycle for Thad. He loves it so much that the only problem we have is trying to get him off of it. 
So I ran half a marathon and let me just say how much respect I have for my friend Daniel Scarbrough and anyone else who has run a whole marathon because as tired as I was when I ran to the finish line of my race, I can't imagine what it would be like for that to be the half way point of the race. It was a great experience although I wish I had trained a bit harder for it. I took me 2:28...which sadly was more time than it took the overall winner to run the whole marathon (yeah I'm slow but I was a goalie in soccer so what'd you expect).
This is my buddy Brian. He was the one who made me go running a few times a week in preparation. He finished ahead of me because he worked a bit harder in training. The whole thing was a pretty cool experience because we ran with over 25,000 other people.
This is me at about kilometer 8 when I was feeling pretty good about life. Fast forward another 8 kilometers and I was not a happy camper. Something happened with my right Achilles tendon and so I pretty much ran 4-5 minutes and then walked 1 minute for the last 4k. Mollie and Thad were waiting for me towards the end but I was too tired and in pain to notice. Afterwards, one of the teachers who lived near the finish line had all of us runners over for pasta. It was a good experience that I will take part in as long as we stay here in Vienna...but I will definitely train harder next time.
As some of you know, Thomas has been playing for Vienna Athletes in Action (a Christian soccer team). It has been a neat experience for him as he has been able to make some Austrian friends and work on his German. Most of the games have been on week nights but their most recent match was played on a Sunday morning on the other side of the city. I took us around 2 hours to get there and back but it was a lot of fun because we decided to have a picnic lunch at the soccer complex. Thad was so excited about "Daddy play soccer ball" that he wore his own soccer uniform.
Here is an action shot from the game. Despite leading for most of the game Thomas' team ended up tying the game 1-1. Unfortunately they are currently second to last in the league and unless things get better they will be moving down one division for next season.
Thad sitting with two of Thomas' VCS soccer players.
Thomas called in some of his VCS players to help strengthen the team. The Austrians are always a bit skeptical of foreign players and so the boys had to sit out the first half. The number 12 is Oscar Pacheco from Costa Rica and 13 is Salil Kolamkani from India. Both the boys are in Thomas' Bible class as well as our home Bible study. Once they came on they were a big help for the team and were invited by the coach to keep playing for the team.
Well, there they are.... all Four of them! :)
Thad and his friends just finished their egg hunt!
He's huge! 
They served dinner and dessert complete with a "candy corner" turning out caramel apples and root beer floats.
Thomas tried his hand at creating the best designed paint job on a vehicle. His was not so flattering what with the blazing fire ball on the side!
The juniors had a great time making small video clips of different songs and TV shows. They also acted out several of our favorite old time movies and cartoons. Needless to say they had us rolling with laughter!
We also got to see a traditional Indian dance....:)
We were able to go to a castle right outside the city and explore the grounds with Robert. But before we started our adventure, Thad climbed into the driver's seat and told us he was going to drive us there. :)
Shortly after Robert arrived, Thomas was able to take him to Salzburg and Munich for an overnight trip. They went to a Red Bull Salzburg soccer game and had great "brother time" watching the sport they love most.
We miss you already Bob! Thanks for coming and encouraging us here in Vienna.
It's been over a month since the musical "Guys & Dolls" but we just got some pictures to show you guys. Mollie was extremely busy in the month leading up to the performance but it was well worth it as she was able to get to know several of the kids that she hasn't spent much time with.
This was most of the cast in one of the final scenes. The kids were hilarious and worked really hard to make sure they put on a great performance for all of the parents and teachers.
In the middle of all the hard work and preparation, Mollie was really reminded about how awesome the ministry at VCS is. One night during rehearsal, the drummer for the orchestra, who is a church planter here in Vienna, had to take a phone call that involved church business. While this man was counseling someone, his son was enjoying acting out his part in the musical. It was really cool to think about our role in the lives of this family. VCS provides a stable situation for the kids of missionaries in Austria and in turn allows the parents to be more effective in the field. Thank you all so much for supporting us and making this ministry possible!
I GOT TO MAKE SOME YUMMY SCONES AND SERVE THEM WITH A FRUIT TRAY... :)
THIS IS THAD'S FRIEND REBECCA WHO ALSO CAME OVER THAT DAY. THEY ARE THE SAME AGE AND LOVE TO GIGGLE TOGETHER AND PLAY TILL THEY DROP. WE'RE THANKFUL FOR HIS LITTLE FRIEND AND HER FAMILY!
Here are my two boys, I love them so much!
Thad's new bedspread for his big boy bed. He loves sleeping in the twin bed and always reminds us that he has "big boy" sheets now. :)
Well, here's me and the little guy at some castle ruins we hiked up to. That's right, I hiked up a mountain at 6 months pregnant! This castle in Durnstein is right outside Vienna and provided a nice day trip out of the city.Here's the new school video for VCS. It's updated for the 2006-2007 school year. Please take a few minutes to watch it and we hope you will be encouraged by what you hear and see in the halls of VCS. After clicking on the link they are three different videos to watch. Choose the first one on the mission of VCS to view the new video but enjoy watching the others if you choose.
http://www.viennachristianschool.org/media
We were very excited to host our first Bible Study in our home for some of Thomas' students. We had about 7 kids total. The kids came over after school and we cooked some supper and got to spend some time with the kids just talking about different things. One of the coolest things was that we were able to speak with Rifat for quite a while. Rifat is a Muslim student from Bangladesh. He had several questions about life and especially about marriage and love. He comes from a family where his parent's marriage was arranged and so he was very interested in how we met and "decided" that we were in love. It was a special thing for us to recall our dating years and tell him about how God used all sorts of circumstances to bring us to each other.
