Gmunden Sunday

What a fantastic day - we were so encouraged and blessed as we served in the service this morning, and ate lunch with the people of the church. Tim did a great job with his sermon, and we had fun singing again. We're going to start a travelling singing group (ha,ha). We all shared testimonies of how our lives have been changed because of both the preparation for this trip and our time in Austria. Their hearts were touched as we shared our stories.
It was very hard to say good-bye to this group of brothers and sisters in Austria who are now our friends. Everyone connected, and were excited that our home church had supported us in coming to pray and encourage them. Many said how amazed they were that we had spent our vacation time coming this far to serve in this way.
Tschus / Auf Wiedersehen / Good-bye - - - for now!!

Work Day

Saturday was a work day. We went to Gmunden, where Richard and Hazel began their ministry 21 years ago. We cleaned windows and flowerbeds at the church building, and did landscaping, yard work, and other projects for a family from the Gmunden church. Everyone had a great time, and we had lots of fun with more new Austrian friends.
- Team Austria -

Missionary Journeys

We have been blessed immensely during the last few days as we drove through the Austrian countryside. We felt like Paul on one of his missionary journeys, "visiting all the believers, encouraging them and helping them to grow in the Lord" (Acts 18:23b). We prayed with the church leaders and got to know them and their families. We visited 4 churches during the last 3 days...in Wels, Linz, Steyr, and travelled all the way to Vienna, sharing one another's burdens and celebrating the Lord's blessings together with them. What a privilege. Their hospitality was beyond anything we could have imagined... we have fallen in love with the Austrian people!
- Team Austria -

...Wels

...Linz
...Steyr


...Vienna

Prayer Car Rally

On Monday we drove through the countryside around Salzburg, stopping at significant historical and religious sites to pray...

* "Silent Night Chapel", where in 1818 Silent Night was first performed
* Wals plain where Napoleon forces defeated the Austrian army
* We stopped at the largest evangelical church in Salzburg where approxminately 400 people worship.

We ended the car rally with a "disciplinary" session - - ask us later.

Salzburg History Tour / Prayer Walk

We made our way on foot from Richard & Hazel's to downtown Salzburg and received historical facts and stopped at different places to pray. This included prayer that many people in Austria following religions like scientology, New Age, meditation, etc. would recognize that Jesus is the "only" way. Remember them in your prayers - that they would change the direction they are going and start a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Mother's Day in Salzburg Church

Our Sunday service in the Salzburg Church was definitely not like West Portal. But it felt like home right away as we were warmly welcomed, encouraged and inspired. We mingled among the people and were able to get to know some of them. They are wonderful people! It didn't take long to make connections and encourage others; as we did, we were also encouraged by them. We were so impressed with Richard as he gave the message in German. Even though we understood very little, we felt the presence and blessing of God.

Team Austria was able to participate in the service. Richard & Hazel and us sang "Great is Thy Faithfulness" in English, and "Gott ist die Liebe" in German, and it sounded great! Then Sandy & Hazel sang "Fairest Lord Jesus" in German. All songs were accompanied by Betty on piano and Amanda on flute - - how appropriate as we are in Mozart's city of Salzburg.

Since it was Mother's Day, each of us shared the blessing of having had a praying mother, and about being mothers. The people responded to our stories. There are many people here who are burdened for their children; some have left the faith and gone their own way. They feel they don't need God because they have everything... wealth, affluence and education. Please pray for them.

Arrived

We arrived on schedule, safe and sound, and healthy.

It was already a full day+! After a 14-hour travel time through Toronto and then to Munich, we arrived early at 9:40 this morning. All of our baggage made it the whole way, which was a real answer to prayer! But we arrived tired, as none of us got much sleep on the plane. Richard and Hazel got us settled in - - some at their place, and the others at a bed and breakfast a 5-minute walk down the street and around the corner. We stayed awake all day to help us change to the new time zone. We went for walks and enjoyed the +24 sunny day exploring a few blocks' radius of this area of the city. I'm not sure our plan worked, because we woke up after only a couple of hours of sleep and we are feeling too awake. However, it could also be that I remembered I hadn't updated the blog, so here we are at 1:30 a.m. - - "sleepless in Salzburg" - - updating the blog. Perhaps if that's off my mind, I will be able to fall asleep. You can pray about that. Some of the team were feeling a bit sick this evening because of lack of sleep. If we can't get the sleep we need, how can we do effectively what we came out here to do.

We already met some of the wonderful Salzburg church congregation as we practiced singing a couple of songs for the Sunday morning service.

So now that we know you know we arrived safely, we should get to sleep...
Sandy and Leo

Prayer Send-off at West Portal

We were blessed by our West Portal Church family sending us off with a prayer time in our morning worship services. The support and prayers that we have felt from this congregation has been totally overwhelming and much appreciated. Because of the multitude of people behind us we are able to serve in this way.

- the Team -