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 -

Click on our photos for our stories

Absolute Faith

Our trip is coming up very fast. Way back it seemed like we had lots of time, but now we are counting the days! God has been working in all of us and teaching us so many things. Something very interesting has happened to me in the past month or so which I will share with you.

It's 2009, but I for one was 'scared' of the computer age and I really didn't want one. For one thing, I didn't feel like learning how to use it! It seemed beyond me. But anyways, between my own children and grandchildren they finally talked me into it - I succumbed. Well, with their help I have actually learned to do the very basics. Emailing is my favorite, and even preparing for our missions trip we have done a lot of planning and saved a lot of time using it.

About a month ago I noticed that when I was getting emails I would get multiples of the same one. I didn't understand why it was doing this and I called my personal computer tech (my son). He couldn't really help me over the phone. I called Shaw and my computer company and they could not help me either. This went on for a couple of weeks. My emails were piling up and when I would try to delete them, they would come back "a hundred fold." With the deleted items and the Inbox, there were probably about 1,200 or more emails. Frustration City!!!

Then one morning, I was putting a load of laundry in my washer and my washer was acting up big time. Now what!! All I could see was that I would have to spend money on fixing my washing machine as well as my computer... money that was going for my trip!! When I walked out of my laundry room, it hit me... 'Satanic attack.' I believe God impressed that on my mind. So I prayed against Satan to get out of my house and leave my possessions alone, my washing machine, etc. And then I thought of my computer, that maybe he was messing with that too. After all, he does not want us to go to Austria and see what God is doing, so he wants to trip us up any way he can. So I went to my computer room and prayed over my computer. (I know you probably think by now that I am off the deep end, but this is what happened.) I renounced Satan in no uncertain terms and gave my computer to God to be used for His purposes and His Glory!!

So I went about my day and later on I decided I would try to finish the load of laundry that was still in my washer. It worked. Just like it was supposed to. Nothing wrong with it. So I dared to go to my computer and deleted about 20 emails. Half and hour later they had not returned! So I praised God and started deleting and deleting and deleting old emails. It worked!

Lessons learned? Yes, for sure. I learned again, "Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world." Also, that we truly are in a spiritual battle here on this earth. This is real. I need to be alert! I need to put on my armour so I am protected (Ephesians 6). But, I NEVER NEED TO BE AFRAID. God is always with me and He has promised that He will never leave me or forsake me. No matter how big or small my problems are, He has the answers.

Please continue to pray for our team and also for our families.
Thank you so much, and God bless you lots.

- Dorothy -

Please pray:

We are thankful for the prayers of those around us...
- Pray for group unity in these final weeks of preparation. As we get to Austria, pray for immediate unity of the group with Richard and Hazel.
- Pray for protection and safety for us and our families, as well as safety while travelling.
- Pray for good health now and during our time away.
- Pray for an awareness of what God is doing around us, and of what the Holy Spirit is asking us to do.
- Pray for personal growth, training and preparation.
- Pray for guidance for Richard and Hazel in planning the final itinerary and communicating with lay pastors of the Austrian churches.
- Pray that we would listen to the Holy Spirit.
- Pray for receptive hearts of the Austrian people.
- Pray for wisdom for MBMSI in administering the trip.
Thank you for your prayers.