Spring is here at last!

We are now in our last month of language school!!! Three more weeks and we will be heading back to Austria to really begin our time at the Oasis! Looking back over the last couple of months, it is amazing to see how much we have learned. We arrived in Germany knowing about 10 words collectively, and now we can actually communicate. Granted three year olds communicate clearer and faster than we do, but we are really excited by the progress we have made. Language school has been a learning experience in other ways too. One way is that we have learned what it is like to have little contact with other Christians. This has been a challenge, and has made us really appreciate what it means to be a part of the body of Christ and the fellowship of believers. We are also thankful that God has given us each other. This is one of the reasons we are excited to return to our team and the church we will be getting involved with in Austria.

Something exciting that has happened in the last week or so is that spring decided to arrive! During our time at language school we have seen some snow and more rain than either of us had ever seen before. The month of April had about two sunny days and the rest of the time it poured 90% of the time. Since the beginning of May we have not seen a drop of rain! The sun has been shining and the temperature has risen to highs in the 70’s!!! Schwäbisch Hall is a beautiful town, and with sunshine it is an amazing place to live! There are lots of nice walking areas around, which gives us a break from the classroom and homework!

Another exciting thing that has happened recently is that we were able to meet up with Elizabeth Peuchen, one of the youth from First Covenant Church in Salina, Kansas who is a foreign exchange student in Holland this year. We had a break between our second and third month classes and she had a break from school, so we met up with her in Brussels, Belgium. Brussels was a bust, everything was shut down for a holiday weekend, but seeing Elizabeth was a ton of fun. We had all sorts of funny adventures and just enjoyed catching up. We compared Dutch and German and laughed about some of the pronunciations. Did you know that the question “what is your name?” in Dutch sounds like they are saying, “we hate ya!” That cracked us up! The moral of that story is: if a Dutch person ever says to you, we hate ya, don’t get offended!

Well we can’t thank you enough for your prayers, encouraging emails, and support! We feel so blessed to be doing what God has called us to and know that it is because of the faithfulness of His Body that this is possible! Thank you all!