Summer Time and Friends

We have now been back in Austria for two months. During this time we have gotten settled into our apartment, decided on a local church to attend, settled into the ministries at the Oasis, been able to meet some wonderful and amazing short term individuals and teams, and even had three visitors from home! The last couple weeks have been a whirlwind.

The Oasis team welcomed back a team from the Priory Street Baptist Church, near Bath, England, that has been coming at least once a year for the last six or seven years. They were so much fun to get to know and such a blessing to the whole team. It was also wonderful to actually meet some of the people who had emailed us personally ahead of time. Joan, who had been to the Oasis twice previously and led the group this summer, had actually found our website while we were still in the US doing support raising. She had sent us an email in January before we even arrived in Austria to let us know that even though we didn’t know her yet, she had been praying for us! When we received her email it had been almost overwhelming to realize that a complete stranger and her church half the world away were praying for us. Our God is so BIG! We are blessed to now have a personal connection to this church who has kept us and the Oasis team in their prayers.

Also, in the past two weeks, we welcomed three of our friends into our home. We had Elizabeth Peuchen (see her previous blog entry on July 18), from our church in Salina, Kansas come and spend a week with us. She was a great help and fit right in at the Oasis. Everyone on the team was amazed that a 16 year old was so mature and such a hard worker! While Elizabeth was here, we also had Dan’s friend from college, Lisa McCullah, stop by for a couple days. She had been in Turkey and Kosovo before her stop in Austria. The four of us got to spend a day sightseeing in Vienna which was a lot of fun! Our final guest was Regan’s friend from high school and college, Amy Polhemus. She was on her way to Kenya where she will be teaching for a year. The weather was unseasonably cold and rainy while Amy was here which was a bummer, but by the end of the week in warmed up in time for Amy to be able to see Vienna and Baden (the town we live in). It was a great and busy two weeks!

So far our adjustment to life in Austria has been very smooth and the summer has been wonderful. We are enjoying learning things like the word for baking soda in German, or that if you want cilantro for homemade salsa you have to buy it on Mondays. I won’t say there aren’t things that we miss from home like family, friends, In ‘N’Out Burger (for Regan) and Runza (for Dan), but all in all we feel incredibly blessed to be here. Thank you for our continued prayers as we minister to and build relationships with the refugees that are coming to the Oasis. We are daily learning, growning and being challenged as we share the Gospel with these people. God is doing amazing things in the hearts of Muslims around the world and it is awesome to see some of it first hand.

Impressions from a friend

We have had the privilege of having Elizabeth Peuchen, one of the students from our youth group in Salina, Kansas come and spend the week with us. Elizabeth has been a foreign exchange student in Holland for the last year and decided to come spend one of her last weeks in Europe here with us and working at the Oasis. Here are her impressions of her time spent at the Oasis:

My week with Dan and Regan...

This last week I have been living with Dan and Regan in Austria. It is not really possible to sum this week up in one word, but I would have to say that it is definitely amazingly impressive. There is so much work being done with the physical and spiritual needs of the refugees. God has really opened up my eyes this week to see how a simple act of kindness can make someone’s day or even week.

On Monday, there was a clothing room for women. The clothing room is a time where the refugees can come and choose new clothing. When I was first told about the clothing room, I was instantly excited and the expressions on all of the women’s faces were great, there was so much thankfulness on all of the faces. My favorite moments when working with these ladies were when they found something that they really needed, like a pair of flip-flops in their size. If you are ever praying for Dan and Regan, Monday is definitely a day to pray for, there is a lot of patience and perseverance needed for this long and stressful day.

Tuesday is the team meeting day for Dan and Regan. After the team meeting I went to Vienna with them for the afternoon/evening. Seeing all of the sites of Vienna was lots of fun and since it was right after the Euro Cup (soccer) the streets were still filled with the banners and flags from all of the countries that competed in the Euro Cup.

On Wednesday there is a worship service in the evening for refugees and anyone else that would like to come to the service. Because the refugees come from many different countries and many different backgrounds, it is impossible to only give the sermon in one language. Usually the sermon is given in English and then it is translated into German and then from German into other languages (this depends on having translators volunteer to come and help, which is always a prayer need). After the service, there is a time of fellowship with the refugees. This is a time when we can talk with the refugees and learn more about why they came to Austria and what they believe. It is also really cool to communicate with them in a language that is completely to foreign to me. One funny moment happened when I was talking to a man. He started the conversation by asking me why I had given up my summer vacation to help in Austria. I answered him and we talked about other random things. At one point he asked me if I was married or single (I guess this is a normal question here, but being 16 and from the US, I was quite surprised). I told him I was single (because married would have probably gotten me into more problems) and then he asked me if I would marry him. I told him that I would not marry him, he seemed a bit disappointed, but there was not much I could say to him about that. He even offered to call my parents and talk to them to receive their permission for me to marry him.

Thursday’s are spent in Altenmarkt, which is another town not far away. There was a kids program and then we visited with some of the families that lived there. It was quite interesting to talk with the families and share a meal with some of the families after the kids program.

Friday evening, the women´s night, was probably my favorite program from the whole week. Women´s night only takes place once a month, so I was very happy that I got to take part in it. It is an evening where only the women are allowed to come; there was singing, a short message, food, and crafts for the women to do. It was so much fun to see the creativity expressed through the crafts and how free the ladies were when they were making the crafts. This was also the first time during the week, that I felt completely comfortable walking around with the refugees and I was not judged by them. It was a great feeling and I loved the women´s night.

I hope that this gives a glimpse of what happens weekly at the Oasis in Austria. Please continue to pray for Dan and Regan, the refugees, and all of the programs that are put on by the Oasis. The work that Dan and Regan are doing in Austria is really making a difference!

Every year since 2001, World Refugee Day has been celebrated across the globe on June 20th. It is a day to raise awareness for the millions of refugees around the globe. On June 19th, we celebrated World Refugee Day at the Oasis. We used this as an opportunity to celebrate the many cultures that God has brought together in Austria. Please take some time to pray for refugees both here and and around the world. More about this evening can be found in our June 2008 Newsletter.