The Peterson's in Austria

Friday Night Basketball

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Last night a few of us on the Oasis team got together to play basketball with a couple refugees from Liberia and Gambia. For them, it was the first time they had played basketball. We had many laughs over shots taken and how the game was played. In the end, while it wasn't high scoring, we all enjoyed getting out and running around. To celebrate a fun game, we all had ice cream back at our apartment afterwards.

The Oasis has a webpage!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:44:00 +0000

This past week the Oasis got a new webpage. After working on and off on it for the past 8 months, it has finally been completed. I hope to have it all translated into German this summer for people in Austria to visit. It is our hope that it is a good resource to learn about the ministry of the Oasis as well as refugees in general. The web address is: http://oasis.iteams.org/

We Received Our Visas!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:48:00 +0000

It’s official. Yesterday we went to St. Polten, Austria to pick up our visas (even Caleb has one!). After spending over a year working on this, we are relieved that this process is finally over. These visas are good for one year and from what we hear are easily renewable.

We would like to thank you all so much for praying with us throughout this process. There were many times when we weren’t sure whether we would receive visas and knowing that we had your prayer support was what gave us peace. We’re thankful for the sense of stability this provides because it hasn’t been easy living in limbo.

As for life at the Oasis, we are gearing up for an Easter program on Monday. We have a short term worker with us from Kyrgyzstan, who speaks Russian and has been able to connect with many Russian speakers. We pray that many of the refugees will come to understand what Easter is about and will want to learn more about who Jesus is. We are continuing to see many refugees from Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Kurdistan, Morocco, and even one man from Uruguay. We ask that you would continue to lift up this ministry and the refugees in your prayers.

As for us, we are thoroughly enjoying our new role as parents. Caleb will be two months old next week and we can’t believe how fast the time has gone. He is smiling and “talking” all the time. The weather has warmed up significantly in the last week or so. We have enjoyed taking Caleb on walks and seeing the world around us come back to life after a cold winter. We’re looking forward to having Dan’s parents come to visit at the beginning of May and Regan’s dad coming at the end of May. We know they’re all looking forward to meeting Caleb.

We hope you are all doing well and we hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend celebrating the gift of the resurrection of Christ.

A Quick Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:00:00 +0000

I can't believe it is already getting to be the end of March. Time certainly has flown for us, especially with Caleb around. I'll give you a little recap of the last two months...

My (Regan) mom arrived in Austria on February second to spend the month with us. We hoped Caleb would be born right around his due date which was February 3rd, so my mom would get as much time as possible with him. Turns out he really did not feel like coming out anywhere near his due date. So my mom got to hang out with a hugely pregnant and grumpy daughter for the first two weeks of her stay. We did manage to make it into Vienna one of the days and had a great time enjoying the sights and a little treat of cake and hot chocolate at Demel's, a very old bakery and cafe with the prestige of being the Imperial and Royal Court Confectionary Bakery.

The last week or so before Caleb was born included several trips back and forth to the hospital because they had me on what is called a control. Basically my blood pressure was high so they kept having me come in to have the baby's heartbeat monitored and to check my blood to make sure I hadn't developed pre-eclampsia. They had decided to induce if Caleb didn't come on his own by Monday, February 16th but wanted me to continue to monitor my blood pressure over the weekend and come in if it got too high. On Saturday morning after getting my blood pressure taken twice and twice having it be too high, my mom, Dan and I headed for the hospital to see what they would say. After yet more blood being drawn and monitoring the baby they said things seemed ok but they wanted to just go ahead and keep me in the hospital and start the induction early. So that night they started the process and by about 10am Sunday morning my contractions were naturally coming steadily. Labor went smoothly and completely natural, and by 10:08pm on Sunday February 15th we welcomed Caleb Wyatt Peterson into the world. He was perfectly healthy weighing in at 8lb 13oz. We were actually shocked that he was under 9lbs since they had been telling us all along he was going to be a very large baby. I guess by Austrian standards he was big since he was over a pound larger than every other baby that was born during our hospital stay.

We came home a couple days later and Caleb and I have been hanging out here most of the time since. Dan was given the first week off to be with us and has since been very busy at the Oasis. He is currently making a video for the upcoming Easter program. My mom had to go back home on March 2nd, which was a sad day for me. We appreciated her help and insight tremendously. Caleb is a very sweet and easygoing baby. He seems to have settled into a nice routine and is already sleeping 7-8 hours straight at night. We are so in love with him!!! His personality comes out more ever day. We are getting lots of smiles from him on a daily basis and looking forward to hearing his laugh.

If you want to see more pictures of Caleb check out... http://picasaweb.google.com/DanielandRegan . That pretty much sums things up for us. We will try to blog more often in the coming months.

January in Austria

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:23:00 +0000

Well it has now been about a month since we returned to Austria. Our two greatest challenges have been adjusting to the winter weather after coming from California, and staying healthy. Regan was sick the first week and a half back with a bad cold and then after about a week of mutual healthiness Dan picked up a terrible cold/flu that has basically zapped every ounce of strength from him. Just yesterday, after a week, he was able to move around our apartment without then having to take a nap. If you know Dan, he has to be really sick to even consider taking a nap! Anyway, all that to say we are almost back to health and now just praying that we will stay healthy for the upcoming birth of our little boy. We are now less than two weeks from the due date and trying to wait patiently. We haven't been the only ones sick around here though. At least six of the ten full time Oasis staff has been sick in the last couple weeks along with all three of the Oasis staff children. We even had to cancel clothing room this past Monday because of illness. We hear that many of the refugees have been really sick as well. I can only imagine that the dormitory conditions at the camp are a perfect breeding ground for passing germs.

On a more pleasant note, Regan's mom, Pam, will be coming to stay with us for a month starting February 2nd. She will hopefully get here right around the time the baby is born. This is her first grandchild and she is really excited to be coming! We can't wait to have her here to enjoy our baby as well as for her wisdom as we adjust to life as parents.

A couple of prayer requests...

That the refugees and Oasis staff will get/stay healthy
For the birth of our baby, that there won't be any complications
Safe and smooth travels for Regan's mom

And we are home...

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:00:00 +0000

Hello Everybody!

We are officially back in Austria. Yesterday, December 28th at 6pm Austrian time we arrived home at our little apartment in Baden! Both Dan and I were overjoyed to be done traveling. Everything went relatively smoothly... with the exception of a delay in Chicago that caused us to miss our Munich to Bratislava connection, which meant that we had to wait about four extra hours to get home, and some very swollen, water retaining, elephant-like ankles on my part. I honestly didn't know ankles could look like that. We were just really glad that the baby didn't decide to come a month early while on our nine hour flight.

The Oasis opens up again next Monday the 5th, so in the meantime we will focus on our visa appointment this coming Friday! Please pray if you think of us, we will drive to St. Pölten early Friday morning, January 2nd, to apply for our 2009 visas. We will be running around this week making sure we have all our paperwork in order and everything that needs to be translated finished.

We will also keep ourselves busy getting our house baby ready. Before we left Austria we had just looked at cribs so this week we will take an IKEA run to get the necessary furniture. We are really looking forward to meeting our little guy! Speaking of baby stuff, thank you to everyone who gave us baby stuff while we were home! We were able to fit everything in our four checked bags and take our stroller though the airport, which was great for lugging our carry-on around! I now think everyone should be allowed to take a stroller when flying. We did get a few funny looks pushing a stroller around but not having a baby with us. One women came up to Dan while I made one of many trips to the bathroom and said that she had finally figured it out, we had got the stroller for Christmas and were taking it home for our baby yet to come. The woman who took our tickets in Chicago seemed very worried that we had forgotten our child as we were boarding, so we assured her we had him with us by pointing to the belly! It was pretty funny.

Well we now need to finish unpacking our apartment and take a trip to several of the local grocery stores to fill our fridge and cupboards with some food! Auf Wiedersehen!

Ultrasound Pictures!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:03:00 +0000

Here's a picture of Regan at 25 weeks and some 3D ultrasound pictures at 24 weeks.

An Update on Our Visa Situation

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:51:00 +0000

Dear Family and Friends,

We have been told and recently experienced the number one rule of being a missionary… BE FLEXIBLE! This week has presented us with many challenges and given us lots of opportunities to test our flexibility. About a week ago we received a letter from the local Austrian office that issues visas/resident's permits asking us to come in this past Tuesday. Everyone on our team was feeling pretty confident that we were receiving our visas.

You may remember that while we were raising support we were also concerned about getting to Austria as close to the beginning of the year as possible to apply for our visas. We knew all along that Austria only issues a certain number per year and it was important to get our application in as soon as possible. We proceeded to apply in February and prayed that we would make it before the cut-off for the year. We learned only after getting to Austria that we would have had zero chance of getting a visa if we had applied from the US, which made our decision to apply in Austria feel even more right.

Last Tuesday and Wednesday we learned that unfortunately we did not make the cut-off for a visa this year and would need to leave the European Union for the rest of this year. We were told by the man from the office which is higher up than the local office that if we come back to Austria and turn in our complete applications to his office on January 2, 2009 there was a very good chance they would push our applications through in a speedy manner.

We know there is still much prayer that needs to surround this matter and we ask that you join us in praying for this situation. We feel confident that God wants us here in Austria and have faith that He will work things out for His glory. Already we have seen God at work in this situation in numerous ways and are giving thanks to God. The fact that we have been allowed to be in the EU for the last eight months, the timing of where Regan is at in her pregnancy, and the fact that they have told us to reapply at the head office in January, all of these things are huge blessings.

So what that means in a practical sense… We will be returning to the states for the duration of the year. We fly to Omaha, NE this Thursday, October 2^nd, where we will be spending the next five weeks. We will also spend some time with our church family in Kansas and then we will go on to spend time in California. We will return to Austria just before the end of the year so that we can be one of the first families in line applying for a visa in 2009. Dan has recently begun working on a website for the Oasis and will be able to use this time away from the demanding Oasis schedule to focus on getting that up and running. Both of us look forward to spending time with you and are excited to share about what God is doing through the Oasis ministry.

While this is not ideal in our minds, we know that God's ways are not our ways and that there is a purpose for everything God does in our lives. Throughout this week we have thought a lot about the refugees with which we work. They live everyday not knowing what is going to happen next. They could be moved from one camp to another, sent to another country, or deported back into the often dangerous situations from which they came. Thinking about the fact that we have a safe place to go with the support of family and friends makes us extremely thankful. We also think about the friendships we have formed since we have been here, and it is saddens us to think that many of these people will not be here when we return. This makes us all the more eager to return to the Oasis at the first of next year. In the meantime, please pray for the refugees here in Austria and the Oasis team. For us, pray that we will not get discouraged. Pray also that God will use us in unexpected and marvelous ways to bring glory to His name.

Again we look forward to catching up with all of you. You can reach us through email at danielandregan@gmail.com. Feel free to email us at any time.

In Christ,
Dan and Regan

The Oasis at Night

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:53:00 +0000

Here are some pictures of a recent Coffee Bar at the Oasis. This program is every Thursday night from 7-9:30 pm. There are many games, coffee, tea, and the opportunity to watch the Jesus film. This is also where we have a chance to hear the stories of so many. To get a glimpse into some of their stories, read our September 2008 Newsletter.

Our Second Anniversary!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:03:00 +0000

So yesterday was Dan and my 2nd Anniversary and funny enough we have now celebrated both our anniversaries in Austria. Last year at this time we were in Austria on our vision trip checking out the Oasis. This year we decided to go into Vienna after we were finished with our team meeting. We had a great late lunch/early dinner at Flanagan's Irish Pub very close to the famous Vienna Opera House (we had gone there last month for the goodbye dinner for our beloved Irish team member, Eileen, and had thoroughly enjoyed the food). It is actually the closest we have come to finding food that reminds us of home. I was pretty excited about my guacamole chicken burger with cheddar cheese so I got that a second time, while Dan decided to venture out and have fish and chips! It was perfect; we enjoyed a great meal sitting out under an umbrella on a beautiful, sunny and not too hot day. After that we just enjoyed strolling along the streets of Vienna. It was also fun reminiscing about dating, getting engaged and our wedding. Two years has gone so fast, and yet I can't really remember what it was like without Dan in my life. I really couldn't have married a more loving, devoted, hardworking and self-sacrificing man. I am so thankful to God for bringing Dan and I together and cannot wait to celebrate many more anniversaries in the years to come!

Our 1st Anniversary, in Baden, Austria

Our 2nd Anniversary, in Vienna, Austria

Our Exciting News!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:58:00 +0000

We are excited to announce that our family of two is going to be growing into a family of three come February! We just had our second doctor's appointment and are 3 ½ months along. We got to see the little one for the second time and it was amazing to see the difference seven weeks make. At our first appointment we saw what we liked to lovingly refer to as our "beating blob", that pretty much sums up what our baby looked like. Today it was a whole new ballgame! The little one is literally 10 times larger than before and actually looked like a human! He/She was super active during the entire ultrasound, even seeming to wave at us at one point. The doctor says that everything looks great and the baby is already a big one!

We are incredibly happy and look forward to the arrival of this little one sometime around the first week of February. The baby will be born in Austria. I was recently told that Austria was rated as having the best health care in Europe, which is a comforting thought! I will continue working full time at the Oasis until close to the due date. After adjusting to life with a baby we will figure out how I can still be involved with some of the Oasis ministries. Both Dan and I are really looking forward to taking on this new chapter of our lives. We are also hoping to take a trip home in May 2009 to visit and introduce you all to our new baby! We will keep you posted in the months to come.

Summer Time and Friends

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:44:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:09:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:46:00 +0000

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.

The Challenges of Designing Something in Four Languages!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 12:44:00 +0000

This past week I've got to experience something I've never thought of before...how to design a poster for an event in four different languages! This is something I've never learned how to do and I would imagine it's something that's not taught too often. For all events at the Oasis, everything needs to be translated into German, English, Russian, and Farsi. Well, as you can see in the image, it makes for a very interesting poster with many different looks. English and German look very similar, but the Russian and Farsi have very foreign characters. The poster is for our World Refugee Celebration on June 19th. Working with many different languages is something we deal with on a daily basis at the Oasis. For example, on Wednesday nights we mark in each Bible the appropriate passage for the message. As you can imagine, it is not always that easy. (The Farsi is read from right to left and the book is backwords to us also) I'm sure very soon using so many different languages will become a habit, but for now it makes for some interesting designing!

Getting Setup in Austria

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:01:00 +0000

We finally arrived back in Austria after three months in Germany. These past days have been very busy for us. We've moved in and started to set up our apartment. We had only seen pictures of the apartment we moved into, so it was good to see it in person. There has been some work that we've had to do in the apartment (like taking down old wallpaper from the 60's and adding some color to the rooms!). After now having a place of our own since last August, it's good to finally have a home. We've also been doing a lot of setup things since we arrived (setting up a bank account, getting internet and phone ordered for our home, meeting with the team leaders for some orientation things, and many other things). It is so good to be back though. We can't wait to start full time at the Oasis very soon!

Spring is here at last!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:56:00 +0000

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!

Greetings from Germany!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Our first month of language learning is complete! We have learned so much in a short amount of time. It's hard to believe that only a month ago we knew absolutely no German. We can't imagine how much we will know after two additional months. At the same time, it is very hard to be away from the ministry in Austria. We know that language school is so important to our ministry, so we will continue on. It was very helpful to be in Austria for a month so we could see the vocabulary we would need on a daily basis. Please continue to pray for us during this time.

The Start of Language School

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:13:00 +0000

We've now been in Germany for a little over a week and have learned more German in the first day than we had learned the previous month. We are at the Goethe-Institut in a small town in southern Germany called Schwäbisch Hall. We will be here for three months total before we go back to Austria. It has been challenging, but rewarding so far. We're looking forward to going back and being able to use what we've learned in a day to day setting. Please continue to keep us in your prayers during this time!

Dan's hair cut!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:45:00 +0000

So today we embarked on a new journey... Regan cutting Dan's hair with only scissors and a clipper. And what do you know, it didn't turn out half bad. No nicks, no bleeding, relatively painless. All with a second hand clipper set we bought from some missionaries who returned to the states for the bargain price of 4 Euro! What an adventurous life we are living!

We have submitted our Resident's Permits (Visas)!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:13:00 +0000

On Friday we went to the Immigration office to submit our visa applications. We prayed before we went in that we would find favor with the officials and that everything would go smoothly, and so far so good! All our papers were in order and they had no complaints. At this point we are now going to be waiting for the next 3-9 months (approximately) to hear back from them as to whether our applications have been accepted or denyed. Please pray that things continue to go smoothly. We feel confident that God wants us here and know that it is completely in His hands.

Below are some pictures of Dan and I waiting to meet our team leader's wife, JoAnn, to go to the immigration office. It was snowing and pretty chilly that day!

Ladies Night at the Oasis

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:04:00 +0000

I just got back from the monthly "Ladies Night" and can't even begin to express what a great night it was! There were over 40 women who attended from Chechnya, Afghanistan, Albania, Iran, Armenia, Iraq, Tajikistan, and Moldova (I maybe forgetting a couple others). Most of the women are Chechnyians and almost all of the women who attended are Muslim. Since Valentine's Day is coming up the theme was God's Love and the room was decorated with hearts and candles on the tables, and many different kinds of heart shaped cookies that were made by an Austrian woman who volunteers at Ladies Night (they were delicious). We started out the night with some music, then a message by one of the women on the Oasis team (that praise God seemed well listened to!), and then a craft. It was such nice time. I sat with a group of Chechnyian woman and we had lots of fun trying to communicate without a common language. We did pretty well though, we learned each other’s names, ages, where we are from, if we are married/have children, and laughed a lot in the process! The other highlight of my night was when I heard there were Moldavians present. I went to one of the two women and asked her if she spoke Romanian and then proceeded to have a 5 minute chat in Romanian before she went home due to a sore back. It was so much fun! I am not sure who was more excited to be able to speak Romanian with a new friend! I was so happy that I still remembered some Romanian, but I will have to study up for the next time I see her! It was such a pleasant surprise! Pray that I can build a relationship with these women. Pray also that God will provide Christian women as volunteers to translate for each language group on Ladies Night. Just wanted to share my wonderful evening! Know that your prayers make a huge difference in the ministry, so please keep the prayers coming!

We're Here!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:52:00 +0000

We are officially in Austria! We arrived Tuesday, February 5th at 4:30 pm Austria time. Our trip went really smoothly; thank you everyone who was praying! We were able to pack everything we were taking for two years into six suitcases and were praying they would all make it to Austria safely (when we came to visit last August our bags were delayed for 3 days). When we arrived at the Vienna airport and went to the baggage claim our six bags were #1,2,3, 4, 5 and 6 off the carousel! We were so excited! Our team leaders picked us up, we got checked into the missionary guesthouse we are staying at for this month, and went to dinner with some of the team. We have discovered that we have all the right adaptors and converters for our electronics, wireless internet at the guesthouse, and there is a websight that works for us to watch Lost online outside of the US, so we are happy campers! And the best news of all is we managed to keep ourselves awake until 10 pm and slept the whole night through! We are praising God for all His provision and safety! Thank you again for lifting us up in prayer!

We're Leaving for Austria!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 04:00:00 +0000

We praise God as He has provided for our every need! In a little over two weeks, we've gone from needing $1500 per month to being able to book our tickets for Austria. He is truly amazing. Your prayers have been heard. The tickets are bought and we will leave from Los Angeles on February 4th and arrive in Austria on February 5th. We will spend a month at the Oasis, then three months at language school in Germany, and then be back at the Oasis to start the ministry. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we transition to Austria. The home page of our website will list our prayer requests and praises. There you can also view our newsletters, pictures, and videos. We will continue to keep you up to date on our blog as well. God Bless!

Praising God for All He Does

noreply@blogger.com (Dan and Regan Peterson) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 09:00:00 +0000

Hello again to our amazing support team!

We have gotten the approval from IT to purchase our tickets when we have 90% of our support pledged. To date we have 85% of our support. If we can raise the last 5% by January 28th, we will be able to leave for Austria toward the beginning of February. If we do not have 90% by the end of the month, we will apply for our resident's permit in the U.S. This is an alternative that we would like to avoid as we would potentially have to wait up to a year within the U.S. to receive this permit. To reach our goal, we need $495 more per month (between monthly pledges and occasional gifts) by January 28th.

We ask you to please join us in praying that we will receive pledges for the $495 monthly we need to leave for Austria. We know that this is not impossible with God and have seen how He has provided in amazing ways thus far. Since our last e-mail, we have seen our support level rise 9%. We praise God for all He has done. Please pray that we would know God's timing… whether it is to leave by the beginning of February or later in the year. Also, pray that we will trust God wholeheartedly in the decisions we need to make and not try to rely on our own plans. We thank each of you for joining us in prayer, we are strengthened and encouraged by your prayers and we know that without prayer none of this would be possible. We will keep you updated and we can't wait to be sending you our itinerary for our departure.

With lots of love,
Dan and Regan