God speaks

We have often wondered what God is doing and where he is leading on a personal level.....and we know that 95% of what needs to happen is internal character, and spiritual growth and becoming more like Christ as revealed in the Word of God, and yet this activity happens on earth in the physical realm. This is where every choice is played out. If we are to get to heaven to hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant", then earth and now is where each choice counts!

Our family made a choice to investigate going to Vienna and here we are. We made this choice within our relationship with our dynamic God. We wondered if He would do for us what He has done for other missionaries or if would we fall flat. We hoped, wished, prayed and internally agonized, but we did not stop. We took the next step, then we took the next step, then the next. We "walked" our way to Vienna by small steps.

Even after arriving, we have wondered, will we be able to stay? Will the support come in that we underestimated that we needed? Does God see us? Is He for us? We would now need to make a choice....ask Him and His people for help or realize that this is no longer humanly feasible and just head back home to a waiting church and our comfortable home and two cars in storage and a regular income.

Through many late night talks, prayers of surrender and supplication, encouragement from fellow believers and co-laborers here in Vienna and other places, we chose to ask. That was a hard choice. We have heard of and experienced the recession in the States. We know it is painfully real to many families whose hours are cut back, who have lost jobs and houses. But we can choose once again to look at the first 6 feet of what is happening on earth or we can look to the Lord in heaven who is above any recession. A choice...will He speak or act on our behalf? By faith, we have been knocking at his door. Thankfully he is not a disinterested official. He is teaching us so much more about His direct involvement in our faith or fear, our choices to give in or push through. The needs we must see provided for by Dec. 1st --human deadline--are arriving in the most unusual ways that they are obviously of God's divine providence. We are humbled to our knees by those God has led to give directly to us to meet the needs that are inherent for a family of five living in Vienna Austria.

I was talking with someone recently about other mission fields. Hungary has a lower cost of living and hence all the missionaries live above the standards of the Hungarian people. Austria is much more expensive and all the missionaries live below the standard of living of most other Austrians....hand me down furniture and appliances, no cars, no amenities, no going to movies since they are too expensive...sometimes giving up the little things in life. So the irony is that it costs more to live here but we get less physical goods for the dollar. Is it wrong to be here, then? By no means! Austria is so spiritually needy! They have everything, but nothing! Vienna is 60% international! only 40% of Vienna is Viennese! So we are here and praying for the city and the country for God to crack through the tough exterior. And we are serving a school unlike any other for hours around. The international community consisting of many Muslim nations are available to reach here. It is legal to share one's faith in Austria with a Muslim! So we are praying for opportunities to abound to do that here.

God speaks! He leads! He answers!