September 29th: Orientation Day

A sign on the running trails in the Vienna Woods

Today is our orientation day of what Haus Edelweiss is all about, what we will be doing, some background on why the students come, a tour of the campus and more specifics of what our jobs will be while we are serving here.  I love the idea of how instead of spending money and sending foreign missionaries out to these countries they are creating their own missionaries to go back and share the Word of the Lord with their own people.  Sometimes we get so caught up in doing it ourselves and wanting to go out and create disciples like the great commission says but there are other ways to fulfill that as well.  We as foreigners think our way is the best and sometimes the cultural gap does not get breached like we would like it to and missionary work is much more difficult.  This way we are still fulfilling his great commission by creating disciples but they come to us and we raise them up and train them and send them back into their nations by the help and comfort of the Lord.  It was something that I never really thought of until today.  The vision of Haus Edelweiss is something great and inspired by the Lord and I look forward to meeting some of the students who come from these persecuted countries.  We took a tour of the property and it is much larger than I expected.  There are many rooms for students, offices, a full library and computer room, classrooms, work shop, full size kitchen, swimming pool and lounges.  What more could you need in an 1800's building or whatever time it was originally built it.  Lots of work and remodeling have gone into it over the last 40 years that TCM has owned it though.  After lunch we continue our orientation with our mission leaders and I am going to be on the grounds and maintenance crew while I am serving here.  It will be a great job and look forward to what I have to offer to this place and hopefully I am able to serve for the Lord’s glory.  We soon start on our first project of repainting a new section of the balcony that was recently fixed.  Just some prep work and find out that we will have to repaint the whole side of the building as well, projects never seem as easy as they first appear.  We won’t start till Monday though.  After this we have a short break before dinner so I decide to go on my first run of the trip through the Vienna woods.  There are many logging trails right around here so I run for about 25 minutes until it starts to rain pretty hard and I head back to my room.  I hope to continue to run everyday here and experience this beauty of Austria and find some new places.  After dinner we do our first job of dishes in the kitchen since I am on dish duty for dinner meals.  I have done plenty of dishes so this is a piece of cake and kinda fun.  Another long day and I retire to my room for a Skype session with Megan.  It was good to talk with her and I like her so much.  God blessed me with a great girl and I look forward to see what the future holds for us and his plans, I am kinda nervous but I trust him and just let him lead me in the right directions.

“Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest if plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” -Matthew 9:37