Doroltka's 1st Birthday Party!

September - November

When I first arrived to Vienna, our team traveled to the mountains for a retreat, which gave us time to know each other a little better. We spent our time praising God, talking, hiking, and partaking in "gemutlicheit" (relaxing fellowship with good food!). I enjoyed this time and was able to see the heart of Austrian history and culture in the country side (cow bells, drendles, log cabin homes tat serve beer along remote hiking trails, and accordian music too).
In September, the Lord blessed me by allowing me to travel to Franciscan University's campus in Gaming. This is about a 2 1/2 hour train ride from Vienna. Oh my goodness, I needed that time with my peers. We had Mass in English every day, visited with friends I did not realize would be studying there now, and I did what I really love...talking about missions, especially about our work with Kerygma Teams. That weekend there was a day-long hike (16-17 miles) to the oldest Marian shrine in Europe at Mariazelle. Gaming was a breath of fresh air!
Our first outreach to Zagreb, Croatia took place in October. Zagreb is a 5-6 hour car ride from our mission base. We began the "Following Jesus" seminar, which we will administer one weekend a month for the next 10 months. This seminar is specifically for the charismatic community leaders in Croatia. I found myself so fulfilled after this outreach. The Croatian community is so beautiful and hungry for God's peace in their lives. Luckily, several of the group members speak English because of the influence of western cultures TV shows. So, we used this cultural influence for Gods glory and helped them to encounter a deeper, personal relationship with God. Many Croatians are still controlled by fear after the past years of war in their country. To my surprise, our testimonies of how God asked us to give up many things to enter the missions was the ticket to their hearts. All weekend they spoke of their desires to live a radical life of trust in God and to be disciples for Christ. Wow! I continually look forward to going back to Zagreb.
So, you might be wondering what I am learning and what God is saying to me here. The first 2 months have allowed me a chance to really focus on God's call for me to be a Light to the Nations and His calling me to know Him more and more so that others may fully know Him. I realize that God's call for me as a lay missionary is a real call and one that Go is calling more and more to say "yes" to. Living and working with people from so many DIFFERENT cultures is eye opening and stirs the flame in my heart for all Nations to know our loving, gracious Father God. In our staff formation teachings, we hear the glory stories and the times of struggle in missions. I come to know daily what it is that I am saying "yes" to in this life as a missionary for Christ. Praise God!

Some team members and friends...

1st Post

Hello Everyone!

Grüß Gott! (God be with you) Life here in Vienna is quite a different mission than I have ever been on before. I do miss working in Third World, but God has special opportunities over the next year to work with the poor. I am finally getting used to being here and I am stunned at God's never-ending faithfulness and His generocity. After learning about the foundations of Kerygma Teams, I am slowly understanding that I am in some small way, a part of a BIG new step in the history of the Church, evangelization, ecumenism, and working of the Holy Spirit in all three areas. The leaders of Kerygma have been called by the Lord to impliment what Vatican II has called for by evangelizing in the Church. The love and passion the Lord has revealed to me over the past couple of years for lay missionary work is culminated in the mission of Kerygma Teams. It is just incredible. As for now, I live in a house on Quellenßtrasa street in Modling, Austria with 7 other missionaries and our staff lives around the area with their families. I share a room with Carole (from the U.S. and worked at Franciscan University). The rest of the team consists of Tomas, Zorka, and Doroltka (a family from Slovakia), Klemins (German), Joseph (Nigerian), Adam (from Iowa and also graduated from Franciscan). Our staff has 3 members: Bruce (started Kerygma, is originally from California, and has lived in Austria with his wife and 3 children for almost 20 years now), Frances (a single woman from Louisiana who just turned 50 - she is everyone's mom on the team), and Gavin (originally from South Africa and now lives here in Austria with his wife and 3 children). All of us our Catholic except for Bruce and Gavin...this is where the story of Kerygma (k-teams) gets very interesting, but I will write more about that later. I love living with these people. We have a happy home. Daily life consists of walking to and from the local parish (St. Othmar) for Mass at 8am, breakfast, Praise and worship, teachings, coffee break (always), lunch, chores, preparation for outreach, language lessons, and local ministries during the week nights. I also get to usually do some sort of workout in the afternoons. We have hiking trails about 5 minutes from the house - Thank you Lord! Almost every weekend we have an outreach somewhere. The pace of ministry is starting to pick up because we are ending a big phase of our teachings with guest speakers and now need to put into action what the Lord is teaching us. More later. 'Chow' for now.