Some Snippets of Venice

Finally figured out a way to post pics on my blog again. Here's a few for those of you I couldn't invite to view my kodak gallery. Students have begun to arrive for Spring School. I'm hiding in my room and this is awesome. I found out that the wireless works up here. Yeehaw!! Shh...don't tell anyone. It's great 'cause I'll be able to come up here and hang out in the afternoons instead of trying to find a free place in the Eagle's Nest. Sweet!! It's a pretty lax day today. I don't have to start work till 4:00 and then it begins and the next weeks are going to fly. Most of the students are under 20. I'm going to feel like the old one now. :) 50 out of 72 are under 20 and most of them are 18 year olds. Oh well..should be interesting. I get to help lead a family group. 4 Canadians, 3 Americans and 1 German who I've already met. Nice girl named Sarah. I'm looking forward to having some structure again with bible studies and lectures and sunday services. It was a long winter of hearing German and struggling to understand. I'm still learning. I'm working on reading a book in German with a German/English dictionary close at hand. I am also helping the Korean girls with their English. I told them that they probably shouldn't ask me since I'm from a Mennonite community and also have been simplifying my English for the last few months. Oh well..we'll have korean girls speaking with a mennonite accent. haha. They have a really cute accent now. They mix up p's and f's, and r's and l's. It can be very difficult to understand them sometimes. Anyway..I'm going to go and enjoy the sunshine and find Hilde so we can prepare something for our Family Group. ttfn

A Day In Salzburg

I feel like I've been going nonstop for over a week and I have. :) Once we started the cleaning there was no turning back. So I again was reminded that major cleaning includes vacuuming everywhere. I developed a new technique for under the bed vacuuming. Whatever I don't get with the vacuum..my shirt will pick up. :) I was a bit sore for awhile. I only had to work till Wednesday afternoon. Thursday I took it easy and did some reading and sleeping. Yesterday Mark and Hilde and I went to Salzburg. I'm not really into the whole touristy thing, so we just walked around. Mark came with us because he was leaving for Turkey from Salzburg. He hung out with us in the morning and we had McD's for lunch because we couldn't find a Kebap place. (Hilde and I found 7 different ones after Mark left.) We had a great time walking up one of the hills of the town and checking out the watchtowers and the wall. It was good to get out of Schladming and Tauernhof for a day. After lunch we split with Mark. He went to the Airport and we continued to walk around the old city and climbed up to the fortress. We decided against going in and walked back down to the city to do some shopping. Both of us were successful in finding the things we needed. I'm glad that we didn't have more than a day to walk around. We ran out of things to do and hung out in Mirabelle Gardens for a while. Finally we walked to the train station and met Becca at the train to come back to Schladming. She spent last night here and will be flying home to Canada on the 23rd. Today is a lazy day and I'm tired. I haven't been able to sleep past 6:00 for the past week. Here's a recent pic from our picnic on Sunday. This is the Dachstein in Spring. What a gorgeous day!!

Are You All Just Itching....

to hear what's going on in the life of Beth??? Life is always busy here and it's been another full week with 30 kids. It's the last "normal" day of the Winter season. Tomorrow we start the major cleanup before spring school and we also start to say goodbye to people. :( So..this past week..where to start? Saturday. Saturday we spent the morning cleaning as usual and then we had a fantastic meal all together with genuine Dutch food. I can't begin to tell you the names of the food, but it was potatoes and carrots and cabbage and meat cooked in various ways. We also celebrated Rebecca's Birthday early since she's leaving on Sunday. We had a fruit topped Flan and my specialty One Bowl Chocolate Cake. Thanx Mom!! It's been a hit here! Sunday. Easter Sunday was perfect!! I got up for a sunrise service at 4:00 am to be there for 5:00. We carried torches up a hill to a lit cross and had some singing and a devotional. When we got back to T-hof i decided to go running in the rain (yes it was raining) at 6:00. I got back and made myself a pancake breakfast and then watched a lecture video of Major Ian Thomas with Christian. In the afternoon I sunbathed for a while and then got asked spur of the moment to go snowshoeing with Mark. We hiked up a mountain in snowshoes before I had to be back in the kitchen. It was amazing! God gave us a perfect day for it and it was slushy and wet, but we still slid down the mountain on our backsides in shorts. Sorry if that sounds a little jumbled. Monday was a normal work day. I worked the Bistro with Niffy for the last time. :( Tuesday was my day off and I even managed to sleep through the 6:00 body clock. I finally was able to sleep in till 8:00. Yippee!! It was another gorgeous day and I went shopping in town and bought myself some food to make for dinner. Also Tuesday night we went to the Brewery for drinks because Christian was leaving Wednesday morning. Wednesday. Christian left. :( I peeled cucumbers and potatoes outside in the sun. (I have a pretty good tan/sunburn going on right now) Went to bed at 8:15 and woke up at 6:00 to make breaky. Thursday. Normal working day. Went running with Mark up the Talbach and back. Great run!! and fast! Went to bed at 10:00 and woke up at 6:45 for staff meeting. Friday. Normal day. Morning went fast and we had some time off to relax. Had staff meeting and farewell for 5 more staff members. :( And the rest of the plan for the day...go shopping for gifts and work the Bistro for the last time with Tom. Good times. Peace.

Virus Valley

Well, I'm starting to lose track of how many times I've been sick. I had a 24 hour flu bug on Monday and spen Tuesday relaxing to get over it. I'm still pretty wiped out and a few of the other staff are not feeling so hot as well. It's kinda weird. I don't get sick this often at home. Anywhoo..I spent my sick day in bed and got some stuff done on my computer. I sorted out some pics of Venice and today I got more from the other girls. I have 599 pics so far of Venice alone. Crazy!! I'll send out an invite to a bunch of you to be able to view my pics on Kodak Gallery online. Sorry, I still can't post pics on here. lt's annoying, but I wouldn't be able to fit over 500 pics on this page anyway. The album is combined of pics of 3 people so there are some doubles etc. Bear with the crazy ones. :) Anyway..I'm tired and tomorrow's another day. I also need to write a devo for Friday. Pray for me..:)

Well..it's been another week..

Wow!! Another busy week gone by. I'm basically exhausted right now. :) The new guests are already starting to arrive and I feel like I haven't even had a chance to breathe. Oh well only two more weeks. This week we have a whole bunch of kids. I think around 40. Anyway. I should tell you a bit about my past week and weekend. So..as you all know, last weekend I went to Venice. What an amazing time. The hostel was great fun and I have a couple hundred photos of the trip. Venice is beautiful!! We skipped all of the tourist attractions and just spent the whole day wandering around the city and getting lost. We ended up at a tiny cafe for supper where I had the most amazing meal ever. Real italian pasta and cheese. We also managed to eat 4 gelatto each during the course of the day and I even had an Italian Capuccino and Pizza. So good! Olive Garden will be ruined forever. :) The past week was fun with a really good group of people and I went skiing twice. This weekend we had a staff outing in Salzburg at a Japanese Restaurant. It was kinda the same idea as the Golden Fork, but 100 times better. You chose a sauce and filled your plate with whatever food you wanted cooked and you could have as many platefuls as you wanted. I had Shrimp, Bamboo Shoots, Carrots, Turkey, Beef and Kangaroo and Noodles. Yes..I had Kangaroo!! It was really good. Don't worry, the Australians in our group weren't offended. They recommended it. I had all of that with a Japan Sauce over top which was phenomenal and spicy!! I miss spicy food! A lot of people went back for seconds, but I couldn't. They also had a fruit buffet with strawberries and kiwis and tons of other fruit. Also a Salad buffet and a Sushi buffet. I tried a lot. Did I mention that I ate all of this with chopsticks! Incredible! I actually did quite well and managed to get all of my food in my mouth. And I ate a lot! After that we came back and rented the movie Cars. Really fun! Today I spent the morning reading and rewatching part of Cars and then I watched Pirates 2 in the lecture hall on the big screen. Good times! Anyway, it's gorgeous outside and the sun is calling my name. I'll talk to ya later.

#100

Well guys, sorry it's been a little while again. I have now made it to post 100. Life is good here. I'm a little tired today as I only slept for about 5 hrs last night. I couldn't fall asleep and then I joined Mark and Christian for a bible study this morning at 6:00 am. We watched a video lecture of Major Ian Thomas. It was really good and spoke about giving our lives over into God's hands and living within His will. This subject has been on the hearts of many people here lately. We are leaving for Venice tomorrow morning at 5:00 and it'll take about 4 hours to get there. It should be fun! The hostel that we are staying at is actually a bunch of mobile homes that people rent. Kinda cool. I'm excited to be able to get away for a weekend. I feel a bit like I can't stop working when I'm here. :) I went skiing again on Tuesday and managed pretty well. I skied on a red pist on my 3rd day skiing. I only have enough points to go about six more times. At least I can say that I learned how to ski in Austria though. The church bells are going here. You guys need to watch Sound of Music. Listen to the bells. I get to hear that sound many times a day. It's so cool to have old bells ringing in the churches all the time. I went climbing again at Hopsi on Sunday. I climbed a wall with a difficulty rating af between 5.9 and 5.10 (yosemite decimal rating) I tried once and then had to try again to make it all the way up. My arms were so swollen after climbing that I couldn't even pull the skin. I felt like popeye and my arms were actually numb. Hilde and Tom also came and we took turns belaying each other. Tom is a foot taller than me and so it was interesting to watch him climb the same wall and compare how he could reach stuff that I couldn't :) That was Sunday. It was close to 20 degrees that day and then on Monday we got over a foot of snow down here and probably more than a meter up on Planai. The ski instructors went on a tour today and apparently the Dachstein has some spots with over 4 meters of snow!! Crazy. It went from daffodils blooming back to winter-wonderland in less than 24 hours. It was pretty amazing to see all the snow in the evergreen trees! And it was perfect snowball weather. It's melting quite a bit today and I'm back in my flip flops. It's supposed to drizzle while we are in Venice, but that's ok. We'll have umbrellas. Anyway..I'll take lots of pics and try to post some online somewhere. ttfn

Physically Challenged

Not to say that I'm disabled or anything, but this past week has been challenging. On Monday I went skiing all day. Awesome!! I ended up doing quite well and Niffy had me ski on part of a red flag hill (higher than a beginner's hill). That was challenging and she definitely wore me out. Tuesday I took the day off and just relaxed in the sun and got a bit tanned. It's been really warm here this week. Averaging around 15 degrees down here and probably close to 20 on top. (I skied in a t-shirt on Monday). Wednesday I made cookies for the Bistro. Double chocolate with hazelnuts. Yummy! I have also started making sun tea, which is a bit of a novelty around here. Tastes great though. Yesterday I went climbing at Hopsi (Planai's free climbing wall) and challenged myself again. Apparently I'm a maniac at climbing. I love it! I really hope to be able to do some real rock climbing while I'm here for spring school though. I haven't remembered to take pictures lately so I'll have to get my camera out again. I still can't figure out why it doesn't let me post pics on here. Any ideas?? Today is the last day of this camp and tomorrow we have major clean up and another camp coming right away. Just one more week before I go to Venice!! yippee! Next week it is supposed to snow all week again. I guess it's a good thing since we do have 4 more ski camps. I will also be able to use my skipass to go skiing then. :) One of my friends here is going through a tough time and I would appreciate you praying. I can't really share more than that, but pray for me as well that I would be willing to be used by God however he wants to use me. 1 month before some of my good friends have to leave. please pray that I would enjoy this last month with them. I'm still not thinking about coming home. God has lots for me to do here yet. :) Love ya all and you're in my thoughts! ttfn

Well Guys...I finally did it!

I bought myself a skipass and went skiing for the first time today. A bunch of us went to Reiteralm and Niffy stayed with me to start teaching me. Apparently I am doing really well. It's kinda like rollerblading part of the time. Some of the same muscles and movements. It was fun! I will also be going skiing on Monday and Tuesday with the beginner groups. It's nice to be able to go with the staff now when they go for the day instead of sitting back here and reading by myself. Today is a bit gloomy outside and it has been drizzling and snowing a bit. Hopefully there will be quite a bit of snow for tomorrow when the guests come. Anyway..just thought I'd update you guys on my exciting new development. Also..it's only two weeks before I get to go to Venice!! Yippee! ttfn

Busy, Busy, Busy...

This week is full and I've been going hard already. Today was my day off and so I didn't do anything too exciting, but I really needed a lax day so I don't get sick again. Sunday, the guests arrived and I played piano for the praise and worship. It was a bit scary, I introduced myself in German for the first time and played praise and worship for the first time with 2 new songs. It was actually a lot of fun to play for praise and worship and I felt like Niffy, Becca, and I really played well together. Yesterday was a really full day. I got up at 6:00 to prepare breakfast, worked in the kitchen all morning, went for a walk with some girls in the afternoon and then went running after that. Worked in the evening to prepare supper and do cleanup. Then I worked the Bistro till 10:40. I was wasted after that and my roomate said that I fell asleep before my eyes closed. :) I've been learning a bit of German. Two short phrases that I've learned are...Ich bin so stolz auf dich. And...Ich habe drei espresso gemacht. Of course I understand a lot more German than that now, but I am just starting to learn grammar. Don't worry..I'm trying to learn German from people who speak good Hoch Deutsch. There are a few people here who are from Germany and don't speak slang or dialect as much. Especially Mario. His German is almost too perfect. :) anywho..ttfn

Germany's Big Bathtub

So..one of the things that I've really missed here is being able to take a hot bubble bath. Steam is healthy, and it sure helps with sore muscles too! So..as a treat to ourselves..a few of us girls decided to go to a spa in Germany. It was about an hour's drive and so we first went for a walk in the countryside. We drove to a beautiful little lake which had a walking path all the way around. It has been so warm that the trees were blooming and there were all sorts of flowers coming up too. I have pictures, but I'm having problems with uploading them to the new blogger. Any ideas from you old pros? Anyway..after walking for 45 minutes, we drove back to town (don't ask me the name of the town, it's too difficult for me to remember) and went to a cafe which was decorated all red and white and they sold all Mozart chocolate. I had coffee with a buttercream/nut cake. Delicious! After coffee we walked a block in the rain and had supper at a restaurant. The building that the restaurant is in is 845 years old. The waiter wore a peasant style shirt and leather leiderhosen. The waitress wore a Dirndle. Really fun! It was a really old room with lots of old paintings and with candles and big old wooden tables and benches. We had pizza, which was incredible. Finally we drove to the spa and spent 3 hours soaking in warm mineral water. It was so good. It was big and had several pools with different temperatures and amounts of salt. The best one was outside. It was a perfect tempurature and there were jets that went off at different intervals. There were bars all the way around so you could just hang on at the wall while the jets made you float. Also there was a whirlpool area and a jacuzzi area. Inside there was a cooler pool and also there were a few different rooms downstairs. Saunas (we didn't pay the extra for the Sauna) and a couple little pool rooms that were like grottos. The first one we tried had so much salt in it that it made all the little cuts and even my pores sting. We went to a different one that was hotter, but had less salt. We were the only people in there and it was an echo room so we goofed off and sang opera and other songs with 4 part harmony. Great fun!! After relaxing for 3 hours we got out and drove home. We stopped at Burger King on the way home as well. The first hamburger and fries that I've had since leaving home! The Burger King was designed as an American burger joint and had a statue of liberty draped in an american flag and a motor bike hanging from the ceiling. So weird!! Anyway...that's what my Sunday was like. In a month or so, the same girls and I are planning on going to Venice for a weekend. We'll drive down and stay in a hostel and it'll be really cheap. I'm really excited! We already have the hostel booked. It'll be fun to get away for a little while and see yet another country. Well..that's all the excitement I have to share right now. ttfn

Rodelling..??

Many of you are asking, "What on earth is that?". Only the most amazing winter activity in the whole world!! So..the next mountain over has a rodelbahn that is 7 kms long. Basically it's tobogganing on a little wooden sled with a canvas seat that you steer by dragging your feet. It is so much fun!! Last night we went with the Norwegians that are here for this week. It was lots of fun to be able to go in the dark. They have lights all the way down the rodelbahn and there is even a tunnel that we have to go through. It takes 20 minutes to get down to the bottom and there are a lot of twists and turns and bumps on the way. I went during the day last week with Steve and Christy who were here from California, but last night was great. I took my own sled this time. It actually costs quite a bit to be able to go, but I'm going to get a ski pass so that I can go for cheaper during the day. It's really funny to think that rodelling would be completely illegal in Canada or the States. We go down at such a high speed and with so many people etc. Crazy, but awesome! I had french fries last night. They were almost exactly the same as McD's french fries. My system decided that it doesn't like fast food as much anymore. :) Oh well..probably good anyway. Well...It's really warm out again today. It was +15 yesterday and it must be close to that again today. I sat outside for a couple of hours yesterday and I think I got a bit of a tan. I think I'm going to go and read outside again. Hope you are all doing well. Send us some snow ok?

To Germany and Back...

So..I had the opportunity to go for a drive yesterday. Steve and Christy from California needed a ride back to Munich airport. To begin with, just Mark (from Australia) was going to drive them back, but I decided to go along last minute. :) I'm glad I did. The drive was beautiful! It took 2 and 1/2 hours to get there and we took a longer way back to see a more scenic route. It was weird to be in a vehicle again. I've only been in a moving vehicle 5 times since Christmas. Some of the scenery and lakes and stuff reminded me of being in Ontario. Except that the mountains here are huge. :) Today I got up at 6 to prepare breakfast for the new group. It's the Norwegians again. A bunch of kids between 18-20 or so. They are already excellent skiiers and so all the ski instructors basically have this week off. It was great though. Niffy helped me in the house and Mark helped in the Kitchen and everything was done really fast. If it's like that all week...Wow! I could handle that. So much better!! I was done cleaning almost an hour early and the Norwegians always take a bag lunch so we were done lunch clean up really early as well. Well..that's all for now. Oh..by the way, I didn't actually see anything of Munich other than the airport. We weren't sure of having enough time, what with all the traffic. ttfn

Crazy Americans!!

Well..we have a bunch of people here from the southern states this week. I almost forgot how obnoxious Americans and Canadians can sometimes be. It's not that they are trying to be, but compared to the German and Austrian culture they come across as quite rude sometimes. :) Oh well..I guess I'm just getting used to reserved people. It has been fun though to talk to some people who speak my language fluently. I am feeling a lot better than when I had the flu, but I have now managed to get another cold. Last night I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked, but today I'm just taking it easy since it's my day off. I'm really looking forward to lunch here today. We are having chicken legs and mashed potatoes. Yum!! Tomorrow I am on devotion again, so I'll share with you what I'm going to share with them. This is word for word..I didn't take the time to change it for on here. Sorry. :)

I just want to share a few thoughts that God has been laying on my heart lately.
You are all here on vacation, trying to be refreshed and encouraged before you go back to work. You probably have some expectations about this week. You probably want to be encouraged spiritually as well as refreshed physically. I came here with basically those expectations as well. I wanted a break from my job, and my lifestyle at home. I’m a pastor’s daughter in a small town in rural Manitoba. It is a Christian community and almost everyone has heard the gospel for most of their lives. I worked in a Credit Union for 1 year and 8 months. They gave me a leave of absence to come here and I plan to go back to the same job. Over the past few years I fell into complacency. I lost my passion for God’s work. Being here has helped me to rebuild a structure of good habits. Prayer and devotion in the mornings, bible studies in the evenings, having to prepare devotions to share with guests, being encouraged to partake in physical activity. Having a far more physical job than the one I left back home. One of the things that has really encouraged me to have a good attitude is the prayer times in the morning with the kitchen and house staff. Making a decision to have a good attitude about the work during the day and praying for each other and the other staff as well has really made an impression on me. Since the first few weeks here, feeling closer to God than I have in several years, I’ve been struggling a bit with the thought of going home. It is going to be really hard to keep up the good habits that have been structured here for me. The program and people here are not going to be with me back home. How can I not fall into the same complacency? How can I be motivated to change my lifestyle at home? It’s going to take a huge concentrated effort on my part. Conscious decisions to spend meaningful time with God each day, and to have the attitude of doing everything to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31 says..So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
To have an attitude of being excited for all the opportunities God provides me with each day to build others up and show the love of Christ to others. To seek out relationships that will encourage me and allow me to encourage others.
Hebrews 10:24-25 says..And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage each other and all the more as we see the Day approaching.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading in Paul’s epistles lately. One verse that has always stood out to me is 1 Corinthians 11:1 Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.
Paul was joyful in the midst of persecution and let God use him in all circumstances. I’ve never thought of my life back home as hard, but that was the problem..the fact that there was no challenge should have been a challenge in itself. All of us have challenges and mine at home is to make a conscious effort to glorify God in all my actions and thoughts, to be excited to live each day for Christ.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 says…Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, be we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly. I do not fight like a man beating the air. No I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
A song that has really touched my heart is called "Mistaken for Jesus" by Warren Barfield.
The Chorus reads: Til everyone I talk to hears His voice, and everyone I touch feels the warmth of His hand, Til everyone I meet sees Jesus in me, this is all I want to be. I want to be mistaken for Jesus.
I worked at a summer camp 3 years ago for the whole summer. It was a lot like being here. My time was structured, we had bible studies and chapels to go to and we had to prepare devotionals for the kids. I remember going home at the end of summer and feeling very discouraged for a while, because after camp I went back to "life as usual". It is very easy to feel discouraged after a time like this, because we go through an emotional high, a spiritual high, and even a physical high while we’re here and it can be difficult to prepare ourselves to go back to our lives and be happy with our lives at home. For me it will be important to set goals for myself when I get home, to make sure that I keep my life on track, to make sure that I am spending time on my relationships with God and people. It will be difficult, but I’m convinced that it is worth it.
In Philippians 4:11-13 Paul says..I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. Whether well fed or hungry, in plenty or in want. The secret is…I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Paul went through many trials and God gave him the grace and strength to persevere. God is still the same today. He wants people like Paul. God didn’t put Paul’s story in the Bible to make us think it’s impossible to be that great. God wanted us to be encouraged to follow in his example. Paul was just a man and apart from Christ he wasn’t anything special. We have the same God to give us the strength and opportunities to do great things. It isn’t easy. We can’t just sit around and wait for life to happen to us. We have to be an active part of life, making a conscious decision to live for Christ. Sometimes it won’t be fun physically or emotionally, but it is eternally rewarding. John 10:10 says..I came that they may have life and have it to the full.
And 1 Timothy 6:17-19 says..Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

So..that's my devo for tomorrow. You can all pray for me that I would be able to speak clearly and not be too nervous. Thanx. :)

Another Week Nearly Gone

Well..it's been another great week. But I am so wiped out. As you know, I didn't start out the week very strong. This weekend will hopefully be a good time to relax and recover before the next week. So..I haven't been hearing very much about home lately. I'm not exactly homesick, but it would be nice if some of you would keep in touch. :) Even if you only leave a quick comment for me. It would be much appreciated. Those of you who have blogs... please update them!! I check them almost everyday. :) I usually have a few hours in the afternoon to read and write emails and stuff. It would be great to hear from some of you guys! Email me or something. It's a lot more fun to open my email to find something more than just junk. :) So..off my soapbox now. It's really beautiful outside here again. Probably around +11 and sunny! I didn't go running today, but I will be going for a walk with Hilde very shortly. About running..I finally cut my time in half for the trail that I have been running. The first time I went it took about an hour and I didn't even make it all the way. Now I can run it in half and hour and all the way there and back. It's really fun! The walking path runs along the River and it is called the Talbach. It is a Trail that begins in Schladming and circuits up to Rohrmoos-Untertal and back down to Schladming. The second half of the trail is not passable in Winter because it is so steep and icy so I just do the walking path by the river to the Village of Untertal and back. I don't really know how far it is, but it's a pretty decent walk. Walking at a normal pace it would take about an hour and twenty minutes from Tauernhof and back. Beautiful though!! Anywhoo..I'm keeping Hilde waiting. ttfn

Epidemic...

I'm sitting here staring out the window at fireworks. Apparently they're a year long thing. :) It's actually kinda annoying to hear them at night when I'm trying to sleep. This flu I've got is an epidemic in Germany. It's terrible. I actually got a fairly mild strain of it. One of the guys here was laid out for 3 days with terrible stomach cramps and vomiting etc. I, luckily, didn't have much worse than nausea, dizziness and shortness of breath and incredible weakness and sore skin and muscles and joints. I've slept a lot the past few days, but I still have had a few dizzy spells and can't breathe properly sometimes. I went to church in a town called Aich this morning. Dani and Niffy are both in the choir of the Evangelical church here in town and they go to different churches to play every once in a while. Niffy plays the viola and it's amazing to hear! It's another new camp this week. More German people, but most of them have been here several times before. I will be working in the kitchen this week, it's good. The cleaning is fairly demanding physically and I am really tired. Next camp is a camp for Christian Pilots from all over the world. Should be fun! I get to share another devotional and I'm glad it will be in English. Anyway...hope you are all doing well where you are.

Well..it's been awhile. It has been a bit hectic lately. :) This past weekend we had a staff outing. Crazy people!! We hiked up Hochwurzen. I walked and the rest of the group used touring skis. It was an hour and a half straight up the ski slope. I have never been in such pain!! There was no relief, no flat areas, just up. Anyway..we finally got to the top and had supper in a hut. Great ribs and potatoes. I ate a lot and was still hungry! I thought I was in pretty good shape already, but the Austrians proved me wrong. We all thought that the ski hill was open for night skiing that night, so everyone else would ski down and I'd take the Gondola, but it turned out that the slopes were closed. Luckily a few people had headlamps. It was decided that I would get a piggy back ride down by Andy or Heli. They are the best skiiers here and the strongest. Of course I said "NO WAY!!" how embarrassing. I could just run down and be down 10 minutes later than the rest, but Hans Peter didn't want to have to worry about me. Just before we were going to leave, one of the other staff said that they didn't feel comfortable skiing in deep snow in the dark. So it was arranged that she and I would get a skidoo ride down to the bottom. Thank Goodness!! I never would have been able to live that one down. Besides, how scary would it be to be skiing in complete darkness and blowing snow downhill on someone's back?? Bet you wouldn't do it either! So that was our staff outing. Fun, but tiring. Tuesday was the World Cup Ski Race here in Schladming so I was able to watch Bodie Miller and Ted Ligety ski the Planai. We all got free tickets to the race since we are within the fenced off area. Cool!! It was THE ski race of the year. I have no idea what happened or who won. :) There were 42,000 people in Schladming that night. I got sick yesterday and couldn't even work today. I am sitting here feeling as sick as a dog. :s The flu is going around like an epidemic here. Luckily I have only been feeling feverish and weak and all my joints are sore. I've been having a hard time walking up or down stairs today. Prayer would be appreciated. :) That's all that's new for now. ttfn

Mistaken

Great song!

Mistaken by Warren Barfield

I shouldn't have to tell you who I am
Cause who I am should be speaking for itself
Cause if I am who I, I want to be
Then who you see won't even be me
Oh the more and more I disappear
The more and more He becomes clear

CHORUS:
Til everyone I talk to hears His voice
And everything I touch feels the warmth of His hand
Til everyone I meet
Sees Jesus in me
This is all I wanna be
I wanna be mistaken
For Jesus
Oh I wanna be mistaken

Do they only see who we are
When who we are should be pointing them to Christ
Cause we are who He chose to use
To spread the news
Of the way the truth and the life
Oh I want all I am to die
So all He is can come alive

Til everyone I talk to hears His voice
And everything I touch feels the warmth of His hand
Til everyone I meet
Sees Jesus in me
This is all I wanna be
I wanna be mistaken
For Jesus
Oh I wanna be
Oh I need to be mistaken
For You
Lord i wanna be mistaken
Mistaken

BRIDGE:
May He touch with my hands
See through my eyes
May He speak through my lips
Live through my life

I want Him to
I want Him to live

This is what the desire of every Christian's heart should be. One of the speakers here said it like this. "If you ask Jesus into your heart you don't have to live for Him, You DON'T have to live for Him. Just let Him live through you." How much better this life would be if we would give ourselves completely over to Christ. If we would remember that we ourselves are dead, but alive only in Christ. That any persecution we might receive is actually directed at Christ and we don't have to deal with it on our own, but Christ will strengthen us for it. It has been a great week here and it sounds like this group has really been encouraged and challenged in their faith. That's all for now.

Everyday Life..

Some everyday life pics..as promised. This is supper clean up. My night off. :)


Grace enjoying her work and brightening everyone's life. :)


Mario and Niffy (short for Jennifer) posing for the camera in the midst of cleaning the dining rooms.


Heidi, our housekeeper, helping out in the kitchen.


Elizabeth, our cute little Dutch speaker. (She's actually German, but she told me last night that she will never speak German again. She loves Dutch too much. :)

We tend to have a lot of fun in the kitchen. Lots of crazy people. Well..today is my day off and so far I have accomplished..nothing. I got up at a reasonable time (9:30) and then just puttered around. Played a bit of piano. I am slowly figuring out how to play with chords. :) We had a great lunch today. Cucumber Salad, Chili, and biscuits with fruited yogurt for dessert. I guess I played piano for longer than I thought! It's already almost 4:00. Oh well. Not much else to say. ttyl