Senior Class Fall "Bonfire"

This past weekend was also our class party for the fall season. We had a "bonfire" at one of the other teacher's house who has a really nice yard. Sadly, all we had was a tiny fire pit that created a small fire, but hey, it worked! The weather was even the perfect-nice and chilly! It was a lot of fun to "roast" hot dogs, and introduce some of the students to the wonderful world of SMORES! Yum! I definitely think the smores were a huge hit! We had a lot of fun hanging out and had the opportunity to get to know more of the seniors better. Again, we were reminded of our purpose in being here, and were tremendously encouraged by the hearts of these students.

HS Boys Bible Study

At the start of the year, two of the senior boys, David and Oscar, both felt God leading them to start a Bible study to reach out to the high school students. They started off with just the two of them, then it grew to 4, and now they have had up to 17 students attend. They meet every Friday night, have a time of food and fellowship, then David or Oscar will share from God's word.

This past Friday night, Oscar's parents were out of town, and they told Oscar in order for them to have the study at their house, they would need a chaperone. Well, Oscar and David decided to ask Matt and I, so we went. It was an amazing thing for us to witness. Of course it was fun to sit around and hang out with students, students from all different "clicks" from the schol. But it was so powerful to watch David lead a study and discussion about the body of Christ. To listen to them pray for their fellow students, and life struggles. To hear them talk about the need to witness to those in their school, to reach out and pursue one new person each week to bring to the study. To hear them talk about how hard it will be, how they may be made fun of, but how they need to continue to press on and take on the leadership role God has called them to.

What a tremendous blessing for us to be there and to watch this happen. It is just what we needed to witness. The reminder we needed of why we followed God's call away from our home, our family and friends, to serve in Vienna, Austria at Vienna Christian School. This is why we are here, to help students in anyway possible to reach this point of maturity and leadership in their faith, even if we're just the chaperones.

Please join us in praying for this Bible study and all the students involved, as more students step up and want to share and help lead in the study. We truly believe great things will happen through this study and the leadership of these young men.

Spiritual Emphasis Week

This past week has been Spiritual Emphasis Week for the middle and high schools. This is a week where we focus on the spiritual side of life. We bring in speakers and have chapel everyday of the week. This year we had three speakers come, all from the great state of Texas: Duke Underwood from Lubbock, TX was the main speaker, a partner, Joel from Sulfer Springs, TX, and Duke's big sister, Mary Anne Kent from Austin, TX. It was really interesting to see how the three worked together, and they each brought a different dyanamic, a different perspective on life, and a different but just as powerful testimony. I think they did an amazing job, and I know many of the students were touched, challenged, and encouraged by their words.

At the end of the week, we have activities where the students can hang out with the SEW speakers in a fun atmosphere. This year they planned a Fear Factor event for the middle schoolers. We attended, but neither of us participated as they had absolutely DISGUSTING things for the kids to do.....eating marshmallows dipped in mustard....m & m's with ketchup.... carrying sardines from one side of the room to the other... drinking coke with a dirty sock around the can...and searching for clothespins in a bucket of slime with their feet. All stuff I find utterly repulsive, but of course, middle schoolers loved.

HS Boys Soccer

The high school boys soccer team in which Matt helps coach, is in the middle of their season. Unfortunately, they have had several games cancelled, which is really disappointing. However, to try and make up for their lack of games, they decided to have a staff versus student game. There was a lot of smack talk going around about the game and who would win. It was a really good game, but the students came out on top, winning by two goals. It was a really fun game for those playing, and just as fun for those of us who were watching! I don't think the staff will ever be okay with losing, so I am sure there will be plenty of rematches in the future!
On Saturday the boys played a local club team from here in Vienna. It was a bit chilly and windy, and some key players were out sick or with injuries, but we still managed to pull off a win. The final score was 4-2.

Chapel

Last week in our middle school chapel we had a prayer time at the end of chapel where the kids drew their prayer requests on huge pieces of butcher paper. There were some really neat drawings, and some that brought tears to my eyes. These students have real problems and real life issues going on in their lives right now, and it really breaks my heart. I wanted to share a some of the pictures I took of what the students drew. I pray they touch your heart as they did mine, and you will join us in prayer for these requests.

Medieval Festival

Last Saturday we travelled with some other folks from VCS to Eggenburg, Austria, about an hour drive from Vienna. Eggenburg is a really cool little town that has part of a medieval city wall still in place. The whole town is transformed for this festival. They had all kinds of entertainment (jousting, sword fighting, tight rope walking, hangings, racks, music...) and lots of yummy medieval food and drink. It only costs 3 euros to get in, but if you dressed up in a medieval costume, it only cost 1 euro. So most everyone there (except us Americans of course) were decked out in midieval attire. It really added to the atmosphere. It was a pretty cool thing to see. Anyways, there's a few pictures below.

Life is Chaos

So far this year Matt has really been enjoying coaching the high school boys. It has definitely been different, especially in time commitments. With high school, he practices more and later, and he has more games. They had their first game this past Monday against a Christian school from Budapest, Hungary. They won, 4-0! The Pacheco boys had all four goals, Oscar had 1 and his younger brother Christian had the other 3! It was a good game, although you could really tell it was their first! On top of that, Matt has begun to play on an Athletes in Action soccer team once a week. So soccer is pretty well consuming his life these days.

While Matt is off to all of his soccer stuff, I have found myself taking a different road in life. Many of you who know me well (aka-pre-wreck), know that music is a big part of who I am. I have really struggled with getting back into music since the accident. Basketball came back to me easily, music on the otherhand, was strangely gone from my mind. Last year I began to teach piano lessons, which was a great way for me to ease myself back into music and relearn everything lost with the accident. This year, I am again giving piano lessons, one saxaphone lesson (I am super excited about this) and will be helping a lot with and playing in the jazz band. Unfortunately I sold my saxaphone after the accident because I couldn't remember how to play it. Now, as I will be playing sax in the jazz band, I need one!! Anyone know of a good one for sale?!?

On a side note, elementary chapel has been a blast for me. It truly is the highlight of my week--doing what God has called me to do and what he has gifted me to do. I love it!! So far we have talked about creation, Adam and Eve sinning, and Cain and Abel. The students are great listeners and very responsive, which makes what I do even more of a blessing!

Church

Last year Matt and I really struggled in finding a church that fed us spiritually. Although there are 5 or 6 protestant churches here, none of them were meeting our spiritual needs, and many of them took over an hour to get to from our apartment.

This summer was so refreshing to us, to be able to visit so many churches and be fed by their worship and teaching. We were dreading coming back to Vienna and the lack of spiritual food we found here.

However, God is faithful and answers prayers, and always provides for our needs. We have found a church home for the year, and we are so excited about it!

We are meeting with other teachers as part of a home church. We all take turns doing different things for the service-worship, message, prayer time, communion. We end the service by continuing our fellowship over brunch.

The first Sunday we attended we knew this is where we could be fed spiritually and decided to make it our church home. This past Sunday Matt provided the message. Good friends of ours provided an amazing worship experience as he played the guitar and his wife beautifully played the viola. I was so moved by our worship experience, the words we sang, the feeling in the apartment, God touching my heart, and the beauty of the music, I couldn't help but have tears in my eyes throughout the experience.

We have already been encouraged in our faith at this church, and are looking forward to how God will use it in the future.

Riding Our Bikes

Matt and I brought our bikes back with us this summer when we returned to Vienna. All last year we were kicking ourselves for not shipping them originally, so we were very excited to bring them back with us. We have been riding them a lot-back and forth to school-evening joy rides-to church and back-running errands... It has been really nice to have them and to get the extra exercise. We realized quickly we couldn't ride them a lot of times due to our inability to carry things. So, we got racks to go over our back wheels so we can carry stuff around with us! Needless to say, having these bikes has been a tremendous blessing to us!

First Week of School

We realize it has been a while since our last post, but life here has definitely been crazy. We survived our first full week of school! As you may know we have a block schedule, which means we teach 4 (1 and 1/2 hour long) every day. Matt and I's schedules are very similar this year, we both teach 3 classes in a row on blue days (Monday-Wednesday-every other Friday). This means we get to teach for 4 and 1/2 hours in a row. Needless today, each blue day we came home with very sore throats and little voice left. We are definitely not used to talking that much or for that long! Gold days (Tuesday-Thursday-every other Friday) are our light days, we each only have 2 classes. So we will be kept busy with all of our teaching!

Matt is helping coach the high school boys soccer team, which is a change for him (he coached middle school boys soccer last year). Although I think he really enjoys working with a more advanced skill and with kids he does not teach, he does miss the extra time outside of school with the middle school boys. There just wasn't enough middle school students to have a team of their own.

So while Matt goes to soccer practice, I work at the school, go home and relax, and try to have dinner ready when he gets home. Needless to say, we've been having nice dinners every night with my free time.

I (Stephanie) have had my first introductory chapel with elementary. I was just introduced, able to talk briefly, and close the chapel with prayer. My first big chapel is coming up on Thursday afternoon, so I have a lot of work to do for it.

So that's our first week in a nutshell!