The End of Book One
It's time to trade leading students as a staff for being a student. What does that mean? You'll find out below! ;-)
It's hard to believe the nine months in Europe are over. I arrived home in Minnesota just one week ago. What an unexpected, vagabond sort of year its been!
Last you heard from me, I was on outreach with our very sweet group of DTS students. This year I led just the first half of the outreach and some of my colleagues led the second half. During the month of May, I returned to Vienna to do a month-long intensive German-language course before we wrapped up the DTS in June. Below, I will describe a few of the highlights from the spring:
DEUTSCHKURS!
Learning the local language is so important! The Deutschkurs I took offers accelerated immersion classes that last 4-5 hours per day, 4 days a week for one month at a time. I was able to take the first month about two years ago and was amazed at how quickly the language began to open up to me. I had neither the time nor the money to take the course again until this spring, but was delight to find that I've been progressing in spite of that. When they tested me, I was able to skip a level! This May I returned to Vienna from outreach in Romania just one day before class began.The class was challenging and exhausting, but taught us a lot of the grammatical things I was hoping to learn!
THE END OF DTS!
The day the German course ended the DTS students and staff who had been on outreach in Romania returned home to Vienna. It was wonderful to have everyone all together again!
After they arrived we had a week of teaching on Biblical Worldview and then traveled a few hours west to Upper Austria, the state most of my teammates originally come from, for a week of debriefing and Re-entry teaching (how to adjust to being home after the DTS experience) that I had the pleasure of helping teach!
When we arrived back in Vienna, the students graduated!
THE MUSIK UND KUNST SHOW!
I feel like a real artist now! My friend Vicky and I organized a joint art show where my paintings were for sale and she performed some songs she's written. We had a couple dozen people come and some of my paintings sold! After the event was over and everyone was gone, Vicky and I were so excited that we couldn't go to bed for over two hours!
THE END OF IT ALL
After graduation, the students began to leave and the staff team had a week of post-DTS staff debriefing. Those last few weeks were kind of emotional for me as I prepared to move home to USA for a year or two to finish my bachelor's degree. After the past four years of my life being dedicated to Europe and Austria it's an emotional "see you later". I am excited to finish school and spend more time with friends and family back home, but its also hard to leave this team who became like a family and the continent I gave my heart to. Every time I've thought about leaving the team I wanted to cry.
I don't know what God has in store for me after I finish school. Will I stay on in the USA? Will I return to Austria more long-term? I simply don't know yet, and honestly, I think I am more comfortable not knowing yet.
WHAT'S NEXT?
I will be a student at the University of Minnesota in September, planning to finish a combination major in Media, Communication and Psychology, with the idea in mind of being able to work in television. I also plan to study German, so that, should I move back to Austria, next time I will be fluent.
I also hope to be able to visit a couple times a year. One of my friends and colleagues in YWAM Austria is getting married in October and I hope to be able to return for his wedding.
I have been home in Minnesota for a week now. I feel different from the people around me, and I probably act differently, too, but this is normal after nine months in Europe, and the transition back into life here is probably the easiest one I've had so far. I guess practice does make perfect.
IN CONCLUSION
The greatest lessons of this past year? Expect kindness, see how good leadership and DTS's can be, remembering God wants me for me (not for what I can do for him), and to see how He's good in the face of disappointment.
As I transition home, I think one of my new lessons is in being unafraid of making big decisions and commitments. This will be my last blog post as a European missionary for a little while, but the adventures in a missional life will continue here in Minnesota and, whenever visits are possible, back home in Austria. So stay tuned, and together we'll see what unravels stateside and where God takes this adventure when school is done. Thanks for tuning in. ;-)
