Wunderbar!

It has been decided that there are three things to do in Schladming: educate, exercise, and eat.  Throughout the past two weeks I have been doing some combination of all three and enjoying every minute of it!


Education:

The lectures have been absolutely mind-boggling. Two weeks ago, Ridge flew in from California to speak to us about the Ten Commandments. He presented the commandments in a way I have never thought about before.  Here is a quick summary of the main points:

            Commandment #

1.      We acknowledge in God what is true about no other…He is to be held in awe and fear

2.      The difference between images that come from our imagination rather than revelation is those images limit our view of God

3.      God is HOLY, so don’t drag Him into our mud

4.      The day to refocus on God, to serve others, and to reaffirm that there is something more to life than what we have now

5.      Our faith is only as good as the behavior that expresses it

6.      God wants us to protect the sanctity of life

7.      “I will be true to the promise I made to you and to the one who gave you to me.”

8.      We are to be content with what we have. Also, do not embezzle what is God’s…TITHE

9.      When we lie we are connecting with Satan; we are speaking his native language

10.  When we covet we are placing these things over God; we made this thing our idol. We cannot love both God and things. Keep your life simple. Fix your eyes on Christ 

Last week, Derek came from England to enlighten us on the Holy Spirit. This was a very interesting and often controversial topic; our theme verse for the week was Ephesians 4:3 “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” In these lectures we covered a lot of ground, discussing who the Holy Spirit is, what he is like, how he brings us to Christ, how he makes a difference in our lives, how we can go wrong with the Holy Spirit, and of course the topic of spiritual gifts with a specific look at tongues and prophecy.  It was a full week, but I felt like the most important point that Derek was trying to get across was being filled with the Spirit is a daily occurrence. We constantly need to be seeking more of him in our lives. In doing so, we will be more aware of the sin in our own lives and the need to fix it. In other words, the Holy Spirit will make us increasingly unhappy with unholy living.

This week, the speakers are Sam and Joan Fiore from Milan, Italy. They came to speak to us about missions, and I am very much looking forward to what they have to share.

Another important part of the education here at Tauernhof are the outreach groups. I joined the musical outreach group. In this, we learn songs (many of which are in German) which we then sing in hospitals, elder care centers, and churches. Tonight we had a dress rehearsal for the outreach groups, and it went well! It was my first performance in a choir and I enjoyed it so much!


Exercise:

Hiking is the number one activity here in Schladming, and so far I have not found a hike that has disappointed. Last weekend we went on short hike up to a hutte (big surprise). It was a steep hike through thick forest, but every once in a while the trees would break and we had this amazing view. 

 

After the steep climb, we made it to the ridge. Above the tree line, we had a glorious view of the Dachstein, a glacier mountain.  We climbed down a little ways into a valley and found ourselves at yet another adorable hutte. This food had been raved about though, so I of course had to try it!

 

 

 

The small hutte at the bottom right of this picture is where I will be going for travel weekend in two weeks....so exciting!

I absolutely love the culture here in Austria and the high emphasis they put on enjoying God's creation.  Last Saturday, my roommates and I woke up early to catch the sunrise at the top of Planai, the mountain right behind my school. It was one of the most incredible sights I have ever seen.

The river of clouds is covering the towns of Schladming and Haus. Not only were we able to see the sunrise, but we were able to get an amazing view of the full moon on the other side of the mountain at the same time.

 

AND, my roommates and I got our picture by the "I love Milka" sign...our favorite chocolate bar!

Every Wednesday afternoon is sports afternoon. Last week on Wednesday it was cold and rainy, but I signed up to play football (soccer) anyway. We decided on going to the full-sized clay pitch rather than the miniature turf pitch and it turned out to be the best decision. We had a blast running through inch deep puddles and sliding all over the place. We were all covered in clay by the end of the adventure but every bruise, scrape, and stained article of clothing was worth it.

All in all, the exercise here is absolutely wonderful. I love to see God's incredible creativity while exploring the Austrian Alps.

 

Eating:

Luckily Austrian culture is so keen on exercise because the food here is also amazing! For breakfast we usually enjoy yogurt and granola (sometimes even nougat filled chocolate cereal) and bread. Really delicious and fresh baked bread. With nutella. And coffee. It’s the best meal of the day.

Lunch and dinner are switched in this country, and so at lunch we enjoy a delicious and HUGE meal. Every day has been different so far and every day the meal gets better and better! We usually have traditional Austrian or German dishes, but every once in a while Lotar (the main cook) switches it up. In the middle of October (I know…crazy) we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving, which was delicious. And today our wonderful speaker Joan cooked us an authentic Italian meal!

For supper we have leftovers and sandwiches--just something light. At first the North Americans were having trouble adjusting, but I think we are all starting to understand this new way of living.

In addition to the amazing meals prepared at school, I have found that the ice cream here in Schladming is divine, and I have made MANY ice cream runs with friends.

I am thoroughly enjoying my life in Austria, which makes it hard to believe that I am already a third of the way done! Time is passing me by way too quickly, but I am trying to make the most of every day!

If I had to sum life at Tauernhof up in one word, I would have to choose…glorious.

Week Two

Another week at Tauernhof has flown by, and many adventures have been had and lessons have been learned.

On Monday night we had our second "family group" meeting. This week my family went to Martin, the school director's, house in Haus. It was so wonderful to be able to see an authentic Austrian home. Martin and his wife designed the house, which was all wood and had a very interesting layout, and Martin built it himself. We were able to meet his two little girls (one is named Emily and she thought it was so neat to meet someone else with her name) before they went to bed. We also were able to play with his puppy and kittens. We had an amazing Bible study on forgiveness, and we talked and prayed until late into the night. It was a great time to be able to connect with others from around the world (in my family we have one Austrian, two Germans, two Americans, two Canadians, and one boy from England who lives in Thailand) and see their perspectives.

On Tuesday we had our first outreach meeting. I was very nervous, since I joined a singing group and I have never really sung before. We went around and introduced ourselves and what sort of musical experience we had, and everyone had been singing in choirs and leading worship at their churches for years. I have never done anything of the sort, but I do enjoy praising God in worship. Everyone has been super forgiving so far! We will be singing about half in English and half in German, which is a fun way to learn pronunciation of German!

On Wednesday we had afternoon sports and I went to play Ultimate Frisbee. It was very fun until one boy got hit in the face. We cut the match short and went to get ice for his swollen lip. If only he were a Whitworthian he would be happy about getting a little three! When I had just gotten back from frisbee and was in the room, a surprise showed up in the form of a 47 year old new roommate! This week has been quite the adjustment to living with another person in the room. Especially when she has been living on her own for 25 years. So prayers in this adjustment would be greatly appreciated!

A Sports Reach Team (they travel around the world to play soccer with local teams and then after they share about the love of God with the local teams and fans) has been staying at Tauernhof playing teams in the area. On Thursday they challenged a group of students from Tauernhof, so my roommate Teannna and I hiked up to watch. It was the most beautiful soccer match I had ever seen, with gorgeous Alps as a backdrop. We got ice cream at a local shop and cheered loudly for the Tauernhof team, but they lost despite our help. Then that night we had another worship night. My roommate Rebecca led the worship and I gave my testimony to the whole school, plus a few people from the local community and the Sports Reach team. It was a little intimidating, but now I am done with that assignment! It was good to hear how well my testimony tied into everything that the lecturers had been talking about and the book that we are reading.

On Friday night, one of the girls invited her parents to give us a Scottish dance lesson. So the whole school piled into a small room and learned how to Scottish dance! It was quite enjoyable, although I'm sure we disgraced the whole culture with how chaotic and bad we were at dancing!

On Saturday I signed up to go on a "walk" with the school that turned into quite the hike! We followed a trail up some waterfalls. Most of the "trail" was metal grates that were drilled into the side of the mountain. We either walked on flat metal grates or hiked up stairs or even ladders. It was quite exhausting, but at least we had beautiful scenery to look at on the way up!

We were able to walk across bridges and look down on the waterfalls, which was gorgeous! We even went across a long suspension bridge!

When we made it to the top, there was a beautiful lake! It was freezing cold but some people went swimming! I was not so brave. There were a couple hüttes beside the lake we stopped at one and ordered hot chocolate to warm up! (eine heiße schokolade bitte!)

The staff told us we were able to walk back to Tauernhof if we wanted (instead of driving), and so a few of us decided to be adventurous and try it out! We started off, and soon saw this sign:

 

The group got split up half way through (my group being the faster group!) but about two hours into the hike down it started pouring! It was quite the experience, but it was a good chance to get to know the girls I was walking with and see the beautiful countryside.

That night we decided to watch The Sound of Music, since most of the Germans have never seen it. They absolutely loved it and we all sang loudly and danced and had a good time. It was fun to be super touristy for a night.

I am still loving Tauernhof and having the time of my life!

Another interesting fact about Austria:

The sheep have tails!