Leaving Austria

I was still planning on staying in Austria for the next 6 months. Stores would still open and I was honestly looking forward to the 4 weeks of forced "vacation" with my friends before students would arrive for Spring Bible School. However, Corona was maybe more than I thought it was.

Elise, Sam, Mya, Rachel

On Sunday afternoon went as planned - everyone who planned to leave left that day. By 4:00pm, things escalated: any person found walking on the streets for any reason but for 1) an emergency, 2) collecting groceries, or 3) helping someone in need, could be fined at least €250. Most things were shutting down, but the final shove to leave Austria was when I learned that Germany would be closing their borders to Austria at 8:00am the following day. After a quick phone call with dad, I had bought a plane ticket home. As I scurried around that evening trying to pack there was something different about Schladming. For a town that was usually busy because of the nearby bars and tourism to be silent with no one on the streets at 10:00pm was insane. Corona definitely was more than I thought.

Rachel, Sam, Jonny Kiki

On my way to Salzburg, the train was practically empty. The only other occupants had their suitcases and their skis to go back to wherever home was. I got off the train at Salzburg hbf (main station) in silence. A few people were there, but I don't think more than 100 and no one spoke with each other (yes, I was the oddball American). It was rather different to walk out to the deserted bus station on a beautifully sunny afternoon. You know in Great Depression movies where there are lots of little shops and all of them have signs on them saying, "closed until further notice"? That's what it looked like. I'm not completely sure what the signs said (my German is definitely not that good), but I knew they said things like, "Due to the COVID-19, we have shorter hours," or "Due to Corona, we are closed till future notice". How insane to see these things in 2020! Corona was a reality - and the reality was shocking.

Roommates:
Kiki, Selina, Rachel

I arrived very early at the airport mainly because Salzburg was closing all of it's hotels and forcing all the tourists out. I expected the airport to be crowded but had been completely mistaken. I could see 5 people in the entire airport. 7 if I walked to the cafe. More people stood outside, but not even 30 of them. 3 hours before my flight left, I was allowed to go through security. Now it looked a little more like an airport, but I realized that was because the remaining 3 flights were all leaving from these 3 gates. I chatted with a couple of people headed home and when they found out I was bound for the States, they quarried,"Wait, can you even get back?" I hope so. I knew that as soon as I got to Amsterdam, I would not be able to return to Austria. Thankful for knowing people there, but still, I really hoped my plane would leave as scheduled from Amsterdam to NY. I just wanted to be stateside again. My plane left on time and arrived an hour and a half later. When staying at an airport overnight, try to find a safe place. If you can find a Narnian, stick with 'em. I got to reacquaint myself with dear old Reepicheep and had a pleasant evening. I had left Austria and friends who I wasn't able to say goodbye to for various reasons (mainly because the police were patrolling their village). Home was a number of hours away. Corona was real, and it was serious.

Last Picture of the Final Four
Rachel, Olly, Nathanael, Kiki
One Brit, Three PNW-ers

I know there is a hard balance between living in the moment and taking pictures. I have never regretted taking photos and I have started to not mind being "that friend". I'm super thankful right now that I pulled out my camera at random times - thankful for all of these last-minute photos I grabbed. Live in the moment, but take time to remember - however that works best for you. <3

March 13th

I thought I would share with you guys some of the craziness that happened with COVID-19 and how it progressed. Thankful for journals!

13/3/20
How can so much happen in an afternoon? Our weekly staff-meeting  was postponed till 4:00pm at

which point, Martin told us that Tauernhof would be closing down and, after our guests leave tomorrow, no one else would come and stay till Spring School. We had all guessed the season would end early, but not that early. 
Martin asked that those who could leave and return home do so this weekend because otherwise the borders might close. 
Kiki, Nathanael, Olly, and I will be the only volunteers here starting Monday. We will do the deep cleaning for Spring School this week and then we will be done. Then Kiki, Nathanael, and I will have 4 weeks here by ourselves. What a fabulous opportunity! To be honest, I'm nervous about how I'm gonna be spending my time. I need to write out a schedule and really try to keep it.
4 weeks - I wonder what habits and amazing book I'll be able to read! Heading to bed now. Not really working tomorrow, but we have a crazy week and emotional weekend so I'll probs be drained.
----
Kiki told me after staff meeting that we were gonna do a prayer walk as volunteers. Several of us were crying with shock of having to leave so suddenly. As we gathered waiting, Richard [Dahlstrom] walked up to our group and said, "Guys, I wanna remind you of  something that continually happens in the Bible. Order-Disorder-Reorder. The reorder is always, always better than the original."

Back: Florian, Nathanael, Elise, moi, Tony, Angela, Selina, Julia, Johann
Front: Mya, Kelsi, Kiki, Celeste

I hope that whatever is happening for you right now you'll remember what Richard said: Order. Disorder. Reorder. The reorder is always, always better than the original. Have a great week!

P.S. - I haven't been ignoring you if you've sent me text messages. I just don't have a phone number :)

A Short Part Before the Last Part of My Story... right now

12 years ago, my aunt and uncle knew God had called them to go to France to be missionaries. God used telling them to go to set a spark in my own life. I was certain at that point that God wanted me to go with them to France. So I began pursuing that by asking if I could study French in high school instead of Spanish, paying more attention in Bible class, I don't know, I was set on going.

Having studied French for four years, I talked with my parents and aunt and uncle about actually going to France. It was my desire to go for a year and just serve by cleaning or whatever was necessary. When I turned 18, we decided to get my passport- this was a really long and discouraging time based on all the paperwork they required. How is a home-school student supposed to have a school ID? (That was fun to make.) I was talking with my sister Sarah about it once and she said, "Rachel, do you think that maybe God doesn't want you to go to France?"
"No, of course He wants me to go. This has been on my heart for longer than anything else. It's been there for 6 years..."
"Ok," Sarah said, "but just remember that if He doesn't want you to go there, He has somewhere better for you to go." This really pierced me. 1)I was positive God wanted me to go, so why was it so hard? 2) If I hadn't been getting God's prompting to do, this than did I really know what His promptings were like? 3) Had I been trying to manipulate God into something I wanted?

My passport application had finally been sent in and now I was just waiting for it to come so I could purchase my plane tickets. One day, some family friends living in Russia said that there was another family in Russia that was about to have twins. There wasn't a need spoken, it was more of a joyous announcement, but immediately, Mom, Dad, Sarah, Ben, and I all knew that I was supposed to got to Russia. I tried to figure out how I could do both, but no, the time that I would be "needed" in Russia was the time I had planned to go to France and by the time I was done with all of that, I would be out of money.

There are two major things I think God wanted to teach me through this time:
1) God will often use what we believe wholeheartedly that we should be doing to get us to where we can be used by Him. There was no way I would have gotten a passport before I was 18 if I hadn't thought it was needed for France.

2) I'm positive God asked me during this time if I was actually willing to go anywhere He wanted me to go. It's really easy to tell God, "I will go anywhere you want," and even mean it wholeheartedly when you are home. However, when you are far away from your family and you need to answer that question, it feels very different.

I don't want this post to be super long, so I'll stop here and do the last little bit sometime later... maybe never. :)

Dumbfounded!

So much has happened and it has all been a whirlwind. I'm sure it has been for all of you as well. Life keeps moving and what a good thing that is!

Since I last wrote, I had the pleasure of finally getting to visit my Aunt and Uncle in France. I've been wanting to visit them for the past 10-12 years (kinda before they even moved). The food, the conversation, the time of rest (for me); it's all summed up in fabulous fellowship. Getting to see a brief glimpse into a slow week of theirs - quite a time! :)

I've now made it to Austria. I look out the window and wonder how I can wake up in such a beautiful place. I look in front and behind me and see the Alps! I feel so privileged to go hiking in the mountains and enjoy their beauty and grandeur.

I think that wherever we are, different things about God stand out to us. Recently I've been listen to songs about Jesus coming back or even just how Awesome He is. And in the two songs I'm thinking of, they both say that "the mountains bow in reverence". I know mountains. I live with them at home and this home. But here, I am completely surrounded by them, and, being a visual person, imaging these beautiful and majestic mountains melting before the presence of the God who I can call, "Daddy" and have no fear of, this leaves me a bit awestruck and floored.

I hope you all are doing well. Remember that God created everything - it all points to Him. What reminds you the most of our Creator God today? Remember to enjoy this day, it is good, and God gave this one to you!

Overview of Sweden

My time in Sweden was "Fantastisc and Amazing"!

Two weeks ago I was talking with a friend and we were both trying to look back over the summer and see what we learned. Neither of us could think of much, and so we just accepted thankfully that God had given us two months to be built up by the group we served with.

A couple days later though, it hit me. I could kinda sense that something was changing or that God was starting to show me something, but nothing had really sunk in. I almost finished the book, No Compromise by Melody Green. It felt kinda weird to be reading the biography about Keith and to become convicted of things - and at times I felt more convicted than when reading the Bible*. The biggest thing that stood out to me was the question of motivation. Why am I cleaning bathrooms and doing a good job? Why am I always trying to make people happy and remind them of their joy? Why do I enjoy playing music and singing harmonies? It was at the moment a strong thought, and then it was placed on the back burner - it came up every once and a while but not extremely.

It is a tradition at Holsby to have a campfire for the interns who are leaving. It is a  specific time set up to encourage those leaving in godliness, to tell them what they see God doing, and just to reminiscence off all the fun had. My friend Jazz and I were both leaving and one of the girls spoke up and said, "The Lord wants me to say something. I don't know which one of you it is for, but here it is. You are joyful and love others and serve so well, but make sure you are doing it for the right reasons. When you love people, love them because God loves them. When you serve, do it for Jesus." As she was speaking, I knew it was for me. This was the first time something like that has ever happened for me. 

So here I am: 2 months and 4 roommates later; visiting my aunt and uncle in Lyon, France for a week before heading off to Austria; and with some time to think about my motivations for doing what I do and how I do it. 

Things I will take with me from Sweden:

1. Write down or share 3 things you are thankful to God for

2. Ice cream time is at 11:00 - don't be late!

3. Memories, notes, and lessons

4. "Don't get so caught up in the work of the Lord that you froget the Lord of the work." No Compromise

Hope Church Camp was amazing! Did it rain? ;) I prayed for perfect weather and that y'all could have a campfire.

"TTFN! Ta-ta for now!"

*"All truth is from God" - this is a Quaker quote, but since God speaks truth, it makes sense. Plus, God uses other people, lyrics from songs, and I don't know, nature? to convict us of things too. 

Cake

One of my fellow interns had a birthday this past weekend. There's not much of a better excuse to have a party than that someone is now older (so now you're allowed to have a party every day).

Not much you can do short notice for a birthday, so Luisa, Marj, and I decided to make a Rubik's Cube cake. There's not much that I can say.... here's the 30 second version of the cake assembly. Sorry - it's a bit fast, but I don't know what else to do about it.

Something else we made, which I had never done before coming here, was stick bread. AKA, pizza dough, but baked over a fire with sticks for deliciousness. I can recommend putting Nutella on it and maybe some marshmallows. Some people also recommend Nutella and hotdogs at the same time... I'll let you decide, but yeah, I'll be silently judging you if you use hotdogs WITH Nutella.

It's really strange to me that's it's almost time to leave Sweden. I've really enjoyed all the time that I've had here. I don't know if I've learned loads, or if it's the start of learning something, or if it has just been a time to be filled up - 'cause that for sure has happened. Anyway, I'll probably reflect more on my next post. :) Have a great weekend, y'all! Enjoy some spikeball and the people around you!

Mushrooms

Pointer #1:
When mushroom picking, go with someone who knows what is poisonous

Pointer #2:
Don't eat the red mushrooms



Pointer #3:
Mushrooms with gills are more problematic the sponge mushrooms

Pointer #4:
Poison in sponge mushrooms won't kill you

Pointer #5:
Some of the gilled mushrooms won't kill you, but won't be good for you either.