How big or small is your world?

"Dillon and Kayli are going to university in the states. Dillon is near Detroit and Kayli is in Chicago." I recently was telling some new friends here about my children. They knew Emma was with us here in Vienna, but didn't realize she had two older siblings.

At the same time I said, "so they're not very far apart," they both said, "they're so far apart!"

Ah, Europe.

We all laughed. One said that her husband once had a meeting 7 hours away by car. They decided to book a hotel to break up the journey.

I told them about our 18 hour straight road trip to Breckenridge for spring break with our kids ages 7, 11 and 13. Dave's dad's famous phrase was repeated at every gas station:

"When my tank is full, yours had better be empty!"

We have lived for a year and a half without a car.  Here in Vienna there is no need to have one.  Well, of course it will be great for grocery shopping, but my bike has done the trick with my fantastic panniers.  Groceries are heavy.

I should name my bike.
I'll be taking suggestions in the comment section.

It's just a bummer when you're caught in the rain.

But this summer we have the use of one of our teammates' cars.  Next week we are road tripping to speak at a church retreat in Poland.  I'm so excited.  When Dave and I were first married we read the Chronicles of Narnia out loud to each other on road trips.  I think we will have to do that again.

We are planning to purchase a car here in the fall.  It will be helpful to visit some of our teams and there is a certain freedom with having a car.  Owning a car...I imagine it would be like having a pool in Michigan.  I am sure will gain a lot of friends.  But I haven't hated not having one.  The public transportation in Vienna is one of our favorite features of living here (and the museums).  That will still be a daily part of our lives.  But having a car will also enable us to explore places along the way on our travels.  Our world will definitely get bigger!

Kicking off Holy Week

One of Vienna's monikers is "The City of Music". The city tourism office touts that more composers have lived in Vienna than any other city in the world. So unlike Los Angeles' Walk of Fame honors movie celebrities, Vienna's stars include composers such as Mozart and Salieri (of Amadeus fame), Haydn, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Strauss. Many of these composers knew each other, were students and teachers of each other, and were friends. Just the other day I caught this pic at the State Opera House.

Gustav Mahler
composer and one-time director of the Vienna State Opera

The rich music scene in Vienna continues to this day and frankly overwhelms me. I recently read that around 10,000 people listen to live classical music in Vienna every night! 

I finally took the plunge and picked one:  Bach's St. Johns Passion at the Wiener Konzerthaus by the Vienna Symphony.

And I'm so glad I did. It was the perfect kick-off to Holy Week.

We invited our friends, Casey and Kendra, to join us.

yes, that's the back of the auditorium...

Even the ceiling of the Wiener Konzerthaus is spectacular!

How to survive a concert while you have a cold

I had asked my sister, Juli, which rendition of the St. Johns is the best to purchase. I wanted to get familiar with the music before we heard the live version.  She recommended the Bach Collegium Japan conducted by Suzuki. Fantastic. I highly recommend anyone going to a concert to get familiar with the music first. Thankfully I had also searched out the German/English side-by-side translation of the text and Dave downloaded it to his iPad. I still purchased a program to have the German text in front of me. It was fun to pick out some of the words and phrases, but I frequently leaned over to check out the translation to gain the deeper meaning.  

I loved our Evangelist. It's a critical part, he's like a narrator but also has some lovely solos. Clear voice, beautiful.

My favorite lines:

My precious Savior, let me ask,
Now that you have been nailed to the Cross
and have said yourself:  It is finished,
Am I made free from death?
Can I through your pain and death inherit the kingdom of heaven?
Has the redemption of the whole world arrived?
You cannot say a single thing out of pain:
yet you bow Your head and say silently yes.

I found it interesting that the St. John ends after Christ's death. I wanted the resurrection scene! And yet without going there so quickly, I find myself thinking more on Christ's suffering this week. I'm more aware of His pain, my pain, our world's longing for all to be made right and made new.

Banana and Lime Prayers

Have you ever said you'd pray for someone and then forgotten to do it? Repeatedly I am amazed at our support team's faithfulness in prayer.  

(shout out to my prayer ladies!!)

When we first became missionaries with Global Partners, Dave and I each asked a group of friends to pray more intently for us. These groups receive more frequent communication from us with more detail about how to be praying for us.  

When I asked my friend, Becky Gray, to pray, she sent this reply:

Yes, Dina, I would love to specifically pray for you.  I have been doing that lately under an odd reminder.  I learned from you how to peel a banana from the bottom and each time I have a banana I pray for you.  God can use any reminder, can't he??

Hilarious! When Dillon was a baby, I had learned to peel bananas by pinching the bottom end instead of pulling the top stem to the side, which many times bruises the banana. I must have shared that tip with Becky, and now that has become her physical reminder to pray.

In January I had the privilege of meeting Russ Gunsalus, the Executive Director of Education and Clergy Development for the Wesleyan Church. We were discussing my developing role with Global Partners in Europe. The guy is a visionary, and before long had me dreaming about what kind of leadership role I could play. We had just heard an inspiring story about a group called "Lemon Aid" so he joked that I could call my new project "Lime Aid". Before we parted, he promised to pray for us every time he saw a lime.  I'm not sure I quite believed him, he's a busy guy. But here are just a few of the picture texts we have received from him in the past 6 weeks with a reminder that he's praying for us.

In a way, using such tangible methods to remember to pray is much like those throughout the ages who prayed the hours. I am blessed by these friends who keep us in their prayers.

Dave and I have committed to praying together every day at the same time during lent. Would you like to join us?