The Last 6 Weeks Have Been a Blur…
We had such good intentions about updating this blog regularly…then life got crazy! Please forgive us! Here is a quick, real update.
German classes have begun! We love these ladies and cherish our growing relationships with them!
We went into April like insane people, helping as many refugees find free housing as possible, and dove straight into starting German courses for Ukrainian refugees at our church. We heard the Holy Spirit tell us that we should set a goal of raising $20,000 to help house refugees and so we put the word out: anyone who wanted to give, could give, and we would look for suitable housing here. And the money started flowing in…from America, from Europe, from Foursquare Disaster Relief. Individuals, churches…God has been good.
But then reality set in: the money is heavy. What do I mean by that? The expectations of spending the money in a way that honors the donors and helps as many people as possible (we´d love to help all the refugees!) really hit home. And, for all their wonderful qualities, Austrians have a tendency to be a bit closed off. Landlords are leery of foreigners, and more so of refugees. This has made our search for affordable, quality housing extremely difficult. BUT- we know that He who began a good work will be faithful to complete it. We trust that because God provided the funds, that He will open exactly the right doors for us to help support the refugees still here. AMEN?!
And, these are real people, with real issues. We are dealing with psychological trauma, alcoholism, and health issues, on top of the normal stress of starting life in a new country! Our new friends are broken right now, but they are so strong and resilient!
All that to say, planning and searching, meeting with landlords, formulating a strategy that best helps refugees get back on their feet…that has occupied a significant amount of our time and energy! And until the day comes that we have our fully furnished apartments or home, we continue to house refugees in short-term housing. This is often on the countryside, in homes where the owners have extra space, and the Ukrainians staying there are often on their way further west. We recently housed a family in St. Martin (about 45 minutes north of us) for one week, so that they could regroup and begin to heal. They are from Kharkiv and had been driving for 11 days to escape the war. Can you imagine? 11 days, on the road with two children, in a car that looked like it would fall apart at any moment, wondering if you will actually make it out alive? This is the reality for the people we are in contact with. It puts everything in perspective.
It´s really interesting. For the past year and a half, Matt and I have been praying that God would give us the means to buy a house here. We love our apartment, but we would also really love to have a yard and a space that is our own. We can´t even think about ourselves anymore…we are just so thankful for the safe home that we occupy right now, and finding homes for the least of those around us. An up-close view of war and its devastation will do that for you, I guess.
Anyway. This post has been a bit all over the place. I guess I just wanted to give you a glimpse of life right now…nothing is as straightforward as we had hoped (it was naive to think it would be!), but by God´s grace we are muddling through it! Pray for us. This is stressful, and we are learning a ton every day. We never thought (or wanted to) we would have to learn how Austrian children´s and social services worked, but we must. And we never thought we would have reason to navigate the health system for addiction. But we are. God is good, but we need to clearly hear His voice directing us.
