Schwertberg and Linz
Street Buddies, Firefighting, and Farmy-things
From Arizona to Salzburg to Schwertberg, one thing has remained the same, God has big plans. We are now living in a village called Schwertberg. The move out here from Salzburg was full of surprises and new adventures. One of our newest adventures is Street Buddies in Linz. A large part of why we left Salzburg was to start a Street Buddies in Linz. We learned and experienced so much during our time in Salzburg that we are excited about beginning in a new city.
Another adventure that Rachael and I have begun in Schwertberg is Firefighting! We joined the local volunteer fire department shortly after moving here, and oh man, were we immediately in over our heads... Or so it seemed. While our first couple months have been trying at times, we have been able to meet a much larger part of the community. It has also been a great exercise in the new German dialect. Right now we are still in the rookie/trainee phase so we aren't allowed to go on calls, but next year we should finish the training and then we will be official Austrian firefighters! How cool!
The last adventure that has become a part of our routine in the village is "farming". I say this with quotations because it is only considered farming in comparison to what you could manage in a bigger city. Our new house has a pretty good sized yard that we have already begun transforming. This summer I built a raised garden bed for a vegetable garden. We also have plans for tilling some of the yard and planting a lot of corn, and maybe pumpkins. We will also be making a portion of the garden focused on herbs and spices. Gotta have something to season those veggies. In addition to the garden, the house already had a cherry tree, apple tree, and plum tree. We are looking forward to lots of awesome fruit! We might also try to plant some grape vines in the spring. The last part of our farm adventure is chickens! We have 2 chickens right now but the plan is to eventually have 5 or 6 so we can have a steady supply of eggs.
Throughout all of these adventures Jesus has remained the center of our lives and our house. We still meet all together in the mornings and pray, worship, and experience Jesus together. We have continued to see his amazing provision through all these transitions, as well as his favor in new endeavors. There are so many new things to learn about Schwertberg but probably the most important thing is that its all about relationship. The village only has 5000 people so everyone here definitely knows everyone else. And though this was daunting at first, we have definitely been welcomed into this community with a love that words cannot explain. Our new friends have shown us so much love and grace that we often find ourselves speechless. Yet even when our words fail us, we still seek to live out the love of Jesus. And since our new community has such a focus on relationship, we have plenty of opportunities to do just that.
We are able to be here and do all of this only because of awesome people like you that support us monthly. If you feel the call to be awesome, or if you think we are awesome, and especially if you think Jesus is awesome you should check out the "Giving Information" tab. All the donations go through our new sending organization Autumn Rain Collective. We are very blessed by their support through these adventures in Austria. The "Giving Information" tab will take you to our donation page on their website and you can fill out the online donation form. There you will have the option to give as a one time donation or set up recurring monthly payments. All donations are tax deductible and end of the year you will receive a giving statement.
Important - Under the "Giving Information" tab there are also instructions for mailing in a check to Autumn Rain Collective (ARC). Please take note that if you send them a check "Autumn Rain Collective" must be the payee, and the code "AZ2AT" must be in the memo box.
Thank you so much for taking time to read about what is going on in our lives. We try to continually update our site with news as God continues to move and we find out more about what the future is going to look like.
Love and Blessings!
Jonathan and Rachael
From Arizona to Salzburg to Schwertberg, one thing has remained the same, God has big plans. We are now living in a village called Schwertberg. The move out here from Salzburg was full of surprises and new adventures. One of our newest adventures is Street Buddies in Linz. A large part of why we left Salzburg was to start a Street Buddies in Linz. We learned and experienced so much during our time in Salzburg that we are excited about beginning in a new city.
Another adventure that Rachael and I have begun in Schwertberg is Firefighting! We joined the local volunteer fire department shortly after moving here, and oh man, were we immediately in over our heads... Or so it seemed. While our first couple months have been trying at times, we have been able to meet a much larger part of the community. It has also been a great exercise in the new German dialect. Right now we are still in the rookie/trainee phase so we aren't allowed to go on calls, but next year we should finish the training and then we will be official Austrian firefighters! How cool!
The last adventure that has become a part of our routine in the village is "farming". I say this with quotations because it is only considered farming in comparison to what you could manage in a bigger city. Our new house has a pretty good sized yard that we have already begun transforming. This summer I built a raised garden bed for a vegetable garden. We also have plans for tilling some of the yard and planting a lot of corn, and maybe pumpkins. We will also be making a portion of the garden focused on herbs and spices. Gotta have something to season those veggies. In addition to the garden, the house already had a cherry tree, apple tree, and plum tree. We are looking forward to lots of awesome fruit! We might also try to plant some grape vines in the spring. The last part of our farm adventure is chickens! We have 2 chickens right now but the plan is to eventually have 5 or 6 so we can have a steady supply of eggs.
Throughout all of these adventures Jesus has remained the center of our lives and our house. We still meet all together in the mornings and pray, worship, and experience Jesus together. We have continued to see his amazing provision through all these transitions, as well as his favor in new endeavors. There are so many new things to learn about Schwertberg but probably the most important thing is that its all about relationship. The village only has 5000 people so everyone here definitely knows everyone else. And though this was daunting at first, we have definitely been welcomed into this community with a love that words cannot explain. Our new friends have shown us so much love and grace that we often find ourselves speechless. Yet even when our words fail us, we still seek to live out the love of Jesus. And since our new community has such a focus on relationship, we have plenty of opportunities to do just that.
We are able to be here and do all of this only because of awesome people like you that support us monthly. If you feel the call to be awesome, or if you think we are awesome, and especially if you think Jesus is awesome you should check out the "Giving Information" tab. All the donations go through our new sending organization Autumn Rain Collective. We are very blessed by their support through these adventures in Austria. The "Giving Information" tab will take you to our donation page on their website and you can fill out the online donation form. There you will have the option to give as a one time donation or set up recurring monthly payments. All donations are tax deductible and end of the year you will receive a giving statement.
Important - Under the "Giving Information" tab there are also instructions for mailing in a check to Autumn Rain Collective (ARC). Please take note that if you send them a check "Autumn Rain Collective" must be the payee, and the code "AZ2AT" must be in the memo box.
Thank you so much for taking time to read about what is going on in our lives. We try to continually update our site with news as God continues to move and we find out more about what the future is going to look like.
Love and Blessings!
Jonathan and Rachael