This weekend has been quite exciting for us because we got our first taste of Street Buddies in Linz!! Before we can throw on our blue jackets and 'officially' start, some clerical business still has to be taken care of i.e. talking to the Mayor, meeting with the local police force, and presenting before various churches in the area to gain new team members. Much to our delight a friend of ours from Linz, who has been participating in Street Buddies in Salzburg, invited us to join him for a scouting night to check out all the hot spots of the city and to get a chance to interact with some people down there. Jonathan still brought a backpack full of supplies but we simply went in pedestrian clothing and walked about the downtown altstadt. Right now Austria is in peak political voting season so there were many people strolling around who had just been attending rallies and political party events (we've actually gone to a few ourselves this month which has been enlightening about the system here). I definitely came away with the impression that our experience in Linz is going to be different than the Kai in Salzburg and that there might be different needs. The crowd here seems to be older, which is comforting, but there was still a feeling of aggressiveness. We didn't see any fights while we were there but I wouldn't be surprised if that is a persisting issue.
We had a couple interesting conversations. In one instance a fellow came up asking for a little money. Our friend who was showing us around started chatting with him and they both shared their opinions about religion and beliefs. When the man was getting ready to leave he accepted a prayer from our friend. There was also an outspoken jovial older gentleman, a very sweet self proclaimed hippie, who we talked with. Micah asked him "Who do you think Jesus is or was?". This question is always pretty awesome because it is so open and allows us to learn about the people we meet. Overall it was only a brief look into the streets of Linz but we are excited to go again and connect more with the younger folks. Tomorrow we are going to a church service in a nearby town to support a friend who will be sharing about Street Buddies. It will be interesting to see how a new crowd receives it.
This week was also a little bit sad for our household because we said goodbye to Abby. She spent her last week at our house in Schwertberg before flying to the States which was wonderful. It felt like old times with our group all together again. On Wednesday Jonathan and I took her to the Munich airport and did our final hugs and waves. It is never fun to see a friend go but we are so excited for Abby to boldly go into the next stage of her life as she tackles vet school. Austria will definitely forever have a place for her though :)
Thanks everyone for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers! Lots of love from Austria!
-Rach
We had a couple interesting conversations. In one instance a fellow came up asking for a little money. Our friend who was showing us around started chatting with him and they both shared their opinions about religion and beliefs. When the man was getting ready to leave he accepted a prayer from our friend. There was also an outspoken jovial older gentleman, a very sweet self proclaimed hippie, who we talked with. Micah asked him "Who do you think Jesus is or was?". This question is always pretty awesome because it is so open and allows us to learn about the people we meet. Overall it was only a brief look into the streets of Linz but we are excited to go again and connect more with the younger folks. Tomorrow we are going to a church service in a nearby town to support a friend who will be sharing about Street Buddies. It will be interesting to see how a new crowd receives it.
This week was also a little bit sad for our household because we said goodbye to Abby. She spent her last week at our house in Schwertberg before flying to the States which was wonderful. It felt like old times with our group all together again. On Wednesday Jonathan and I took her to the Munich airport and did our final hugs and waves. It is never fun to see a friend go but we are so excited for Abby to boldly go into the next stage of her life as she tackles vet school. Austria will definitely forever have a place for her though :)
Thanks everyone for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers! Lots of love from Austria!
-Rach