Leaving on a Jet plane and 1,000 letters!

So, today is the day we fly to Vienna! It seems hard to believe that the day has actually come. I never thought it would happen, but I am glad the Lord believes in us! We're currently sitting at the airport waiting and waiting. I can see our plane outside of the window (Well, I think it is our plane!). I am excited, nervous, and sad. These are a lot of confusing emotions all at once. I know this is what I am suppose to do, but it is honestly the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

1,000 Letters:
So, I (Carrie) had dinner with my grandparents last night. My grandma was telling me that when my grandpa was overseas with the army he sent his first letter to my grandma with an address where she could write to him. In that letter he jokingly told her that he expected to receive about 1,000 letters from her. My grandma tried to do just that. She numbered every letter she sent, and over the two years that my grandpa was gone she said that she thinks she sent about 600 letters. So, I've decided to do the same for my grandparents. I want to send 1,000 letters or emails to them. So far I've sent two. We'll see how many I can send!

We'd also love to receive any email or mail from you. If you feel are interested let us know and we can give you our personal email addresses or our physical address in Vienna. We hope to hear from you soon!

It is official!

Carrie and I received the official phone call today stating that even though we are not 100% monthly funded we are going to be allowed to go to Vienna!!! We will have to meet with the business manager periodically to discuss our support until we reach 100%. Please pray that we are 100% funded by Christmas so the school will not have to post our positions. We officially leave DIA at 2:00pm Thursday afternoon. We will have a short layover in Munich and then we will fly to Vienna. God Bless!

A few things we've learned while on this journey. . .

1. God is certainly faithful regardless of how we may mentally limit Him.
2. Life goes by very quickly when all you want it to do is slow down!
3. I really despise packing and moving!!
4. Never stick you name badge in a time card machine. It will eat it and you will never see it again!
5. You really do not completely understand how much you will miss something or someone until you don't see them on a daily basis.
6. We take many things for granted and do not realize it.
7. If you ever call the MOT shipping/freight company ask for Cinderella. She apparently is a real person. I left a message for her. I wonder if Belle or Snow White were also available. =)
8. Saying goodbye is really, really hard but necessary.
9. There is a lot that needs to be done before a person moves overseas.
10. When we tell people that we are going to be missionaries in Vienna, Austria some people think we are going to two places that are not Vienna, Austria. They are Venice, Italy and Australia. Unfortunately we will not be going to either of these locations, but maybe we will visit both of these places some day!
11. Lufthansa Airlines customer service is extremely helpful!
12. We are leaving on July 31 and that is only 7 days away! It doesn't seem real!

Thank you for all of your continued prayers, encouraging words, and financial support. We appreciate you! We look forward to seeing you at the going away party on Tuesday. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers as we travel to Vienna on July 31. We leave around 2:00pm. Thank You!

Please pray for us

Carrie and I are making support calls this week. We have to know our final amounts by July 23rd. At this point Carrie and I are both around 100% for one-time (set-up) costs. This is amazing that we've made it so far!! I am proud of us!

Monthly Donations: We are currently at the point of departure and still need to raise of 27% (for Amanda)and 37% (for Carrie)in monthly donations. This is stressing us big time and we feel like we are climbing a huge mountain!

So, we are praying for a miracle and confident that the Lord will provide. We thank you for your continued prayers and words of encouragement. They mean a lot to us!!!

My Life as a Quaker Ridge Junior Camp Counselor!

Being a camp counselor is always the highlight of my summer and this summer was no exception. We had an amazing time getting to know the Lord better. The 7 girls in my cabin ranged in age from 9 - 11. It was fun to see them all interact with one another and bond as a cabin group. They all looked out for each other and loved learning about the beatitudes! Many of them already knew them as they had to learn Matthew 5:1-12 in third grade! They enjoyed reiterating all that they have learned and tried to go deeper with their understanding of what each beatitude means. Something important that I've learned this year. . . never start your week as a counselor completely exhausted!!! The girls loved to run everywhere they went and they also enjoyed laughing and giggling until very late into the night (apparently it is even more fun when the lights are turned off!!!). Thank you for all of your prayers. We had a wonderful time!!

Amanda's Cabin of beautiful girls!!

Aren't they cute? I'm not quite sure why they are dancing but I thought it was cute!!


Carrie's cabin of beautiful girls!!!

Tired but Happy!

Hello all! Carrie and I have arrived back in Colorado after a two week training in Houghton, New York! It was amazingly encouraging. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is preparing to go overseas. It prepares you in ways you cannot imagine. It also gives you more encouragement than you ever knew you needed!=) We've bonded with the other new members of the VCS (Vienna Christian School) team. God has called some amazing people to serve at VCS. I am honored to say that I am a VCS staff member. It is amazing to think that there are many, many more people at VCS patiently waiting for our arrival. I can only imagine how wonderful these people will be as well!!!


We have a few things to update you on. First, I am feeling a ton better. Many of you may not have known that I caught a cold that seemed to go to my lungs rather quickly while I was away. I was certainly glad I had people praying for me and that I had my inhaler! Second, thanks to Carrie's mom, our boxes arrived at the warehouse and were accepted. The school was able to get the shipping company to delay the boat until all of the boxes arrived. Merlin had to repack most of the boxes as they were completely beat up. Thank you Merlin for all of your hard work. We appreciate it. I have a cute story about the shipping company and a a few strange names if anyone wants to hear it! Third, we have to report our final support amounts around July 23. You do not necessarily need to send in the money right now, but you certainly can if you would like. We mainly need you to send in the commitment cards with the amount you would like to contribute. We are very close to our goal on one-time gifts (set-up) costs so we are concentrating on monthly pledges. We need a miracle, but I know this is where the Lords wants us and he will miraculously provide!! Thank you for your prayers!!

Now off to our next adventure . . . camp counselors!! This is always the highlight of my summer!! I love ministering to children and being at camp is an awesome way to do that!!! We will be at camp from Sunday, July 6th until Thursday, July 10th. Please pray for strength to make it through the time at camp. Pray for the lives of those kids we will be ministering to. This time at camp is more valuable than anything else I can think of.

Niagara Falls!!

I have always wanted to go here and it was very neat aside from the down pour while on Goat Island. The falls are magnificent and very loud! We were able to take a boat ride into the falls and that was even more wet and loud!! It was amazing to see God's wonderful creation up close and personal. Carrie and I walked around the entire American side of the falls, but we did not have enough time to go to the Canadian side of the falls. That was okay with us as we were pretty tired from walking around in the rain to view the entire American side. We were kind of happy that we did not have enough time to make it to Canada since it seemed that the walking was even more and my asthma was acting up because of my cold. So, here are some of the pictures. It was a good break from the endless seminars that we had been going to up until then.

Letchworth Park

While at PFO we were able to take an evening and go to Letchworth State Park. I didn't know what it was but I was told that there was a waterfall there so I was game!! It turns out that Letchworth State Park is about 15 minutes from the Houghton Campus and it is absolutely beautiful. There are canyons and several waterfalls! Everything is so green here. That's probably because it seems to rain every afternoon! Part of the park was called the "Grand Canyon of the East." It was absolutely beautiful.

Here we come!!!

This is a picture of all of the new staff members at VCS this year!! We are going to be working with some wonderfully amazing people who are all leaning on the Lord just like we are. It has been wonderful to be at PFO (training) and be able to get to know the people who we will be living with and working with on a daily basis.

First Grade!

I am so excited to report that I will be teaching 1st grade at VCS. Until I came to Pre-Field Orientation training, I thought that I would be teaching kindergarten next year. However, since the new elementary principal is also here he met with all of the new elementary staff. He said that the 1st grade teacher was not returning next year and that position is now open. I jumped at the opportunity to work with this grade as I know that I'll enjoy this age even better than kindergarten. It worked out well, as there is another teacher here who didn't know what she would be teaching next year, but she has taught eight years of kindergarten and loved it. So, we are both thrilled with our new assignments! ~Carrie