Take it Away Mr. Janett

Part of our Spiritual Emphasis Week is a Thursday night concert where the kids and parents are able to come for a special concert by Jerry Jacoby (our speaker).  It's a fun night of singing, dancing, and for me...getting kissed by my "boyfriend" (check out tomorrow's post for details!).  Not only are the kids able to continue to enjoy Jerry's talents, the parents are also able to hear and see what we have been doing/learning about all week long.  One of the evenings highlights this year was a performance by several ICSV administrators.  Check out the video below to see all the action!

Spiritual Emphasis Week Theme

The theme for this year's Spiritual Emphasis Week (SEW) was simple, yet SO important...it was The Gospel.  Check out our speaker's, Jerry Jacoby, thoughts about this year's theme.

THE GOSPEL

(How’s that for a theme?)

          Religion is a lot more comfortable than The Gospel. Religion can tell us what we have to believe and what we have to achieve to win God’s approval. It gives us a list of standards so we can know when we’ve arrived and can be satisfied with our growth and achievement.
         The Gospel, on the other hand, is shocking: Perfect God creates autonomous beings with the right to choose. Longing for our love, He had to give us the choice to refuse His love so that if any of us chose to return to Him and love Him, it would be our own free choice - real love, like His.
          His pursuit of our love led Him to become one of us, identify with us in every way, but without sin. And in the face of total rejection by all mankind, He reveals His plan - He takes the punishment due us on Himself and dies. He defeats sin, death and satan and rises from the dead. Then he offers us the way back - not a self improvement plan or a set of rules, but forgiveness for all our sins. This Gospel is shocking because it is a unilateral offer - He did it all and we can only receive. He holds all the cards. If we try to have His offer under any other conditions we end up with …religion.
          Jesus did not come to make us nice. He came to make us alive. Without Him, we are dead and eternally lost. With Him, we are redeemed, secure and whole new creatures.
          Heavy stuff for kids? I don’t think so. Jesus said that with the faith of a child the miracle of salvation takes place.
          This week we’ll laugh, sing and hear wonderful stories but the theme is not religion - it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our Daily Chapel Themes

MONDAY: Who is God?
Exodus 2-3
Moses, as a shepherd in Midian, looks back over the design of his early life and wonders: “Why?” And then, in a burning bush, he meets the Great I AM!

TUESDAY: Sin
Genesis 3-4:16
God freely gave all things for Adam and Eve to enjoy except for one tree – and that tree became their consuming desire. Sin had entered the universe – but God has a plan!

WEDNESDAY: It is finished.
Matthew 4: 18-20; John 19: 28-30; John 20: 19-20
Peter sees God’s plan unfold – but what a roller-coaster ride of emotions: from embracing the Messiah-Leader with joy, only to lose Him on a cross, only to receive Him again, risen & victorious. The plan is accomplished!

THURSDAY: The Gospel
Genesis 1:1-Revelation 22:21
Today Jerry explains the Gospel in context of how he came to know his own sin, and trust Jesus as his Savior.

FRIDAY: More Good News: Jesus hasn’t left us alone.
John 20: 19-29; Luke 24: 35-53
Thomas relates how he came to grips with the Risen Jesus and then describes his Savior’s Ascension and promise that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter was coming. Good News!

The Crew with Jerry

One of our Worship Times

Really Didn't Enjoy this Day...by the End of It

Our last day of ice skating was very memorable this year.  For a few days we were blessed with "nice" weather...sun was shining, green things were growing, we didn't have to wear long-johns with everything. :)  Unfortunately that also meant that the ice at the Rathaus had also begun to melt.  When we arrived at the ice skating rink we discovered that instead of nice smooth ice for us to skate on, we were given an opportunity to "swim and skate."  The ice was INCREDIBLY slippery...kind of an oxymoron about ice, but it was.  Every time a kid fell down, which was often, they became soaked!  By the end of our time we had many wet (and cold) kids and two students off to the hospital, with their teachers, to be checked for possible head injuries (whenever a kid falls and hits their head, the ice skating people are required to send them to the hospital just in case).  Sadly one of the students happened to be a 5th grader.  Thankfully my student ended up being JUST FINE (although he had a big bump on his head).  I personally didn't enjoy spending more than three hours at an Austrian hospital, but I was thankful my student was okay and our amazing German teacher was there to help with all the translating.

Questions about Probability

In class we recently finished a math chapter about probability.  During the course of the unit we also spent time talking about God and probability.  Within a fifth grade understanding of probability, there are five different levels.  Things can be...
1. impossible
2. unlikely
3. equally likely
4. likely
5. certain
Thankfully, with God, nothing is impossible, unlikely, equally likely, or likely.  God can do ANYTHING...He is certain!  It doesn't mean that He will do everything we want Him to do...He does what is best for us.  He saved the Israelites by giving Moses the power to part the Red Sea.  He created all of creation...us included.  He came down to earth as a baby and died for our sins.  God doesn't flip a coin to decide what happens.  He is certain about what to do because our Lord is omnipotent.  I don't know about you, but if I were to bet on something, I would bet on Him!

Packing for London

One of the nice things about living in Europe is the ease of visiting other countries.  Travelling during the off-season makes for a relaxing and cheap vacation.  For energy break this year I went with friends to London.  My friends had never been there before, so it was fun to experience this "first" with them.  Even though it snowed for the part of the time and the weather was FREEZING, the city was as beautiful as I remembered and a nice place to spend a few days for vacation.

One of the highlights of the trip was our evening viewing of the musical Wicked.  Not only were we able to score super cheap 2nd row seats, we also got to move over and see the action near the middle of the theater (where the seats were more than double the original cost). 

Tower of London in the snow

Yummy lunch at an English Pub

This pigeon joined our subway car at one of the stations and slowly got off a few stops later.  It was hilarious watching it strut about as if it owned the car.

Windsor Castle

Stonehenge in the rain

The Sherlock Holmes Museum

Wicked!!!!!

On the Rink, at the Rathaus

To ice skating we will go,

to ice skating we will go,

heigh-ho, the dairy-o,

to ice skating we will go.

It's ice skating season again!  With the cold weather upon us the area in front of the Rathaus has once again been transformed into an "Ice Dream" (English translation).  Several of my students put on ice skates for the first time and stumbled around on the ice...with smiles on their faces.  It was fun to watch each student laughing and smiling as they soared across the ice.

Night of Fun

In celebration of a successful first semester I invited my students over to my apartment for a night of pizza, hanging out, and movie watching.  We had a WONDERFUL time!  The kids are already asking about the date for our next movie night.  :)  Sadly most of the photos didn't turn out very well, but please enjoy the few I have.

Moment of Firsts

The first day of snow is a very exciting time at ICSV.  This year it decided to come several months later than last year.  (I'm NOT complaining about this!)  Not only was it the first day those in Vienna experienced snow, it was always the first time a few of my students had ever experienced snow in their lives.  Enjoy some of the pictures and video below. :)

Snowball at the camera :(

At least one of these students had never experienced snow before :)

Leaving on a Jet Plane

This year I was once again blessed with the opportunity to go home for Christmas.  Being home with family is something I used to take for granted.  I never fully realized how much being around them gave me such joy and comfort.  Living overseas and only visiting twice a year is challenging.  Don't get me wrong; I love that God has put in Vienna.  It's the perfect place for me.  He knew exactly what He was doing and I've learned to trust that His plan is the right one.  I thank God often that He gave me my family and allowed us to be very close to each other.

This Christmas, as a family, we spent time simply enjoying each other's company.  The rest and relaxing atmosphere helped me return to Vienna with a renewed energy for the new year.  Hooray!

At the Airport with my friend, Jessica

Family Trip to Hume Lake

Kindness at Christmas

This year, at Christmas, I wanted my students to focus on someone besides themselves.  In order to teach this we spent a lot of time talking about what God gave to us and how we should be thankful for Jesus' sacrifice.  Another way we focused on this was by giving gifts to others.  The students not only wrapped up the pottery they had made in Art, they also participated in a gift exchange.  Each student was given the name of another student and they needed to get a small gift for their "Secret Buddy."  Shortly before Christmas break we exchanged our gifts.  I hope you enjoy some pictures from our lesson below.

Wrapping our Gifts

The Gift Exchange