THE REYNOLDS WRAP

Our Blog Home Has Moved . . . AGAIN!

2009-09-23T10:59:00.002+02:00

THIS JUST IN . . .

OUR BLOG HAS MOVED AND CAN BE FOUND HERE

Our new blog is linked to facebook so you can read our posts on there. Wordpress works better for what we want to do. We will have the option on our new blog to upload our newsletters every month that we do one and then you can download them from the blog. Should be a good move.

WE WILL NOT UPDATE THIS BLOGSPOT BLOG ANYMORE . . . good bye BLOGSPOT!!! :)

Needs for next year . . .

2009-04-27T10:48:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

We are very grateful for your support over this past school year . . . as the year comes to a close we are still looking for willing people to fill some positions in our school. The opportunities are as follows:

TEACHING POSITIONS:
Elementary
MS/HS Science
MS/HS Math
HS English
HS Art
Music (K-5)
Music (6-12)
HS Spanish
LD Teacher
ELL Teacher
Physical Education

SUPPORT POSITIONS:
School Counselor
Athletic Director
Network Administrator

If you know of anyone that might like one of these positions please refer them either to us or they can go to the Vienna Christian School website on the opportunities page.

Please join with us in praying for the staff that is coming for the 2009-2010 school year and the staff that have yet to hear about VCS. Thanks in advance for standing with us in prayer.

B, B, & T

New project . . .

2009-04-25T19:27:00.003+02:00

Hey all,

I finally got it done. Our brand new cork board made entirely out of old wine corks cut in half. It took a while to find enough corks to make this happen, but after getting some from my father-in-law, our friends, some lying on the Merkur parking lot, and using some of our own we made this wonderful board that is now on the wall in our entryway hallway.

It was a very fun project, one that I would recommend anyone with corks to try. You will need alot of corks, but its worth it.

B

Our other blog . . .

2009-04-23T14:20:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

We are currently running another blog as well as this one with the intention to switch once I figure out the system that wordpress uses. You can visit the "new" one and see what you think . . . let us know your thoughts. http://thereynoldsinwien.wordpress.com/

The new blog has multiple pages with information about us and the ministry the Lord has us involved in. I really like wordpress because we can make extra pages. Its basically just like blogger but it offers better options. Let us know what you think!:)

B, B, & T

Small blessing . . .

2009-04-18T15:51:00.002+02:00

What a blessed guy I am . . . I have a cold today and was in bed all morning and for lunch I came out to the kitchen and my wife had prepared something that was just delicious and it looked really good too. Just a little way that the Lord has blessed my life . . . with the wonderful woman, not the food!:)

Whats happening . . .

2009-04-15T10:38:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

Its been a while since I have been on here . . . for those of you that are only following us on here I am sorry, I am posting more photos and things on facebook. Just sign up for a facebook account and then add me as a friend and you will then have access to all of our pictures. Its just way easier to upload them on facebook.

As for my current interest . . . I am very interested in how the Hebrew language looks and have been experementing with the google translator online and translating bits and pieces of the Bible and other phrases into Hebrew. Granted it probably isn't too accurate, but it sure looks cool. Here is our blog title in Hebrew:

גלישת ריינולדס

I think my interest in this came out of our recent trip to Krakow, Poland, and the visit we had to the Auschwitz concentration camp museum and the jewish quarter of Krakow. I am just fascinated at how the Lord has brought this people through such terrible times. I mean it is a shame that they have missed the point of the fact that Jesus is the Messiah that they have been waiting on for centuries, but their culture is really fascinating and one that we all can trace our western ways of thinking back to. There is a great book by Thomas Cahill called The Gifts of the Jews. In his book Cahill writes about how the ways we think and things that are engrained into our western way of thinking, our worldview, go back to the time of the books of the old testament and the Hebrew people. Abraham, instead of just going about life in the ancient circle of birth, growth, reproduction, and death like mostly all other civilizations of that time, decided to follow "his Lord" and just go, to start to lead a life that is in a sense looking towards a future that was not there under the other civilizations' worldviews. So basically I am oming to a greater appreciation of Jewish culture and their history which is really shared. If I am unclear about what Cahill wrote, it was a fantastic book and one I would urge you to pick up and read sometime.

Thats pretty much all for this post . . . I hope to update as soon as I can.

Little Red Hen . . .

2009-03-25T13:08:00.002+01:00

Hey all,

Today our Kindergarten-2nd graders put on a musical play called The Little Red Hen and Betka and I put together the wonderful mask/hats that the kids are wearing for it. Enjoy the pictures below!:)

A walk to remember . . . a walk to nowhere.

2009-03-13T12:26:00.002+01:00

Hey all,

I thought I would post another video on here . . . I am really sorry that we haven't been keeping this up as much.

If you aren't on facebook you definitely need to be and then you can see more pictures of Tobi and our life here in Wien.

The video below captures a little bit of the, at the time frustration, but now in hindsight a little bit of humor, of our trip to the Neusiedler Lake south of Vienna on the border with Hungary. We thought we would take the train to a little village that, by the map showed as being right on the edge of the lake. Turns out it is right on the edge of a butt load of marshland. A wonderful place to visit if you want to get away from the city of Vienna but not if you want to see the actually Neusiedler See. Enjoy the video!:)

Sickness . . .

2009-03-02T12:14:00.003+01:00

Hey all,

About a week ago my wife went to a baby shower, one of the ladies there was coughing and now our little boy has a horrible cough and a virus the doctor said as of last Tuesday. It has been almost a week since the doctor visit and Tobi isn't really getting better. We talked to some friends of ours and they said that it just takes time to get over it. The doctor actually said that there is really nothing he can do. It is pretty rough at home now. Please pray that he will get rid of this thing soon so we can resume life as usual. Thanks in advance for your prayers.

B

Summer thoughts . . .

2009-02-20T10:12:00.002+01:00

Hey all,

Its been a while again . .. again this is due to my schedule being so different.

This evening we are going to have our annual International Family Fun Night. This is a wonderful event in which we sort of celebrate the fact that the Lord has blessed us as a school by bringing us students from so many nations, 34+ nations at that. It is a fun evening of song, dance, performances of cultural nature, and a great evening to get to know the parents of our kids. Betka and I will be preparing and running "the Czech Room", one of many rooms that teachers and parents are putting on to teach the kids about different countries. The kids take their "passports" around and get a stamp for each country only after they demonstrate that they learned about the country. We are very excited about our Czech room and hope that the kids will learn alot about a country that is my wife's home country and is slowly becoming my second mother land. Please pray that this evening will be a big impact towards the parents and our students' families for Christ.

On another note, I thought I would write very generally about a student that I have in one of my art classes right now. This boy seems to be very rough around the edges and tries to get attention from others during class. Unfortunately his ways of doing so have gotten him suspended from school twice already and his attitude seems to not be changing much at all so far. Sometimes hearing this guy talk during my class I get a sense that he really wants to know the Truth, but his life experiences to this point have not been helpul in leading him to Christ. I will call this student Akbar for this and all the other posts that I write about him. Please pray for him, the Lord knows his real name, and I believe that being here at VCS among other believers will be excellent for him. Please pray that I, as his teacher, would have a ginormous amount of patience with him and that the Lord might use me to get through to him with His Truth. until next time . . . Tschuss!

B

Facebook . . .

2009-02-12T19:52:00.002+01:00

Hey all,

I thought I would just put a little plug in for facebook on here.

You might have noticed recently that we are posting less and less pictures on the blog here and this is mainly due to it being way easier for us to upload them to facebook.

For those of you not in on the facebook phenomenon it is an extremely useful online database of networking tools that can be used for everything from photo and video sharing to online chat, messaging, and blogging. It is all for free and it is AMAZING. The way it works is you can sign up for free by going to www.facebook.com and you set up your profile and add some basic information about yourself, its totally customizable to what you prefer. The security on it is excellent, it lets you make yourself as public as you prefer. Betka and I are both on there individually and once you are on facebook people can add you as a friend, then you either choose to confirm their friendship on facebook or not. It has been excellent for us to be connected to peple this way. They even have a set up where you can have new comments and messages on facebook sent to your email address. This is definitely becoming something that is bridging the generation gap as both my mother-in-law and mother hae facebook pages. All of Betka's and my friends from the States and Czech are on and we can message and share pictures and video . . . it really makes you feel more connected to those that you know and aren't able to be with at the moment.

Anyway thats the end of my rant on facebok and I end it with a very strong recomendation that you go and get a facebook page if you have not already. Its all free and you can do as much with it as you want. Add me and Betka and you will then have access to all the pictures hat we upload of Tobi and our time here in Europe. Thats all, get a facebook and we'll see you on there!

The crazy world of facebook does not mean that we are abandoning this blog, some of you might have thought so what with only 2 posts in 2 months. I have been thinking about why it is that I (Brian) have been so terrible about writing on here and really it comes down to this: I am much, much more busy with actual teaching time and that has meant less blogging time . . . so, I am truly sorry and will try to blog more, but it just will not be happening during school hours.

Until next time . . . Tschuss!:)

BBT Reynolds

Ok, not to seem like self-pity, but here goes . . .

2009-02-01T22:26:00.004+01:00

You know it always seems like a break in school and the every day going to school, teaching, and normal routine are the times that are most relaxing, but at the same time the most introspective for me.

Please do not feel that I am self pitying myself here or anything, but I have been thinking alot about the recent past (The last 3-4 years, since I graduated from college in May 2005 anyway) and it is amazing how the Lord has brought me to this place. College was an awesome time for me. I had alot of close friends, many that I felt really close to and could share anything and then May 2005 came and I was seemingly ripped out of that place with such good friendships and they have been reduced to facebooks friends. Don't getme wrong, I am glad that I have been sent on the journey of life that I am currently on, it is the Lord's will, but I regret not having been able to cultivate some of the relationships that I had in college. If you are one of my good college buddies reading this right now . . . I am missing you all right now.

After college I embarked on what I see in retrospect as a naive conquest to "follow the Lord". What I thought then to be a year to "Do the Lord's will, serve Him and the people of South Czech" turned into 11 months of being a burden to the very people that I came to serve, meeting my future wife, and stumbling upon the next stage in my life. In the process I realized that while God seemed to have used my naivete for his own work (what I have no idea) it is better for us to go into missions knowing full well that a.) we are going to serve a real need, not a misperceived need. b.) To go where we are called and to know in our hearts why we are there. I know for certain that the Lord has brought us here to Austria to minister to international students in a Christian school setting. How do I know this? Well, mainly due to how at home we both feel amongst the students. It truly is like a big family and we have a huge desire to care for these family members, our students. There are days believe you me that we feel like we are in the wrong place, but thats just Satan whispering in our ears when we are tired and a bit down trodden.

So to wrap this post up . . . . (I actually finished this a week or so after starting) I guess I come to the point that we do feel a sense of peace here. It is a really strange but wonderful thing to know that we are smack dab in the middle of the Lord's ever loving and caring, all-knowing hand. Until next time take care and live victorious.

BBT Reynolds

Wow, its been a while . . .

2009-01-17T16:13:00.002+01:00

Hey all,

As I write this post from Czech, visiting Betkaś parents I notice the date of our last post . . . that is terrible, I can´t believe that it has been a month since we wrote last!

So, where to start . . . letś see. The holidays were a great time for us despite not being able to share them with all of our family back in the States. School got out on the 19th of December and we went to Czech to spend Christmas with Betka´s family. Her parents had a full house as we were there as were Betkaś grandparents. Thats a total of 9 people sleeping over in a house with only 3 bedrooms. Betka, Tobi, and I slept in her old room. Babinka, Betka´s grandma slept on the other single bed in her brother Stepan´s room, and Dedo, her grandpa slept on the couch in the living room. It was a crowded house, but the crowdedness of close family that really cared for us ministered to our hearts. It was a great Christmas celebrated by 3 generations present. Holding with Czech tradition we celebrated Christmas with gifts on the evening of the 24th after the Christmas dinner which is usually carp, but this year it was not (Praise the Lord!). This Christmas, Tobi´s first was great for him although I do not believe that he will remember anything about it. he did dress up for the occasion . . . see the pictures that I posted to facebook

New Year´s Eve or Sylvestr as Austrians and Czechs call it was celebrated in Vienna this year, a first for our family. Tobi´s first New year´s was also a memorable one. My mother was with us from December 26th until january 3rd and even she will tell you that on New Year´s Eve the Viennese turn their city into a veritable warzone as it is the tradition for individuals and families to shoot off fireworks to ring in the New Year. The view from our seventh floor balcony facing downtown was AMAZING! I will try to post a video later . . . pictures do not do the pandemonium justice. Try to imagine a city of 1.6 million people shooting professional grade fireworks off from wherever they happen to be at midnight. For us that meant that people were dropping firecrackers from the balconies above us and shooting massive fireworks off of the roof. There was a couple of guys in the apartment building 150 feet off of our balcony shooting from their window. The apartment complexes across the way were amazing, the people were shooting fireworks off of 11th or 12th floor balconies . . . it was incredible. We invited VCs staff to our place for New Year´s so we rang in the New Year with a nice little group of friends, board games, Taboo, and firework displays. Happy New Year Vienna style! :)

On January 7th we started school again. The rest of that week and this past week have been us finishing up the first semester and getting ready for the next one. This next semester I (Brian) will be teaching two more blocks of secondary classes. One is going to be called "Creative Art Media" where I will have 6-8th graders for a mixed media semester where we will study everything from Book art, paper making, to macrame and sculpture. The other class I will be teaching, I will be supervising a senior in his self-study of Photography. I will be much much busier, for example where I used to have all afternoon off on Tuesdays I will now only have an hour and a half off from teaching time. Its a big change but it should be rgeat. I will have a whole hour and a half with the middle school kids in an art class, so that will be cool.

Other than that things are just business as usual. One thing that we do have to announce is that the school will open as usual this coming fall. Our director met earlier this week with our school´s inspector from the Austrian school district who dropped by for a surprise visit. The inspector said that even though our staff´s visa situation is something that needs to be solved soon there is hardly a chance that the offices need to close us down would be able to act quick enough to do so to close our school for next year. So we have one more year, but keep praying for us and our administration that we might somehow find a solution to our current visa problem.

Again thank you so much for our prayers and we will hopefully update again very soon, sorry for such time between posts, its been a very busy ¨month. God bless you all! :)

Blessings and peace from Wien,
Brian, Betka, and Tobi

Holiday plans . . .

2008-12-18T11:51:00.003+01:00

Hey all,

We now have a general idea of what we will be doing for our holidays here in Europe.

School is out at noon tomorrow until the 7th of January when we resume. Betka, Tobi, and I will leave for a Czech Christmas on December 22, then return to Vienna to get my mother from the airport on the 26th. Betka's parents will be driving their new car to Vienna to get us and take us "home for the holidays" . . . this means that we will celebrate on the 24th like true Europeans!:)
That also means church in Valtice on the 25th.

When my mom gets here on the 26th we will most likely stay in Wien for the New Year. We will have a big New Year's party at our place. Currently we have almost 10 people that have said they will be there. It will be awesome as you can see the entire city from our 7th story apartment (See images below, views from our living room)

The my mom goes back to the US on the 3rd and we have a couple more days left until school resumes.

That about sums up our plans for the holidays . . . Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and a really blessed holiday season to all of you wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ out there. Be blessed!:)

Brian, Betka, and Tobi

Merry Christmas and Advent Season . . .

2008-12-10T09:25:00.002+01:00

Merry Christmas everyone . . . this is December 10t on our library's Advent calendar.

Enjoy!:)

Elementary school . . .

2008-12-10T08:12:00.002+01:00

Hey all,

Thought I would jot a quick note to share a website that our elementary kids are working with.

https://vcselem.wikispaces.com/

Enjoy!:)

B

Hmmm . . . Happy Thanksgiving?

2008-12-02T12:01:00.001+01:00

Hey all,

Just want to recount the events of the past week to give you a little glimpse of what our life is like here in Vienna at this point in the school year.

Last week, the week before Thanksgiving break, we had one actual full day of school for the whole school. Tuesday was a half day for the elementary school and Wednesday was a half day for the secondary students. Wednesday was also parent/teacher conferences for the whole school. We had Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving break. (It is important to note that Thursday and Friday are normal days for the Austrians.)

My wife came in to school at noon on Wednesday and told me that the power was out at home. So after school we hung out in the dark and tried to figure out what the problem was, finally coming to the conclusion that it was just our apartment and it had been shut off. This was when we remembered a little slip of paper that a man had given Betka back on November 12th. At the time she and I didn’t think it was all that important and in fact thought it really weird that the man showed up at 7:30AM. Turns out on this little slip of paper it read that we needed to show up in person at the Wien Energie customer service place downtown to sign the contract before the 18th of November in order to continue service. I had written this slip of German writing as non-important and failed to see the bold fine print where this information was located . . . sooooo to make a long story short, we had to go downtown and then set up an appointment at the earliest time yesterday between 7 and 10AM. We had no power for all of Thanksgiving Break!!!

So as of yesterday we were actually able to cook and keep food in our own apartment. Thanks be to God that we had other options in the form of our neighbors that we were able to cook our meals and do things past 5:00PM (When it gets dark) all break. The result of the break, a time that was supposed to be nice an relaxing, is that I am feeling very run down and tired. You can also add to the fact that Tobi has something wrong right now in that he has 2 white spots on his gums and seems to be in pain. We think it might be teething because he is 4 months old, but it could also be something else. We took him to the doctor yesterday and he said that we should wait a week and then see whats happened. If the white spots are still there after a week then we are supposed to bring him in again.

On top of this all we are trying to figure out how to transfer funds from our American bank account to our Austrian account. The bank we now have in the States, National City, has been a real pain in trying to set up a monthly withdrawal. basically they will not allow me to set one up to take out a specific amount every month . . . they want me to call before taking it out. So now not only do I have to call in advance, after 2:00PM our time, but I have to take a 40 minute round trip downtown to have the money transferred . . . I know it seems like I am complaining, but it is just life right now. Please pray for my sanity and that we will weather this turbulent time with the Grace of Christ.

Thank you in advance for your prayers!

Brian, Betka, and Tobi

Election funny . . .

2008-11-12T17:18:00.002+01:00

So . . .I was reading a fellow teacher's blog today about the election. She apparently held a mock election the day of the real election and that generated much discussion. One of her students (a second grader) said something hilarious. Here is the excerpt from her blog:

"I just have to throw this little comment in, for laughs. My swing voter, an 8-year-old Filipino boy named K.D., was talking to another teacher about the election, and here's what he said,"I know Rock Obama - he's the President!" (Not yet, says the teacher). "I know he's not yet, but he will be - he's got enough electric boats to win!" Gotta love childhood."

So Mr. Rock Obama . . . you are the next President of the United States . . . we are all praying for you . . . thats pretty much all we can do!:) have a good one everybody!:)

B, B, & T

The address was wrong . . . hold the phones!:)

2008-11-10T07:46:00.004+01:00

The address I gavce was a bit wrong . . . thanks to Telekom Austria, our phone service provider we realized that the address that we posted last time is actually wrong.

Our CORRECT address at home is:

Meistergasse 4/1/30
A-1210 Wien, Austria
EUROPE

If you send something to the other address it might or might not get to us. The address that is fool proof is:

Wagramerstrasse 175/Panethgasse 6a
A-1220 Wien, Austria
EUROPE

Thats our school address . . . it will get to us for sure if you send it there.

Hopefully you did not send anything to the wrong address . . . sorry for the confusion.

We are currently living out of our new apartment. Sometime this week we will close with the former landlord and do our "Melding" which is the notification of the Austrian authorities as to our location in the city. "Anmelding" and "Abmelding" needs to be done when one leaves the country for an extended amount of time and/or when they change addresses in the city.

The details of our move are pretty much taken care of. The only thing we have left is a prefectly good washing machine that we need to sell . . . so if you live in Vienna and know of someone that needs a 2 year old washer let us know!:)

Moving DONE . . . well mostly.

2008-11-05T12:14:00.006+01:00

So our move to the
22nd district in Vienna from the 2nd is finally done. All but our washing machine is in the new place.

Our new home address in Vienna is as follows:

Meistergasse 4/1/30
A-1220 Wien, Austria
EUROPE

This new place has a separate room for Tobi and we also have a guest bed in that room so if you ever find yourself in the Vienna area and need a place to crash for the night . . . let us know!:)
We are supremely blessed to have this new home. We have some pictures to share with you all from the moving time. We look forward to your visit if you ever can . . .but for now . . . a virtual tour. . .

Above: An avalanche of boxes . . . we can't wait to get rid of them.
Below: Betka is pooped after organizing our "library" and various other shelves.

Above: Another view of my lovely wife and our new sitting/living room.
Below: through our arched hallway facing the front door of our apartment.

Above: Betka in front of our "wall of boxes", Below: The view from where Betka is in the first picture down our hallway. Tobi's room is the first on the right, our's is at the end.

Above: Our super kitchen.
Below: Brian & Tobi enjoying the use of our kitchen table.

Overall it has been an excellent choice to move here . . . we have other VCS staff members close at hand, we have plenty of space, and it is very close to school. Obviously the only drawback, which I have come to realize is a necessary evil, is that our rent went from 480 Euro a month including verything to 800 Euro a month not including electricity. Please be in prayer as to how the Lord might use you to help us stay in this wonderful place and to meet our monthly needs. We are so blessed to be in this place. Hopefully we will be freed up to be more of a blessign to those around us now that the space situation is solved. Thanks guys and girls!:)

B, B, & T

New apartment thoughts . . .

2008-10-22T09:30:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

Just thought I would update as to how the moving process is going and what we can use prayer for.

On Sunday Betka and I took down our nice an comfortable bed and for the past three nights and the rest of the time until we move we will be sleeping on mattresses on the floor of our living room. It sure isn't comfortable and it is a constant reminder of how badly I can't wait to finally move. We have started packing various things that we will not be using in the next week. Our final moving plan goes as follows . . . Friday, October 24, we will "inspect" the apartment as it is being repainted and fixed up this week and we will get the keys from our landlord. That same day we will head to CZ for our fall break. We will have Monday the 27th and Tuesday the 28th off for our fall break and then we will return to Vienna on Tuesday evening to really start the actual physical moving of our stuff, starting Wednesday the 29th after school with the actual physical move. So if all goes according to plan we should be entirely moved in by Thursday the 30th of October. Our landlord will sign the lease with us in the first week of November and is really laid back as to how to proceed with that.

Our one concern with this all is that we need to put three month's rent down as a deposit. That means we need to come up with 2400Euro/$3100 to deposit. Our landlord is again very understanding of our situation and has offered to spread that out along 3 months. So basically we will be paying twice the amount of rent for the first 3 months with the possibility of getting the deposit back after we are finished with the apartment. amazingly we are seeing how the Lord is going to provide us with the needed funds. If you are feeling the Lord leading you to help us out with moving expenses please send your contribution in to RCE. Contact us for more details.

Be blessed all!

B, B, & T in Wien

2008-10-20T09:40:00.008+02:00

Hey all,

The following are clips that a friend of ours shot with our camera on Tobi's dedication Sunday at the International Chapel of Vienna where we have ended up attending here in Wien. Enjoy the videos!

Tobi was wonderful and hardly made a sound. The screaming that you hear is the pastor's youngest son Eli who happened to be the unhappy baby in the congregation that morning. Sorry these are a week late, but they are finally on here!:)

Love you guys,
B, B, & T

9 days until operation "new home" initiates . . . .

2008-10-15T14:18:00.003+02:00

Hey all,

As you can tell there are only 9 days until we are able to start moving in to our new apartment. 9 days? You might ask, well, on the 24th the landlord is going to show us as one final inspection before we would sign the contract. For this landlord however, this means that we can have the keys and begin moving in even before the contract is signed. So . . . a week from this Friday we will be able to start moving things in.

This means that we are now really starting to pack things up. It is strange contemplating moving from the place that has been all you have known in a particular place. I lived in Vienna as a single man in our current apartment, I was a newlywed in this current apartment. Betka and I went though preparations of having a little one and then welcoming him home to our apartment. It has truly been like home for us. It will be sad to say good bye to it. Where we are moving though is so much better, its just going to be very different!:) We will be within an easy walking distance from school, we will have every shop imaginable within 10 or 15 minutes walking and we are going to be around many of our friends.

Please remember us in prayer as we try to figure out all the details of this move. A specific prayer would be how the finances are going to work out. We can afford the monthly rent and we think after roughly guestimating, that with the deposit we will be able to afford that too, but we are a bit nervous. Also you can be in prayer that we would get all of our deposit back from our current landlord. Over the last 2 years there have been some damages that could lead them to keep some or all of the deposit . . .please pray that we would get all 960 Euro back and that there would be no hurt feelings between us and our landlord. Thank you in advance for praying. Bless you all.

B, B, & T

The results are in . . .the winner is . . .

2008-10-03T15:30:00.003+02:00

The poll showed that 9 people of 12 thought the one on the right was me and they are right. 3 of you though . . . . come on! :) have a good one ya'll!:)

Tobi's Dedication Czech Style

2008-10-01T10:44:00.004+02:00

Hey all,

As some of you may know we went to Czech last weekend and had our son Tobias dedicated to the Lord. We have decided to do this twice, once in English and once in Czech to accommodate our dual language relationship/family. Our reason for dedication and not infant baptism is this:

"God in His goodness gives children as gifts to parents. They not only have the awesome responsibility of caring, protecting this gift, but the privilege of enjoying this gift. Children belong to God, and by grace given as gifts to us, therefore we dedicate our children back to God.

Hannah presented Samuel to the Lord.

Luke 2:22: And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.

In the same way Brian and Betka today bring Tobias Martin, presenting themselves first and then Tobi before the Lord." This was taken from the text that our pastor will go by for Tobi's dedication in English.

Betka and I both have different backgrounds, as I was baptized as an infant and she wasn't. This is our compromise. Tobi will be baptized when he makes a personal decision to follow Jesus Christ.

Eventually we will have video of both dedications on this blog or linked to this blog. due to the fact that the video size is a bit larger there will only be bits of the dedications on here in the blog, the rest will be able to be found on youtube.com. I will make sure that I put a link on here when they are accessible. please be patient . . .we could not wait to share this with you all, but know that figuring out how to do this is taking some time for me. Thanks for your patience and here is a teaser for the whole version that should be on youtube as soon as possible.

Our date for Tobi's dedication in English at our Vienna church, the International Chapel of Vienna, is October 12th. We are very excited about this and will share the video and/or pictures as soon as we have them.

God bless you guys!:)

Brian, Betka, and Tobi

Tobi video and poll . . .

2008-09-26T08:47:00.003+02:00

We have a couple things to put up today . . . hope you enjoy them . . .

First a video . . . Tobi has really been looking around and been intrigued with things now. Betka took advantage of this and we took this video. Our little boy is growing by leaps and bounds . . .

Secondly if you would be interested . . . we will have a new poll for you to express your opinion. In the following picture which one is Tobi and which one is me (Brian) as a baby? This will be fun for us as well as you. Feel free to comment as you wish. We're looking forward to reading your responses . . .

Blessings from Wien,

Brian, Betka, and Tobi

Student stuff . . .

2008-09-22T14:26:00.001+02:00

Hey a student of ours in 7th grade, the class president added a neat map to the seventh grade website. Here it is.

Enjoy!:)

B,B,&T

2008 Staff Retreat . . .Lindabrunn, Austria

2008-09-19T10:11:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

Just thought I would let you know that our annual staff retreat will be this weekend. We have a half day after which we head out ASAP to get away to the small town of Lindabrunn. There is a sports retreat center there that we have had the retreat at the past 3 years. It is a great time of relaxation, recuperation and . . .can't come up with another -ation, but it is a really good time. It is forcasted to be a little bit cold and possibly rainy, but hey, we'll make due.

Please be praying that this retreat would be a huge blessig to everyone involved and that we would come back re-energized to be in ministry at Vienna Christian School. Blessings everybody!:)

B,B,&T

Please remember our family in prayer . . .

2008-09-18T14:52:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

This day started out with very sad news from my dad's side of the family. My cousin Bill Reynolds, my dad's brother's only son, lost his newborn son Conner this past Monday. Their email was as follows:

Our son, Connor Charles was diagnosed with a genetic disorder called Congenital Myotonic Dystrophy a couple of weeks ago. This affected his ability to suck, swallow, and breathe on his own. He needed ventilator support from the day he was born as his lungs were just not strong enough to independently support himself. I am sad to say that Connor passed away on Monday, September 15^th.

Please, please, please keep the Reynolds die of our family in your prayers. Connor was going to be my uncle's first grandson. It seems that the Lord wanted to be with him sooner than usual. Betka and I are really heartbroken for my cousin and his wife. Please help us remember them in prayer the coming days as they come to grips with the reality of losing a loved one. Thanks in advance for all your prayers. Be blessed!:)

Brian, Betka, and Tobi

Father and son pics . . .

2008-09-16T08:49:00.004+02:00

Hey all,

When my mom was visiting she brought my baby pictures which I was able to scan and now have electronic copies of. Sooooo . . . . I had this idea to post baby pictures of me so you can compare how much he looks like me . . . . I think I will add a poll later to see what you all think or you can just email or comment on the blog. Enjoy! :)

Over the weekend . . . .

2008-09-15T10:18:00.007+02:00

Hey all,

We really enjoyed this weekend. It was very relaxing for us after a long week. I am so grateful to our Lord that He helped me to form the good habit of leaving school work to be done at school and not to be taken home to work on it. It is serving us well and I highly recommend it to anyone that can afford to do so. It gives Betka, me and Tobi so much quality time that we otherwise might not have. Enjoy the pics and video!:)

7th Grade news . . .

2008-09-12T08:20:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

Thought you might be up for checking up on another blog. We elected officers in 7th grade homeroom yesterday and the president has already set up a blog to keep the other 7th graders up-to-date. Here it is!

Enjoy keeping up on the best class ever . . .the VCS high school class of 2014!

B

7th Grade class

2008-09-11T10:21:00.004+02:00

Below is the 7th grade class of Vienna Christian School for 2008 of which I (Brian) am the homeroom teacher. They represent India, Austria, Egypt, Nigeria, Sweden, USA, Phillipines, Japan, Namibia, Zambia, and South Korea. Thank you in advance for your prayers!:)

Another follower of Christ . . .

2008-09-10T14:18:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

Just thought we would share a bit of a praise. One of our 7th grade boys Luke was baptized a couple weeks ago and he sent me the video of it on youtube. You can see it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKB9n417tK4

His parents are missionaries and are here serving other missionaries on the field by doing member care/counseling-type activities. It is so wonderful to see a kid, whose parents are doing such great things here in Vienna, be such an influence to those around him. He is truly wise beyond his years.

The girl that is baptized is also one of our 7th graders. Emily is a great leader and Christian examle to those around her. We really love this class and hope that you will praise the Lord to hear news like this. He is sooo good!!!:)

Blessings,

The Reynolds

Whats on the horizon . . .

2008-09-08T16:14:00.004+02:00

Hey there dearest support family!

I thought I'd take a chance to share whats on the horizon for us, The Reynolds, here in Vienna.

First off, we would like to really thank all of you for your continued support and prayer through the last year and some months as Betka and I have started sharing our life together, and for the two years before that when I was a missionary by myself. It has been relayed to us that many people read this and aren't commenting . . .this is wonderful though we would love to read more comments from all of you "readers". Our blog is meant not only as a way for us to relay whats happening in our life here in Vienna, but also as a sounding board to voice what you think about what we're going through, what the Lord is currently teaching you, and a way of encouraging us and whomever might read our blog among other things.

So what is on the horizon? . . . Well, first of all, we are not planning on returning to the States for the coming holidays. I know that we have said we would, but it turns out that a trip for Betka, me, and the little one will run us upwards of $3000 and it seems to us to be a much better investment to wait until summer 2009 to return and visit all of you that I am sure are dying to see us, Tobi and catch up on things. So the way it stands now, short of someone making it possible for us to financially be able to travel back for the holidays, is that we will stay here in Europe for Christmas and New Year's. Please know that this was a very hard decision to come to because we really want Tobi to meet all of you, but it makes a whole lot more sense to wait until we will have the money. I hope you will all understand. So that being said . . .please plan on us being Stateside in June and July of next summer, 2009. We are alreaady making plans . . .sort of!:)

As far as things go here we are getting back into the swing of things. Betka will resume teaching her lessons, most of them, this week. She will drop the morning lessons and will only have 5 or 6 students this year as opposed to 11 last year. We really want her to have time with me and Tobi and not completely burn out just for some extra cash. As far as financial things go . . .we are hopefully going to do much better this school year. The school, as part of a plan to extend the longevity of staff has offered a small incentive program to those of us committing to 4 years. We have made this commitment to stay at VCS for another 4 years so every month Vienna Christian School will contribute the money that we usually pay for health insurance, plus a small portion for the main staff member, their spouse and up to three children. For us this has greatly affected how we are financially. We are not fully supported still, but we are definitely getting by with a wider margin at the end of the month. please continue to pray that the school would continue to be blessed that they will be able to continue to bless us in this way.

One thing you might be asking yourself . . "Do they still need my donations?" The answer is yes we do. Ideally, in a perfect worl, missionaries would have no problems getting airfare to go back once a year or to have enough extra money to go on a family vacation or to even support other missionaries that are in need. We are nowhere near that level so please please please continue to send in what you do. Every little bit matters. We pray for all of you. God blessyou folks!:)

Brian, betka, and Tobi Reynolds

Tobi Videos . . .

2008-09-04T10:24:00.004+02:00

Hey all,

The last couple of weeks have been relatively routine . . .trying to get used to being on "baby time". It has been really hard for us to adapt but we know that the Lord has been growing us in so many ways, most of which are unnoticeable by us, during this time. Anyway we just wanted to post a couple videos that we thought were really neat. let us know what you think . . .

Excercise with Tobias. . .

Zonked before bath time . . .

The first day of school!!!!

2008-08-26T11:12:00.003+02:00

So as the picture states . . . it was the first day of school. We have many new faces this year but alot of known ones as well. It is going to be a great year!:)

My 7th grade homeroom alone contains 9 different nationalities. Be blessed ya'll!:)

Brian

Summer update . . .

2008-08-25T10:20:00.003+02:00

Just a quick note about how we are doing financially . . . As far as our RCE missionary account is concerned we are not in the negative. This summer was a complete step of faith for us financially (not that any other time isn't) but we started the summer expecting our child and increasing our monthly "salary" to compensate for Betka's loss of income during the summer. I ( Brian) was certain at the beginning of the summer that we would be in the negative at the end of August, but the Lord has come through yet again! After June, July, & August we are not in the negative . . . in fact we ended this summer "in the desert" with a bout a $400 surplus. The Lord truly does provide what we need . . . why do we even doubt!?!?!? Praise the Lord!

On another note, we are continually praying that the Lord would bring us a different apartment that is a little bigger to house our family that is now one person bigger. Betka and I were discussing that the space in our little 50 meters squared apartment are feeling a little more cramped now with Tobi sharing the living space. Its livable but we are seriously searching for a new place. Please join with us specifically in praying for a new apartment that is insanely low priced. Here are the specifics of what we are looking for:

~65-90 meters squared
~3 rooms (Means living room and 2 bedrooms.)
~Preferably the first or lower floor so that there isn't a too high risk of a little crawler falling out the window.
~Unfurnished except for kitchen, like stove and oven, etc. (We have amassed all the furnishings that we need for other rooms, thanks to the Lord.)
~Total rent per month including utilities = 750 EURO maximum (We now pay 480)

We have seen how the Lord has provided and answered our prayers before when we were very specific when coming to Him and asking so please lift us up in this matter with the previous stated specifics.

The one time this summer where Betka and I really felt the Lord saying "Told you I am almighty and can do anything if you just ask me." was when we prayed that He would help Tobi be born. We prayed right before going to sleep at 10:30 PM on Sunday July 27th that Tobi would come if that was the Lord's timing and sure enough at 1:00A the 28th Betka's water broke and he was born 11 hours later. What an AWESOME God we serve . . . just ask Him really!:)

Anyway, we are so grateful for your continued prayers and ask that you continue to financially support and uplift us prayerfully this week as we see students, some we have met and others that will meet us for the first time this week. Blessings to all of you and may Christ keep you!:)

Brian, Betka, & Tobi

Tobi is 3 and a 1/2 weeks . . . :)

2008-08-21T13:33:00.005+02:00

Hey all,

I promised pictures and here they are!:) I think I picked out the best ones. Anyway . . . if you really want more I would just ask you to email me. I am eventually going to have all of the ones we take and keep up on my Picasa . . . I can send you a link if you email me. If you are ok with what I put on the blog then cool, we will update every few weeks hopefully. The following are really great . . . at least we think, but then again we tend to be biased on this.

It is really awesome to see how Tobi, even though he is so young still, is already starting to have his own personality and things of that nature. I really love being home now . . . not that I didn't before, but it is excellent to see that he really wants to be around me and needs me there. Its something God uses to help mature guys I think. I feel like I have grown immensely th past few weeks. Check in later!:) Blessings ya'll!

B&B&T

Tobi's progress . . .

2008-08-19T15:08:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

I thought I would start an update . . . granted we are very busy now getting ready for school and due to the fact that I do not have a room due to construction I am a little short for time for things "extra" and that includes blog entries and so forth. I will do my best though to keep all of you clued in as to whats happening in the life of our little family here in Wien and the small school that we are totally blessed to be a part of.

Yesterday I and the rest of the VCS teachers and staf for the 2008-2009 school year started what is going to be 4 packed days of beginning of the year information and stuff. Friday the kids come for registration and then the following Monday, August 25th, school starts.

This year we have almost an entirely new elementary staff, we have new kindergarten, 1st grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, P. E., and a new Elementary principal. So far things are going really well and we all seem to be working well together . . . your prayers are needed here to assure that we connect as a team and that we have god work relationships. Thanks in advance for your prayers.

On the home front . . . Tobi and Betka are doing quite well. Tobi is still waking up periodically during the night but he almost always goes right back to sleep after a routine feeding and/or diaper changing. He is absolutely adorable and if I may say so looks very grown up for only a 3 week old! His many faces are amazing!:) We do not have pictures to post right now but will very soon . . .whenever I have a bit of extra time to spare.

One special prayer is for me during these first couple of weeks. Because of the construction as I stated before I do not have my room ready and will be traveling from classroom to classroom the first 2 weeks or so to teach art. I am not a flexible person at heart and this is really hard for me to not really have a place, or computer at school to set my things, to sort of get "organized" for the start of school. Please pray for me to have a really awesome attitude about something thats really hard for me, and that I might be an encouragement to those around me. There are definitely some teachers that have it worse off . . . some rooms will not be usable until mid-October!!! We really do live off of your prayers and they are greatly appreciated.

Until next time . . . Tschuss!:)

B&B&T

Back home!

2008-08-07T07:45:00.003+02:00

Hey all,

We are finally back home as of this Monday at noon. Thus starts the long process of not only Tobi's getting used to "home" but also getting used to the changes having Tobi around 24/7. The following are a list of things that I (Brian) think were things I did not expect or was taken a little by surprise and/or things I have learned first hand . . .I mean everyone tells you that it is hard, but really you aren't actually ever ready for it.

The List
1.) Never in my life have I considered sleeping from midnight until 5AM a good night sleep!

2.) I never knew where some of the elevators out in public were until now. (We use them all for the stroller . . . its easier than the escalators.)

3.) Never play too roughly with your baby right after he/she has eaten . . . it never ends up well . . .just ends up on your shirt.

4.) at least for little boys . . . ALWAYS COVER!

5.) The last one for now . . . It really helps to pray before saying goodnight to your son/daughter . . . two of the last 3 nights have been really good. We prayed before the two good nights. Thats just solid evidence.

Everything is going very well. Betka and I are learning alot about parenting a newborn and at times it feels as though our heads will explode, but so far they are both still intact.

The community here in Vienna is really great at helping us out. We have a meal every other day prepared by someone from VCS and lots of people always tell us that they are there if we ever need anything. We are very thankful that the Lord has placed us in such a special place. Now that Tobi is working on his 10th day of life we are looking forward to the next few weeks when we have some visitors coming. This Saturday my mother will be coming to Vienna for a week to meet her first grandchild. We are REALLY looking forward to having another person with us and just really looking forward to just being with her. Its been a while since we could just be together for the sake of being together and we are really looking forward to it.

Then at the end of August my cousin Jessica will be staying with us. We look forward to her visit as well. If any of you out there find yourselves in Vienna we would love to meet up. Just email us and we'll be in touch.

Anyway . . . we'll update later with more pictures but for now . . .God bless and keep you . . .
Tschuss!:)

Mother and Baby update . . .

2008-08-01T17:33:00.003+02:00

Hey all,

I have been trying to get this update posted now all day and haven't been able to due to baby burping duty and other fatherly chores while I am here in the hospital.

Betka and Tobi are doing really well. The doctor has given her the go ahead to leave whenever she wants to, but we are waiting until through the weekend until we leave because we want to make sure that breast feeding is going well and that we have learned all we need to in order to take care of Tobi.

Here are some "fresh" pics.

Above: This is my favorite picture from when he just woke up. He is so funny looking like this.

Welcome Tobias Martin Reynolds . . . .

2008-07-30T10:51:00.009+02:00

He's finally here! Tobias "Tobi" Martin Reynolds was born on Monday, July 28th, 2008 @ 12:01PM Vienna time at Goldenes Kreuz Privat Klinik in Vienna, Austria. He weighed in at 3480 grams/7.6 lbs. and was 50cm/19.6 inches long. We are very very very honored and blessed to share his first photos with you all. Enjoy!

Below: This picture was less than 2 minutes after he was taken out by C-section. He seems to be saying . . ."Hello World!" :)

Feel free to leave comments on here . . . please leave your name so we know who you are if you comment anonymously. Blessings!:)

Brian, Betka, & Tobi Reynolds in Wien

Summer time . . .

2008-07-22T08:17:00.001+02:00

Hey all,

We are still waiting. Betka's due date is only a week away and she is feeling great . . .Praise the Lord!

We went to the doctor Monday night at 6 and he recommended that Betka go get a fetal well-being scan and fetal heart monitoring done. He was able to schedule us for immediate appointments at the hospital where we plan to deliver immediately following our appointment with him. From his exam he told us that Betka was not really that close to delivery, but that this meant not in the next couple of days. His only concern, was a little one, was that the baby is pretty big and she is pretty small. He wasn't freaking out, but he wanted to get a more definite estimate than what his machine showed. So we went over to the hospital and they did the scan. The baby is VERY healthy and strong, but he is already almost 4 Kilos (3.8 Kilo is roughly 8.2 lbs.) So they did the tests and they sent them to our doctor and our next appointment is for Thursday afternoon. We got back last night around 9:30 so it was a very eventful night. We kind of got the feeling that we will be discussing the delivery more imminently the next time we see Dr. Husslein. We can use your prayers as this gets more and more real and the nerves start to come. We really appreciate it! :)

On another note, we have been doing some things to keep busy and we have some new pictures to share with you . . .

Above:Donald Miller says in his book Through Painted Deserts, that "No, life can be understood flat on a page. It has to be lived; a person has to get out of his head, has to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into rivers . . ." Well, one day we did just that we went with a few of our friends/colleagues and rented paddle boats for an hour on the Alte Donau River. Halfway through our time my friend and I stopped and got out of the boats and decided to jump off the bridge. It was one of the most random things I have ever done and it was a blast!:)

Above & Below: We were also at another friends house on the same Alte Donau and I went swimming again and we grilled out, something we never really get to do. I think one doesn't realize how much they enjoy something like grilling until they can no longer do it whenever they like.

Above: This is a beautiful Viennese sunset from the window of another of our friends that invited us over for dinner. What a blessing!:)

Above and Below: Here are some pics of the construction site. They are a couple weeks behind schedule but are working really hard. Before school starts at the end of August they will install a new elevator, replace the roof, and cut a new door in the art room and make a corner of the room into a handicap bathroom. Also the other pics are the before pictures of my volunteer project that I am doing for the school this summer. The kids had been continually getting splinters on the wooden parts of the playground so I have sanded them down, put putty in the deep cracks, and I am attempting to seal the cracks, preventing splinters, and preserving the playground equipment for generations to come. Check back later for more pics.

As for pictures of our baby boy please keep checking back . . .we will post them as soon as we have some. Should be soon. Be blessed ya'll!:)

Brian & Betka & T _ _ _ _ _

Still Waiting . . .

2008-07-15T10:02:00.003+02:00

Hey all,

Just wanted to let you know that we are still waiting on the birth of our son. We are now only 12 days away from Betka's due date and she is really feeling ready to "get this little guy out". We are truly ready to greet him and welcome him into this world.

We were asked a couple days ago "What would you do if it came out and was a girl?" Well, we would be shocked, but it would still be a blessing. We would probably get a new doctor . . . he has showed us on numerous occasions that it will be a boy and to be honest our entire wardrobe is for a boy. That would be the shock of a lifetime. memorable stories to say the least. We are very thankful for your continued prayers throughout this pregnancy and upcoming delivery.

On another note, I checked airfare prices to get, me, Betka, and the baby "home" to the States this coming holiday and tickets for Betka and myself are running over $1000 a piece. Please be in prayer for us that the Lord would provide the need financial support to not only keep us here in Vienna but also to travel. It is starting to look like its going to be an expensive trip to the States this winter!! Thanks so much all of you for continuing to uplift us in prayers and support. We are very grateful. Be blessed this day and those to come!:)

Brian & Betka & T _ _ _ _

Summer pics . . .

2008-07-11T09:57:00.006+02:00

Hey all . . . Here are some pictures that we have taken this summer. It has been wonderful to see how the Lord continues to bless us in this time that is sort of a break from ministry. We are still anxiously awaiting the birth of our son and Betk's belly is still growing. These are the latest! :)

Above: There is a part of the city where you can rent boats and go out on the Alte Donau (Old Danube). It is basically a part of the old river that has been cut off from River traffic and is now a watersports recreation area. We were just walking around when this was taken but we hope to get out on the water some time before the baby comes.

Above: Betka enjoying walks around outside even though it is pretty hot . . .we try to stick to the shade. :)

Above: Summer time!

Above: Just some pictures of us at home. We love our bedroom window. The ivy is excellent.

We have 16 days left until Betka's due date and we are very much looking forward to meeting our son. By the grace of God and those loyal to Him we have been blessed to have everything we really need for the baby. We are very thankful to those of you out there reading this that have sent clothes, diapers, or money to help us prepare for the little guy. We have been blown away by people's generosity and the way that the Lord blesses us through that. We are really looking forward to this next year and what it brings. We know that it will never be easy but with our Lord's help it is really rewarding. We are very thankful for all of your prayers and support and look forward to the rest of this year and coming school year. Feel free to email us at any time if you want to know how we are doing. We love you guys!:)

Brian & Betka & T _ _ _ _ _

Summer happenings . . .

2008-07-01T10:28:00.003+02:00

Hey all,

Just thought I'd add a little update as to what all is going on in the life of the Reynolds in Wien, Austria.

As you might or might not know . . . school is out for the summer and we are right smack dab in the middle of the summer that has come to be known as "the desert" to at least me (Brian). Going into this summer Betka and I had absolutely no idea how we would have the money to eat this summer. Usually our food money comes from Betka teaching violin lessons and she is not currently teaching those. When the summer started officially on June 13th for us, we had no idea how the Lord would provide for us this summer . . . we could not travel to the States to visit as usual and that is one way that we can usually help provide, but the Lord seemed to not want us to go there because Betka is pregnant. Also there are no music lessons during the summer so we have lost that income. I (Brian) am available to work at the school doing maintenance and so forth, but they are not allowed by Austrian law to pay me as a worker as that would mean I would need a special work permit. So basically upon returning to Vienna from our one week vacation at Betka's parents we were looking at staying in Vienna the rest of the summer with basically no guaranteed income.

With that said let me tell you all how the Lord is really really blessing us despite all that looked so glum just a couple weeks ago. I had been sort of a back up choice for tutoring for some of the kids that needed extra help this summer. I hadn't heard too much about this possibility so we basically counted it as something that could be a blessing but we did not bank on it. So when I returned to school a week ago yesterday we had planned that I would help out at school as much as I could, if I got some tutoring students, fine, but our building manager said that he could use any help I could give. So basically all last week I worked from 8-4 each day not really expecting any compensation knowing that the Lord would provide it in some other way. During that week I had started talking to the teacher that is heading up the tutoring program and she said that she needed help with some students . . .she couldn't handle all of them due to the fact that a couple teachers that had planned to tutor had decided not to. So to make a really long story short she has passed on 5 students to me and I will start tutoring tomorrow for a total of 5 hours tomorrow and then next week a total of 9 hours at 15 Euro an hour. Praise the Lord! It is entirely His doing and all it took was the belief that the Lord would provide for us. Please continue to pray for us this summer as it isn't guaranteed income and a student could stop tutoring whenever the parents want to. However we have been greatly encouraged not only by the new income, but by the continued support and kind words we have received during this difficult time as well.

In other news, we are still awaiting the birth of our son. We went to the doctor the Monday we got back from Czech and he said everything looks good and the baby and mother are doing well. Yesterday we went to IKEA and got our crib so we are finally ready for this little guy to come into the world. Our plans for when the baby is born is to send out one really big email to everyone we know and then post extra pictures and possibly video on our blog as soon as we get a chance. We realize that life will be crazy but it is a really strong desire of ours to share the life of our son with all of you loved ones miles and miles away.

Please remain in prayer for us here in this community in Vienna, your prayers really do make a difference in our lives and without them we could not do the work that we do. One of our secretaries had her nephew pass away this weekend and we are still reeling from the many deaths that we have had in our VCS family this past year. With the Lord's grace we can be a gracious community. We have seen it at work this year and pray that our students' lives would be transformed by their experience with the living God.

Until next time ya'll . . . Danke for your prayers and supprt and have a really blessed week! :)

Brian & Betka & _ _ _ _ _ _ Reynolds

Vacation time . . .

2008-06-19T09:29:00.005+02:00

So now that the school year is over . . ."vacation time" starts. Last Friday we left to spend some time in south Czech Republic with Betka's family in Lednice. Right before we went we took some pictures of our apartment as it is now, and also some of the surrounding atmosphere in Vienna. We have been busy documenting pics of her 8th month belly as well so here are some of the pictures! :)

Below: For the Euro 2008 Vienna put this image of a goalie on the big ferris wheel near our apartment. It is really funny to see his big arms turning around as the wheel turns.

Above: This is part of our living room. When we have guests we move the dining room table so the bed can fold out of the wall unit!
Below: The rest of our sitting room. Betka has really made it into a home.

Above: School is finally over for 2007-2008! Relaxing after putting all my classroom furniture into the middle.
Below left: Beautiful flowers in the Sykora family's garden.
Below right: My beautiful bride the mother-to-be!

Below: A great black and white of the garden shed by their house.

Above: A cat nap.
Below left: Beautiful flowers in the yard. Below right: another great blackand white of the Sykora's back yard.

That's all for now folks. Hopefully we will upload more as the summer keeps going. We return to Vienna this Sunday afternoon and will spend the rest of the summer there until our baby boy is born then we'll see when we return to Czech. Could be some time until our next visit! :) Bessings all! :)

B and B and Baby Reynolds

2008-06-09T10:27:00.006+02:00

This past weekend was really great . . . not only did the Czech national soccer team beat Switzerland, but we also had a really blessed time giving the 6th grade class a going away party.

As I think I have said before we have alot of kids leaving for good this year and they are many of the really outgoing kids from the class. Each and every one of them means alot to us and we will truly miss those that are leaving. The following pictures are from our wonderful weekend. There were tears, there were hugs, there were good friends saying good byes, there was even a crazy American that broke a chair (that was me by the way . . . it was an accident.)

Above: The 6th grade girls. It has been wonderful to see them grow closer as friends and also as their faiths have grown and they have begun the journey to young adulthood. We have been blessed to be in ministry with them.

Below: The group of 6th graders that are leaving. Amongst the group is one girl going to Namibia, 2 to New York, and another to Qatar, the guy isn't sure if he will be leaving or not, but if he leaves VCS he will still be in Vienna. The cake says "Auf Wiederseyen".

Above: I got to be chief griller just by chance and seeing as how none of the other adults were jumping at the chance. I had fun, but it was a ton of meat with not so much grill space. We had a BYOM (Bring your own meat) party. Some kids forgot their grilling meat so we were amazed that the Lord blessed us through very generous hosts. every kid had something to eat whether or not they remembered to bring something.

Below: Making some grub . . . lets see we had hot dogs, hot dogs, kase krainers, chicken, peppers, and more hot dogs! :)

Above right: Mmmmm Kase Krainer!

Below: We even played volleyball . . . not a single rule, but we had fun! This was all possible due to the fact that our Lord didn't let it rain too much and the family that hosted has a huge yard.

Above: Betka reading her part of the Bible verses that on of the adults had prepared that dealt with ho we really are in Christ.

Below: Me reading my part.

Above right: I tried to drive the point home for the kids that even though they are saying good bye that it isn't forever and that our Lord is with them wherever they might be. The kids really seemed to be taking it in and I felt I was able to really convey what has been on my heart lately. Please continue praying for this class with us. We have grown so close this year. It was a really blessed time.

This past weekend was really exciting for us because Saturday marked the beginning of the EURO Cup 2008 for European Soccer. The reason why it is such a big deal is because Austria and Switzerland are the co-host countries and there are games every day for the whole month of June in every major city in Austria and that includes Vienna. Basically this Europe wide soccer tournament is going to finish at a stadium that is literally a 20 minute walk from our apartment. Needless-to-say the excitement of the people in the city and the multiple thousands visiting is electrifying. Betka and I went to the rathaus downtown to the mile of fenced in fan zone to watch, on one of many big screens, Czech play the Swiss national team. Czech won 1-0! Anyway, you can get more information on the tournament, more specifically the fan zone by checking this link.

Bless you all,
Brian & Betka

Bill Cosby quotes . . .

2008-05-27T12:46:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

Upon pondering fatherhood I found some great quotes from Bill that are very appropriate.

"A new father quickly learns that his child invariably comes to the bathroom at precisely the times when he's in there, as if he needed company. The only way for this father to be certain of bathroom privacy is to shave at the gas station."

"Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry."

"Even though your kids will consistently do the exact opposite of what you're telling them to do, you have to keep loving them just as much."

"Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope."

"Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit."

"Human beings are the only creatures on earth that allow their children to come back home."

"I guess the real reason that my wife and I had children is the same reason that Napoleon had for invading Russia: it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right."

"My childhood should have taught me lessons for my own fatherhood, but it didn't because parenting can only be learned by people who have no children."

There hope that made you smile at least . . .smiling and jokes are still what help me through each day!:)

B

Our "Biography" . . .

2008-05-27T10:28:00.005+02:00

Hey all,

We just wanted to provide all of you with an opportunity to help us in our continued support raising effort. We have long known that our own personal connections have been exhausted and in order for our support base to increase we need to get referrals from those that already support us in prayer and finances. We have seen the Lord work in really amazing ways this way before so it has become part of our "support raising strategy".

As a part of what we could ask you to do is simply this. Below is a text and a picture that you may use to spread the word of our need to your home churches. Its basically a simple description of what we do in ministry here in Vienna and a photo collage of us and some of the students we work with doing the many things we do here in Vienna. Please pass this on. You should be able to print both the picture and text from here so please spread the word of our need. You have our permission and blessing to use this as well as anything from our blog to further your spread of our ministry needs. Blessings! :)

Brian & Betka Reynolds are missionary/teachers serving with Resourcing Christian Education International (Wheaton, IL) at Vienna Christian School International. Their goal for their ministry is to get into the lives of their students sharing Jesus with them through relationship.

Currently Brian is teaching elementary and middle school art mainly. He is finishing his second year as a teacher/missionary at VCS. He is also volunteering extra time to aid the current building project at the school as well as helping to direct the drama club for elementary students. Brian has also been the 6th grade homeroom teacher for the 2007-2008 school year. The financial support raised by Brian and Betka is distributed out in a monthly "salary" to them through their sending agency, RCE International.

Betka is thoroughly enjoying her first year of teaching violin and piano before and after school throughout the week. The income that Betka receives from these lessons is supplemental to what their "salary" is.

Looking into the future of ministry and life here in Vienna, Brian and Betka are preparing to welcome their first child, a son, into the world in late July. The Reynolds have also recently committed to another 4 year term of service with Vienna Christian School. They would greatly appreciate your prayer and financial support as it is with these two things that the Lord keeps them on the field impacting students for Jesus Christ.

For more information on us you can check out our blog at http://brianreynolds.blogspot.com or email us at breynolds.art@gmail.com

We pray that you are blessed and hope that you feel led to aid us in ministry in some form or another. Thank you in advance for you prayers and financial support.

With Christ's love,
Brian & Betka Reynolds

Sunday walk in Wien and other Reynolds life things . . .

2008-05-26T12:33:00.004+02:00

The following pictures are from our weekend that really kind of started last Thursday when our school had family fun day. This was a day where all the students were required to show up at the Danube Park for a fun day of relaxation, games, and food with their teachers and other staff. It counted as a school day and was a blast! I had three types of Kimbap, a korean sushi minus the fish and wrapped in seaweed.

Above: This is a view from the Vienna International Center stop on public. It shows, I think, how great the Viennese have been at installing public transportation over the river and through bridges. I just love how the train curves down and under the bridge.

Above: Another belly pic from our walk yesterday at the Schonbrunn palace. Betka is still very active as another of our pictures will show. She is walking alot and it is really hard to even believe that she is starting her 8th month already! :)

Above and Below: We went to the maze at Schonbrunn. Its only 3 Euro to get in and is really neat. Our favorite part was the mirror section.

Below: Betka had fun with this silly thing. When you rock the platform to the left it squirted water up really high. I think it was meant for kids, but we really enjoyed it! :)

Anyway, thats about it for pictures right now.

School is absolutely crazy right now due to construction going on in about 1/3 of our building. I was told today that I will more than likely have to move out of the art room and do that last couple of weeks as a mobile art teacher. Obviously this would complicate my life alot, but in these crazy times flexibility is key! Please pray for the Lord to give me amazing flexibility in the coming weeks as I will most certainly need it. This summer is going to be very out-of-the-ordinary so please, please, please have patience with us and our usual bloggings. We will try to keep it as regular as usual. It will take much more effort for me to check email and blog and so forth, but we will do our best. We plan on sending out a mass birth announcement through our regular newsletter provider so if you would like a hardcopy of the birth announcement, and you don't usually get a newsletter in the mail, please email or let us know your address and we will make sure you get one!:)

Until next time . . . .

Brian & Betka

Vienna Christian School's current enrollment religious break down . . .

2008-05-21T09:27:00.003+02:00

		Middle	High	TOTAL
Country	Elementary	School	School
Buddhist	3	0	0	3
Islam	3	3	5	11
Hindu	0	0	1	1
Miscellaneous	0	0	0	0
None, Not Listed	10	4	13	27
Orthodox	1	0	1	2
Protestant	40	31	54	125
Roman Catholic	10	3	17	30

TOTAL	67	41	91	199

Just thought you might like the above information of what our student body looks like. Please keep our school in prayer as we try to work out our differences and as a staff show the kids Jesus' love through all the differences!:)

Blessings,
Brian

End of the year is getting close . . .

2008-05-19T14:29:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

Just a quick update and prayer request.

The next couple of weeks are going to be crazy. The seniors are done after next week, Wednesday, the rest of us are finished June 11th and teachers have in-service the 12th and 13th. We are going through a rough couple days now as a staff due to the fact that our principal and maintenance man were gone all last week on a mission trip to Romania and we are just now getting them all caught up on what has been a crazy couple of weeks.

Please continue to pray for the administration of VCS and the manner in which they continue to develop staff relationships and so forth. We want to finish the year strong and lay the ground work for the coming summer and following year. Our school is also becoming a construction zone so please be praying for the mass amount of construction that will be happening this ummer starting in the next week or so.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and prayers.

Brian

Missionaries Supporting Missionaries . . .

2008-05-16T14:18:00.004+02:00

A while back I posted about one of our 6th grade girls and her baptism, well, her father is a pastor/evangelist to muslims all over Europe and in the middle east. Rev. Mashraki is part of a group that makes every effort to reach the Muslim people for Christ. Its amazing that by teaching art at this Christian school in Vienna we make it possible for this man to minister where he needs to. They are winning many souls to Christ each day. You can find their site in English and Arabic at http://www.arab4jesus.com/

I translated the arabic at google translate and got this to answer the question "Who we are" in regards to Arabs 4 Jesus.

رؤية وأهداف وخدمة إرسالية عرب ليسوع Vision and goals and serve the mission of Jesus Arabs

رؤيتنا : Vision:

الوصول إلى أبناء العالم العربي وتلمذتهم من اجل يسوع. Access to the sons of the Arab world and make disciples for Jesus. (متى 28: 19 , مرقس 16: 15). (Matthew 28: 19, Mark 16: 15).

أهدافن : Our goals:

تعضيد الكنائس المحلية ومشاركتها في الوصول إلى العالم العربي من اجل يسوع, وذلك من خلال التبشير, التلمذة والصلاة. Consolidation of local churches and their access to the Arab world for Jesus, through preaching, prayer and apprenticeships.

خدمتنا : Services:

1. حملات تبشيريّة Proselytizing campaigns

2. مؤتمرات تدريبيّة Training conferences

3. حلقات دراسية كنسيّة Seminars church

4. خدمة صلاة Prayer service

5. فريق تسبيح Team worshiping

6. وسائل الإعلامأ. And the media.رن

أ. A. الانترنت Internet

ب. B. الراديو Radio

ج. C. التلفاز TV

د. D. الكتب والمنشورات Books and Publications

Thank you again for all you do to help us support ministries like this! :)

Brian & Betka

Recent happenings . . .

2008-05-16T12:03:00.003+02:00

This past week has been very adventurous and alot of fun for us so far. We are looking forward to a quite uneventful weekend.

On Wednesday night we were treated to a BBQ Country cruise on the Danube River. It was from RCE as an appreciation of what we do as missionaries. It was excellent to be pampered for once doing something that we would probably never ever do otherwise. The following pictures are a product of this great time we had from 7:30 until 11PM, quite late for a school night but so much fun and a change of pace.

Above: A nice view of UNO city the section of Vienna that is home of the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Commission amongst other international organizations. Our school is a little ways past this complex and we pass this place every day on the subway going to school.

Below: Beautiful sunset on the river.

Above: I love this picture.

Above and below: Some pictures that Betka and I took on the front deck of our cruise ship to pass the time.

Hope you have enjoyed the photos . . .please comment if you want. We really appreciate reading them!:)

In Christ,
Brian & Betka

History . . .

2008-05-14T13:58:00.001+02:00

We live a very historical district but I didn't fully graps how historical it was until I got the messages of these plaques translated. The first one, the one with my reflection in it, is in memory of the people that were taken from the very same apartment building that we now live in and they were murdered during the "Naziterrors". As I looked at this one I realized that there are two families of four and even a family of five that were all taken. The thing that got me most is that they were living possibly even in the same apartment as we do! Wow, thats history.

The one above is in remembrance of all of the literature that was burned right on this spot which is now on the way we go every morning to school. The history of this city astounds me.

B

Baptism . . .

2008-05-13T07:46:00.005+02:00

Hey all,

Just wanted to let you in on something that was a neat little blessing to us this past Saturday. Betka and I were invited by one of our 6th grade girls to her baptism. Apparently she had asked her pastor if she could be baptized and had been trying to get baptized for the last couple of years. Finally her family set it up at a neat little garden in Vienna. Her dad baptized her in a little pond in the middle of the garden. Here are some pictures from their blog.

We were blessed to be part of Sophie's baptism. God bless you Sophie, you and your whole family! :)

Brian & Betka

Basic Altered Book Materials . . .

2008-05-09T16:38:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

One thing that I have really gotten into is Altered Book making. Its basically where you take old books and save them from the landfill by "altering" the pages. Currently I am working on one that will eventually hold all the post cards that Betka and I receive from a friend of ours that keeps on faithfully sending us postcards from wherever she travels. It is a whole lot for me to do and I hope they turn out well. The materials that I will need to amass are as follows to be able to do as many different techniques as I can. The list was taken from another blogspot blog
Let me know if you can help with getting any of these things. Its possible that my mom could possibly help bring some of it over when she comes in August or you can ship it if you want. I have included only the things I still need from the list. Please notify me if you want to send some things.

But, most of us use many art techniques in our books. Here is my list of basic AB tools.

~Scissors
~Cutting pad, the self-sealing type.
~Glue Stick.
~Golden's Acrylic Gel Medium.
~Bone folder.
~Ruler with metal straight edge.
~Credit card (no, not for buying supplies, silly! It's for smearing and spreading gel medium and paints, and also for use with clamps so you don't mar your pages.)
~Sponge brush.
~Small spray bottle with water. Use to help keep sponge brush damp, and to do quick clean ups.
~Sponge.
~Dorland's wax to wax over pages, particularly if there is a stickyness problem.
~Stencils of letters and numbers.
~Rubber stamps (I use them for text).
~Ink pad with permanent ink.
~Clamps for holding sections together while glueing or cutting.

Ephesians 6:10-18

2008-05-07T11:54:00.003+02:00

Ephesians 6:10-18

A final word: Be strong with the Lord's mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil. For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms. Use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared. In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan.Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.

I really liked this passage of scripture that we had in our intranet daily news that I read every day to the 6th graders during homeroom. It is a way to reach all the kids as long as they are in homeroom and listening. I thought I might look at this scripture and tell you all what I think I do in my life for each of these ways to fight against the forces of darkness.

"Put all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies and tricks of the Devil." This is so true in life as we Christians know or should have experienced. It can come in numerous forms and many that might not even seem like a spiritual attack at the time. Some subtle ways that I see it happen is the way I relate to others. I find that whenever I am not daily in the word and meditating on His words that is when my relationships go down the toilet. If I am not relating regularly to the Lord Jesus that makes everything and is the most important priority then of course relationships with my spouse, co-workers, fellow missionaries, etc will go to pot.

"Stand your ground wearing the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness." For me this is so true like I said before whenever I am not in the word and listening to Him my spiritual pants fall down. Its a little hard to fight the enemy when your pants are around your ankles. Wearing his righteousness armor gives us a thing to be confident in. By no means am I righteous enough of my own accord to stand up to Satan's attacks. In God's strength I am weak but thats ok and daily I try my best to remember that and to walk in that Truth.

"For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared." Sometimes I can't even understand how the Lord brings peace in certain situations but I am very glad that He does. For example, when the stuff with my dad happened, the Lord provided peace beyond what I could ever have dreamed. I praise Him for it.

"In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan." Every time that I start to get depressed or sad that I am away from half of my family and I can't be involved in their lives I believe that Satan ven uses my desire to have good relationships with them to shoot an arrow at me. I am very thankful that the Lord has given me the faith that deflects those arrows or I would definitely not get through everything.

"Put on salvation as your helmet . . ." Salvation is one of, if not the most important things to a Christian living in this fallen world. Without it we are not protected from morally wrong ways of thinking or doing things. When we receive salvation from faith in Jesus we are protected almost by a helmet around our hearts . . . it blocks out the bad. ". . . and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." This allows us to discern what is truly good and bad and helps us to decide rightly which action to take. It acts as a heavenly discerner in our lives.

Thats my nugget for the day.

Brian

Elementary school is pretty busy! . . .

2008-05-07T09:55:00.005+02:00

Elementary has been really busy as of late. We have had two big events recently that I would like to share pictures of. The first event was our elementary drama club's play Folk Tales for Fun. The play was a collection of folk tales from around the world and each "director", of which I was one, worked with a small team of elementary kids to practice and put together one tale. The one that I worked with was a Spanish folk tale called The Farmer and the Snake or La campesina y La Culebra. It is the story of a farmer that frees a snake from underneath a log and when the snake is free it wants to bite the farmer. The snake says it won't bite the farmer if the farmer can find one animal that the farmer is nice to. Basically it taught the idea that you should always do good deeds without expecting a reward. If you do good deeds expecting a reward then you will get tricked according to the Spanish tale where Coyote gets tricked by the farmer. The following are pictures from our performance that we had during school in the afternoon. It was a lot of work but we all had a blast . . .especially the kids. We even had high school kids doing sound and lighting!

The elementary P.E. teacher organized, and all the elementary staff assisted her, in having an elementary field day. Each class dressed in a certain color. Kindergarten (primary) was green, 1st grade black, 2nd grade brown, 3rd grade red, 4th grade white, and 5th grade was blue. It was a great time to see all different events. Scooter towing, softball throw, etc. The 5th grade and 4th grade combined beat the staff and it was very embarrassing.
Enjoy these photos!

Birthday weekend . . . .25 . . .WOW!

2008-05-06T08:37:00.005+02:00

This past weekend was a great time. Basically we celebrated my birthday for three days straight it seems. The following pictures are what I would say represent our weekend the best.

Below is a picture of a building near the Vienna Film Archive. The lighting was wonderful and Betka and I thought the pink of the tree's blossoms was gorgeous.

Below is a shot from right outside of the film archive looking towards an incinerator that had its facade modified by the Viennese artist Hundertwasser whose work Betka and I really like.

Above my beautiful wife. You can't even tell she is more than 6 months pregnant! :)

On Saturday evening we had an all staff praise evening. It was a wonderful time and the following couple of shots show the praise team.

Below is the representation of my actual birthday "cake" and present from my wife. She woke me at 8AM on Sunday (I was going to wake myself up at 8:15) and had this "cake" lit with 25 candles. I say "cake" because it was actually a chocolate cookie with peanut butter chips!!! tasty! She also bought me the coolest little World Atlas. I felt so loved!!!:)

On our street there is this building with this statue on it. Vienna is a city of opposites and this is illustrated very well by the fact that kitty corner from this statue, which can be such a wonderful reminder of the Lord's presence in this world, is a house of ill repute, a sauna bar.

Below is a picture of the tram that runs very close to our apartment and is our way to get to the inner city within about 5 minutes or so above ground. Anyway due to the new part of the U2 line opening on May 10th they are going to take out this tram line. So the 21 will be no more. This photo is a tribute to the 21er (ein und zwansiger) as the Wieners call it.

Above: I took this great picture of the end of our street. The city of Vienna is a very growing city and these huge cranes can be seen almost anywhere in the city. This one is building new apartment houses a couple blocks down from us.

All-in-all my birthday weekend was very blessed for me. Not only did my wife do amazing things for me, but on Saturday evening I also got a free mexican meal, Mole (pronounced mol-lay) which was actually just like the Mole I had in Guadalajara. We also had the all staff appreciation dinner (free food and drinks) at a restaurant/wine cellar that is almost 500+ years old. Pretty awesome!:) I felt really loved and blessed this weekend!

Birthday and mother's day coming . . . .

2008-05-02T10:26:00.003+02:00

Hey all,

This weekend marks my 25th birthday and honestly I don't feel a 1/4 of a century old yet. It seems like yesterday that I was 22 and graduating from college embarking on what was at the time thought to be just a year in Europe and has now through the grace of our Lord turned into an open ended journey through life. Never did I envision when leaving the US in July of 2005 did I think that I would be married a little over 2 years later and within 4 I would witness the birth of my first child. God's plan for our lives is sometimes unimaginable for us and incomprehensible for us, but it is without a doubt hands down the best possible route that we can take through life. Life with Jesus is sometimes very rough and by no means the easiest route we can take, but it brings the most peace to us as followers of Him.

Life, it seems, can be very routine. For us we get up, sometimes we thank the Lord for a new day, we don't always (We should), then we walk to the UBahn and ride it to the school's stop, then we go through our days pouring our lives into these kids that most of the time do not show appreciation for all we do. I have been thinking about that and have come to the conclusion that this is how our life can be at times. It is up to us to look at our lives the way they really are, a gift from the Lord, a new time to live solely for extending His kingdom. If you're anything like me you sometimes miss that point in the rough and tumble of everyday life. Thats fine and I think even normal in the human frame of mind. It is this mindset that I find myself coming out of at the present time. The only thing that can really help me out of times of doubt and depression is the caring of the body of Christ around me. I realize that there comes a time when spiritual maturity gets to the point where you can be brought out of these times by reading of scripture and prayer alone, but currently I am at the point where reading of scripture and prayer help but it is the added community to the rest of these things whose added strength brings me out of the depths of everyday humdrumnity (I made up a word) of life.

Some of you might be wondering what we do in our spare time here in Vienna. Mainly we like to take trips and get the most out of the city public transportation cards that we have. For 45.90 Euro monthly for 10 months we get a card thats good for a year. That includes basically every mode of transportation within the city limits. You have probably seen our recent entries where we have posted pics from our walks. Most of these "Hikes" have been within Vienna but on the outskirts. We also enjoy reading . . . . Brian's wanted books list will be posted soon if you would like to send us a "care package". The most recent thing that I have become almost obsessed with is called Altered Books or Altered Art. It is basically where you find a book, preferably hardcover that is going to be discarded, and you make art by painting, collaging, cutting, folding, etc the pages inside to create a new "Altered" piece of work. Again if you have any books that you are discarding and want me to use them in my new-found hobby then please send them our way.

Until next time . . .

Peace.

Brian

What is going on in life . . .

2008-04-24T16:51:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

Just thought I would help you get a glimpse of what life is like for us right now.

Obviously we are expecting our first child and with that comes alot of preparations. We are preparing our apartment for him, trying to make things cleaner, tidier, and arranged for maximum space allowance. Needless to say it is very difficult and I (Brian) don't always enjoy it. I enjoy dreaming about what I could do if I had some tools and could make some of the things we need for the baby. Honestly, I know that building a crib is quite beyond me but I still have a longing to make something that my son will grow up using. Along the same lines I have been feeling quite creative lately. I have a couple interests in the art area that I would like to further develop, but I am without the materials. One of those is stone sculpture. I did it in college for sculpture class and I would love to keep doing that in my spare time but finding the little extra money for stone and buying good quality tools takes extra money of which we do not have much at this present time.

Another desire that I have at this time is to do what is called "altered art". That is you take something and "alter" it to create a new object or the same object slightly modified. This can best be done with books. You take an old book that would be of little or no use and it is saved from the land fill by tearing out pages, adding materials, painting, etc so that a new book is decorated. I have been experimenting with this and I find it quite rewarding when I take the time to think through the process of creativity. You know it is funny how since I have become and art teacher I find myself wanting more and more to do creative things at home and I just don't have the materials. Please if you want to and feel that you would like to encourage me in these pursuits . . .ask me how you might help. There was a day when I got pens and markers and sketch books every Christmas and birthday but those days have come and gone I suppose. We'll see what the Lord makes possible.

Another "secret" ambition is to make steel/metal sculpture. I have so many ideas in mind for what to do but then again there are costs involved in getting the necessary tools for welding or soldering. I guess most recently I am just missing what I had while at school at Huntington. What I wouldn't give to be able to just take another stone sculpture class or welding sculpture class again. It was so much fun back then and I need some more of that in life.

Anyway I guess I am just venting some of my pent up frustration with the fact that I have so many ideas floating around in my head and none of them have come to fruition. Currently at school our elementary drama club that I help with is getting ready to perform our play entitled "Folk Tales for Fun" this coming Wednesday at 2:00PM Vienna time. I am technically just a helper but this role has become fairly complicated as I have found myself in charge of costumes and alot of the "art-intensive" preparations for the play. It is hard for me sometimes when we have to put so much work into something that will be performed once and seen by so little people. Oh well I guess our true rewards come when we get to heaven. Please pray that I will continue to be energetic and run the race the Lord has planned out for me here in Vienna.

Blessings ya'll!

Brian

Hall of flags . . .

2008-04-21T15:50:00.002+02:00

Ok so we have a "hall of flags" and we thought that 33 flags was an achievement . . . . this picture was taken when our elementary kids took a field trip to the UN complex in Vienna. One word . . . . WOW!

VCS's High School Musical . . . .our form of the Disney hit!

2008-04-21T14:48:00.004+02:00

This past week our school's high school put on their version of the most recently popular Disney's High School Musical. It was such a popular production in our community that the tickets quickly sold out, actually they sold out about a week before the performances. Usually you can get tickets to VCS performances at the door so this was quite unexpected by everyone. We kept putting off purchasing tickets and when we went to get them they had all sold out and we got on the top of the waiting list if any tickets became available. Well, they did and last Thursday we got to go see the production that our kids had worked so tirelessly on for the past couple months. If you have yet to see the Disney movie thats the original production, I would recommend seeing it. The reason why our Drama director decided to do High School Musical is because he wanted to focus on Community and how important that is in the body of Christ. The musical focuses on a typical American high school that has its cliques, and clubs, and groups of kids that stick by their own kind. The whole message of the musical is that we should not limit ourselves to what we have always done or always been. The idea that we need to be true to ourselves goes quite nicely with the Bible's message about the Body of Christ, that everyone was created unique and that the Lord wants us to fulfill the role. Betka and I really enjoyed seeing our students pour their hearts into this performance . . .it was my favorite by far. Enjoy the pictures! :)

Below: The whole cast. The first one with the directors and the next with the directors and the music staff.

Below: This was my favorite scene and a picture that I think represents it quite well. There is a scene with the basketball team and basketballs. It was wonderfully choreographed in the movie and the choreographers did an awesome job with our version. The guys really knew what they were doing.

Below: These two students did an excellent job. The guy is laying the part of Ryan the brother of the girl next to him, Sharpay. She is the girl that is always "the star". It is her identity and through the musical she is the antagonist and the person who apparently learns the most from what takes place. The guy was an awesome dancer. he was one of the few that really passed off his part . . . he made you believe that it was his character up there not just him acting.

Hope you enjoyed the picture representation of a production that pictures can't really do justice to. These kids are really talented!

Nesting anyone?

2008-04-14T09:48:00.005+02:00

So I have read that pregnant mothers go through a nesting stage and ours was definitely yesterday afternoon and evening. We were up until 9 just re-arranging and cleaning things. The most exciting thing for us is to think of where to put our newborn when he arrives in this world. Our apartment isn't that big, but we think we will be able to make due until a slightly bigger place opens up that we can afford.

Our most recent idea, actually Betka's idea was to literally "put the baby in the closet". Now before you go yelling about child endangerment or reckless parenting, please hear us out. We want to make every inch of available space used to the best of our ability and we also wanted the little guy to have a space of his own. Up until this great idea all we could come up with is a corner of our current bedroom, but that was almost right up next to our own bed and the room would be very crowded what with the changing table, crib, and our bed which already takes up all the floor space between the window and the halfway point of our room. Basically what our plan of action will be if we go forward with this "Baby in the closet" idea would be to take off the doors and hang a sort of curtain to cover the space when the baby is not there. We have to get the approval of our landlord to remove the doors so that they do not freak out if they are over some time. We should be able to put them back on pretty easily.

Below are pictures of the stroller that we want to get. It has been a long hard fought battle of continuously shopping and returning to the SAME store over and over again to look at the same strollers or what seemed like the same strollers. We also have a limited price range which we thought we would never find a good quality stroller for under 400 Euro (Thats like 600 dollars!). Low and behold there is an option for under 200 Euro!!!! we'll see if we settle on this one, but it looks good. The basket for the newborn can detach so we wouldn't even have to bring the whole stroller up the stairs and it could possibly double as a bed! Anyway, I am glad that this search is over.

Randmomness . . . .

2008-04-07T09:28:00.002+02:00

Hey all just thought I would share a picture that my friend made to advertise the "VCS Superstars" for a staff versus students soccer game earlier this year. Enjoy! :)

(Hint look at # 3.)

Funny dad quote . . .

2008-04-07T08:35:00.002+02:00

Hey all,

In an effort to be as informed as possible about parenthood and babies in general I signed my wife and I up for a baby newsletter that has alot of good information that mainly my wife enjoys and I try to look interested . . . .today I got an email that had this hilarious quote in it that can only have come from someone with kids . . . .obviously it is jokingly said and it can not be said that I agree, but it made me laugh out loud.

"A baby is a loud noise at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other."
-Ronald Knox

Have a great day everyone! :)

Brian

2008-04-04T14:23:00.004+02:00

I just wanted to share a little news with you all back home. Vienna has been preparing for the upcoming European Championships of Soccer this June and they have been redoing many things around town preparing for the masses of people that they expect to show up for the tourney. One of the things that we have noticed the most is the re-building of the Praterstern station as it is about 5 minutes' walk from our place and we use it every time we go to Czech and every day to and from school we use the Ubahn (subway) station there as well. Hopefully this link will work. I found the article in Osterreich, one of the daily Viennese newspapers online. It is an amazing train station now and I thought it was cool to see it from a different angle. Enjoy! :)

My focal point for the rest of this year and the beginning of next school year . . . .

2008-04-02T08:49:00.002+02:00

The other day as my wife was "cleaning " my desk, something she likes to do occasionally because my "organization" isn't sufficient, she happened upon a bookmark that I received from a lady at the Aldersgate Conference in Rogers, Arkansas last year. This lady, I can't even remember her name now, but she apparently had the gift of prophecy and it always seemed to her to manifest itself most when she was shopping for seemingly useless things. She would buy things and make crafty things and in some miraculous way the Lord would use these to encourage other Christians whenever and wherever she has speaking engagements. She was speaking on the topic of spiritual warfare if I recall correctly and she would stop occasionally to hand out certain objects to specific people in the room. As she kept handing out things the Lord was using her to greatly encourage those listening to her presentation. She handed out a bag of nuts to one gentlemen with the encouragement "The Lord wants me to tell you . . .you're not nuts!" The same gentleman informed her later, when she asked those that received items to share their testimony if they wanted to, that they almost didn't come to Aldersgate because all their relatives said they were nuts for going. Wow, our Lord really meets us where we are huh!?

While we were watching all these amazing things happen I felt deep down that it would be cool to get something, but we had come in late and I figured that she wouldn't give us anything because we hadn't been there for the whole presentation . . . . well I was wrong. The first time she came our way she walked up to Betka and handed her a string of wooden decorative fish and told her something to the effect of "The Lord says that you will find new and innovative ways to fish." Betka took that word to mean that she would be fine in ministry in Vienna as she had been very worried about how she was going to minister. She was a bit worried and the Lord met her where she was . . . the fish are still hanging in our entry way and she has indeed found new ways to fish.

A few minutes later as the lady was talking again and she paused after she had read the following scripture: "My son, pay attention to my wisdom; lend your ear to my understanding." Proverbs 5:1. As soon as she read it I knew that the book mark that she read was for me and sure enough, even though we were sitting in the back her gaze penetrated the crowd and found me and she walked towards me. She had a wireless microphone on and when she got to me she read another two scripture verses that were on the back of the book mark. "Tis' time to walk in the way of understanding for the sake of your family." Proverbs 9:6b and "Stand tall in the fear of the Lord!" Proverbs 10:1. When she was there giving me that bookmark that I have taped to my computer monitor right now I felt in my heart that I had alot on my plate and I needed the Lord to be a good husband. At that time I had no idea that I would be expecting my first son not much more than a year later. God really knows what he is doing! :)

I would just like to encourage all of you no matter where you are and what you are going through . . .our Lord really is there freely offering the strength we need from. Whenever we have no idea what to do the Lord knows . . .we can and should walk in His way of understanding. So the rest of this year as I prepare for the birth of my son I will be meditating on the aforementioned scriptures and asking the Lord to grant me the ability to stand in fear of Him and to trust him as I seek to walk in His way of understanding because I surely cannot understand the situation I am in. Thank you and God bless you all in advance for the prayers that I am sure you will send up on my and my wife's behalf.

Brian

Brian's thoughts . . .

2008-03-28T14:39:00.003+01:00

So I have had alot to think about as of late . . .mainly things that are beyond my control.

I know that I have written about these things before and it might appear that I want you all to pity me or feel sorry for me or whatever . . .just know that this post is just for me to vent a bit about what I am learning from the Lord and how these life experiences are about.

I heard about a guys, its probably many men actually, that say that they are not ready to have a child. I have been thinking about that alot now that my son is going to make his appearance in this world in the next couple of months because I actually said this prior to finding out we were pregnant. Are we ever ready to have children? An author on parenthood once said that I think as men if we wait for the time that we are ready to have children then we will end up having our children when we are too old to truly enjoy them as a younger dad would. For this reason I am really thankful to God that He has planned it to work out this way that I will be a dad when I am only 25. Wow, am I really that old already?! This May 4th I will be a quarter of a century old and while that may make some of you scoff I am realizing that as my first child comes into the world, my responsibilities increase alot, possibly even more than I even know. Currrently I am very occupied with thoughts of what that responsibility is. I am having a little difficult time figuring out the balance of things. My job is very important and it is through working and doing something for a living that I am able and blessed to provide for my family, but the Lord also wants me to be with Him daily and the balance of these things is sometimes hard.

Of course I have many questions as to what parenthood is going to be like but everyone I ask here says that you really need to experience it, trust the Lord, turn to Him for guidance on how to "deal with the kids" and the rest falls into place. I feel really blessed to be working with so many very wise people. The administration is really a dream to work with and the director and member care people do an amazing job helping us stay fired up to serve here. However even despite the wonderful care that we receive as missionaries I am still sometimes feeling a little down and defeated. Please pray that the Lord would help me to defeat these feeling of defeatedness and to live life victorious.

I am reminded that we are constantly on a spiritual warfare battlefield. Satan uses all the feelings of despair and grief and can try to accentuate their power so that we feel we cannot go on when the Truth is that Jesus died so that these feelings, though we still feel them, do not have to affect us or our ministries. I guess I just need a reminder of that Truth.

Until the next venting . . .

B

Snow in March . . . .and updated belly pic . . .

2008-03-28T12:49:00.003+01:00

Hey there everyone. Weather has been pretty crazy around here lately as is shown by the following pictures. Betka and I noticed while we were walking home that the tree in the picture was in bloom with white flowers while the other branches of the bush were covered with white snow. The other picture is the view out across Praterstern which is a really important traffic circle that is also the center, in north Vienna, for tains, U-bahn, and buses. It was a strangely beautiful thing to see snow on different things during such a sunny day! :)

We also wanted to share another belly picture. Betka is now 23 weeks pregnant, we're now officially over the hump and on the end part of the pregnancy. According to the latest test she is possibly due to deliver on the 30th of July. We'll see. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we figure out what it means to be here in Europe all summer, something we have never actually done as a family. Please pray that the Lord will meet all of our financial needs even though we will not be in the States this summer to meet with people.

We really appreciate your emails and comments keep them coming! :)

Be blessed,
Brian & Betka

Looking for missionary teachers!

2008-03-27T13:00:00.002+01:00

Just a quick note . . . our school is still looking for people to fill the following positions for the coming school year:

Middle School Science

Middle School English

High School Math

Additional Music

MS/HS German

If you or anyone you know would like to serve as a missionary/teacher for this coming school year please tell them to either get in touch with me or visit our website at www.viennachristianschool.org

We are always on the look out for other servants of the Lord that need a school to teach at! :)

B

Happy Easter! Here is what we did! :)

2008-03-26T13:28:00.005+01:00

This Easter after my wife and I got over a sicknesses on the first weekend of our break (we had the whole week before and the day after easter off) we went to the Czech Republic to spend some quality time with Betka's side of the family. It was a much needed break for both of us. The following pictures are from the annual pig roast that the Church congregations of Mikulov, Valtice and the surrounding areas have. It was a blast and a wonderful time celebrating with great friends from Czech as well as another missionary friend of ours.

What celebration would be complete without food and snacks!? We had a really good pig that the fellas in the church were cooking from 10Am until 3:30PM when they started cutting helpings off for people. Gingerbread were decorated very intricately by a church member . . . . AMAZING!

Below: The youth in the church enjoy playing in the unfinished church house in Mikulov where the roast was held. There is a great place out back that they use for cooking.
The view from said unfinished church house is very good despite the foggy windows with Holy hill in the background.

Below are two faces of the Czech Republic's future.

I am continually amazed at how awesome our God is and yesterday was another time for me to just marvel at his works. This marveling came in the form of the doctor doing and advanced organ screening ultrasound on Betka looking at our son. He seems to be developing wonderfully. Here is a little video snip of the 3D picture that the doctor could put together using the ultrasound snapshots. The half of the baby's face you cannot see is due to unsure readings, it is all there in reality, the video just makes it look like his head is missing by half. What you can see is his left eye, nose, left ear, and most of the left side of his face. You can even make out part of his right hand. Enjoy! :)

International family Fun Night, 6th Grade Fellowship and Betka's students pictures.

2008-03-11T14:33:00.005+01:00

Here are the latest pictures from our life in ministry here.

Above top: a fun Dutch game where you dunk for a sweet. Really tough as the kids found out. Also really cool Dutch shoes!

Above top: Kids dressed in native Venezuelan garb. Above bottom: African countries represented, Namibia and Nigeria I think, Namibia for sure. Below: Fun times at the Netherlands station.

Below: Betka and one of her students hard at work learning the proper way to play violin.

Below: 6th Grade fellowship/going away party for one of our students. The girl of honor cuts the cake. One of the guys butts in on the girls' picture.

Below: One of our girls leads us in the game Mafia. If you think it isn't appropriate try telling the kids that, they love it. Its a great game of strategy and good times.

We also played Twister (below). I enjoyed spinning for the kids, but having not done that before I found out it was very boring and let my wife relieve me after a while.

Our new guy (below) was fast getting used to the atmosphere at 6th Grade Fellowship and hammed it up for the camera. He came to us from the Austrian School System and loves VCS so far.

Thanks so much for continuing to keep us up in prayer while we serve the Lord here by serving these kids. Be blessed ya'll!:)

B&B

Current Reynolds ponderings . . . . .

2008-03-10T09:48:00.005+01:00

Recently my wife and I have been talking about our life together and what we would like to see change and what we think needs to change and really what we are so thankful to the Lord for in our current situation. We would like to share it with you all.

First of all . . .we are very happy to be serving at VCS and know that Lord-willing, we will be here for another 4 years after this school year. That means that the majority of my twenties will be spent here in Vienna. Who knows that the Lord has in store we could be over here much much longer. Betka is certainly ok with staying here and I (Brian) am getting used to Europe and I realize how much help it needs spiritually. We are honored to be able to be here for a long term assignment. practically speaking though we have run into a few things that we thought we should share with you all as our supporters and being a big reason why we are still here.

I'll start by explaining our current situation, practically speaking, we are living in an apartment that is 50 meters square (roughly 540 square feet) and our base rent is 380 Euro monthly (roughly $580). Add in utilities and our total rent is 480 Euro (About $740) a month. This is for a one bedroom, sitting room, and kitchen living space. As Betka and I were thinking about it we know that this is enough for us and a child . . . . even when the child is a year or two old. If we really really had to it would be possible with another child although it would feel a little cramped with even just one toddler. We were thinking that it might be good to start praying for a new, bigger place for a similar price miracle like we have now. For rent and utilities to come in under 500 Euro anywhere in this city is insane and definitely not the norm and we are truly blessed to be where we are for the price we pay. Basically our landlord provides a service for us, they aren't making tons of cash and we are truly blessed by them. So we have made the decision to start looking for a bigger place (2 bedrooms, 60+ meters squared) , preferably closer to school. You can help us with this in praying that the Lord would move us if it is His will for us here in Vienna. We pray that He would make it known to us where to move and in His timing. There is also the prayer for finances. With Betka's income from violin and piano lessons we are able to put food on the table and get by with life day-to-day. This summer we will be really tough without her usual income and with it slightly changed due to the arrival of our little bundle of joy. Please pray that the Lord would meet all of our needs . . . we are very certain that He will provide exactly what we need . . . nothing more nothing less.

Another thing we can be praying for is for our financial situation to get to the point that we can even afford to move to a bigger place. Hypothetically our "price range" would be between 500 and 700 Euro a month, but that is really only if we can even have that kind of monthly support coming in. Am I too bold to ask you all to pray that the Lord would help us have more monthly support coming in? Again we believe very strongly that the Lord will provide for us what we truly need and nothing more, nothing less. Please ask the Lord how He might use you to help support us in ministry.

This past Friday we had a really fun night of fellowship with the 6th grade class. We haven't had 6th grade fellowship since December due to my father's death and the fact that January and February it was impossible to find a free Friday or Saturday night. So Friday we had 13 6th grade boys and girls together for pizza and games. It also turned in to a going away party for one of our girls that is returning to Canada with her family on Wednesday of this week. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they return "home" after adapting so well and becoming such a big part of our community here. That family had a 6th grade girl, 3rd grade girl, and a primary boy in our school. They will be missed. Surprisingly this situation happens very often here. Its only by the grace of God that we can go on when good friends leave and new people come. Just last week we got 2 new 6th graders. If you would please pray for my time with the 6th grade boys each Tuesday during lunch. I really seek to go deeper with them but there is something standing in the way. Pray for boldness of Christ for me to ask the tough questions and to present our Lord's gospel in a way that they can absorb.

As we look ahead to 4 more years here at VCS we know that it seems like a long time right now, but in all actuality it will go quickly and we will be looking back on this time and wish we could go back or if nothing else looking back on it with a warm remembrance. Please pray for our continuing vision at this school and that the administration would continue to seek the Lord in everything they do. It is so easy to lose focus and get off track and we pray that this would never be the case with our school.

We are truly thankful for how much you all lift us up in prayer and support. What would we do without you all? Well, one thing is for certain we would not be here. Be blessed this day all you out there.

In His grip,
B&B

Funny IKEA thing . . . .CAR!?!?

2008-02-29T12:46:00.003+01:00

Hey all,

I thought I would share this that I got in an email. The email said this and include the following 2 pictures:

IKEA is planning to sell cars ... but only to experienced IKEA customers . . .

It helps to understand what IKEA is all about. They sell household things that you really only need a wronch like in the picture and some other basic household tools to put together.

Betka and I really love IKEA and do most of our home shopping there. Enjoy!

B&B

Is it really only 5 months away!?!?!?

2008-02-27T13:36:00.002+01:00

So to mark the day of 5 months until our due date I have a picture of Betka thats been approved to show that she is showing a little. We are both dreading the point where old ladies on public transportation start patting her belly. That should be fun . . .and a lil awkward also. Have a great day all!

B&B

Walk in the park . . .Lednice, CZ . . .and Vienna, Austria

2008-02-27T12:34:00.005+01:00

Hey all,

One of Betka and my favorite things to do in our spare time is to take walks in different parts of Vienna. Because the public transport system is so amazing we are able to very easily get to the outskirts of town and places we otherwise would not be able to go to without a car. We also like to walk when we are "back home" in Czech Rep.

Below are 2 pictures from a walk that Betka and I took in the Chateau park of her hometown Lednice, Czech Republic.

Just last Sunday Betka and I went for a walk to explore another part of this great city of Europe. Most people when they visit Vienna only see one side of Vienna, the downtown historic parts. Vienna also has many wonderful parks and things that make this city of 1.6 million seem a little bit less urban. They are all over the city and we happened to stumble upon one very interesting park in the south west corner of the city. We really enjoyed our walk and here are some pictures from that time.

Left: I didn't even notice it when I took the picture, but there is a red cross spray painted on the wall of these ruins.

Below: These are pictures that I took when we took off from Vienna International Airport. It is beautiful how you can see the mountains (Alps) with the sun rising as my flight left at 6:40AM Vienna time.

I hope you all enjoy this as much as I enjoy taking them. Blessings!:)

Brian & Betka

Where exactly in Vienna do we live? . . . Where is the school?

2008-02-26T13:38:00.005+01:00

I was surfing the net today and I found a really good map of Vienna. It illustrates the districts of Vienna and the way they break the whole city up into 23 different districts. We currently live in the 2nd district, Leopoldstadt (Leopold's city), near the city center and the school is in the biggest and fastest growing district, the 22nd district, Donaustadt (Danube City). The city of Vienna used to have little villages all around it and when the city grew outwards it swallowed up the individual villages and those town centers have become neighborhoods now. It is really very interesting. We have about a 20 minute commute to work each day on the U-bahn (subway). Life here is really quite good. It isn't cheap though. I was thinking about our budget the other day and how its amazing that the Lord continues to provide just as much as we need, not more, not less. We have faith that He will continue to provide and we let you as supporters know our budget so that you can be more informed givers. We also believe that if you know exactly where the need lies you will be more willing and able to help us in the Lord's service in the future.

Our current budget as far as we know is somewhat like this. Granted some things like phone bill, food, and extras vary month to month, but basically this is what we need as of right now.

Reynolds Family Budget in Vienna Monthly (with exchange rate as of 2/26/08)

Rent======================================= $566/380Euro
Utilities(Gas, water, electric, etc)=================== $150/100Euro
Transportation (Public)========================== $ 137/92Euro
Phone Bill (land line)============================ $45/30Euro
Brian's Student Loan============================ $170/114Euro
Food (Including for Bible study meal)=================$298/200Euro
Discretionary Fund (Travel to Czech, big purchases, etc.)=== $150/100Euro

Total budget: $1516/1,019Euro

This is a rough estimate of our budgeted expenses. Obviously with our baby coming we will have more costs that are not currently budgeted. We would also like to point out that currently our support level is poised to put us in the negative with RCE and that can happen for a couple of months, they step out in faith with us, but in order to keep serving here we need to try to stay in the black. The Lord has been faithful and we praise Him for providing what we need when we need it. We would definitely like to see some more monthly supporters. If you believe that the Lord is pursuing you to become one of them please contact us ASAP. Blessings all!:)

Brian & Betka

Life is really hard sometimes . . .but with Jesus it doesn't seem so bad . . .

2008-02-25T15:49:00.003+01:00

Hey all,

Life has been really interesting the last few weeks. February started off in normal fashion as far as school is concerned. In our personal lives things have been really tough for the Reynolds side of the family. February 4th my father, Alex, was hospitalized for his heart/cancer/other medical problems and he was in the hospital for about a week when he "took a turn for the worse" and my mother called me home from Europe because as she said "If you want to say good bye to your dad, then you should try to come." Really it was the best possible timing for my dad to "get bad". . . .if one can even refer to something like this as good. On the 7th or 8th of this month it seemed that he might not live to see me or my brothers one last time. My mom called me to call me home on Sunday the 10th and I returned to the Chicago area on one of the first flights from Vienna through Amsterdam in the morning of the 11th. I was picked up by a family friend around 1:30 in the afternoon from O'Hare and I was at the hospital by my dad's side by 3:00ish. The flight from Amsterdam to Chicago was very nerve racking because I really had no idea what to expect when I touched down. Would my dad be there? Would he have already passed away? I had no way of knowing.

Well, he was there and in decent spirits considering he was dying. He was very glad to see me (Brian), he was talking, and he was even cracking jokes. This was from Monday through the following Saturday I think . . . the days blur together. Early in the week of February 17th he began to fade. Me and my brothers had already been to see him pretty much every day and I had even slept over in the hospital with him. It was very humbling for me to take care of the man that took care of me when I was younger. He was so helpless to do anything for himself . . . it was an honor to serve . . .

Monday, February 19th I stayed over night with him and he didn't wake at all during the night and didn't eat any breakfast the following morning. This also marked when he stopped talking. It became very difficult for him to breath and talking was done in only a few words and not very audible. I felt so blessed just to be by his side.

I had looked into staying longer and pushing my return flight back, but Orbitz would not allow it without charging an arm and a leg so it was decided that I would leave Bourbonnais between 12-1pm to catch my 4:30 flight. I left my father at the hospital in a spacious double room being taken care of by wonderful hospice people. I made sure that when I left that my dad knew that I loved him and that I, we would be fine when he is gone, that he could leave us in the arms of the same Lord that he was going to be with for eternity. I couldn't have said good bye like this had it not been for something that happened the day I got to Illinois and the hospital. I wrote the following for my dad to be read at the memorial service in my absence.

Written by Brian for his dad – February 22, 2008
To be read at the Alex’s memorial service on February 25, 2008

Dear Dad,

As I flew thousands of feet above the ocean I was thinking . . . thinking of what I wanted to say to you. You see I was uncertain of where you stand . . . I don’t know why I doubt your faith. After all, it’s your faith in the Lord that encouraged me to take the path that I have taken in life. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but its there - waiting to be found out, waiting to be spoken. It’s good that I had a few hours left to think about what to say.

I finally arrived in Chicago. Boy oh boy, that was a long flight. At least the layover wasn’t too bad. I know what I want to say now; it’s on the tip of my tongue. … Now, how to say it? I still don’t know if I can. I want to ask you because I love you, but how? I need to be reassured - do you really believe?

Finally the time came that I was all alone with you, sitting by your side. . . . Can I ask you now? … No, wait, my grandpa is walking in. Somehow grandpa knows what I want to do. My grandpa asks you, “Can we pray for you Alex?” You reply with a nod, we can. My throat tightens, I can’t speak … but I don’t even know why. Grandpa started, “Alex, the Bible says ‘If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that He was raised from the dead, you are saved.’ That’s it . . . do you believe that?” You promptly said with labored breaths, “yes, I do.” Emphatically my grandpa and I rejoiced in praise to our Father in heaven! Immediately the tightness in my throat was gone and I was at peace . . . you did believe - Jesus was in your heart.

My Dad believed!

Maybe you didn’t always show it, but deep in your heart you believed. It was only a week and some days later that I received the call that you went to be with Jesus. Even now I remember lots of things about you. You weren’t perfect but then again, none of us are. But, that isn’t the point; it’s remembering that when it’s all said and done, Jesus is the only perfect one and He is the one that matters.

I love you, Dad. We all love you.

Needless-to-say my dad will be missed . . .probably more than I even know right now. My dad passed away about 12:30pm on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at the age of 61. I had just arrived in Vienna and was getting ready to go to bed when my mom called to tell me he was gone. Honestly I expected it. He was ready to go when I left. I don't think it has even hit me yet. He is really not going to be there when I get "home" again. So yeah as I am mourning I would ask you all for your prayers and I thank those of you that have been praying . . .your prayers are surely felt and the peace that our God can give us has been given to me. Bless you guys . . . . :)

B

ACSI Honors choir Trip to Prague, Czech Republic and other stuff . . .

2008-02-08T14:16:00.000+01:00

So after having tons of pictures stuck on my camera I liberated them today. The first ones are from the trip that Betka chaperoned to Prague. I'll have her write an entry here sometime explaining exactly what they did, but the pictures are taken by her or the students and I will attempt to explain some of them.

Above: Riverside School in Prague, one of the two host schools for the weekend. "The school was HUGE!" as Betka put it.

Below: Betka acts like a guard (Left) for St. Vitas cathedral(Right).

Above: Betka enjoyed taking in the sights and told me that "The baby was enjoying running around Prague!"

Below: The choir sang in two different places on Sunday, (Left) at the International baptist Church of Prague and an older cathedral in town.(Right)

And to end this post . . .a random picture (below) of me the day that Betka got back enjoying my favorite light dinner . . .toast! It was great to hear about how great her weekend was.

Vote now! . . .

2008-02-08T08:07:00.000+01:00

Hey there everyone!

I thought I would update to let you know a little more of whats happening in our lives here in Vienna.

Obviously my wife and I are thinking alot about the baby nowadays and as we do we are realizing that there will be alot of changes in our lives and probably even more than we even dream right now. As of right now we aren't absolutely certain what sex our child will be but we should know in the next few weeks possibly. To the right on our blog there is a poll that we encourage you to take guessing what sex our child will be. Obviously just choose one. I (Brian) have been asking my elementary art kids what they think its going to be and the total right now after 1st grade alone is Boy, 13, Girl, 1. So if any of you think its going to be a girl go ahead and vote . . .as far as we know it could be either. We are never truly certain . . .God can fool even the most experienced doctors looking at the scan of our child. We are looking forward to seeing the results of this poll that EVERYONE should do!:)

As far as the other parts of our lives not consumed with thoughts of baby there is our energy break that is coming up next week. We have all week off as kind of an Austrian tradition where the kids go and learn to ski. There is no school but our kids are no longer required to ski, so it is really like a winter break separate from Christmas break. This semester we have a week off now in February, one week and a day off in March and at least one day off in each of the subsequent months afterwards.

Betka and I have been thinking for a long time how I can get more involved or have more of a personal ministry here at VCS as I usually tend to be the "helper" type person and I never really start something or organize it. Betka is "urging" me to consider doing something art-related. I would like to do that but my only concern is that there will be no students willing to show up due to the fact that their schedules are so busy at this time. Maybe it is just my apprehension at having to prepare something for the kids to do. My thought is that I need to develop an idea, get another teacher on board and then start it at the beginning of the next school year. Currently many of our elementary students are attending drama club and the woman that is organizing that is leaving after this year. I was thinking that I might offer art club instead of drama club. I am also praying that there is someone that organizes drama club as the kids are crazy about it. We'll see what the Lord leads people to do including myself. Pray for me as I contemplate what I can do.

On a more practical note Betka and I were blessed with being able to get a bed frame to actually elevate our sleeping quarters off the floor. We wanted to keep our bed in the bedroom separate from our living room and this was the only way to be elevated and do that. Our main reasoning was that when Betka progresses in her pregnancy she might not want to get up from 8 inches off the ground. we slept on it last night and it was wonderful!:) Also there are some more practical things, that you all could be praying as to how the Lord might use you to help us out with. Some of these are including but of course not limited to . . . Crib, changing table, baby clothes, diapers, crib mattress, crib sheets. We are also shopping for a good stroller good for a new born and a toddler. Betka and I think that the best way for you all to help out is to either donate to RCE and make a note to us of what it is supposed to be used for or just send a check made out to Brian Reynolds and send it to my parents home. If you send it directly to me it won't be a tax deduction but it will get straight to me and Betka. Even as we think of all the "stuff" that we'll need we are reminded that the Lord promises that all we need will be taken of. He promises again and again in His word. I read this morning in Genesis his actions with Jacob/Israel and his family as they moved from Canaan to Egypt. From chapter 46 . . .

"1 So Israel set out on the journey with everything he owned. He arrived at Beersheba and worshiped, offering sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 2 God spoke to Israel in a vision that night: 'Jacob! Jacob!' 'Yes?' he said. 'I'm listening.'"

. . .and then towards the end of the book in chapter 47. . .

" 11-12 Joseph settled his father and brothers in Egypt, made them proud owners of choice land—it was the region of Rameses (that is, Goshen)—just as Pharaoh had ordered. Joseph took good care of them—his father and brothers and all his father's family, right down to the smallest baby. He made sure they had plenty of everything."

For some reason this morning the Lord impressed on me that although the word is talking about Joseph that he "took good care of them—his father and brothers and all his father's family, right down to the smallest baby. He made sure they had plenty of everything." that this could also be taken to mean that He, our Lord will take care of us. Israel/Jacob was obedient to what Joseph told him to do and went into Egypt asking for a place to settle and through Pharoah the Lord chose to bless Israel and ALL his family even down to the "Littlest baby." It was the littlest baby part that really got me. Do we really believe that if we are obedient the Lord will take care of us or is it merely us working for our blessings? Don't you think that the Lord would choose to bless us regardless of what we worked for? What I got from this piece of scripture this morning is that the Lord chooses to bless those that Love Him and not just those but their whole family as well. That is very comforting considering where I am with my family right now. With our coming parenthood on the horizon it is a great joy to know that He, meaning the Lord, will provide for what everyone in my family needs. Please keep praying for Betka and I to truly believe this in our hearts during this time that is quite difficult for us.

I (Brian) am not really sure if I have mentioned my own Dad's condition at all in this blog. Without going into very great detail to spare you the doctor mumble jumble I will just say that this whole ordeal with his health is obviously difficult on Him but it is also very trying for the rest of us his immediate family. For the first time in my life my own mortality has been truly brought before me. As I was on duty after school a few days ago,(I watch the elementary students while they play until 3:45 when they go home), I realized how they feel as kids. They don't really ever think about death . . .they've just begun this path called life. It doesn't even ever occur to most of them that this thing of life even ever ends. As I thought of my students and watched them joyously play on the playground, I began to think of the "life stages" that we all go through. My dad happens to be near the end of his journey and he is getting closer to the goal of being with Jesus, his race is almost finished. Betka and I are at the same place in our physical journey through life. We are looking to welcome a new life into this unforgiving world. Really here at VCS we can see all stages of life as many can elsewhere. It occurred to me the other day that there is only one thing that matters . . . .there really is . . .I know it has been said so many times and life so often gets so busy that we lose sight of it and we forget to save time for it. that one thing that matters is knowing Jesus better. Observing how the students love the Lord, and how my wife loves the Lord and my own struggle to fight my own selfishness to love the Lord, I have come to the conclusion that it IS really only Jesus that truly matters. God is still revealing to me the ramifications of that and many are new each day, but it has actually hit me and this is very very recent. It isn't what a pastor said, it isn't something I have read in a book. Jesus matters. That's it. It isn't what we want, its not about us being happy. Its all about us trusting Him with everything and I mean everything. I believe that we all have things that we resist the Lord on. For me its allowing Him to get into the threads of my life. Making personal decisions every day that He wants me to make. The simple fact that I struggle with things and don't run to Him first is a problem. So yeah thats my soap box for today. Jesus matters. get with Him more, talk to Him, read His word. He DOES MATTER!! :)

Well, as it appears that I wrote a book today I will bid you all adieu for now. Betka and I are continually talking about how blessed we are to be in a position to be able to spend alot of our time being thankful for all of you out there that lift us up in prayer and support. We would really love to hear from any of you out there. Just email either of us at the address that is in the right hand column. We pray that today you are extremely blessed by Jesus because it IS only He that matters the most.

In His grip,
Brian & Betka

So . . . my wife left me . . .JUST KIDDING . . .sort of . . . :)

2008-01-24T10:43:00.000+01:00

Ok so in explanation of the title of this post . . .Betka left for Prague this morning at 8:35 to accompany 10 of our high school students to Prague for this coming weekend to join the Association of Christian Schools International Honors Choir for a couple of performances. My wife will be accompanying them as "The Czech Language and Cultural Liaison" or really just another, or THE, chaperon that can speak Czech.

Meanwhile I am here in Vienna by myself and this is one of those things that is inevitable but one dreads it anyhow. Please pray for me this weekend that I wouldn't miss her too much and that I would be able to welcome her back being sensitive to the fact that it isn't just me that was apart from the one they love the most on this earth. If any of you have good ideas for what I could do to welcome/surprise her when she gets back . . .your comments are very much appreciated. I am seriously handicapped when it comes to this romantic stuff.

Anyway, thank you in advance for your prayers and hopefully my wife will be writing a blog entry when she getts back complete with pictures from her time back home in her motherland. Blessings!:)

Brian

Evening stroll . . .

2008-01-21T12:58:00.001+01:00

Yesterday we were blessed with unusually nice weather and my wife and I decided to stroll downtown Vienna. It is something that we like to do occasionally to remind ourselves of what kind of town we live in. They are: Top left, the Rathaus (city hall). Every year about this time the city of Vienna sets up an outdoor iceskating rink on the space in front of city hall. It is really a fun time and they even have a certain time where you can skate for free if you have ice skates. Top right, a view down a main pedestrian street in Vienna called Kohlmarkt. This used to be where people went to buy coal for their stoves and now is a center for very plush shops. Bottom, Saint Peter's Church, this is where the VCS Choirs had their Christmas concert. We were very blessed to be able to perform there this year as it isn't always the case.

Morning commute . . .

2008-01-16T12:28:00.001+01:00

Hey everyone . . .

This morning Betka and I were going to school at 7:25 and had the wonderful experience of seeing the most beautiful sunrise I have seen in a while. Imagine seeing this on your way to work! What a wonderful reminder of what an awesome God we have. I found myself standing in awe again this morning of how fortunate we are to serve a Lord like Him but also that he wants so badly to be with us daily every minute of every day that He sent His son to die for us that we might live freely. Crazy huh!?

Gift from God . . .

2008-01-14T15:06:00.000+01:00

Our principal sent me this pic that I thought I would share with ya'll. Enjoy!

We are having a baby!!!!

2008-01-14T09:43:00.000+01:00

Just in case the post prior to the previous one wasn't clear enough, Betka and I are preparing to welcome our first child in late July or early August.

So many questions are probably going through your head right now . . .where will we have the baby? Is the health system in Austria good? Did we find a good doctor? What citizenship will the baby have when it enters this world? These are all very good questions and we were asking the same questions. Here is what we know as of right now and our plans as resulting from the new news (Which isn't really new news to us, we have known since the beginning of December).

Our decision to stay in Vienna for another 4 years has not and, Lord-willing, will not change. This means that we will be experiencing the miracle of birth here in Austria with doctors and nurses that are some of the best in the world. Our gynecologist is wonderful and we really are pleased with his work thus far. As for what citizenship our baby will have when he/she is born . . . we are not for certain. We have it on a good source that our baby will receive Austria citizenship from birth. This runs contrary to what we first believed to be true. We are also pretty certain that the baby will be an American and Czech citizen, so that brings the grand total to three citizenships. I am not sure if thats legal or not but that too we shall find out I am sure.

Obviously with our decision to stay here in Vienna with a family of 3 we will need to increase our support base. Please continue in prayer with us as to how the Lord might use you in this, our increasing family. The community here in Vienna is wonderful but the main reason why we are still here serving the Lord and not even considering returning to the States is because we have you all back "home" praying for us and supporting us financially. Please continue to ask the Lord how you can help us stay here in Vienna. We are very grateful for your continued support and we thank the Lord for you everyday.

Please be blessed by our news and celebrate with us this gift that our Lord has chosen to send our way. Psalm 127: 3-5 says it best:
"Don't you see that children are God's best gift? The fruit of the womb his generous legacy? Like a warrior's fistful of arrows are the children of a vigorous youth. Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quivers full of children! Your enemies don't stand a chance against you; you'll sweep them right off your doorstep."

Don't forget to be a blessing to those around you this day! :)

In Christ,
Brian & Betka

Family pictures . . .

2008-01-14T08:45:00.000+01:00

Hey there again everyone!

I just thought I would post more pictures. My mom, seeing as how all of us were "home" for the holidays, decided to set a time for a family picture. We even included Betka . . .well duh she IS part of the family now anyway.

Left: The "Vienna" Reynolds Family

Left: The Reynolds family, Europe and U.S. branches.

Left: The triumvirate, l to r, Me, Chris, Matthew.

Left: The parental unit.

Hope you enjoyed these. We will certainly have more at a later date as I now have a camera and can document this world we live in here in Wien. Tschuss!:)

B&B

Big News . . .

2008-01-11T10:16:00.000+01:00

Betka and I would like to inform you all of a big change that is going to take place in our life together in late July or early August . . . this picture is me being sympathetic to what my wife's situation will be in a couple of months.

That's right we are expanding our home 2 feet, adding a player to our team, etc, we are expecting our first child somewhere around July 27th. Enjoy the news . .we'll certainly have more updates as we know them. Thank you in advance for your prayers and support!:)

B&B

Hmmm . . .

2008-01-09T10:24:00.000+01:00

Just thought I would share this interesting passage that I found on my google home page. Nice. Should I type a blog entry like this?

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

:)

Happy New Year US Style . . .

2008-01-02T21:32:00.000+01:00

Hey there again everyone.

Happy New Year! May you all walk closely with Jesus this new year.

Betka and I returned "home" to Vienna on Monday. We arrived back at our apartment around 8:00 or 8:15. We had a really crazy day of travel that started in Chicago of course. We were scheduled to leave O'Hare at 9:55 PM but when we arrived we learned that our flight had been delayed to leave at 10:40PM.

As we were waiting Betka went back out of the international terminal to get some food as there are no restaurants after you go through security. The second time she went she was gone a long time and then when she came through security she was in tears. I asked her what had happened. Her passport was stolen!!!! We freaked out but she had already told someone and they were asking over the intercom for anyone that might have found it. They took us to the information desk of LOT Polish Airlines and we waited. At this point it was getting really close to our flight time and was almost 10:00PM. The people at Polish Airlines were great they even printed out a map and phone number for the Czech embassy in Chicago right on Michigan Avenue. I really did not know what to do so really all I could do was try to console my wife that everything was going to be okay. The reality at the time was that she would have to go to the embassy which would mean missing our flight, they would give her a "cover passport" which the LOT people said would be good for her to travel back to Czech not Austria so we were very anxious about what exactly we would do. I was mentally preparing myself for possibly not returning in time for school's start on Tuesday.

As it turns out we didn't miss our flight. As Betka was getting a pen out of her bag to write down the emergency number of the embassy she FOUND HER PASSPORT!!! It was in the zip pocket of her hand bag which was new and she wasn't used to it yet. Praise God!!! We booked it to the gate to get there in time and we were, slightly out of breath and still in shock that she had it all along. So we left Chicago with Betka's pride hurt a little but perfectly fine.

Upon arrival in Warsaw at 3:00PM on Monday we realized that the boarding time for our connecting flight to Vienna was at 2:30PM so having missed that we were consequently put on a flight a couple hours later and given a voucher to the airport restaurant so all was good. We took a brand new plane to Vienna collected our bags right away and hurried down to the train. We could have gotten on the train right away but there was a long line for tickets so we missed that one and had to wait for another half an hour for the next one. We were home by 8:15, dropped our bags, and fell fast asleep not to wake up until 6:15 the following morning. All in all a very eventful trip, but we got back safely!:) Thank you Jesus.

So we are back now and the first day went well but Betka and I are both not sleeping all the way through the night yet. Tuesday morning I woke at 2:30AM and last night I woke up at 1:00AM. Fortunately I was able to read and then go back to sleep for a few hours, but we have both woken up very tired the past two mornings. School is back into full swing. Thank you for your prayers as we continue to get started and for traveling mercies as we returned. The Lord's hand was very evident during our trip.

It was a huge blessing for us to see everyone that we did while we were in the US for the holidays and again thank you to those of you that were so kind as to help us return. We believe that it was a very fruitful time for us and very rejuvenating as well. Thanks again!:)

Until next time,
Brian & Betka

Merry Christmas!!!

2007-12-18T10:17:00.001+01:00

Hey everyone,

Frohe Weinachten und Prosit Neu Jahr, or Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We found this picture on our friends blog, fellow missionaries here in Wien. Enjoy!

Leaving on a jet plane . . .

2007-12-17T09:54:00.000+01:00

Hey all,

Just thought I would give a quick update as to what life is like here at little ole Vienna Christian School the week before our Christmas break.

Truth be told we are enjoying the Holiday season, but not without our own stress. VCS runs on an academic schedule that means students take finals before Christmas but there is still a week and a half after break that is included in the first semester. For my elementary classes this doesn't mean anything but for my 8th grade classes it means that we are not fully done before break although the students seem to act like it is the end. So as you can probably imagine things get pretty hectic here. High school has final exams this week and the whole school has a half day on Thursday and we fly out to the U.S. on Friday morning early.

When trying to figure out how to get to the airport in Vienna Betka and I realized that there were many others from VCS flying out the same morning so we got together and found someone to drive us out to the airport. So, in order to accommodate the earliest flier we are leaving at 4:15am for the airport. Should be an early morning, let me tell you!:) So Betka and I are going to go to bed early on Thursday night and make sure we are packed ahead of time so we can just take our bags and go meet our driver.

Some of you might wonder . . .are we both excited to be home and the honest truth is yes, we are but we are also anxious about it as well. The source of our anxiety is not only my father's health, which is outstanding given the circumstances, but also our current financial situation in Vienna. To be honest the outlook right now on our support level is that we don't have enough monthly support. As it stands right now we would continue to go into the negative throughout this year. Our monthly salary, right now, is supposed to be at least $1550 monthly due to Visa requirements in Austria. My current salary is set at $1400 and I can raise that as soon as we have enough funds to support it. The amount of $1550 monthly is income that the Austrian government requires for a single person to obtain a visa to live here. Because of the situation that Betka and I are in it is a little different than most couples at VCS but it is still a dire situation. Since Betka is an European Union citizen she is allowed to only live in Austria. Therefor we only have to raise support for one of us, but she supplements our income by teaching violin and piano lessons which, if you would like to be extremely technical, is actually illegal. If she ever became unable to teach lessons we would not be able to stay in Vienna without first raising our support level. So that said we are constantly on the look out for others that might be interested in supporting us in ministry in Wien at VCS. If you know someone or a church that wants to find a missionary to support please LET US KNOW!!!:)

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have about us or our ministry. Our upcoming trip to the U.S. is mainly to visit family but we would also like to raise some more support on our trip as well. Please join with us in praying for more financial support for us as a missionary family this holiday season. We are very much looking forward to "being home" and sharing our lives with you all. Be blessed this day.

In Christ,
Brian & Betka

December Newsletter . . .

2007-12-11T08:19:00.000+01:00

Ok so we just sent out our December Newsletter and we are very happy with it. Producing the newsletters is something that is a real joy for me. Not only is it a great outlet for sharing our lives with all of you but it is also an outlet for my creativity. It is something that I can't foresee getting away from even after leaving VCS someday. I will add the newsletter as two JPEGS in large format. If it doesn't turn out well on the blog just email me and I can send it to you and put you on the list for our future mailings. Also if you would like to receive a hard copy let me know and we can add you to that list as well.

We also made Christmas cards that we will send out in the mail to friends and family. If you haven't gotten one please let us know!:)

Holiday season . . .

2007-12-05T09:20:00.000+01:00

I was thinking the other day how amazing this time is that we are coming upon. The CHRISTmas season is a very important one. It is amazing to think that before Jesus came into this world people still had to sacrifice burnt offerings to get in touch or to seek the favor of the Lord. Nowadays because of Jesus' extravagant love for us, we no longer need to win the affection of the Lord . . . WE ALREADY HAVE IT!!!! :)

As Betka and I are still reeling from the amazing blessing that the Lord blessed us with being financially able to "be home" for Christmas this year, we acknowledge that He is Lord over everything in our lives and it is our job to remember to keep turning things over to Him. I was reading a book called "A Walk Across America" by Peter Jenkins. Even though it was written in the 1970s and is about a young man finding "himself" it also has some really interesting points about God and how great He is and how amazing His love for us is. One specific part that I have in mind right now is the part where Peter starts to realize that what he has been searching for as he walked from upstate New York to New Orleans was the God that people he had met along the way worshipped. He writes about an Evangelist he saw named James Robison that was preaching in Mobile, Alabama as Peter walked through on his way to New Orleans and the Gulf. Mr. Robison was preaching at a stadium venue and Peter was drawn inside by the billboards around town. One thing that Peter wrote that Mr. Robison said struck me as so undeniably true, " From the day you were born you wanted to 'do your own thing' and you were rebellious against God. If you want to really know God, you have got to repent of this rebellion, which the Bible calls sin."

As I was saying we need to keep turning things over to Him, because really it is our desire as humans to "do things our way". As Jame Robison so pointedly put it, every time we do something even a tad rebellious and seek to do something our way we are sinning and that requires repentance. Every time we say "I can handle our finances, I just need to get a promotion." or we think "Lord, I think I can handle this, not a problem for ME." we are rebelling against God. Proverbs 3:5-6 says "Trust in the LORD with ALL your heart and lean not on YOUR OWN understanding; in ALL YOUR WAYS acknowledge him, and He will make your paths straight."NIV Every time that I say that "I can do it alone" I am rejecting what the Lord has done for me. I challenge you all to keep asking Him for help and to surrender the ability to do things through you to Him.

Now some of you might say that Jesus died for our sins and that He knows our repentant hearts even before we pray for repentance. I believe that this isn't enough that we must confess with our hearts and lips that we are repentant. I also have come to realize that we are all rebellious against God no matter what our personality is like and that this must always be repented of. A faith walk is learning more and more to submit to the Lord's wants and needs for our lives. It is something thats extremely hard for all of us, but it is possible with the Lord's help and something that brings you great joy when you learn how to run to the Lord with EVERYTHING. Its really freeing.

Well, I have to go now. Just remember that Betka and I will be in the States in 2 weeks and 2 days, see you then!!!! :)

B & B

Pictures finally . . .

2007-11-29T13:09:00.000+01:00

Here they are:

Above and below: Portrait at the Weinachts Dorf (Christmas Village) at Maria Theresa Platz/Museum Quartier downtown Vienna. VERY COLD!!!

Above: Brian looking a little lost . . .
Below: Betka and her favorite stall at the market, glittery things.

Below: I don't know the exact name for these guys but they are all over the city selling fresh roasted nuts, and potatoes in many forms. Great warm snack in such cold weather!:)

Betka and I wanted to take some pictures of us doing what the Lord has us doing right now. The pictures with students learning is actually during our classes or lessons. Lunch time is a really blessed time for us where we can forego eating at that time and can pour our lives into the kids. We get all kinds of questions from the kids and really enjoy sharing our lives with them. Just the other day one 5th grader was asking me questions like "How can you be REALLY SURE that Jesus is real?" and "If you parents tell you to do something and it breaks a commandment does that mean that you should break the 'honor your father and mother' commandment?" Jesus please help me to give the answers that you would have me give!:) Enjoy the pictures of our ministry.

Above left and right: Brian helping the 2nd graders understand their project and sort through their ideas.
Below left: Betka with 1st graders at lunch.
Beow right: Betka's most conscientious violin student from Korea.

Below: Betka and an Austrian violin student.

So I had better get going for now. Enjoy and make sure to comment or email us if you have anything you'd like to say. Blessings!:)

B & B

Pictures coming . . .

2007-11-28T09:36:00.000+01:00

Hey there everyone!

If you have been reading along with us you might notice that recently we haven't had many of our own pictures to share. That is mainly due to the fact that we haven't been taking any due to our camera being broken. Fortunately we were able to borrow a camera from a fellow teacher so you will see a few more pictures of Betka and I doing what we usually do here in Vienna.

Life keeps going here in Wien. This morning Betka and I arrived at school earlier than usual, 7:30 to prepare to lead staff worship from 7:50-8:10. Last night we had our weekly Bible study with 7 of our colleagues and friends in attendance. It was a wonderful time enjoyed by all but needless-to-say Betka and I were a little tired this morning. Whenever I am tired I tend to not be as joyous in "service" as I could be. I found myself thinking "Whew, I'm glad that's over (worship)." That thought then sickened me right thereafter and it hit me that this is my attitude for many things. Although I really am blessed to be serving here it is just really hard for me to be peppy and joyous everyday. Doesn't God's word tell us that we need to be joyful in all situations? I am finding that I have to continually ask the Lord to make me feel joyous because on days like today it is just downright hard to "feel" joyous. Please pray for me (Brian) as this is something I want to change but really need Jesus' help to do so. Leading worship shouldn't be a burden to me but a joy to do once every month.

In other personal news . . .my friend Thomas and I are restarting our training for the Vienna City Half Marathon 2008. Exactly 5 months from today we will attempt to improve our personal times for the run from last year. I'll have to beat 2 hours and 14 minutes. It was a joy to restart running with Thomas as it provides a vent for both of us. Its a great guy time together almost in a fellowship together. I'm looking forward to many more "training runs".

So yeah . . .until we have more pictures, please continue to have us in your prayers to stay strong in the Lord. It seems it is so much easier for the enemy to get a hold of missionaries and we constantly need prayer warriors fighting on our behalf against the enemy. Thank you for your prayers in advance.

Yours in Christ,
Brian and Betka

And the decision is . . . . .

2007-11-26T13:29:00.000+01:00

Hey there everybody,

I thought I would blog a quick update on Thanksgiving and what has transpired since last Tuesday.

On Wednesday of last week Betka and I finalized our decision to stay in Vienna for another 4 years after this school year. That would put us as a family here in Vienna until the summer of 2012!!!! Betka and I are really excited about having time to really set down some roots here and invest into the ministry here at school. We hope that you have been able to see that what we do here is worthwhile, and also worth supporting. It has been one heck of a ride so far and we are looking forward to the rest of the time the Lord has planned for us to stay here. Even though we aren't ever really sure of the future, we are committed to the ministry here and following what we believe to be the Lord's will for us, at least at this time. We also continue to look forward to our growing relationships with each of you, our faithful prayer warriors and supporters. Without you, this would not even be possible. Please continue to seek the Lord as to how you can continue to help us as we continually seek to help here in Wien. Be blessed this day!:)

B & B