Refugee Missionaries

At the share conference last week, I met a missionary who works in Poland. He told us of one of his colleagues in Poland who became a Christian in the 1980’s when he was a refugee in Austria! This caught my interest because I began working with refugees in the 1980's in Austria!

I asked further and he explained that missionaries at the camp where his colleague lived had led him to the Lord. He immigrated to Canada where the Lord called him to return to Poland. He went to Bible school and today works as a missionary in Poland church-planting and teaching at a seminary.

While there were a few other missionaries reaching out to refugees during the 80's in Austria, as far as I know we were the only ones working inside one of the camps. The team I was part of held endless chapel services, bible studies, english classes and kids clubs for hundreds of refugees who passed thru.

this reminds me again of how God uses refugee ministry to reach the nations.

Below left: our chapel service in 1988. Below right: A refugee family in 1988 with myself and our team leader (who is now the director of IT's refugee ministry.)

Home-school Approved

We met the highest school official for Tyrol yesterday and in 30 minutes everything was approved for home-schooling.

We were originally told by the school board that by law we were required to put Tessa back in school immediately. We were continually stone-walled and delayed from taking any action. We had the feeling that actually, they simply didn't want to figure out what to do with us.

We went to Tessa's old school to talk to the principal about putting her back in school there. He said there was no way we could do that and he said we should talk to someone else.

With this we started to play hard ball. We went directly to the highest school official in the state. We knocked on his door and walked in. We layed a copy of our registration to home-school on the table which we had submitted in time nearly a year ago.

He heard our case and pulled out the law book. He saw that actually if we haven't heard a reply within a month's time from the school board then by default the request and application is approved.

He picked up the phone and called the the principal. He turned on the speaker phone and asked him in front of us if he had received our request. With a lot of uh... uhs, he said yes.

We will receive the official decision this week. We now have to work hard to pass the Austrian testing at the end of the school year --in three months.

Welcome to Austrian bureacracy and tyrolian stubborness all compounded by being foreigners and multiplied again by doing things different from the accepted way.

Share Family Conference

Last week we went as a family to the Share Educational conference in Budapest. We were together with Missionaries from all over central Europe and beyond. It's an important time for our children to meet and relate with other children just like themselves. While the kids have their own "school" and program, the parents have seminars and workshops on educational, family and developmental issues. The devotions were on biblical models of leadership and the keynote lectures were on "Best Practice for learning and teaching". There is time to consult with other parents and educators for ideas and resources. There is testing available. This year Tessa took the Iowa standardized test. We have attended this conference for the past three years, and it has become an important indicator and resource for us as a family.

Can you find our kids!?

Preparing Refugees to Serve

This weekend I will be visiting with Nana who is the team leader for one of our teams called the "Fellowship of Christian Refugees" (FCR) (See my post on.) There are two important thrusts to the vision of this team. One is to train and release refugees for ministry and the other is to facilitate integration between refugees and local communities and churches.

FCR has started a pilot program to facilitate this discipleship and community involvement. I'll be teaching at the meeting on Saturday as well as evaluating with Nana how well the program has gone and what the needs are.

Here is an overview of the Pilot Program schedule:
Monday - German Language Class
Tuesdays - Refugee Feeding & Assistance (40+ refugees receive food); Wednesdays - Team meeting and prayers
Thursdays - Refugee Feeding & Assistance + German class
Fridays - Culture & Integration Classes for refugees
Saturdays - FCR Meeting for prayer, worship and teaching.

The important thing about all of this is that we are building a foundation to send out a new wave of missionaries. They are not Western, they are not rich. They are afflicted and troubled with uncertainty; they are weak and easily misguided.

Sound familiar?! What do you think would be important for building a solid foundation for these workers? Here's your chance to have a direct impact on the front lines here in Austria!!

Homeschooling permission

We have been homeschooling this year under the belief that we were registered with the school officials. We turned in a written request as we were told to do last summer. Apparently, however, the officials never processed the request. They know nothing of our homeschooling and so in their eyes, we have been breaking the law, because we have not been sending Tessa to school.

We have had one meeting with the official. He was at first hopeful, but he has changed his tone and says we need to put Tessa in school immediately. We have the impression that he is under pressure and since no one here homeschools and there is no precedent, the easiest for him is to require us to enroll in school.

It's difficult, because we believe strongly that homeschooling is the right thing for her. Our relationship with Tessa was already good, and it has been strengthened even more as a result.

Please pray that the officials would work with us on this.