Wanna Workout!

We've decided the best weight loss program is to do a mission trip in Austria. Now that all the students are here we have been put on full duty and are tired already! Some of the staff members mentioned that once they started working here long term they each lost 25 pounds!

Today we set-up breakfast, took down breakfast, set-up for lunch, cleaned our dorms, Sandy also got library duty, we delivered goodie bags to each student, had a devotion on servanthood, hosted our table for lunch. Sandy had a conversation with a Ukraine student who was very interested in Phoenix, Arizona. He wanted to know how much it cost for us to fly here, whether we see scorpions, snakes & black widows in our homes, and how tall Saguaro cacti become, how big Phoenix is and so forth. We later learned more about him and he is a great scientist who has now become a Christian. He has had many debates with top leaders in apologetics. He's probably the nicest student Sandy has met so far. His English was limited, but he was very eager to learn the names of the foods we ate today. Apparently the food is very different here. Ukraine common meals are Beet Soup and Dumpling soup. Well, anyway, then we took down lunch, set-up for dinner, cleaned the staff office building and got a 2 hr break. Jeff didn't get as long of a break because they put him on mopping duty so Sandy & Diane walked down to investigate the monastery. The monastery has ~60 monks right now. They had a gift shop and we still need to come back again when we have time to get cafe' at The Stift. Now we know when the tables have tablecloths they will serve us. We didn't know that last time, explains why they never came out to take an order. Then, we hosted dinner tables. Sandy had a table of Hungarians this time who spoke English and were very funny, although they mostly spoke in Russian. Jeff had a table of Russians who knew English, but only spoke in Russian at the table. These are the times knowing another language might come in handy! Then, we took down dinner, set-up the classrooms for the next day and went to a short-term work appreciation event. We tried yummy tortes and chocolates. Although Lindor truffles.....not exactly different, but the Mozart Balls were good:) Now we are to put together a prayer card for our prayer partner and turn it in tomorrow. We each have been assigned two students to pray for while we are here and will continue to pray for them when we get home. Sandy has the Uzbekistan couple and Jeff has a Hungarian man & a Russian man.