Things we miss: Sunsets

Many people have asked us what we miss while we are in Austria. Of course the top answers are friends and family, but after that there is a small list of things that we just can’t get over there that we are enjoying the heck out of while we are in the U.S.

In the first “Things we miss” post , I talked about how concord grapes are one of the things I enjoy when we get back, but food items aren't the only things. Living in an urban environment I really miss seeing the sun sink down over the horizon. Don't get me wrong, we can get some pretty sunsets in Vienna too, but there is something about watching the sun go down in big sky country that I miss. I noticed this especially when I first moved to Russia. During Soviet times, Russia pushed itself to urbanize and that meant massive growth in the cities. Village life gave way to large socialist block apartments that dominated the skylines of most Russian cities. I remember when I lived in Krasnodar the first time that I took a flight out of the city. I had been there several months and had gotten up before the dawn to catch a flight. When I got to the gate I saw the sun burst over the horizon for the first time since I moved there. I immediately became homesick. There are many beautiful things that we enjoy in Vienna, but wile we are here, we are going to relish the natural light shows that we enjoy when the sun rises and set.

This Week in Pictures: Celebrating Matt's Dad's Baptism #twip

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Video Update May 2014

Ecksfiles Video Update May 2014 from Matt Eck on Vimeo.

Leadership Akademie Video

Here is a video from the Leadership Akademie team project that I mentioned in our last post. If you would like to see more pictures of our team at work check out our flickr page.

The Problem is not Sochi

Me on a trip to the Caucuses not to far from where the Olympics are being held today.

I don’t think I have anticipated an Olympics more since I was a kid. For me, the reason why is fairly obvious. All of the eyes of the world would be on place that I fell in love with ten years ago. My first years struggling through language and culture were spent just a few miles from Sochi, in Krasnodar, the capitol city of the region. I have long since moved away from there, but I carry memories from that city and region with me that I will always cherish. So when it came time for the press to cover the Olympics I was shattered to see the how negatively the press portrayed this region that I love.
In part, I understand the reasons for this. It’s gross understatement to say that politically the U.S. and Russia haven’t seen eye to eye lately. Had the stories coming out of Sochi mainly been of a political nature, I might have understood that. However, as anyone who has seen the social media  knows the majority of the coverage has focused on much baser attacks. We’ve all seen the reports of dirty water, last-minute construction, and apparent corruption.
There are two main reasons that the media coverage has bothered me so much. The first is that the attacks are personal in nature. “Sochi problems” are the kind of issues that every-day Russians struggle with. Take the unfinished hotel rooms, for instance. Russians are generally not as time-orientated as people in the west so work generally gets done at the last minute. The press was there well before the opening ceremonies, after all! There are more to the “Sochi Problems” than a short tweet can really tell about*. It personally pains me to see how much these shallow judgments of Russian personal life have embarrassed my Russian friends.
The second reason the media coverage bothered me so much was because it reminded me of my own shallow judgments when I first got to Russia. In the weeks leading up to the Olympics when my Russian friends would voice their embarrassment about the media portrayal of Russia I would always stop short of voicing my indignation because deep down it felt hypocritical to do so. If living overseas has taught me anything it is that I tend to make judgments about things that are only on the surface level. It’s only after looking beyond the surface to see the underlying assumptions and values that we can truly come to understand why the people around us act as they do.
Proverbs 20:5 tells us, “The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.” Are there some issues or problems around you that you are content only to look on the surface of? What helps you to go deeper with the people in your life?
*I realize that even my analysis of the issues is hardly adequate. I wish I had more time to deal with them in depth but I would refer you to this excellent article for more examples of the background of “Sochi problems.”

Jim and Brenda’s Visa

On Tuesday afternoon December 31st our team gathered to help Jim and Brenda fill out their visa application and pray for their visa process...

Shortly after we finished praying we got a call that people were already lining up at the visa office a full 38 hours before the office opened much earlier than the last time we had to stand in line with our team mates.

So because of the type of visa we must apply for we all took turns standing in line for Jim and Brenda until it was time for them to turn in their paperwork on January 2nd!

Ecks' Files Video Update October 2013

Ecks' Files Video Update October 2013 from Matt Eck on Vimeo.

Rain Rain Go Away: Pictures from May 5th- May 18th)

It’s been raining a lot for the last couple of weeks…

…which has given us a chance to try out Naomi’s new Regenmantel…

…and has caused everything to bloom.

Blogger Labels: Rain,Away,Pictures,Naomi,Regenmantel

Making Memories: Our Week in Pictures (April 14th-April 20th 2013)

Someone is trying to grow up too fast...

...mommy took a day off this weekend so daddy and Naomi had a day to themselves...

...and with Matt in better health He and Liz finally celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary. 

If you would like to see all of our pictures like our Facebook page (top right hand box), follow our twitter feed, or follow us on Instagram (texmeck).

Spring Celebrations: Our Week in Pictures (April 7th-April 13th 2013)

We finally got to enjoy some spring weather here so we went out for the first ice cream of the season...

...we also celebrated the fact the we received extensions on our Austrian visas... 

...we also celebrated five wonderful years of marriage!

If you would like to see all of our pictures like our Facebook page (top right hand box), follow our twitter feed, or follow us on Instagram (texmeck).

Our Week in Pictures (Feb. 17th-23rd 2013)

As you can see it snowed again last week...

...and I got caught out in it one day..

...but that didn't keep me from teaching BTCP!

If you would like to see all of our pictures like our Facebook page (top right hand box), follow our twitter feed, or follow us on Instagram (texmeck).

Brother "Yusef"

Matt continues to go down to the Oasis refugee center once a week. It is always a huge blessing to talk to the young men who come about life and about the gospel. A few weeks ago Matt met a young man named "Yusef" who is from Central Asia and claims to believe in Jesus. "Yusef" doesn’t speak much English, but he and Matt still do their best to communicate. He and Matt talk on the phone during the week and Matt continues to encourage him in his faith and in his struggle through the asylum process. Matt is especially excited about "Yusef"’s hunger for the Bible. "Yusef" is really hoping to get a white card soon so he can go to Vienna. When the refugees are first processed in the camp, which is in the small town of Traiskirchen-20 kilometers from Vienna,  they are given a green identity card. This restricts them to the refugee camp and the surrounding area only. They are not allowed to travel on any public transportation. In the next, less restrictive step in the process they are given a white card which allows them some limited travel. "Yusef" is hoping to get a white card so he can go to Vienna and attend church.  Pray that "Yusef" would continue to grow in his new faith and be protected from others from his home country that might not be too excited about his faith.

Update: "Yusef" has been transferred to another facility in Austria which means his process is moving forward. Matt texts with him regularly. "Yusef" is glad that he has been transferred but lonely because he has no friends with him in this new place. Please pray for encouragement and that Yusef would continue to grow in his faith during this time.

Shopping: Bring Your A-Game

Grocery Shopping is a contact sport here in Austria. It takes precise planning and execution and a fair amount of aggression. First,you must always go in with a plan. Not only so that you don't break the bank, but because unless you have a car, you must carry everything home with you. This either means you need to shop every day or you have to have the physique of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Because Europe is frantically green, you will have to either bring your shopping bags with you or be ready to pay for them at the counter. Aside from your reusable bag and your sparse shopping list you will need to make sure that you have either a one euro or fifty eurocent coin with you. This is so that you can have a deposit for a shopping cart because heaven forbid those would be open for everyone to use. Now you are ready to walk the few blocks down to your local grocery store. Hopefully the weather is not inclement,which would necessitate weather gear and more planning. Once you have made the hike to the store the fun really begins. First you must get your cart. If this is a busy time, which is likely, you will need to watch out for the people both getting and returning carts. Especially take care not to disturb the people returning them, they just went through the ringer and only want to collect their deposit and get out of there. Carefully you put your coin in the slot and with luck your cart will release from the chain of others. Once you are away from the chaos of the front door you can relax for a moment and look t the fresh bread and rolls around you. This is a mine field,however, if you are like me and trying to stay away from carbs. Austrians do not abide day-old bread so there is never a lack of rolls and pastries assaulting your senses. You resist the urge to pick up that cream filled cloche and push on towards the produce. The produce section is the first of many logjams and for good reason. By the price of your item, which never actually corresponds to its exact location, is a number that you must memorize. This is because all of your produce need to weighed and the number tells the scale which item you have.After this you now hit the narrow aisles and now the elbowing dance to find the rest of the items on your list begins. This is further complicated by the store employees who have chosen this moment to stock the store, since no one can seem to arrive at the store early or work late to do this. You scour the aisles realizing either that peanut butter is longer available at that store or that you forgot that this store doesn’t carry the brand of cereal that you like, but for the most part you have what you came for. Don’t get too cocky because the worst is yet to come. Now you make a beeline for the registers. Usually at this point there is only one register open and a line backed up well into the aisles. You shrug off your need for personal space as you know that if you do not aggressively hold your place in line some overly zealous shopper will find a way to cut in front of you. Then you hear the phrase that turns a relatively orderly line into utter chaos, “Zweite Kasse, bitte!” The call to open up a second register has been sounded and now the entire line is bristling with potential energy. We all know that at any given moment one of the employees will come up from their smoke break and then all semblance of civility is lost. During one recent episode of this Liz and I were both in the store, without shopping bags so we were carrying what we had in our arms. I was fortunate to see the clerk come up and was able to stay ahead of the throng. Liz however was caught in the scrum of oncoming shoppers and in a moment of desperation tossed me her loaf of bread as if to say, “Don’t mind me, save yourself!” Once you get to the register you are almost done. You hand them your discount card and pray that you weighed your produce correctly…they will send you back if you didn’t! The cashier runs your items through the scanner at lightning speed. You bag all of the items yourself (your really didn’t think they were going to have baggers did you?) trying to keep up with the cascade of groceries without crushing any of the items you just bought. Somehow you keep up with the pace and pay the cashier when they finish handing you the last item...or face the scowls of the cashier and the people in line behind you. Finally you drearily push your cart back to the pick-up line and look at the line in-coming shoppers. Poor chumps.

Luke 10:1-2 and Outreach in Austria

A new spin on an old tradition

Viennese Melange served on a traditional sliver platter

Coffee is a big part of Viennese Culture.  Legend has it that the first coffee houses sprung up in Vienna sometime after 1683 when the hastily retreating Turkish army left large amounts of coffee in their wake.  Since then it has been a cultural tradition to sit for hours in a coffee shop, playing cards, talking politics, and especially reading the paper. It’s no surprise then, that Christians would take advantage of the Vienna coffee culture to gather study and discuss the scriptures.  A few years ago, in fact, some friends of mine started a Bible study group in one of the Vienna Starbucks locations. In the next four years they have expanded to all but three of the eleven Vienna locations. What’s most exciting is that because of the open nature of the groups it has become a non-threatening venue for all types of people to explore the message and claims of the Bible. From time to time the SBUXfellowship has asked me to help out with teaching some of their leaders and before we had to leave Vienna for our visa purposes, Liz and I were looking at helping out with this group in some way. Just recently we had one of the leaders over at our new apartment and he mentioned that one of the three locations that they didn’t have a study was only a block from our place. I said,” That’s funny, I’ve been praying about starting a bible study.”  So since then we have been praying about starting a study at the Starbucks in Millennium City mall. I’m really looking forward to see what God will do with this. Please be praying that people who might not normally feel comfortable going to a church might come and hear what God has to say to them through His word.

Ministry Pictures from Fall 2011

Pictures from the refugee ministry

We are discouraged from taking pictures of the refugees because of the sensitive nature of there situation, however I was able to snap a few pictures of the staff of the "Oasis." These are some of the folks who make the ministry to the refugees possible.

A Short Update on My Nigerian Friends

I wrote a few months ago about my Nigerian Friend Uche who was in danger of being deported back to Nigeria. I later found out that not only Uche was in danger but also his roommate Moses. You will remember that I had been helping teach Uche to read and Moses was a part of my Bible study. I wanted to let everyone know that Moses and Uche are doing fine now. Moses tells me that he had a close call with the police one day and has since moved out of the house he'd been living in. He also told me that he had the help of a lawer that does pro bono work for refugees and he and Uche are back in the process of getting their residence visas. Uche has since started taking a German class, which is even better for him than me trying to teach him to read in English. Moses has also joined my BTCL class which I started two weeks ago. Keep praying for these guys that they would continue to grow in their knowledge and love of the Lord and that they would be salt and light here in Austria.



A picture of part of my BTCL class with two of my Nigerian friends

Guitar Lessons

Music has become a big part of our ministry. Aside from playing and singing at our church and the refugee center, we often get asked to teach people to play instruments. Most of the time the requests are not very serious, but recently a young man, we'll call him M., has been taking guitar lessons from Matt. They started only a few weeks ago but M. has endeared himself to our hearts.

We were surprised and very glad that M. showed up at our apartment for a guitar lesson Tuesday afternoon after not making it the week before. We were afraid he had gotten deported or sent to another part of Austria, but he explained to us that he got approved to receive a visa! He is very fortunate that he is 16. Nowadays it's getting more and more difficult to receive asylum, but those that are 16 or younger are almost automatically accepted because of their youth. Because he had no identification papers, M. explained to us in broken German how a doctor here had examined his teeth and hands to determine he was 16.

Before Matt and M. start the lesson, we sit down at the dining table together, Matt and I finishing our pleasantly interrupted lunch, and M. enjoying some tea and cookies. Looking at framed photos of our families on the wall above the table, M. comments that it is very good that we have family photos. Unfortunately he has no pictures of his family. M. then makes machine gun sounds and pantomimes someone shooting up his family's home, explaining that he was the only one to survive an attack made by the Taliban.

We give our condolences, and after a brief period of sad silence, M. changes the subject. Mother's Day is coming up, and now he has three "Austrian mothers" for whom he wants to do something special. M. no longer lives in the refugee camp in Traiskirchen, just outside of Vienna, which is a good thing. M. tells us how bad the camp is and as he remembers, says, "ooooh!" as if he has just bitten into a hot pepper. "Everyone there-- deport, deport." He now lives in a refugee transition house sponsored by a Lutheran charity. His three mothers work in this home to look after M. and others and to help them integrate. M. also shows us the free museum pass given to him by the charity. Apparently he can get into any museum in Vienna for free. M. waves the pass in front of him as if to show it to a museum guard and says in English, "No money, no money."

M. has also been taking a German language course in the city. He complains about how difficult German is ("Ooooooh!"). He teaches some Farsi greetings to Matt, and praises Matt for his successful pronunciation, as he proves his point. "English--gut (good), Farsi-- gut, Deutsch--nein (no)," says M. in broken German. M. grabs the small amount of skin in front of his Adam's apple, repeats the difficult O-Umlaut sound several times in a row, then shakes his head as if to say, "Farsi doesn't have a ridiculous sound like this!"

Matt asks M. about the languages and culture of Afghanistan, and if the situation there is improving. M. shakes his heads and lets out another signature "oooooh!" He explains that each of the main tribes has its own leader, so there are four "chefs" (German for boss) working against each other. M. states that he would like to travel to America one day. But for now, it's time for guitar lesson. Today's lesson: rhythm and a review of the chords G, C, and D. In the future, M. hopes to play a Julio Iglesias song. Anyone know a good Julio Igesias tune in G?

Seriously he is a joy to us, but as you can see M. has been through a lot. Please pray that God would give us wisdom in how to best minister to this young man who has had to grow up way too fast. Please pray that through the music and the broken German we can let him know how much God loves him.

The Leaky Bucket

Have you ever heard the story about the leaky bucket? In case you haven't, I'll tell you the short version. There was a leaky bucket that was ashamed that he wasn't doing a good job since he could only deliver half of the water a normal bucket could because of his holes. However, one day he noticed that because of his daily routine of bringing water from a stream, there were many beautiful flowers along the path where he had leaked. Yeah, it's a cheesy story, but I have to say I've been feeling a bit like the bucket lately. Despite how well things have been going for us here in Austria, sometimes I wish we weren't starting over again. Instead of having a laser-focused action-packed ministry, I'm learning culture and language again while doing a Bible study here, a meeting there, refugee center once a week, while throwing in the occasional project for a little variety.

However, like the bucket, faithfulness (and of course GRACE) can make up for our inadequacies. Just the other day I was reminded that even though David was anointed as king at a young age, it took him many years of hiding in caves and running around like a crazy man before he became king. God was using this time to build his character-- it was not wasted time. In the midst of my discouragement last week God had me stop and look at the flowers I had watered along the path that I'm beating. Last weekend we had some visitors in from our missions office to do a presentation on Biblical leadership training. Russ and I had spent several weeks beforehand inviting people who we thought might be interested, and we weren't getting many commitments. But as the day of the meeting came and I looked around the room, I saw a couple of guys from my Bible study, some other friends from the refugee center, and the pastor of the church we attend.

I don't know what the fruit of last week's meetings will be, but I am encouraged to see what God will do. So if you don't mind I'm going to grab my leaky bucket. I've got a path to water.