Christmas Eve

Hi again. Christmas Eve in Austria is the biggie. They don't really focus on the 25th, everything revolves around the 24th. So today we had a special Christmas Eve Brekky and will have Christmas Eve Dinner tonight, so I thought I would share a few photos.



God bless you all

Steve

Happy Christmas

Well, it's that time of year again. We have had the snow and the lights and the Christmas Markets, but best of all, we are here together serving our God.

Click on the play button to see and hear a Christmas greeting.

Carolyn, Lindsay and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a blessed Christmas and to thank you all for your prayers and emails. It is a blessing to hear form you.

It is a wonderful to know and serve Jesus; Emmanuel, God with us. Our prayer, this Christmas, is that you would all come to know Him better than before and to truly worship the Christ of Christmas this year and forevermore.

God bless you all.

All our love
Steve, Carolyn and Lindsay.
Austria 2008

Big Snow

Well as you can see from the pictures, we have had a heap of snow arrive recently. It was exciting for all of us especially with Christmas drawing close. It is a bit strange to be here in the cold leading up to Christmas rather than body boarding at Secret Harbour beach in 40 degress Celcius.

We spent quite a while shoveling and clearing snow so we could continue with normal life, and also had some fun!

Carolyn and I are doing well. I have had a few bouts of flu, but this is to be expected with the weather and all. Carolyn has started a ladies craft night here at the castle on Tuesday nights, and so Maxine and Suzanne and Carolyn sat together and Maxine showed them how to create some wonderful picture frames. I think over the weeks ahead they will be doing Cross-Stitch and are hoping to be able to make some clothes for an orphanage in Hungary or Romania.


Lindsay has been working on the church web site which should be up and running shortly. He has been helping with worship at church and dealing with lots of different things here at the Castle. He is enjoying his time here I think. We even manage to get in a few games of Siedler on a night time. This is a wonderful German board game that a bunch of us have been playing.

I have been helping out by teaching Wednesday night Bible studies at church while Robin and Alison were away. This is always a privilege and a blessing to me.

God had placed it on my heart to teach on prayer, and so we did. As usual, I get the most out of the studies as I always feel God is teaching me alone. As a result, I have really begun to spend more time alone with God in prayer. Seems silly to think I would do otherwise, but often I just try and do things myself instead of placing myself before God's Throne and allowing Him to change me and mould me and empower me and give me the wisdom for the life I am leading.

Today at devotions I read from Mathew 7:7 - 11, where Jesus teaches us that God really wants to hear from us. Not only that, but God actually is more loving than the best father figure we could imagine, and Jesus points out that this being the case, "How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him". So I am reminded again to bring everything to God in prayer and He knows what is best for me, and loves me more than I can ever imagine, therefore I can present my prayers before him in total confidence. It is a great place to be!

I have begun praying for our Summer of Service Teams, for next year, and would ask that you do the same, as God will draw people to the Castle here in Austria who want to serve Him with their whole heart and he will do a work in their lives.

Please pray for the students who will come in April for the first Semester of the School of Apologetics. Again that they will be people who will allow God to change them and grow closer to Him during this special time. Pray for Alex as he heads up the School of Apologetics and for his wife Laura, as they now have a beautiful new baby, Caleb. Check out the new website Alex has recently completed here then click on School of Apologetics.

Please pray for each of the staff here, Robin and Alison, Maxine, Akos, Alex, Laura and their three children, Grace, Livia and Caleb, Natalie and David, Bekky, Anita, Suzanne, Lindsay and of course Carolyn and I. We really need and appreciate your prayers.

God bless you all, I hope to update this blog before Christmas.

First Snow

The first snow has arrived!

It started last night and it is settling down on the ground. It is a beautiful sight and especially exciting for Carolyn to see it falling for the fisrt time! Unfortunately she is in bed sick, but I made her look out the window. Please pray we will stay well, there has been a lot of flu going around and everyone at the Castle is getting sick.


As I write to ou the snowfall is getting much heavier. We went out yesterday and bought some warm clothes and snow boots, just in time:-)

If you want to see the pictures click here

Robin and Alison are away for two weeks, so please pray for them that they will have a relaxing time with family and friends in England.

Please pray for me as I will be teaching the Wednesday Bible study at Church for the next two weeks. I will also be continuing with the Thursday study on Phillipians.

God bless you all and remember Jude V24,25. God is the only one who can "keep you from stumbling and present you faultless before the presecence of His glory, with exceeding Joy"!

What an amazing God we serve. Talk to Him! He is waiting to hear from You.

Steve

Hungary

Speakers Week , Vajta, Hungary 2008

Well we have just returned from a trip to the 2008 Speaker's Week, in Vajta, Hungary, at Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe. It was an amazing time for all of us. We went with Susanne, myself, Carolyn, Natalie, Petra, Lizzie, Becky and Lindsay

On Monday morning, the start of speaker's week, Carolyn and I had prayed that God would speak clearly to us. By Tuesday evening, we had heard Him speak clearly through the various speakers, and prayer times and sharing with fellow missionaries.

Alan Rigg was keynote speaker, and it was wonderful to meet up with him again after about 10 years, and to be able to sit under his teaching. Alan laid a solid biblical platform from which the conference launched. Everyone agreed that God used him to speak to us in a mighty way. It was great to also meet up with Alan's assistant Pastor, Darren. Darren shared a song that he and his 8 year old daughter had written and I look forward to hearing it recorded one day.


Kurt Kula taught us about the faithfulness of God, and he used the life of Abraham and some of his own personal missionary experiences to illustrate this. Kurt has a wonderful teaching style and we all enjoyed his humour. We also had the pleasure of praying with Kurt and getting to know him. He is an inspiration to all of us "would be" missionaries! To see his willingness to persevere when so many of us would have given in was a great encouragement. Way to go Kurt!


We also had Heather Mercer sharing her testimony and experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq. You will want to check out her amazing story here. Heather added a further dimension to the teaching by sharing the many ways that God is moving miraculously today in Iraq and Afghanistan and reminding us of the cost involved in being a Christian in these countries.

Both Carolyn and I have a renewed sense of purpose in serving our Lord and whether that be in Austria or elsewhere we have been encouraged that we are doing the right thing serving God as missionaries.

We were blessed to meet up with old friends and make new ones. Dott and Jim made sure we felt right at home and kept the tea flowing! We really appreciate their love and concern for us and were more than blessed with their Godly counsel and wisdom. They truly are family!

It was also a great chance to catch up with our friend Neil Livingstone. He is a wonderful brother in the Lord and a great blessing to us and especially Lindsay. He has taken Lindsay under his wing and Neil led us in worship. He is a talented Godly man and we are all eagerly awaiting the release of his new worship CD. No pressure Neil! Here is a photo of Neil and Lindsay. I noticed Neil's biceps are almost as big as mine..Hah!



Well, it was a wonderful week. God truly is great!

For more pictures click here. To hear the conference messages click here

God bless you all for reading this Blog. Make sure and sign up to receive updates and this will save me having to email you all when it is updated.

Please pray we will know God's leading and direction and continue to grow in our relationship with Him and with each other. Please pray for the work God is doing around the world. Pray specifically for Kurt in Poland, and Alan in Austen and Heather in Iraq, as well as Robin and Alison here in Spittal, Austria. Pray God will continue to send out workers and pray God will help us to see the importance of telling others the Great News about Jesus.

Steve and Carolyn

Kennedy's First Blog

Hi all, I cant believe it is nearly 6 months since we left Australia.  It has taken way too long but I have finally managed to get onto setting up a blog.  I have attached links for pictures, so if you notice a word in a different colour click it and it should take you to related pictures...I hope!

Carolyn and I are just back from a 2 week break in Scotland, which was wonderful.  It was great to catch up with Gran and family and our friends there.  We stayed at a beautiful little unit in a place called Dovetails, in Bridge of Cally.  Mike and Helen (the owners)  made our stay very relaxing.  I even managed to meet up with my best friend from school, Neil Mackay,  who I hadn't seen for 27 years.  It was so good to meet up with Neil again.

We had some amazing weather and so we drove as much as we could.  Including a trip to Loch Tay, Montrose, Arbroath, Pitlochry and Braemar.  On the way to Braemar we stopped in at Dalmunzie Lodge and had a nice lunch.   Expecting a Scottish welcome, we were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by an Aussie waitress, and found out all the staff and owners were from Australia.  What a small world.

We are back in Austria at the Castle and settling into our roles again.  Things are quieter now that conference season is officially over.  However we do have smaller groups staying, which keeps us on our toes.

I am teaching a study on Thursday nights, and we are currently working through the book of Philippians.  It is amazing to see Paul's attitude and his complete focus on the importance of "Preaching Christ".  I am humbled by his statement in V21, "To me to live is Christ and to die is gain!" Wow, how I pray I may be able to get my own life into that prespective.  I often share devotions in the mornings through the week and we attend church on Sundays and Wednesay at Calvary Chapel Spittal.  The director of the bible college, Robin Turner, is also the Pastor of this church, and his teaching is always good.

Austria is really beautiful and especially as it is fall at the moment.  I cleared a mountain of leaves the other day and had to stay rugged up as the temperature is beginning to drop now. It is amazing to see the golden leaves and trees all around us now.  The lake is as beautiful as ever, and looking very serene.  Carolyn tells me we may get snow on Wednesday :-)

We do love to think of you all back in Australia and we do pray for you.  It is great to receive emails, and we would love to get a postcard, just so we can get mail.  It is a big event at the Castle when someone gets mail. 

Carolyn, Lindsay and our friend Akos drove up to Salzburg to pick up Robin and Alison who were returning from a  trip to Idaho, so we managed to pop in to the town for a couple of hours and visit the Mirabelle Gardens and the stamp shop, Akos' favourite stop.

I will attach some photos too.

We miss you all

Steve