The Infinite Outreach

The view from Untersberg while visiting Salzburg with friends

Dear Friends, Family and Partners,

If you know me well, you’ll know that I love thinking. I love playing with ideas, making connections between things I’ve experienced, beliefs I have, and different ways of seeing and understanding our lives. An idea that came to me recently, was that following Jesus wholeheartedly is very much like being on an infinite outreach.

I have very clear memories of the sudden emphasis I would put on my habits of prayer, scripture reading and quiet time, when it came to preparation and going out on a short-term outreach. I also clearly remember my dad challenging me about why the sudden focus and change of habit in proximity to the outreaches.

Many of you might be familiar with the common rhythms of short-term outreach. Increased prayer, along with training and preparation leading up to the trip. While on outreach there is the daily team time (community and fellowship), a focus on devotions and listening to God’s guidance, stepping out of your comfort zone and trying new things. Coming back we often take time aside to reflect on how God’s has used us and praise Him for his provision and goodness, sharing testimonies to encourage and challenge others, and working to integrate our experience into our lives.

This thought that our daily rhythms as we follow God should be like an infinite outreach came to me as: (a) our church in Austria has been working through the book Surprise the World! and (b) I’ve had the opportunity to share a missions workshop at the yearly conference for the Austrian Student Mission, unpacking a lot of the ideas from the same book. Perhaps you are already living these habits out this way… that going on outreach would not look much different from your normal rhythms, except for maybe a new context or people group. Perhaps, like me, you know that there would be a difference and that God is inviting you to take a look at your rhythms and habits and how you could be following Him more wholehearted in this infinite outreach that is life.

Will you join me?

Looking Back
In our last update we shared that we were preparing for our A2 German exams. Well… WE PASSED! This means that we have everything that we need to submit our next residence permit renewals at the beginning of July.

As I mentioned above, I had the chance to facilitate 2 workshops again at ÖSM Forum. In total there were 15 participants and we had a really great time wrestling with the 5 habits – Blessing others, Eating with others, Listening to the Holy Spirit, Learning about Jesus, Seeing yourself as sent – Michael Frost puts forward in Surprise the World! It was also great just to connect with many students from across Austria, hear their stories, and encourage them in their journeys. In the coming months, I will be connecting more intentionally with the group in Linz and supporting them with mentoring, training and fellowship.

We as OM also had the privilege of being involved in the annual LET’S GO Missionskonferenz. We were invited to share a workshop on the everyday life onboard one of the OM Ships. We had a good, interactive time with a workshop group of about 30 people, followed up by some good conversations about actually serving onboard and what God might be saying to a few individuals about their next steps.

I, (Dané) have had the privilege of joining the Coach-Mentoring Essentials course in the past few months, and have recently completed my practicals, which means that I am now qualified as a Coach-Mentor (See more here). This has given me a wider range of skills and tools that I can use in my every-day ministry of supporting all the different team members, both here in Austria, and serving abroad. I enjoy the diversity of my role, every day comes with new surprises and challenges. Practically speaking, my day-to-day work can look anything like baking a cake to celebrate someone’s birthday, doing admin, or journeying with someone as they go through the challenges of life.

The girls are happy as ever. Lily is much more comfortable staying later at Kindergarten (largely because her friend is staying later too), which is good preparation for her going to Volksschule next year. We recently received official confirmation that she will have a space in the 1. Klasse in the same school as Cori. She is excelling in her swimming, and will be able to join the club training (ASV Linz) after the summer holidays.

Cori had her 10th birthday in February, and we had the opportunity to visit the Czech Republic as part of the celebrations. She continues to love school, reading (both English and German) and has recently started learning to crochet (which makes Mom very proud :))

Looking forward
The next, big ministry project for John is a travelling team from the Logos Hope coming to visit and share in Austria at the end of April. Hannah (South Korea), Leo (Brazil), Tim (Germany) and Alehandro (Albania) will be coming to share about the ships ministry, encourage young people in Austria to consider serving on board and challenging the church to consider what it means for them to be missional where they are.

The last few days have been unexpectedly warm (almost enough to tempt us into a swim in the lake!) and we are all looking very forward to the coming summer. We have over 12 people currently planned to visit us between now and the end of August. I’ll be running a half-marathon and ultra marathon in June. We’ll be going to Teenstreet as M&M’s – supporting the coaches who will be leading the small groups with the teens. And we are hoping to do many outings to the park with the girls’ friends and their parents, swimming in the lake and riding our bicycles along the Donau.

OM Annual Report for 2023

For those that are interested in the numbers and stories from the broader OM work, here is the OM Annual Report for 2023.

Photo Dump
A few snap shots from the past few months, including Cori’s birthday trip to Czechia and our Gemeindefreizeit (church camp) with Baptistengemeinde Linz.