Settling into life in Austria and getting ready to visit South Africa
Dear Friends, Family and Partners,
‘The Benns are back in town!!!!’… well, the Benns will be back in town. July and August will be our first furlough/home assignment since we moved to Austria.
In a little less than a month Dané and the girls will be getting on a plane to South Africa. A week later I’ll head to Switzerland to meet up with friends and partners there, then to Germany to attend TeenStreet and then I’ll be getting on a plane too.
It’s a little bit weird, this feeling of leaving home… something which Austria and particularly Linz has become, to go home… to a place we haven’t really had a permanent home in for over 5.5 years.
These updates have only been a snap shot of all we’ve experienced and been a part of over the last 2 and a half years, and we’d love to catch up with any and all of you that will have time! Further down in this update you can find a schedule of our time in SA.
Looking Back
If you are part of our Alltag Updates WhatsApp group you might’ve thought that we’d got lost in an Austrian forest or trapped by a blizzard in the mountains. The truth is I got caught in the very slippery ‘let’s just wait until the next thing so we can include it in the update’ trap 🙂
Some of the more signficant things from the last few months include:
Running workshops and stands at various events. I had the privilege of running a workshop on Prayer at the Young Leaders Summit in November last year. In March we once again had a stand at the annual Let’s Go Missionskonferenz with many great conversations about what OM does. Schladminger Jugendtag was loads of fun this year, with an ongoing competition to promote TeenStreet and workshops focused on finding our purpose, place and path. We also had another team join us from Logos Hope during the ship’s annual maintenance period. They engaged with a number of youth groups, churches and university groups, using their stories and experience serving and living onboard Logos Hope to connect those they were sharing with, with the global mission God has to reach every nation.
Both Dané and I have had the privilege to participate in some challenging and rewarding trainings this year. I am currently half way through my International Leadership Coaching Academy training and it has been amazing. Not only have I already learnt so much about coaching and guiding leaders through complex situations and transformative self-awareness, but the training has been very practical and I have had the privilege of journeying with some amazing people as their coach. Dané has just recently completed OM’s People Care Course level 3, which was focused on group, family and critical incident debriefing. She has found the course to be a great learning opportunity and is excited to see how her new skills are going to be useful in the future.
At the end of March we took and passed out B1 German Language Exam… wooohooo! This means we don’t have any further language exam requirements for the next few years.
At the end April the OM team in Linz moved to new offices. This has been a long term project and we are all so grateful to finally be settled in. The new offices really give us space to grow and we are excited to see what God is going to do in the future. The offices are actually in the same building as our Austrian church, we means as a church family we are also enjoying finally being ‘back’ where the church has been for the last 60 years or so.
And finally, we are celebrating having received a new residence permit which is valid until we are eligible for permanent residency! This is a massive answer to prayer… not only because it means a few years of not having to do the renewal process, but also because we can head to South Africa knowing that we can come back.
Looking forward
Coming back to Austria after furlough is going to mean some big changes and new things.
Dané has been offered the role of European Area People Care Facilitator and will start officially in the role in Autumn. She will continue providing people care to our wonderful team here in Austria, but will also take on the responsibility of supporting the regional and field people care providers across 33 countries.
Cori will be going to gymnasium when school starts in September. We are incredible proud with how hard she has worked this year and her top marks have been rewarded with a place in the Akademische Gynasium Linz. She is very excited that being smart is celebrated in Gynasium and that she will have a bunch of new subjects.
Lily will start the second grade when she goes back to school, and is really excited to learn about multiplication. Here it is normal for the teacher to take a class for the entirety of their primary school years (4 in total) and Lily couldn’t be happier to know she will return to Frau Grammar’s classroom.
Photo Dump
Here a few fun moments from the last few months.
As always, we would love to hear your news and how we could pray for you!
Lots of South African love from Linz,
John, Dané, Cori and Lily
Furlough Schedule
16-25 July: Durban (Dané, Cori and Lily)
22-31 July: Switzerland – Huttwil, Basel, Zurich (John)
25-31 July: Pretoria (Dané, Cori and Lily)
1-15 August: Windhoek, Namibia.
18-19 August: Port Elizabeth.
20-22 August: East London.
23 August – 2 September: Durban.
6-14 September: Dané in Pretoria.
The Benns 