Wein Worship Seminar

I had my worship seminar today with CIG church in Vienna. I have been having an on going email exchange with Mary Prokop who is working with the worship team people there at the church. Mary is the wife of Rob Prokop the lead pastor. When they are in the states they sometimes attend Mountain. And when Pam and I are in Austria Pam we attend CIG (which stands for Christian International Fellowship). We've been talking about me coming and doing this seminar for just about a year now, and we finally made it happen.

I drove about 20 K to SCS which is a very big shopping center just outside of Vienna. Rob and Mary picked me up at the Micky Dee's there and they drove me into Vienna. I can drive in New York City no problem, but I'm not ready to tackle Wien yet.

We started at about 10:00 this morning and went to after 2:00, with Lunch squeezed in the middle. As I was teaching the class you can tell that they knew why they were part of the worship team. It wasn't just because they knew how to sing, or play and instrument, or run the sound or even knew about the latest electronic gadget that could be used in worship, it was because of their heart for worship that they were in the worship ministry.

One of the sessions really went deep into personal heart issues and at the very end of that session one of the people asked if we could have a time of prayer, because what was just discussed needed to be thought about in a prayerful manner. It was a great time of worship!


There were several people there from the states and as we talked to each other we realized that we knew some of the same people back in the states. It's amazing how small the world is in Christ. Actually I'd like to change that saying. Louis Hall a wonderful brother in the Lord was talking to me just last Sunday when I used that phrase. He stopped and corrected me. He said It's not that it is a small world, but that the body of Christ is very large. Yes, I do believe that the body of Christ is huge! What a wonderful way of refreshing an old worn out saying.
What a wonderful day today was! Full of worship and new found friends, brothers and sisters in Christ.


Here are some pictures of today.
Michael, recording the seminar

Lunch time

Lunch time

Rob (far left) and Mary

See, I do teach!

Austria

Monday - Thursday
Monday May 26, well actually it’s Thursday now. We arrived on Tuesday, safely and about 15 minutes late. Not bad for an 8 hour trip that started 40 minutes late. Gail Oliver took us to the airport leaving her family behind, on Memorial Day no less. What a servant’s heart she has.

The plane ride was very uneventful and even quiet. Pam likes the aisle and I like a window, so we had an empty seat between us… for about 10 minutes. Then our seat neighbor arrived. I found out later in our conversations that he was from Kosovo but had moved here to the states about 15 years ago. Actually he said that he is Albanian, but had moved to Kosovo because of the war.
I broke out the world map that was in the airline magazine and ask him many questions about that area of the world. Someplace in my ancestry besides being Italian, I am also a little bit Albanian. So I pronounced the one word that my father had heard from his father and was told that it was a mix of Albanian and Italian. He then looked at me with a grin on his face and then pronounced something very similar and said that it was what a grandmother would say to a child when she wanted to scold him. Leave it to my grandparents to pass on a word like that!

Today is Thursday and it seems like we have been here awhile now, even though it’s only been two full days. We are staying in the Gate Haus. As you can see it’s not very big. It has a kitchen (rather small), full bath and living room downstairs, and a bedroom and half bath upstairs. The ceiling upstairs… well let’s put it this way, I can touch the ceiling. It’s like a big doll house. The Sattelbach is just on the other side of the road. We can hear it all the time.

Yesterday we had a cook out for anyone that wanted to. We met the new family here at TCMI, Justine and Beth Higgins. Beth’s parents, Jim and Peggy Conner were a part of the TCM family back in the 70’s-80’s. Jim was also on the TCM board and currently teaches for TCMI as an adjunct professor.

Saturday I go and teach a Worship Seminar for CIG, International Christian Fellowship. It’s the church Pam and I attend when we are over here. The lead pastor Rob Prokop and his wife Mary sometimes attend MCC when they are back in the states.

Well, that’s it for now. We are here safely. I’m reading and studying for the worship seminar and my first class in Belarus.
John
This is the front of the Gate Haus.

This is the side from the road


Sattelbach stream
across the road
from the gate haus. Stair case leading to the bedroom. I'm at the far wall.



As you can see, it's quite small, but it works for us!
jts