Tourist No More

Hello lovely readers :)

Just wanted to drop a quick update and list a few prayer requests. It's hard to believe that there are only a few weeks left of the Vienna OMP/internship. Vienna has felt more and more like home as the weeks have passed. One of the interns, Amanda, and I had a discussion last night about how us interns are certainly not locals, but we are also not tourists anymore. I had this realization last Saturday while walking through Hofburg Palace. Just as a guide, I was walking through this:

Eyes straight ahead, I brushed past people gawking at the dome above and wove back and forth between multiple tourist groups. I realized that I was no longer the one gawking, the one taking pictures, the one stopping to take in the beauty that surrounded me. I was choosing to walk this way not really because of this spectacular piece of architecture, but because it was the quickest way to get to a cafe for lunch. Such mannerisms echo a women's thoughts I heard this past Wednesday, one who has lived her whole life in Vienna: when you are constantly surrounded by beauty you sometimes forget that what surrounds you is beautiful.

In a sense, beauty can easily be taken for granted.

This will certainly be difficult for me to do in the next few days. Starting tomorrow until Friday, we will be staying with the pastor's family and two of their friends from WHM in Schladming, Austria for a discipleship retreat:

Here are some prompts for prayer if you feel led:

• safety in our travels there, during our stay, and back. We are taking two 7 passenger vans - flash back to youth group camp anyone?

• for our hearts to be open to what God will say through Jeff (the WHM leader of the discipleship retreat), through His creation, through one another, and anything/one else.

• for the fruit of the Spirit to increase as God continues to prune us, just as he has throughout this trip.

• an awareness of the Father's heart

• for me specifically, this will be one of the first times I will have to begin to process what has happened during my internship. pray for discernment of spirits, clarity, and wisdom as I begin to intentionally process my experience here thus far.

• for everyone going to love themselves and one another well

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Last Saturday I finally got a chance to check out the Museum of Fine Arts :) I took in the wonderful art work for about three hours and during this time I felt that God was pointing out specific pieces to me and revealing more about himself through them. Here are some that especially spoke to me: