The McCauleys

Last Friday I felt like we were part of prime time sitcom.  So many things happened it was almost too funny to be true.

For starters early in the morning Elena woke up crying for no apparent reason and had to be held a bit before she went back to sleep (Being a deep sleeper Christy told me this in the morning).

We woke up to a house that didn’t have heat.  Our boiler stopped working in the night which was why Elena cried she was too cold.

We called the maintenance man and he told us the water pressure was o and we needed to just fill it, well since we grew up in America and haven’t been exposed to their type of boilers we didn’t know how to do this and their is no instruction booklet to be found so he said he would stop by before noon.

I, Eric, had planned to get rid of our old refrigerator which decided to stop keeping things cool about 3 months after we lugged it up three flights of stair.  My long-time friend came over to take it to the recycling depot.

Not 20 minuets after my return from the recycling depot I was in the living room getting ready to do some office work when I heard Christy calling from the kitchen, “Eric”    “Eric”    “ERIC”.

I walked to the kitchen and Christy looked at me with wide eyes and pointed to our kitchen wall cabinets and said, “it’s moving toward me”.  And sure enough it was.  Thursday night Christy said she noticed a few pieces of small plaster and dust falling when she was using the kitchen machine.  But today she saw the whole cabinet lurch toward her.

I got on the counter to and to my horror saw that the anchors which held the (two) bolts for each cabinet were almost completely out of the wall.  We quickly took all our dishes, glasses and mugs out and went to work taking the cabinets completely down.

Fortunately, all that was needed was to put larger anchors and larger screws in the same position as the old ones.  Now they are back up and actually look good.  We realize that they were never really in even when we moved in!

Oh, yeah and Kati was really sick too, did I mention that.  Christy just got back taking her to the doctor and found out that she has a really bad case of bronchiticus.

Now that I type it all out it doesn’t seem that crazy but on Friday it felt like one thing after the other was happening to us.

Oh yeah the maintenance man did come, a little after noon oh about 4 ish if I remember correctly.  I am sure glad I didn’t try to find a place to fill it with water because he hooked up a hose from our bathroom and filled the water directly to one of our heaters (not through the boiler).  We have heat now and Elena is sleeping comfortably.

Just thought I’d share a slice of our life with you today.

Yesterday, our church had it’s official opening Sunday.  Here are a few pictures of it.

We are excited to see how this new location and venue for ministry will open possibilities for ministry to those outside the church.

This building is not a church building per se.  It is a multifunctional building that has a kindergarten under its roof and an open hall for meetings, concerts, dinners etc..  One could liken it to a community center that is privately owned.

Last Friday night the owner, a believer, had an open house for the neighbors and businesses in the area to show what they can provide in services.

There has been an Advent concert already in this building and this summer there are plans to have an English outreach there.  We are excited about possibilities that are opening up with this.  I ask that you keep us in your prayers that the people of the church would also develop a vision for reaching out as the leadership envisions.

Last week was pretty busy with all the meetings we had with the Pre-accreditation team. They worked all Tuesday afternoon and late into the evening amongst themselves going over what they had read about our academy and the different interviews they conducted in the day and a half they were here. On Wednesday morning they presented their findings to the leadership team before they flew back to their homes and ministries.

I am really pleased with their evaluation as I think they were able to really able to understand what we have accomplished in the last five years as well as understand our ministry context.

Here is the bottom line as I see it. We have to have a few students to complete our whole program even before they think about granting accreditation so we are looking at maybe two more years (this fall we should have our first graduate). In the mean time we can work on the areas that they recommend to get up to standard and I think we would be granted accreditation to at least two of the three programs rather quickly upon their next visit.

One strong recommendation they gave was to concentrate on the program that is on the level of a BTh. Right now we have a one year certificate and a two year program that is on the level of an MTh. All of the core teachers we have are pursuing their doctorate in their fields. The EEAA stipulates that the teachers have to already obtain their degrees to be considered in compliance.

Here is the breakdown of their review of our school.

14 areas with 90 sub-points

• 48 sub-points are in full compliance
• 19 sub-points are in partial compliance
• 16 sub-points that work needed
• 5   sub-points that much work needed (all having to do with graduated students and alumni which we don’t have any yet not)
• 2 N/A

My work in this was affirmed in the report as well. It is encouraging to know that my contributions are recognized in their report they said that the “Management and organization of daily operations are in very capable hands (Michaela K., Werner W., Eric McCauley).”

I find it exciting to be on the cutting edge of training Austrians for ministry and leadership positions in churches. Thanks to all who have been praying for this and continue to pray that we in leadership would know how to best teach, train and mentor those who want to serve our Lord in ministry.

Well after a year and a half the European Evangelical Accrediting Association (EEAA) has sent a team of three people from different theological schools to come and evaluate us at the Evangelical Academy (EVAK).

I have been the project manager for this and have put many hours into this as we are seeking to have three programs accredited.

Christy says I need to tell what this all means in a way that people’s eyes don’t glaze over when I try to explain what this actually is.  Basically the accrediting association evaluates us to see if 1) we have clear goals and processes to achieve these goals and 2) if we are reaching these goals we have set.

In order to do this efficiently we have prepared about 300 pages of documentation on requested material and sent it to them last October and now three people are visiting for 2 1/2 days.  In these days they are here they basically do interviews with everyone that is involved in the Academy.  We have had meetings with faculty, office staff, the leadership team, board of trustees, church leaders in groups and then they have talked individually with some of us to see how things really work.

As I type the three that are visiting us are writing the report and will give us a presentation tomorrow morning at 10.  I haven’t done a big project like this in years and it reminds me of a big school project only this means much more!

Just in their questions I have already identified some areas that I think we need to improve and in others I feel we have done a really. Now I guess I need to wait and see what they say tomorrow.

I wanted to do a better job of informing those who are keeping up with our visa saga before I get another call from my sister!
Again for those readers who like the bottom line up front:  We applied for a “first time” visa this morning and as far as we can tell we most likely made it into four of the 60 open slots.

For those who want some more details continue to read.

My day, Eric, started at 4:45am.  The Visa office opens at 8 and we wanted to be there early because to make sure we were at the front of the line. 

The first thing I did was look out the window to see if there was a lot of snow on the road to see if getting downtown would be difficult.  I saw no snow and was relieved.  Then I quick checked the thermometer knowing that we had a little over 2 hours of waiting in line outside before the doors opened. It was -2 Celcius which is 28 Degrees Fahrenheit and knew it could be much worse.

We had some Austrian friends agree to watch the girls while we went to apply.  Fortunately, they are early risers and didn’t mind the early hours. We dropped off the girls and arrived in line around 5:55am.

When we got there there were about 10 others ahead of us in line.  One had spend the night, another arrived at 2am another at 4am!  Our stomachs tightened and our stress level rose when we saw others cutting in front and were informed by the person in front of us that some people were being represented by a lawyer and the the lawyers had multiple cases.  The cases could “cut in” to be by the lawyer.  We were wondering just how many people would be in front of us.  When 8 o’clock arrived and went in we were 19 in line and made us feel much better knowing that even if the 19 in front of us had families we would be within the 60 available spots for a private visa that we need.  We also knew that not everyone in line was applying for the same type of visa as we were.  

Once we waited about a half an hour our number was called. After explaining to them our situation, the visa official agreed it was easiest to start over from scratch and reapply for the correct visa status.  We had thought this would be the case and I had already prepared all of our documents with this in mind, so we turned them in and by 10:15 we were on our way. 

They said that since our visas are in process, we do not need to leave the country even though our visa expires tomorrow.  They provided us with a paper that says we are in process of obtaining our visa and we would only need to show this in case there is any question. We were so relived not having to think or plan a short trip out of the country this week.

We’ll just wait for a letter and we’ll see if we have to jump through more hoops for getting our visas again. We even had friendly visa officials, which is amazing since this is probably their craziest day of the year. One official I spoke with today says they will process about 1,000 applications today!

Okay probably more information that you had wanted but there it is. Thanks to those who have been praying for us.  We did get close enough to the front of the line that I think we don’t have to worry about not being in the running for the 60 open spaces. Please continue to pray they will process our applications quickly and that we will be granted our visas.

It has been a few days and I have been negligent to update on this very important matter.  This was brought to my attention when my sister called for the scoop on Monday’s meeting.

For those who like the bottom line up front here it is.  On Monday January 4th 2010 Christy and I will be applying for our (first time) visa.  This means we are starting all over and need to receive a different type of visa for which there are only 60 places each year.

For those who are interested in the visit and a few clarifications continue reading.

Our good friends, the Perrys, had Kati and Elena sleep over so Christy and I could go to the visa office alone to talk with the government worker which was a big help. 

Fortunately, we were one of the first ones in that day and the official was in a good mood, he actually smiled a few times.  He informed us that there was nothing to do but reapply for a first time visa on January 4th.

Our current visa runs out on January 5th and told him we don’t want to be left out in the cold with no visa.  He said that the best thing to do was talk with the first time visa office on Monday the 4th.   We reiterated that we want to do the right things and are already settled here with an apartment, work and Kati in school and wanted to find a good solution to this predicament.  He smiled and said there is always a solution.

So the adventure continues on Monday morning.  Christy and I will be standing in line long before the visa office opens to, hopefully, ensure an early place in line for the few visa places for our particualr visa status we need.

Communication is always tricky in that the communicator thinks they are communicating clearly until someone gives feedback on what they understand. My sister asked a very good question about what does this mean for us…what if we don’t have all the documents by Monday….will we be kicked out of the country……

No we will not be kicked out of the country but it does put some added stress to our lives and jumping through hoops to provide all the necessary documentation, time in gathering the documents, waiting for appointments etc…  It has been our experience that since there are only 60 spots each year we need to apply on the very first day the visa office is open so our application is one of the first to be processed in order to “secure” a position before the spots get filled up.  On previous years we have had people apply on the 15th of  January and all the spots have already been filled.  This would mean that we would have tourist visas that would last only 3 months and would need to leave the EU in order to “renew” our status.

So we will keep you in the loop as things progress.  Your continued prayers are appreciated, that we would be in the 60 that would receive visas this years, that they would process our applications quickly and that we (and the Austrian government) would find a good solution for our status in the country after Jan. 5th.  Pray that they would provide something that we would not be on a tourist visa but a special visa that would cover us until we receive our perminant visa.

I am glad things are going so well with the accreditation visit in January because it looks like I am having visa problems (no not the credit card).

Christy and I need to go in on Dec. 29th to talk it over but right now it looks as if we have lost our visa status and need to reapply on January 4th 2010.

Apparently some law changed in 2007 and the worker who processed our application said I had the wrong form (which I guess I did) and processed it with the correct form but checked the wrong choice for which type of visa we were to receive.  Ignorantly we have been under this title since then.

This year I find the correct form and asked for a renewal but with the correct status.  This is where it goes south.  They have informed me that it is not a renewal but a reapplication.  I will go in on the 29th with Christy and see if we can find a good solution to this.  Our visa expires on January 5th 2010 and we don’t want to be without a visa.  That would just cause a lot of problems.

If we have to reapply we will be waiting outside the Government office before 6am so we are one of the first to apply for the new year.  There are only 60 spots open each year under the type of visa that we need! I had better start ordering all the paperwork from the states just in case it comes to that.  Apostilleized Birth certificate, Police Record to show we have not committed any crimes, bank records, medical insurance……and the list goes on.  It is thinks like this, and our former land lord, that make living overseas stressful.

If you remember to pray that this would be resolved so we can have a visa we would appreciate it!

Well I think we are pretty much ready for our accreditation visit in January. I told my team that I didn’t want to have anything hanging over us over Christmas time so we could enjoy our families.  I think we have pretty much done it. 
Now all we have to do make sure our facilities are clean and orderly which isn’t too much work since we do a good job of that already. 
This is a great relief and I am so glad to work with the team I have.  They are really good people to work with and all very competent. 
I am very curious to see the strengths and weaknesses the Academy has after the visit.  It is nice to have an outside source come in to look at things from an objective perspective. They will be able to help us see things we don’t and provide suggestions that will actually help us do a better job of equipping men and women for ministry here in Austria.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas.

Last week I spent 3 days with other Greater Europe Mission field and ministry leaders.  It was a time to meet as leaders with the GEM president and talk about issues and direction of our ministries.

Being rather new in the position of co-field leader it was a first for me to be at one of these meetings.  Honestly I was not looking forward to leaving the family for a few days and interrupt my rhythm of life and ministry but I am very glad I went.

It was good to hear that other people are running into similar issues in ministry as I am and I think we got a clearer picture of where the mission is going.  Henry has been the president for two years and there have been a lot of changes with the way things are done. As most people would testify change in any organization is not easy.

I walked away with the meeting with many questions answered and with a feeling of freedom to do ministry the way the GEM Austria team needs to.

We were encouraged that each field or country knows the unique cultural/spiritual needs better than anyone at the home office and that how ministry gets done is largely up to the team in that location.

Each country and ministry are to focus on three areas, goals or objectives if you will, and how these are fleshed out are country specific.

The three areas are:

• To be concerned with each others personal and spiritual health and growth
• To cultivate a culture of prayer
• To be reproducing disciples and rapidly reproducing churches

Personal holiness, a habit of prayer and reproducing disciples and churches are things that we here in Austria are currently doing.  I feel validated and encouraged as we think about the new year and what the Lord has for us to do.

Thanks for everyone who is partnering with us in the things we are doing.

I am feeling pretty good about my work today. I have been trying to carve out some time to work on the Christian Education training that has been sitting on my desk within arms reach but have not been able reach over open it up and type away. 

Today however after cleaning out my inbox, responding and writing a few emails I completed a rough draft of one of the lessons on using teaching methods.  While it is just a draft it means that others can read through it and provide valuable feedback and input to make it better.  I have a small group of children’s workers with years of experience which their insights almost always make imporvements on what I have first written.

Next Tuesday there is a curriculum committee meeting and we will be talking about a previous lesson on “needs of students” that was handed in.  Even though the process is good and makes the product better I always feel like I have just gotten into a boxing ring with 3 other guys and I am not allowed to defend or hit back and have gotten the living day lights punched out.  This writing thing can be brutal!

Also an update on those who are curious about our previous land lord situation.  We have heard nothing yet.  Our attorney write a nice letter listing the inaccuracies and asking that he respond within 14 days.  He has until this coming Friday the 20th.  We are praying he will respond appropriately.  If he neglects to respond then our attorney will ask him to appear in court to address the issue.  I just wish this whole ridiculus thing would be over.