I didn’t know if  it was going to be a good time and worth the few days out of my schedule or not but I found it to be very good.  I was able to see and talk with others who are in the same position and dealing with similar issues.

We all had read Bill Hybels “Too Busy Not to Pray” before coming and after our worship times had a short discusson about our prayer lives.  It is nice to know that other leaders are also concerned about cultivating their spiritual lives.

We had all taken the Birkman assesment.  It is a helpful tool to understand each other and we will be using this instrument in our local teams as well.

The last focus of our time together was having our Annual Development Reviews and talking about the coming years strategic plan. 

I won’t bother you with any more details but wanted to let you in on something I am invovled in and is new.
 

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.

Last time we got out of a rental agreement here it was horrible.  We hadn’t been in Austria a year and had signed a contract that bound us to paying rent for 5 years, no exceptions like a 3 months notice.  It was through compassionate Austrian friends and some help from a friend of a friend who was a judge we were able to walk away with our full down payment.  It was through this that all our Austrian friends asked if we had lawyers insurance.  We didn’t and they all said we should get it.  So we did and hoped we would never have to use it……so we are now.

Christy called our insurance agent and they quickly referred us to someone saying our case necessitated it.  Tuesday evening Christy and I met a lawyer who read through our contract and what our landlord says we owe him.  In my last blog I ended asking the question, “Is it just us or does this sound unfair?”  Well some of what he is asking is legal and can ask for it but he just needs to provide records and receipts for the last three years.  However his calculations on the inflation index were miscalculated and there are two opposing clauses in the contract that mean we might not have to pay anything. But this is for the lawyers to decide.

Heres where things stand currently.  Our lawyer has drafted up a letter requesting our former landlord to respond within 14 days and provide recepits for the all the utilities he says is over the amount we agreed on in the contract and also to respond to the inflation clause.  We will see.  I hope this gets settled quickly and out of court.  Thats the last thing we need to have on our plates.

As many of you know we moved from recently.  There are a few reasons why we moved, mainly being closer to Kati’s school which cuts the daily commute in half (from 40 min. to ca. 20 min. one way).  It is also closer to my work and the public transportation for others to reach us is a lot better.

Anyway we have been diligently cleaning, repainting and getting the small yard in order to get our deposit back.  Last week we made an appointment with the owner to return our keys and hopefully receive our deposit back.

Hours before our meeting we get a letter from the owner detailing expenses owed to him and instead of receiving our deposit we owe him almost €1,000!  It is difficult to express in words how we felt.  It was being intensely stressed, angry and overwhelmed all at the same time.

There was a flurry of activity with calls, internet searches and rereading our contract. We are still in the process of seeing if we have to pay anything, he needs to pay us or if it will turn out neither of us pays anything.

Even if everything is legal and we do end up paying from our point of view it is still unjust and wrong.  Let me try to explain.  There is a section in our contract saying if inflation goes up more than 3% he can adjust our rent. (which is fine, inflation is a fact of life).  The thing is he can request up to three years of back inflation payment.  Right now it seems to be that if he owns the property, which he does, he can request his three years at any time.  If he does not own it he would need to inform us of the inflation increase within 2 weeks or else he forfeits his right to request it (he is able to request for the increase before the next months rent).  Christy and I think this is fair, we would have been paying increases through out our time and it would not be such a shock but to have to pay it at a one lump sum really hurt.  He is also doing this with another aspect of trash, water etc expences.  Which we think it would have been fairer (is that a word) to us.

Since most Austrians live in subsidized housing they don’t have to deal with renting privately and they think this sounds bad.  But in thinking back through the years of the missionaries who have rented privately I know of only one from a dozen that has not had problems getting out of a rental contract without either a major relational conflict or parting with a lot of money or both.

Is it just us or does this sound unfair? 

The building a a multi-purpose use building and it is connected to a Kindergarten.  The owner of the Kindergarten is a church member and is letting the church use the Kindergarten facilities for our Sunday school. The kindergarten is way cool and all the kids were excited to have such nice rooms.

Here is a link to a few pictures. Hopefully I can get my hands on some more pictures later.  Many people have prayed, worked hard and given money to make this a reality. Thank you to eveyone who participated.

Other exciting news is 10 new students have signed up for classes this fall.  The school semester in Europe starts in October and we have a few new students who fit our target group!  Those who want to work either part- or full-time in a ministry!  We are excited for these new students and pray that they will gain the knowledge and experience that will equipp them to minister effectively.

Tags: EVAK

This year GEM is celebrating 60 years as a mission.  Christy and I were able to be at GEM’s 50th annivesary when we were just beginning to see if overseas missions was where God wanted us.  To think that that way 10 years ago and we have been in Austria for the past 7 is pretty neat.  So far the conference has been quite good.  We have gotten to know our new president of three years better as he has/is making some organizational changes with the hope of encouraging those of us on the field to make more decisions and he is also challenging each of us to grow in our personal walks with Christ.

I am excited about the things that I am hearing and gaining some new ideas from interacting with others about life and ministry in Europe.  I find it refreshing to take a step back sometimes and take a breath to gain some perspective about life and ministry and this conference is providing that for me.

Tags: GEM

One of the reasons I haven’t posted is because things have been pretty busy and in the next few weeks I will try to put bits and pieces of the last 2 months up.  I don’t have time writing it all down and you probably don’t have time reading everything all at once.

Here are some highlights from the last two months

• Christy and I co-taught at Greater Europe Mission’s first termers effectiveness seminar.  Our topic was on “Understanding Culture” .  We had a lot of fun working together and heard some positive responses too. 
• 2 days after our return from the GEM seminar I went to Korntal, Geramany.  I had been asked by the Evangelikale Akademie to take a class that was offered on Evaluation, Program planning an Accrediation.  It went very well but I was rather nervous because it was at a doctoral level and it was all in German.
• At church we had a teacher appreciation Sunday where I thanked everyone who helped out in Sunday School this past year.
• We celebrated 4 of July with some fellow missionaries and got to have some S’mores (we toasted them over our gas grill).

Well I hope to post more with some pictures in the next week(s).

Some of you may know that our church the Free Evangelical Church of Kagran is looking for a place to relocate. For the past year they have been talking with an owner for purchasing a building. We have send information through our sail mal Newsletter last year.

In the past month there has been a lot of movement and steps taken…but not in the direction we were thinking. A few things happened within a short span of time. Pooling our resources we realized that we would need to pay less than the seller was asking for. We tried to negotiate to a lower price but the seller is not in a hurry to sell and thinks he can get what he is asking. So after a year of talking the church building committee decided not to pursue this any further.

Within 2 days the church was informed that there was an empty store, named Pagro, available at a highly populated and trafficked intersection. Purchasing out right was out of our range but a Christian business man, who had been helping us with the previous building, thinks this is a good investment for the Kingdom and is willing to buy the building and land and work out a good rental agreement with us. For this to work there are a few factors that need to be in place.

• He is not able to come up with all of the money up front so the church is loaning money for the purchase to be made by min month.
• We are looking for 2 other partners to rent the building as well. We have found one already, a woman in our church is starting a private kindergarten, this was in our original concept as we want to be a positive influence and witness in the community. The third partner, right now, seems to be an English speaking church that is also looking for a new location.
• All this needs to take place now because for the kindergarten option to work they need to start renovations in May so it can open in the Fall in order to make money.

The last two Sundays at church there has been a spark in the people, an excitement that I haven’t seen in a while. It seems that the whole church is getting behind this and ready to see what the Lord will do.

During this whole building search I can’t see the future nor know how God will work in this situation. I keep thinking of Jonathan or Schadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Old Testament when each were faced with an unpredictable and seemingly impossible situation, Jonathan and his servant when the two of them attacked a philistine garrison killing 20 men by themselves. Jonathan said “It may be that the Lord will work for us” (I Sam. 14). Also, the 3 Hebrews that were faced with the fiery furnace when faced with recanting their faith and bowing to the king’s image or facing certain death. They answered,”…our God is able to deliver us…..but if not,…we will not serve your gods nor worship the golden image.” (Daniel 3).

In both circumstances they did not know what the Lord was going to do but went onward if even in apprehension because they were doing what they believed to be God honoring and the right thing to do.

We will keep you updated on this project as it unfolds.

Eric

Every year around this time the McCauley family decides to take advantage of all the germs running rampent and gets sick.  This year I, Eric, am feeling a little lonely because right now I am the only one sick. 

Last year we avoided  this and this year it seems as if I am the one representing the McCauely family.  I have self diagnosed myself with having the common cold and a touch of the flu.  Not sick enough to go to the Doctor and not well enough to really think clearly.  This weekend I got dressed up for the BAO 25th Annivesary celebration and was so foggy I actually forgot how to tie my tie.    It was more than alittle embarassing.  I even resorted to google “how to tie a tie”.  There is actually quite a lot out there. Anyway, I was so foggy that I couldn’t even follow the video demonstrations well enough and had to have my friend Joel tie it for me.

This past week I have been diligently getting my fluids trying to bolster my immune system.  Austria has many wonderful teas for just about everything. A tea cup has been glued to my hand the past week and I am getting sick of drinking it.  Today Christy says I look better than I have all week and I am feeling well enough to do a few thinking tasks which I am very happy to do.