There were over 10,000 prayers offered up for Europe on the 23rd. GEM has an interactive map of Europe that people can go to, click on a country and see 10 pictures and specific things to pray for that country for.

I just checked and there is a total of about 11,500 total with 274 prayers offered up for Austria.

Tags: Europe, Prayer

Soren Anders McCauley was born on October 28th. Weighing in at 7 lbs & 2 oz and was 20 inches.

We are rejoycing with my brother Andrew and his wife Kristi with their first child!

It is kinda fun to see the little cap he is wearing because it was the same one that the Hospital in MN provided when Elena was born.

We can’t wait till the next time we are back in the states to see Soren and get to hold him.

Tags: Family

They have made an interactive site that includes all European countries that you can click on.  It takes you to a country profile and then also has 10 points of prayer with pictures.  After you have prayed for Austria and other countries you can click a button that says you have prayed and it shows you all the countries and how many people have prayed for them today.

Please take time to visit their website and spend a few moments in prayer for Europe.

Tags: Europe, Pray, Austria

Greater Europe Mission is gearing up for a day of prayer that focuses on Europe.

On October 23rd anyone can visit this website and will be able to select any European country and see pictures with specific prayer requests. If you go there now you can sign up to be reminded on the 23rd via an email to visit the page.

For Austria we have put together 6 different areas that we others to also be praying for.

I have gotten to see a mock up of this and it is not only really neat and cool looking it will help get an idea of what to better pray for.

I encourage you to stop by check it out and pray. And since we know God hears our prayers and is able to do anything according to His pleasing will I am eager to see what we can report back in the next weeks, months and years what we witness God doing here to give Him the glory that is rightfully his.

Tags: Europe

I took some of the bells and whistles off so hopefully it doesn’t look so cluttered or confusing.  I am now going to post the full blog post at the very first so the picture and full entry can be read without having to click anywhere. One stop shopping if you will. : )

On the right hand side there is a box that may be handy the longer I do this.  I will be grouping the posts in catagories.  Right now there are mainly family posts but I will be posting more ministry updates.   These will be catagorized and easily accessed in this box on the right hand side under the “Catagories” tab.  There are other tabs as wel

My goal for this is to make updates easy to make, for me, and read and receive, for you.  Hopefully this will open up the information gate way so those of you who want to stay in touch or informed about our life and ministry in Austria.

Thanks for stopping by- Eric

We were glad to have taken part of the Cubbies Awana program during our 6 months in the states. We got that book before we went and Kati was able to memorize the Bible verses and we read her the stories so she was up to speed. A few of our supporting churches do this program so when we traveled Kati was able to join right in.

We want to thank the TRF Efree church for this great gift!

It is actually quite a sight to see all these kids blocking the street. It is a fun time for everyone. Kati loves decorating her bike. This year she her main decoration was a sunflower tied to her handle bars.

What do two Swiss missionaries an Austrian pastor and a professor of veterinary medicine and me have in common? This sounds like the start of a joke my father-in-law would tell but this is not a joke. Last Tuesday the five of us were in one of our meetings for the BAO (Bible Training on Location) curriculum work group. We meet three or four times a year to review current training courses and discuss what if any new projects need to be started or revising older courses.

BAO has been around for over 20 years and has been one of the leading sources for training leaders in the Austrian church. With Austria being less than .5% evangelical there is not a high demand for good quality Christian training resources. So being able to help in the process and production of resources for Austria, Switzerland and Germany is quite a strategic ministry. One of which I am excited to be a part of.

Right now we are involved in two main projects. One being the Christian Education course I am writing, I will write on that at a later time. The other being a set of one time lessons that centers on the Worship Service.

We have come up with a series of 5 lessons (stand alone or they can be taken together) that intend to help the small churches and their leaders think through the main aspects of what it means to lead worship. We are targeting this for both knowledge and praxis (putting to use what one knows). The five areas we are addressing are 1. Theological foundations of worship 2. The Leader and leading the worship service 3. Worship and Church growth/health (the meaning gets a little watered down when translated into English from German) 4. Music and Arts in worship 5. Communion.

One thing that is exciting about this series is up until now BAO has primarly borrowed articles from published books. We always have to ask for permission to translate and print these articles. But these lessons are written by the people that minister in this culture and context. It is quite a step. Not an easy one by any means but we are learning a lot through this process.

These modules are not yet finished but know they will help the church think about these things and we pray will make them healthier, and stronger in as they worship God and live for Him.

We were met at the airport by a few coworkers to welcome us back and give us a ride home with all of our luggage!

Kati has finished her first week back at Kindergarten and her German is coming back rapidly. I, Eric, am taking a German refresher course and Christy is making our house our home. I can’t tell you how good it is to have our own place to call home. While it was nice seeing many of you these past six months we are really glad to be back home.

These last two weeks we have been saying good-bye to our family and friends and at times it felt like we were running around like chickens with their heads cut off.  But this evening we managed to pack the last minute things and shut (successfully) our suit cases.  We are all set for our flight out of Minneapolis to Chicago and then directly to Austria.

We have enjoyed seeing many family and friends during our last 6 months and are looking forward to getting back to Austria and the rhythm of life.

We would appreciate your prayers for us the next 48 hours as we travel with two young children, a lot of luggage and international travel.  Many times this combination is a recipe for disaster.