Living in Linz

Over the last few months we’ve had some great surprises and treats in seeing who is wanting to support us, and it’s been good to rack our brains to work out who we know, that we’ve forgotten to get in touch with,  so we can let them know our plans.  We’re sure there are still more.  However we’re still a little short of reaching the level of support that would allow us to head off for our first year to Linz.  We are close enough to say that, unless God has other plans we’re yet to find out about, we’ll be heading off at Easter (end of March).  We would hope to have a commissioning service on 9^th March.

While we want to remain positive because of all the ways God has shown us blessing over the last few months through the people who’ve joined in supporting us, we also want to be honest and acknowledge that we’re really disappointed we’ve not able to leave in January as hoped.  Please pray for us as we find those who have yet to join our support network. 

Thanks again for your encouragement

Johnny, Kristine, Lee and Rachel.

After a pretty slow start we now have a series of churches to speak at over the next few months.  Last week we were in Dundee at the Full Gospel Church and felt very welcomed and were encouraged by a number of people who came up to us really excited about mission and excited about us going to Austria.

This week we’re going to Maybole Baptist in Ayrshire (where previous ECM Director, Jack Murray came from).

Nov 4 … Westwood Baptist, East Kilbride

Nov 11 … Gorebridge Parish Church

Nov 18 … Champness Hall (Rochdale)

Nov 25 … Lambeg Baptist Church (Lisburn)

Nov 25-2 Dec we’ll be staying in Northern Ireland and hoping to meet up with people from the churches that support Dietmar and Brigitte

Dec 9 … Dunbar Baptist Church

Jan 6 … Brechin Baptist Church

We’d love to speak to folks in between these dates, if you have a house group or even just some friends who want to be more involved in mission in Austria or in Europe. 

Sadly our car’s injuries incurred on the way home from Orkney have proved terminal for the engine… So we’re having to replace the engine.  So our decision is to fix the old car and sell it to recoup the cost of repairs and other recent outlays.  Kristine’s dad has helped us find an engine at a good price and someone to fit it, also for a good price. We’d have had to sell the car eventually and try to time it with leaving the country which, in January, might have been stressful.  But as we were considering how to afford this, friends called us and said they’d like us to use their old car which they’re replacing this week. They also had thoughts on how the car could best be used once we leave for Austria, so we wouldn’t be left with a car to sell. So its sad to say goodbye to a faithful friend….  but we’re very grateful for the timely replacement.

Rachel has Chicken Pox!! We thought she’d already had it, but evidently not!

We met with Richard Tiplady, the Director of ECM UK, tonight, over fajitas and nachos.  Among other things we talked about what needed to happen to meet our target of a departure date in January.  We looked across the support levels, and reckoned we were about 2/3 of the way to the support target for the first year. If this was reaches 80% by the end of October then we should set a departure date for the end of January.  If not then, because the fund is continuing to increase from monthly giving, we would be ready to go by the end of March.  We also set a couple of possible dates for a commissioning service recognising that the service is not necessarily a send-off, but a sending out, so can be done several weeks or even a few months before we actually go. The preferred date is Jan 13th. Still to be confirmed though.

Been thinking a lot this week about "not belonging".  Last weekend, when we had to explain in a short time slot what the work in Austria was and why we were going, I said that Dietmar and Brigitte had vision for a church for people who don’t belong.  Perhaps they are immigrant workers, asylum seekers or international students, or perhaps Austrian’s who find they don’t fit with a culturally shaped idea of what it means to be a Christian, whether in the ancient Catholic Tradition or in the 40 yr old independent evangelical churches.  Dietmar and Brigitte’s aim is to demonstrate and teach that God’s grace overrides man-made traditions for belonging and enables us to belong even where we otherwise wouldn’t.  We would be joining them as foreign folk who don’t belong either to share in that work and that vision, to teach that message and help the church become a place that sends folk back into their villages and towns with confidence in God’s acceptance and ongoing enabling to lead and encourage new churches all over Austria. 

I’ve known that I’ve often struggled to feel like I belong in any place, even though I’ve stayed in the same place and been in the same church for years, because I’m often more aware of the differences between me and others than the similarities, yet I often feel so aware of similarities among those others that gives them a connection I long to share.  So this Austrian International church makes so much sense to me!

Then this week, we had call from a friend who had spent several years seeking a church where he and his wife could belong.  Its been unsettling for them, but along the road they have made a number of friends in churches in East Lothian and Midlothian, churches that have kind of been off our own radar.  So we’re hoping that through our friend’s contacts we can develop a new network of support partners.  We can thank God for our friends’ period of not belonging.

In the sense that we are pilgrims in this world, I guess we’ll never truly belong, but in the sense that God has placed us here for an average of 70 years or so, that pilgrim nature is in tension with our need to belong.  So I’m thankful that God has given us this desire to belong, and yet has led us, and others we know, to places where belonging has not come naturally, so that belonging to Him shapes our belonging in any other way.

We’ve just returned from a "Mission Fest" weekend in Orkney.  Its the furthest north we’ve ever been.  But before we get to that, we should tell you about Kristine’s new sling.  A week last Wednesday, she fell in a car park when she was carrying shopping and dislocated her shoulder.  The shop staff were brilliant and took Rachel for a wee walk for a magazine and a drink.  They drove Kristine to the hospital and I joined her there.  They took her in quite quickly and relocated her shoulder.  She now has sling and will do for at least another week.  Her shoulder is very sore.  She also hurt her knee making it difficult to walk for a few days too.  So in the middle of that we set of for a 6hr drive to John O Groats, followed by a 1hr ferry then a 40 minute bus trip over the southern islands and connecting causeways of Orkney.  So Kristine gives thanks for Cocodamol!  It was a sore trip.  We enjoyed meeting up with friends Don and Maggie Currie and their son Iain.  Don is the pastor at Kirkwall Baptist one of the churches organising the Mission Fest.  So we arrived at 7:50, just in time for the 8pm Youth Meeting. Along with Mission Reps from a number of agencies we did excercises to get teenagers thinking more about world mission.  We invited them to come up ideas for how people could use the Olive Oil tubs they get if they sponsor a tree at the Spanish Drug Rehab centre … think my favourite was "Re-sell It" … I invited that kid to come help us with deputation … others were … dressing wounds on Horses, Hair Gel, and some even thought of cooking with it.

The Mission Marketplace on the Saturday competed with a local Science Fair and other island events so was a bit slow.  But on Sunday Don introduced us and others to the church and gave us some minutes to outline the work we’re planning to share in in Austria. All in all it was a good weekend.  Orkney is really beautiful. And so far away!  The return ferry was pretty choppy, with folks in the passenger area doing the Roller Coaster whoops when the boat pitched and rolled.  We were almost home when our car got poorly very quickly then died.  Its sad.  But we’ve been offered a replacement to keep us going until we leave, for which we’re very grateful.

So a quick update … Rachel has started at the nursery we mentioned before … someone who didn’t know us was praying for us and became an answer to her own prayers! We are glad Rachel is in this nursery and she seems to be enjoying herself. Sometimes she talks of new friends and sometimes she says she’s playing mainly by herself, but either way she talks about nursery in a happy way.

Here is a copy of our most recent newsletter. (Sent Aug 2007) 

Sorry that it has been so long since our last letter!  It has been a really busy two months.  We hope that you have had a lovely summer and pray that you have had opportunity to get a good holiday, wherever you’ve been or whatever you’ve done.

For us however, we have moved house from South Queensferry to Musselburgh - we were hoping that it would be just until the end of August, but unfortunately God’s plans and our plans have not matched up!!  Our finances and support level have not reached the level they need to be.  At first when we were told we need to plan for a later departure we were gutted not to be going.  We have moved from our home and from the kids’ friends, school & nursery.  We really wanted to be in Linz adjusting to our new lives, getting to know our new church and starting the work God has for us, and getting Lee settled into a new school.  It looks more likely that we will be heading to Austria in January now!  Lee has just started at the local primary school, after much prayer and deliberation on where would be best for him.  We’re really glad to say his first day went well.  When we made a phone call recently to ask about a nursery place for Rachel we discovered that one of the teacher’s receives ECM prayer news and had praying for us that morning!  It looks likely that she will become an answer to our prayers about Rachel’s nursery!

We are also glad that Johnny’s work, Bethany Supported Housing, have agreed to keep him on, on a part-time contract.  Its only 3 days a week which gives more time to concentrate on deputation, but will affect our income!

After our initial disappointment we do know that God has us in his hands and his timing is perfect!  This also gave us more time with family and friends… so sorry but you don’t get rid of us that easily!!

Apart from moving we have been really involved in our friends’ Louise and Marks’ wedding, at which Rachel and I were bridesmaids. 

We have also been going around a few more churches to let folks know about what God is doing in Austria, especially Linz.  If your house group or church would be interested in having us coming to talk about our plans to go to Austria and what we’ll be doing there, (or you’d like more information on how to partner with us), please contact us on:

0131 665 7960, or 07799324318, or johnny. pfisher @ gmail. com   (you’ll need to remove the spaces to use the email address)

Anyway, that shameless plug out of the way … We have just returned from the Keswick Convention in Buckie where we were helping Cliff and Shiela Barnard (who spent time with ECM in Portugal) with a European Christian Mission Stall, promoting ECM and trying to introduce ourselves to folks who might invite us to their churches to talk more about Austria in particular.  We made some new friends and met some old friends.  We enjoyed some really good teaching.  Lee enjoyed the kids club and met some new friend.  Rachel was too young for kid’s club so she and I went to crèche and enjoyed listening to the services and drawing butterflies and flowers! 

 So now, we are really asking for prayer that God would show us how best to use this time that he has given us, and for the way forward from here.  We are really looking for new church groups or individuals to respond to our requests to talk with them and that they would partner with us.  We are also particularly concerned for Lee and that he would settle in well.  Please pray God’s will be done not ours.   

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours”  Mark 11:24. and this is what we are believing and trusting in.

 We just want to say thank you to all of you who have become partners with us in prayer and financial support, and to those who’ve promised to write, and to visit.  We need you all.  May God bless you and your families. With all our love …

The Fishers

After almost a month offline, we have internet access again.   I’ve had so much spare time on my hands without it!!  So we’re now planning to be here until January.  I have work til December.  Yesterday would have been my last day at work. It was quite strange.  I’m glad it wasn’t my last day as so many people were away on holiday or for other reasons, in particular the friends who I’ve worked with the longest.

We’ve moved into our flat in Musselburgh.  We’ve left some really good friend in Queensferry but it looks like we’ll be staying in touch.  On the plus side, we’ve been able to see much more of folks we have had not so much contact with over the nine years we were "far away" in Queensferry.  We’d better not get too used to being on our friends’ doorsteps!!  But its nice while we have the opportunity.

We’ve not worked out school for Lee yet, but we think we’ll try to send Rachel to the same Nursery as her cousin.  The kids are getting used to living in a flat but sharing a room has its trials … especially for Lee!  His wee sister is very chatty at bedtime and well - chatty whenever Lee wants a bit of peace…

We have plans to go to the Keswick Convention in Buckie next week and to a Mission Weekend in Orkney at the start of Sept.  We can also go to some churches that had no spaces available for us before the Aug to see if we can fit into their Autumn programmes.  Our funding is growing, I guess we would like to see it at pretty much ready to go level by end October so we can spend November, December preparing for the move, as our recent experience shows that moving home and support raising don’t go well together.

Thanks for praying even when you don’t hear from us.