Linz in Focus

We have just said goodbye to our first visitors from the UK. It is always hard to say goodbye to friends…  We loved having you!!!

 The first course Language school is now finished. We now have a week before we start the next one.  I have decided to sit level one again because I feel I would get more out of it a second time around. Johnny is moving on to level four and his German is coming on really well.

On Saturday at church Johnny preached which was the first time since we have moved to Linz and he done so well. Unfortunately not in German but maybe soon!

 

The kids have a holiday from school today so it was nice not to have to get up early! The kids have been in the garden raking up the leafs… nothing like a bit of child labour!

 The kids are doing really well and enjoying school. Lee has a couple of big Maths tests coming up and they are important but maths is his weak subject please pray that he will do really well in these they are in two parts and are split through this next month!The weather here is starting to turn cold and lovely the kids are waiting for the snow! We have recently got a new car and Johnny and I are constantly getting in the wrong door to drive or the right door depending on your view point!!!!  But we still have our British car and we will have to decide what to do with it! Life here going a long at a fair pace I can’t believe it is November already!!! And I am getting a little excited cos Christmas is just around the corner!! Yay!! 

It is time to change our right hand drive for a left hand drive. Unfortunately the garages don’t want to take our Honda which brings us to the question…. Would anyone like to buy a Honda???

 What do you do with a right hand drive nobody wants answers on a postcard to…

 Things have been going good here. The kids are still enjoying school and Lee goes away on a school trip on Monday for 2 nights! It is called Kennenlerntage (getting to know you days) it is going to be a little bit like when he went to Kingswood with his school in Rode. They will be hiking and doing all sorts of outdoors stuff and just spending some time with his friends

 At the moment for me the language learning is quite tough going but that is ok cos… well not sure why it is ok I just know it is and that is good for now!

Johnny on the other hand has been recommended to do levels 4 and 5 at the same time. Go Johnny go!!!! 

That’s it we have started someone has shouted go and we are off!  This week the kids started school. Rachel loves it she has two friends and can’t wait to go to school for longer! (am sure that’s not normal!)  Lee has also started and has found two friends. There are only 3 boys in his class including him! So I think it is a case of sticking together to survive all those girls! Rachel school day is from 7:50 until 10:45 until next week when it changes again! Lee’s time table varies from day to day depending on if he has German class or not. So that combined with Johnny’s and my language class we are just about organised enough to be where we all to and when we need to!

 This week has been busy! We have had about a zillion forms to fill in for lots of different things from tax stuff to permission slips for different school things! Johnny has also been to see a tax advisor to get through the mine field that is called the Tax office! The Tax advisor happens to be a Christian so understands our situation which is fantastic! Cos I am not sure we do!!!!

 Church life is good. There are all sorts of things happening bible studies and people wanting to start different groups which is really encouraging! At the moment we are taking the time just to observe and learn German and just build up friendships.

Please just keep the church in your prayers and pray that we will show Gods grace and love to those around us.

 We have also met some of our neighbours’ and we wave to those we have not yet met! We seem to have some really good neighbours which is just lovely. Pray that we may have some opportunities to be good friends.         

Well were are not quite settled but we are getting there!

Next week everything starts. The Kids start school after about an 8 week holiday! and Johnny and I start language school and the crazy thing is we all start at 10am!

Rachel starts school at 10am and finishes at 10:45am. Lee has to be at school for 9:45am to take a maths exam at 10am. Johnny starts language school at 8:15am and finshies at 10:20am and I start my class at 10:30am so there is going to have to be a bit of jiggery pokery to get everyone where they need to go!

In Austria the schools send out a list of supplies you have to buy from note books to book covers which are very strictley colour coded! to paints, pens, pencils, play doh, slippers and sponges the list was endless but the good news is we don’t have to buy school uniform oh and that list was just Rachels we still have to get Lee’s list for school!! Ah well food is over rated anyway!  

We are loving being at Grace International fellowship. Renewing friendships and making new ones everyone has been so lovely to us and last week we had a welcome barbeque it was lovely! There was soo much food and it was good eating and chatting with folks. The church put together a bag of Austrian goodies to eat and we are happy to report that most of it is eaten and was very yummy.

Johnny had his first leadership team meeting on Tuesday night! They will also be having a leadership team away day just spending some time together and praying and seeking the way ahead for GIF so please pray as they seek God they will hear what He is saying to us as a church and that will be happing in October.   

We have now been in Linz for just over a week! What a funny old week it has been. We have been unpacking boxes which I think have been breeding they just seem to keep appearing as we unpack one another two seem to appear!

 

Oh and we also had the fire brigade at our house! Yes I did say fire brigade… Johnny had noticed that we had a number of wasps flying around lees bed room window, Johnny quickly realised we had a wasps nest in the roof!

 

We spoke to our landlady about the wasps and she said she would deal with it! Later that night she came around about 9pm saying that the fire brigade would be here in about 10 minutes! We were both very confused…. But sure enough we look out of the window and there was a fire engine! and a whole bunch of firemen they had come to get rid of the wasps nest! They went out and had a look at the wasps they chatted a little bit and then looked some more. Then a few minutes later one of the firemen walk in all dressed in the stuff you see beekeepers in when they go for the honey and another one in shorts and t-shirt with a big torch! A couple minutes later we heard a big commotion outside it soon became clear that the man without the protective clothing and been stung about 3-4 times! What a surprise!…. While the other put the powder into the nest!

 

The next morning when we woke up we looked out onto the balcony it was a wasp genocide! They covered the balcony it was a wasp carpet. So that was our first night here! We felt it was a great way to announce that the Fisher’s had arrived! 

We left Scotland cold and rainy at about 8:30 am on Tuesday the 18^th August and arrived to the sun rising at 5:30am on Wednesday it took us just under 24 hours to get to Austria… but then it has taken us about 7 years to get here so 24 hours longer was not so difficult.

 

When we arrived we just dropped into bed! When we got up we drank large amount of coffee to get us going and keep us going!

 

We have been all over the place trying to get things we need for the house and doing some of the official stuff like telling the local government that we live here now and all that fun stuff. One of the things we have been trying to do is get new Austrian mobile phones which is not straight forward what a faff!!!!!!!!!  We have now been told that we cannot get them until we have lived here for 3 months!!!!!!! Anyway we needed to have an Austrian number so we can deal with the phone company and get a phone line and internet which is crazy when you think you need to have phone number so the phone company can give you a phone line anywhooo that is our one frustration and if that is it I think we are not doing too badly. The sun has been shining and we have had fun with trying to get our wee hoose sorted and we have eaten lots of ice cream too!

 
Today (Saturday) we had a great time meeting new and old friends at Grace International fellowship (GIF). We are looking forward to joining them in reaching out to the community around us and being “good news” to Linz!

Well THE day has almost arrived… We leave early tomorrow (Tuesday) morning! We are driving to Dover and then going on the channel Tunnel train then drive on through to Linz. I am not going to even pretend I know which countries we will be driving through, actually I know that we go through France, Belgium, Germany and of course Austria but  fortunately Johnny does know his way! having done it before when he moved our stuff.

One thing that I’m bit nervous of is doing my first shop, making sure I get the right things! like buying what I think is muesli only to find out that it is bird seed….

The other thing is when I start trying to talk German instead of telling someone they look pretty I tell them they look fat or something. Please pray for us as we make our mistakes that we will laugh and not completely ruin international relations between Austria and Britain.  Anyway keep reading cos I think there maybe some funny stories to follow!

We have had a great time this last two and a bit weeks! Now it is time to Tattie bye Scotland…   …Grüß Gott Austria

Well as a lot of you may know we now have a lovely house in Linz yay! (see picture)

At the moment we are in Scotland staying with Johnny’s mum and dad. We have been here for just over a week with a week to go! For those of us that like things simple we are leaving on the 18^th of August for Linz.

We are driving to Austria in our wee car that us done us proud this far! We are spending our time saying our goodbyes to our family and friends. Which is quite sad…

We recently attended New Wine with our lovely friends from Grange Park Church. We had a great time and God did a lot of fantastic things healing and restoring just being a couple of things that we happened to be a part of.

The weather was not great but the company was! It was also a really good way for our family to say goodbye to our friends from Grange Park.

The week before New Wine, Johnny and our friend, Hugh, took all our stuff to Linz in a big lorry. So when we get to Linz we have to unpack all our stuff which we are looking forward too. The kids are excited about getting into their rooms and getting them sorted.

We are looking forward to starting our new adventure in Linz. Please pray for us as we drive to Linz and as we settle into our new home! Please also pray for the kids as they start school in September and for Johnny and I as we start our formal language training!

Tomorrow is Rachel’s 6th birthday and she is so excited. We asked her what she wanted for her birthday tea and I thought it would the usual junk food but she asked for spaghetti bolognaise. I think it is funny out of everything she can have she chose spaghetti bolognaise

On Wednesday we are off to Linz to look at houses. We have been offered two very nice houses and we have 3 flats to look at too. We are praying that God will lead us to the right house for us. This week is going to be such an exciting week for all of us.

We look forward to the possibility of coming back and showing you pictures of our house/flat

Lee also had a fabby time at school camp and he did indeed come back with a bag full of dirty washing well done Lee.

This week we are one child down… …Lee has gone to school camp, he has gone for three days of outdoor activities. He left with a suitcase full of clean clothes and when he returns on Wednesday he will still have a case full of clean clothes….boys are mingers!!

Next Tuesday is Rachel’s birthday she will be 6. On Wednesday we will all be leaving for Austria to look for a house/apartment. We have about 6 or 7 places to look at. We return home on the Friday so we only really have one day of house hunting… It feels a bit like mission impossible but you never know. When we return on Saturday Rachel will have her birthday party, she has 5 friends coming round to do crafts. She is so excited….

… and that is as far forward as I am looking cos then it will be time to pack. We have already started the clearing out!