Graz??

So, many of you have been asking questions about Graz. Such things as: Where is it? Why are you going there? Etc.


Graz is the second largest city in Austria. There is currently no one from our organization working there, but we are considering the possibility. In order to make the best strategic decision we need to have someone there on the ground for a year or so to see what work is already going on there, if there is a role we could play to help, and if that is the best use of our resources.


Since we have to be outside of Germany for a year, we jumped at the opportunity. Graz is south of Vienna, down near the Slovenian border. It is in the region known as Styria, which is also known for its food. It is a smaller town with only 250,000 residents plus students who attend the 4 universities there.


We will be making the move in July, so this blog will undergo a temporary change over that next year. Something like Hope for Saxony: The Exile in the Steiermark!

Pictures of Pictures: "Remember Honestly, Live Repentantly"

Some photos from the events on February 13, 2009 in Dresden. Here is a piece I wrote about it at the time.

Well, we have had an overabundance of feminine sensibility on the Hope for Saxony team for a month now. Things are going well, people are settling into their roles and exciting things are starting to happen. Here are a few pics from the first month: The girls exploring our town and area. Sarah having a birthday. And the view of the girls we most often see when we are all at our house where there is internet!

We had the Zukunftwerkstatt at the church this weekend. That is a nice compound German noun meaning "Future Workshop." It was a long (14 hours in German!) good look at our vision and what we should focus on as a church in the next five years. There were about 50 people there.





The next picture is such a good insight into the German mind. We had several such "mind maps" up around the room. Germans love to think in a structured way...

We did a lot of group work. We all got a chance to share our visions of the future, creatively...





This is our groups report. Notice all the little baby churches we envision for the future, complete with pacifiers. (They all loved Cheryl's artwork.)



We ended the weekend with more structured ideas...

Pictures of the Northwest Baptist Group