Saturday, June 26, 2021

Austria

This past Wednesday, I returned from one of the most blessed and beautiful journeys I've ever been to. 

I first travelled to Germany to be with my family again for a few days. Then I took a whole day train ride to the south of Austria, a region called Carinthia, situated in the eastern Alps. This area is characterised by alpine lakes and mountains, as well as medieval buildings. Already the train ride was stunning to me, as I had never been to this particular area in Austria. 

My first destination was the TGM Institute, a self-supporting school which also runs a small lifestyle center. Young people are trained there in medical missionary work and agriculture, and anyone can come to attend the lifestyle sessions they offer. The place is beautifully situated, with mountain ranges round about and a small lake right by. I especially enjoyed my early morning walks, when I could not only hear the lovely birds singing, but also frogs croaking and deer grazing. 

The second European Agriculture Conference was held there. This is a lay movement within my church, and it's all about encouraging people to get into agriculture as a part of true education. And there are so many spiritual lessons we can learn from the garden. Actually, the spiritual aspects of the programme where the elements that spoke to me most. I especially found the speaker family from Sweden a great blessing. The Karlssons run an apple orchard there, and it was intriguing to learn about their experiences. Furthermore, Simon Karlsson is a physical therapist, and he gave an excellent lecture on good posture. Having been trained as an exercise physiologist, I came to realise again how important this issue is, and how desperately I need to implement in my daily life what I know about good posture.

After the Conference, some participants from the area around Vienna gave me a ride, as I was going to visit the capital for a couple days. This turned out a special experience to me, because I have gained new friends now. One couple actually offered me to stay at their place in the middle of Vienna - close by the hotel were I had originally booked a room. So I was still able to cancel that room and enjoyed their hospitality! 

The ride on the night train from Vienna to Brussels was quite an experience. I would have never thought that they would do border controls in Bavaria, but they actually did! When I suddenly heard them loudly knocking at our compartment, I thought I was in the wrong movie! So they asked me for my passport and whether I was traveling alone. After my response (in perfect German of course), they obviously realised that I was not an illegal immigrant, and so they didn't insist to see my papers anymore :-). 

All in all, it was one of the most beautiful trips I have ever made - and I'm actually planning to do the same again at the end of the year. I think winter in Austria must also be very nice!

At the conference, Simon Karlsson gave a talk about the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:3 23). One aspect that stood out to me was his interpretation of the seed that fell in stony places, and how we can apply this to our spiritual life. I really liked how he brought this home:

  • They do not believe he will give them power to overcome their sins
  • Many claim to serve God, but have no experimental knowledge of him
  • They do not crucify self
  • They do not give up their particular sins
  • Love must be the principle of action
  • We do not belong to Christ unless we are His wholly

"The effort to serve both self and Christ makes one a stony-ground hearer, he will not endure when the test comes upon him."

And finally this sobering statement from Ellen G. White:

”The “time of trouble, such as never was,” is soon to open upon us; and we shall need an experience which we do not now possess and which many are too indolent to obtain. It is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality; but this is not true of the crisis before us. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal. In that time of trial, every soul must stand for himself before God.“ (The Great Controversy, p. 622.4)

In fact, I can't say that I'm afraid of the things that are ahead of us. Of course this statement makes you think somehow, but we do not know exactly what is ahead of us after all. Back in 1989, when I had my leg surgery, an osteotomy, I had no clue that the pain would be so excruciating when I would wake up. Nevertheless, I made it through, and I'm so thankful now that I did the surgery. And the same way we will be thankful when we enter the Gates of Heaven, the Golden City, the New Jerusalem one day. And we will all say it was worth it to go through all this trouble! Oh LORD, please come and take us home soon!


Aren't these mountains beautiful?
We all received seeds for microgreens

Beautiful flowers on campus

Early morning walk

The Karlsson family singing
At the highway direction Vienna

In the city park in Vienna

Handwash station in a pharmacy

They have such funny signs in this country

Public "showers", i. e. nebulizers

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