Munich, Guitars and One Last Salzburg Trip

This past weekend I took a little road trip with a couple of guys who wanted to buy some guitars. Manuel and Thomas have been saved 1 year and 3 months respectively. God has been doing some really amazing things here in worship and as a result, several people have been inspired to learn an instrument. I have been giving Manuel guitar lessons for about 6 weeks now and Thomas keyboard lessons for about 4 weeks. Manuel borrowed a guitar from a friend for a while, but Thomas was so motivated that he bought an 800 Euro keyboard off of eBay before he ever had a single lesson. Both have picked up their instruments very quickly and Manuel was ready to buy a guitar. There is only one music store in Innsbruck and everything is more expensive than it should be, so we decided to take a trip to Munich where we could get things much cheaper. Someone from the church also has a friend who works at a large music store in Munich and we were able to get a great discount. When Thomas found out we were going, he said that he wants to learn electric guitar as well and wanted to go and buy a guitar and amp. We had a blast playing everything and Manuel came away with a great European, hand made acoustic guitar and Thomas bought a Fender Strat and a Fender amp. Neither of them have slept much in the past few days!

We then drove to Salzburg for my last trip of the summer. I have been going there once a month to develop their leaders and their worship team. We had a great time. The evening was capped off by a young man named Daniel giving his life to Christ and the baptism of another young man named Simon. Simon asked us after the service if we could baptize him. We said, "Of course!" and headed down to the lake. It was right at sunset when we arrived and it could not have been more beautiful. I have included a couple of pictures for you to enjoy. The next few months here in Innsbruck will be very busy as we prepare for some major outreaches in the fall.

Death Without Fear

I (Aaron) received the phone call from my parents last night that my Grandmother on my father's side passed away. It was not a big surprise, her health had declined over the last year and then she was hospitalized a couple of weeks ago and we knew the end was coming soon. She was a believer and we are rejoicing with her that she is now in the presence of God for eternity!

There is an aspect of this that can encourage us all...She had no fear of death. In fact, she eagerly anticipated it and was excited to meet Jesus face to face. Her last couple of days were mostly spent unconscious because of the medications, but a few times she woke up and was rather upset that she was still alive! She understood that a believer in Christ has no reason to fear death. We have the promise that by believing in Christ and what He did on the cross, we will spend eternity with Him. No other religion offers that assurance. Most religions rely on works or good deeds to secure your place in heaven and you ultimately won't know until the day of judgment whether or not you measure up. I also find that many Christians live their whole life with a fear of dying because they fear that they don't measure up. Our confidence is anchored in

Ephesians 2:8- "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God."

I pray that when it comes time for each of us to crossover into eternity that we have the same confidence and excitement to meet our Creator as my grandmother did yesterday. God is faithful and His promises are true!

World Cup Begins

Well, the biggest sporting event in the world has begun. No, it's not the Superbowl or World Series. Its the World Cup, and to everyone outside of the U.S., that implies Soccer (or Football as it's called by the rest of the world). I didn't fully realize until I moved out of the U.S. just how popular soccer is. Actually, it's more like a religion than a sport in most countries. And I must admit that I have not given it much of a chance. Since we moved here, I have probably watched a grand total of 10 minutes of soccer. Now that the World Cup has started, I took this as a great opportunity to dive in head first and I like it more than I thought I would. For those of you who know almost nothing about the World Cup, which I imagine is many of you, I thought I would give you a brief rundown.

The World Cup takes place once every four years, this year it is held in Germany. During 3 years in between, 197 countries compete in a series of qualifying matches, resulting in 32 "all-star" teams representing their country competing in matches held in 12 cities throughout Germany. There is a group phase in which all teams play three games. They then proceed to a knockout phase which will reduce the teams by half to 16, then single elimination down to 8...4....2....and ultimately 1 winner. The tournament started on Friday, the 9th. Germany won the first game against Costa Rica, 4-2. In honor of our friends in Costa Rica, the Salas family, I wore my Costa Rican jersey, but it proved to not be enough. Sorry guys. The U.S. plays their first game tonight against the Czech Republic. While everyone thinks that their country will win it all, it's hard to bet against the Brazilians. They are the reigning champions and have appeared in 7 of the 17 World Cup finals, winning 5 of them (the most of any country).

the games are not without political intrigue. Saturday's game between Mexico and Iran sparked several protests in Nuernberg. As you may know, the president of Iran has said on more than one occasion that the Holocaust never happened and that Isreal should be, "wiped off the map". The Iranian president is not in Germany, but there has already been speculation that if Iran makes it out of the knockout round (which is not likely), would he come. If he did come, how would he be treated by the German government because of his comments. It will be very interesting to see what happens if that is the case.

So, there you have it. Whether you wanted to know or not, now you do. For those of you who are true World Cup fans, forgive my crude and simple explanation. Help me cheer on the US tonight. The game is on at 6pm central European Time, which is 11am Central Time in the States. Go U.S.A! (Austria is not in the World Cup, so I have no conflicts in who to pull for!)

Leadership Retreat in Switzerland

I (Aaron) just returned from a 4 day leadership retreat we held in Davos, Switzerland, for our student leaders in Innsbruck, Nürnberg and Salzburg. We had a tremendous time, as everything we have been doing for the last 18 months led up to this moment. We have now officially transferred the leadership of the Campus Ministry into the hands of the students leaders here in Innsbruck. Volker Krais is a full time Campus Minister that our team has been training and now he is officially leading the ministry. It's hard to express in words the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment that we feel, knowing that we have really built something here that will last. God really has done far more than we could have ever expected!

At 1,560 Meters, Davos is the highest city in Europe. Needless to say, the drive up was breathtaking. To get there, we had to drive across the summit of the mountain, which led us up to 2,400 Meters. Everything was pure white with snow and the glare from the sun was blinding. I did not have sunglasses and had to keep my eyes closed almost the entire time. Good thing I was not driving! Although Davos is a very small town known only for it's skiing, they are famous for hosting political summit, such as the G-8 summit and the World Economic Summit. It really is a beautiful place.

God did some amazing things in the hearts of our students this weekend and we have every confidence that the ministry will grow far more under their leadership that it ever could under ours. Enjoy the pictures!


view of Davos from the retreat center


we had some awesome worship led by Lenny from Nürnberg


Erwin from Salzburg was deeply touched during worship

Ready to take on Europe for Christ!