Rollercoaster

The last few weeks were a bit of a rollercoaster, but predominantly in a good way. Even though we had our moments, we really felt that God has been working in our lives and our marriage to cope better with stress and change. By now, we both feel that we've settled again - in our new place in Ashfield (that's a neighbouring suburb to Croydon, where we used to live). We really, really love our new place (it acutally has DOORS leading into different ROOMS!!!) - and we were overwhelmed by the generosity and the help we have received from so many different people and in many different ways.

Our last days in Trowell Court were a bit sad, but also exciting, lots of nice end-of-year-things happening, especially the end-of-Trowell-meeting with Pizza & swapping fun-presents (we got some plastic cockroaches, flies and a nice picture frame;) On Sunday, 25th of November, Claudi graduated at Trinity Grammar School with her Certificate in Biblical Studies (the actual degree (Diploma in her case) always comes a year later, because results must be processed - ah well, burocracy;).

On Friday, 23.11., Klaus (Claudi's Dad) arrived - so we've spent lots of time with him during the last two weeks, showing him around, 'allowing' him to help us move and fix things in our new flat (isn't it GREAT to have a Dad who can fix things!!!) - and just hanging out. It's been almost two years since we had last seen him, so it was great to have him here for Claudi's graduation - and we're looking forward to spending Christmas with him!

Exam results have come through (and once again pleasantly surprised us;), as well as Claudi's visa and permission to work - praise the Lord! We're heaps thankful to God for his goodness and the way he has brought us to this point in our lives and how he has watched over us in every single step of the way. Thanks to all of you who are praying for us!

Exclusive claims...

'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
Jesus Christ, Gospel of John (14:6)


'If there are ten ways to the Father we would complain why there are not eleven, and if there are a million ways to the Father we complain why there were not a million and one.'
G.K. Chesterton

Lots of changes...

Changes upon changes ahead.
With one week to go in terms of College - which is in fact Claudi's last week ever of her course - it still seems like a bit of a vague & hazy dream to us. 6 more sleeps until Claudi's Dad arrives in Sydney. 3 more sleeps until our last exam (=Hebrew/Church History). 8 more sleeps until graduation.

Lots of goodbyes. A visa application pending. Phone calls to make. Emails to write. Decisions to make. Nerves to calm. Excitement about what's lying ahead. And much opportunity to reflect on the long way we have still to go when it comes to applying our theology to our lives.

The everyday outworking of a deepened under-standing of God, his character and the way he works out his plans in this world seems to be a slow process. Painfully slow at times. But maybe this just illustrates that in the end every change, every step forward is pure grace.

No shortcuts.
Just patient and joyful waiting for the one who does never disappoint and whose power is made perfect in our weakness.

A Lesson to be learned...

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out -

because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out -

because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out -

because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -

because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me -

and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Martin Niemöller,

Protestant pastor & member of the 'confessing church' in Nazi-Germany

The chilling finale of our Church History Lectures: The Church in Nazi-Germany. It's scary to reflect on the damage that silence can do...

It's been a while...

... since our last post. We're already in our 2nd research week for this semester, time's flying!

Stephan's working on his 'principles of Evangelism'-assignment, which is a PPT that explains the gospel in 5-10 minutes. Claudi is trying to get started on her OT assignment - writing a Bible study on the significance of the presence and absence of God in the book of Ezekiel, with leader's notes and everything. We're both still enjoying 9/20 (the senior-Youthgroup we're working with on Fridays) and church in general, although sometimes we wish that we'd live a little bit closer... it's hard to develop good friendships, if you're living 40 minutes drive away.

We're really exited about the very real possibility of a couple from Austria coming over to study here next year. They're good friends of ours, and we've been praying for them and their journey to College ever since we left home, so it's heaps cool to see them 'getting real' about it!

We'd appreciate prayer about all the changes that the end of the year will bring - moving house, re-applying for Claudi's visa & trying to find a job, starting to think in more concrete terms about 'after college' and our return to Austria. It sometimes feel like we've finally settled - and now we have to move again, but that's probably a good thing. Getting too comfortable can easily be a trap and lead to complacency and the illusion that we're in control...

Vanity...

'Ministry without love is vanity.'

David Hansen, 'The Art of Pastoring'

What's in a name?

Gsi-dney?!?

Well, we thought it might be time to repeat our little 'note of explanation':

We DO know how to spell Sydney (see!), but there's a good reason for the mix. 'Gsi' stands for the province in Austria that we come from. It's a nickname which derives from the past participle used in our dialect 'i bin gsi' = 'I have been'. Well, and Sydney is obviously the capital of Australia... NOT! Of course the capital is Canberra, but the good thing about Sydney is that everybody in the world knows it (which we're afraid cannot be said of Canberra;-)... Anyway, we're glad to be here.

Deliver me

From prayer that asks that I may be
sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
from fearing when I should aspire,
from faltering when I should climb higher,
from silken self, O Captain, free
the soldier who would follow Thee.

From subtle love of softening things,
from easy choices, weakenings
(not thus are spirits fortified,
not this way went the Crucified),
from all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Give me the love that leads the way,
the faith that nothing can dismay,
the hope no disappointments tire,
the passion that will burn like fire.
Let me not sink to be a clod:
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.

Amy Carmichael,
missionary in India

Being on holidays means....

... enjoying food, fellowship & games with friends!

Brett & Robyn with little Obi


... enjoying a fun-walk around Sydney

Catching the train to Circular Quay, walking over the Harbour Bridge

- and here we are, near the water,
on the most beautiful walking track,
wow!

Stunning views in every direction...

a stunning car with the name of a flower



bottom line:

we're having a great time being on holidays!!!

How we see ourselves...

'We are not to think of ourselves as basically independent and on the right track, but occasionally in need of a little input from the Deity, a little blessing called down by an appropriately formulated prayer. That sort of view is almost akin to pagan magic; it is only a whisker from raw animism.

Carson, 'A Call to Spiritual Reformation'

It's interesting how the most obvious implications of our faith are also the easiest ones to overlook. And it's scary how our personal prayer life reflects more of our understanding of God than all our bible-knowledge. Can't be reminded of this too often...

YEAY!

Holidays!!!

They're finally here! Sleeping, writing emails, fiddling with our blogs without feeling guilty, talking on the phone resp. skype for hours, doing some craft, playing computer games, reading all these books we bought, cooking, no planning, a little bit of work to make the load easier for next semester, writing letters, catching up on birthday presents, meeting people for coffee & chats, visiting friends from last year - HOLIDAYS!

Praise the Lord, we once more got through exams without being sick, without being too stressed... well... at least we're noticing some improvement - and every Stuvac (=prep time) convinces us more of the value that lies in intensive time spent in the word - it makes such a difference to our relationship with God, it's unbelievable! Unfortunately, what's even more unbelievable is the fact that we tend NOT to do it unless we're 'forced' to. That's actually quite a sad discovery. The theological jargon would probably be 'human depravity'... or plain sinful laziness.

It's scary, if you think about it... but at the same time, it's amazing to realise how incredibly patient God is. It's not just a phrase of some description, God REALLY IS compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love, otherwise no one would ever get anywhere in their Christian walk. The more you think about it, the more amazing it becomes that anyone ever makes it at all. I guess that's what you call grace...we can't fool ourselves, it's God who picks us up time and time again when we fall. It still takes effort to get up, though. It's a wonderful mystery, this whole perseverance-preservation-sanctification-business... God is the one who keeps us going, if we keep going - isn't this the most bizarre & wonderful paradox ever?!

You just have to love how this God of ours keeps on surprising you...and the more he surprises you, the more you're able to trust him... amazing grace.

'Sent from heaven'

We've become uncle & auntie again!


On June 9, little EMMA VALENTINA was born in the early hours of the morning & her proud parents PHIL & EVA have been trying to catch up on sleep ever since ;-)


And even though we are currently many, many kilometers away, we are very happy with them & proud of this latest addition to the 'POHN-Clan'!

Sheep, rats & performing dogs

I wish they'd remember that the charge to Peter was 'Feed my sheep', not 'Try experiments on my rats' or even 'Teach my performing dogs new tricks'.

C.S. Lewis, quoting an unspecified source concerning the desire of some ministers to ceaselessly 'improve' the church service.

The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.

C.S. Lewis in 'Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer'

prayer

Effective prayer is the fruit of a relationship with God,
not a technique for aquiring blessings.

Many of us in our praying are like nasty little boys,
who ring front door bells
and run away before anyone answers.

- Carson, 'A Call to Spiritual Reformation'

one week...

...until STUVAC, which means: exams are just around the corner! We've had a busy, but good semester. Despite the busyness, everything seems much more relaxed the 2nd time around, it really helps to have more of an idea how things work. We enjoy the fellowship on campus and at church, it's such a blessing to hang out with different people who've had different experiences with God and just learn from 'each other's stories'.

Last week, Claudi was on a women's weekend away near Waterslea/Koloona. Morning runs, gorgeous weather, an absolutely stunning view, thinking about the breadth, width and depth of God's love, making cards, chatting, laughing, praying,... it was such a good breather!!! It also was a powerful reminder about the miracle of salvation, the way God is really able to work with, in and through broken people, wow!

Brooke, Erica, Claudi, Adele, Kim

Kyck & Research

Well... in summary, this entry is saying something along the lines of: Kyckstart was an awesome time, it was great to hang out with the kids, be challenged by the talks, muck around at the Blue Mountains Grammar school sports facilities, go to Leura for an afternoon & meet people from Eagle Vale Anglican (where we went on Mission this year) as well as Canberra (mission last year)!

Sry guys, can't be bothered to translate to whole thing, but that's really the gist of it... what does that tell you about my ability to waffle on (got an essay back last year telling me it wasn't bad, but could be a lot more concise....)?!? Never mind. 'Waffling' can be a gift at times, too, especially when you're making small-talk with s/o who interprets the situation as a question-answer-game.


Mr Bean-Bear-Pez-Dispenser

We had lots of fun & some cake in Leura;)

Lunch @ a playground, yeay!


24 April

Heute ist Dienstag. Research week, d.h. kein Unterricht, Zeit für Essays. Wir arbeiten beide an Theologie - Steph schaut sich das Thema an wie eine Übersetzung der Bibel 'Gottes Wort' sein kann (weil's ja nicht original auf Deutsch, English,... war, surprise, surprise!), Claudi arbeitet an einem guten small-talk Thema: Wie sollten wir 'Hölle' verstehen (ausgehend von der Bibel;-)? Claudi hat noch dazu eine Arbeit von letzter Woche überfällig... grr!! Aber nützt nix.

Am Wochenende waren wir in Katoomba/Blue Mountains auf einer christlichen Jugendveranstaltung: KYCK-Start (ist wohl ein bisschen wie das PfiJu bei uns, für die die's kennen) - über 2000 Jugendliche, wow! Unseren Leuten hat's getaugt (so weit wir das beurteilen konnten) - wir konnten in der Sporthalle der Blue Mountains Grammar school schlafen, was ziemlich lässig war, weil die eine nagelneue Doppelhalle drin haben - und draußen ein Fußballfeld & ein Footballfeld nebeneinander. Das begeistert die sport-fanatischen Australier natürlich ;-)

Die Talks waren auch super, alle aus dem Lukasevangelium (Kapitel 9-18), sehr herausfordernd. Wurde stark betont, dass es nicht eine 'Fun-Activity' ist, als Christ zu leben, sondern eine ernste, lebensverändernde Entscheidung, die etwas 'kostet'. Das fanden wir echt gut, denn zu oft wird Christsein als 'Lebensverbesserungs-projekt' dargestellt, so als würde es immer Spaß machen und nie anstrengend oder schwierig sein. Gleichzeitig wurde aber auch Gottes bedingungslose Liebe betont, die von nichts in uns selber abhängt, die wir uns nicht verdienen können oder müssen. Gutes Gleichgewicht, herausfordernd, ermutigend, bibeltreu. Die Gemeinschaft mit den Kids war auch fein, wir hatten beide gute Gespräche mit den Jugendlichen. Es ist echt toll, wenn Jugendliche sich öffnen und über ihren Glauben reden, die Fragen und Probleme, die sie beschäftigen, die Kämpfe, die sie durchstehen.

Was wir auch cool fanden: wir haben Leute aus Eagle Vale getroffen (dort waren wir Ende März auf 'Mission', wir haben eine Woche mit ihrer Anglikanischen Kirche/Gemeinde verbracht und bei vielen verschiedenen Programmen reingeschnuppert) - und von Douglas Park, wo Steph vor zwei Wochen gepredigt hat...Das ist einer der vielen Vorteile an diesen 'Großevents', man trifft alte Freunde und Bekannte wieder, was immer schön und ermutigend ist!!! Ach ja, und eine Gruppe von Canberra war auch da, von der independant church, wo wir letztes Jahr auf 'Mission' waren... wie gesagt: alte Freunde und Bekannte *gg*

Mystery & Mess

People are uncomfortable with mystery (God) and mess (themselves).

They avoid both mystery and mess

by devising programs and hiring pastors to manage them.

A program provides a defined structure with an achievable goal.

Mystery and mess are eliminated at a stroke.

(...how convenient!)

-E.Peterson, 'The contemplative pastor'

uhm... but what's in bracket's underneath isn't part of the original quote... just in case you were wondering.

beyond criticism

"The authority once given to Scripture

is now ascribed to the appointment calendar.

When I appeal to my appointment calendar,

I am beyond criticism."

- E. Peterson

some pics

Oops, hope that won't happen to us!

Manly Beach

Harbour view

Scenic Flight over Sydney & Central Coast

Wow, what a day!!!

At 11 a.m. today we took off (in our little Rover Quintett;) towards the Bankstown Aerospace aviontion centre, where we met with Glenn & Sue from our church. Glenn is the proud owner of a Piper Seneca II (hope that's the correct specification... in case it's not and you happen to be able an pick it isn't, we're terribly sorry for our ignorance;) - and he had offered about a week ago (after the Good Friday service) to take us on a fun-flight. Obviously we couln't say 'no' to such an offer - and have a guess who had set the whole thing up in the first place! Well...OF COURSE it was Ian Wooley, no surprises there.

And that's how we ended up spending 1,5 hours in a two-engine airoplane today, flying over Sydney & up the Central Coast... we started in Bankstown, going over the Hawkesbury River, past Gosford to Terrigal, where we did a few loops until they allowed us back into the controlled airspace again. The best part obviously was going over the Harbour - bridge, opera house, everything you'd want on a scenic flight over Sydney, a breathtaking experience, really!

Then we went 'down' to Cronulla & whatever else is in that area, and back again to Bankstown airport... Flying is really cool, it's very different in such a small aircraft, heaps fascinating, how it actually works! What was even more fascinating, though, was the fact that Glenn left the 'baby' in Stephan's care for a few minutes... it became noticably more 'bumpy', but Steph obviously had 'a ball'... our sense of balance is still trying to recover from this airspace-experience... somehow everything's constatly moving a bit still.

A few facts: the Piper Seneca aircraft is a comparatively spacious 6-seater (incl. pilot), 6 cylinders, 2 engines (1 of which is worth about 50.000 AU$, wow!), 28 years of age (this particular one), max. speed just over 300 km/h and weighs about 1.700 kg. We used up about 100 liters of petrol for the approx. 300 km we did in these 1.5 hrs... or cerosin or whatever else you call the stuff that planes fly on. For further information or more detailled technical descriptions, feel free to contact Stephan Pohn. Thank you for your attention!

PS: There are 34 Pictures on Claudi's blog, in case this post got you interested... but you need to give us your hotmail-address, so that we can add you to our VIP-list...

_______________________________________
Wow, was für ein Tag!!!

Wir sind heute auf 11 am nach Bankstown zum Aerospace aviation - centre gedüst, wo wir uns mit Glenn & Sue aus der Gemeinde/Kirche getroffen haben. Glenn ist stolzer Besitzer einer Piper Seneca II (nicht ganz sicher, ob das der korrekte Name ist... sorry an alle, die sich da auskennen...) - und hat uns Freitag vor einer Woche angeboten, uns einmal mitzunehmen. Da konnten wir natürlich nicht 'nein' sagen - und eingefädelt hat das Ganze Ian Wooley, eh klar.

Somit waren wir heute, 14.4.2007 für ca. 1,5 Stunden mit einem zweimotorigen Kleinflugzeug im Großraum Sydney unterwegs... wir sind zuerst von Bankstown über den Hawkesbury River, an Gosford vorbei nach Terrigal geflogen, wo wir ein paar Schleifen gemacht haben, bis der kontrollierte Luftraum wieder frei war. Dann sind wir über Sydney Harbour (MEGA, ich sags euch!) nach Cronulla runter, und von dort dann wieder zurück nach Bankstown Airport... Fliegen ist echt genial, es ist ganz anders in so einer kleinen Maschine, voll faszinierend, wie das funktioniert. Noch faszinierender war, dass Glenn das Ding für ein paar Minuten Stephan's Obhut überlassen hat... es wurde merklich holpriger, aber Steph hatte natürlich voll die Gaude... unser Gleichgewichtssystem versucht sich noch immer, von dieser Luftraum-Erfahrung zu erholen... irgendwie scheint alles noch ein wenig zu schwanken...

... noch ein paar Daten und Fakten : Die Piper Seneca ist ein verhältnismäßig geräumiger 6-Sitzer (inclusive Pilot), 6 Zylinder, 2 Motoren (1 solcher Motor kostet 50.000 AU$, das sind ca. 30.000 €), 28 Jahre alt, fliegt knapp über 300 km/h Höchstgeschwindigkeit und wiegt ca. 1.700 kg. Für ca. 300 km/1,5 h Panoramaflug haben wir um die 100 Liter Benzin/Kerosin (oder was auch immer sonst man da tankt) verbraucht. Für weitere Informationen oder detailliertere technische Beschreibungen bitten wir Sie, sich vertrauensvoll an Stephan Pohn zu wenden. Vielen Dank für ihre Aufmerksamkeit!

PS: Auf Claudi's Blog gibts 34 Fotos zur Ansicht, falls ihr Interesse bekommen habt...

Am I willing?

Lord, I am willing
To receive what you give
To lack what you withhold
To relinquish what you take
To suffer what you inflict
To be what you require.
And, Lord, if others are to be
Your messengers to me,
I am willing to hear and heed
What they have to say.
Amen.

-Charles Swindoll

Games-night with Lesley, Noe & Ben

Stephan and Lesley

Gsi-dney?!?

Just as a note of explanation:

We DO know how to spell Sydney (see!), but there's a good reason for the mix. 'Gsi' stands for the province in Austria that we come from. It's a nickname which derives from the past particip used in our dialect 'i bin gsi' = 'I have been'. Well, and Sydney is obviously the capital of Australia... NOT! Of course the capital is Canberra, but the good thing about Sydney is that everybody in the world knows it (which we're afraid cannot be said of Canberra;-)... Anyway, we're glad to be here!

Ferien! - Holidays!

Donnerstag, erste Ferienwoche von zwei.

Steph hat den Großteil der Ferien bisher damit verbracht, unsere beiden Notebooks wieder flott zu machen - altes office runter, Datensicherung, neues office rauf. Jetzt sind wir startklar für den Rest unserer Essays,... Gerade sind wir von einem feinen Vormittag mit Ian und Alison zurück gekommen - Claudi hat ihren Geburtstagsgutschein eingelöst: Wir sind zu viert auf einen Kaffee gegangen, mmh! Jetzt heißt es eine Einkaufsliste schreiben, Geld abheben gehen, sich durch den Ostereinkaufsrummel kämpfen - und am Abend sind wir auch schon ganz toll verplant: Steph geht auf einen Polterabend, und Claudi ist bei einem 'Passover-Essen' eingeladen... Anne, eine gute Freundin vom letzten Jahr, organisiert diesen Abend und plant ein echtes jüdisches Passover-Lamm zu kochen, wird sicher interessant!

Morgen werden wir dann um 9.00 in den Karfreitagsgottesdienst gehen und versuchen untertags mal endlich arbeitsmäßig was weiter zu bringen. Samstag sind wir auf Dan und Harriet's Hochzeit (das sind zwei Freunde vom College - wie gesagt, Steph geht auf Dan's Polterabend heute), und am Sonntag ist dann eh schon Ostern. Wenn's nicht regnet, werden wir versuchen nach dem Gottesdienst nach Stanwell zu fahren (das ist der Strand, an dem wir geheiratet haben) und dort ein Picknick im Park zu machen. Mal sehen. Tja, das sind unsere Ferien so weit.

Wir wünschen euch frohe Ostern (zumindest denjenigen, die diesen Eintrag noch vor Ostern sehen), liebe Grüße aus dem allzeit sonnigen Sydney ins wunderschöne Ländle,

-Steph & Claudi

_______________________________

Thursday, first week of our Easter-Holidays

Steph spent the main part of his holidays so far with setting up both our Notebooks - taking down the old 'office', securing all the data, installing the new 'office'. Now we're set for the rest of the essays we've got to write this semester... We've just come back from a nice morning/lunchtime with Ian and Alison - Claudi still had a voucher from her birthday. So the four of us went out for coffee and cake, yum! Now we've got to write a shopping list, get some money, work our way through the Easter-traffic - well, and we've also got big plans for tonight: Steph's gonna be at a Bucks party in the city, and Claudi's been invited to a 'Passover-night'... Anne (a good friend from last year) is organising this night and is planning on cooking a 'real' Jewish Passover-meal, that's gonna be interesting!

Tomorrow, we'll go to the Good Friday Service at 9 am at our church - and then we'll probably try to finally get some College-work done during the day. On Saturday, we'll be on Dan & Harriet's wedding (they are friends from College - Dan's the one with the Bucks night tonight), and the day after's already Easter Sunday - wow! If it's not raining, we'll try to go to Stanwell after the Easter-Service (Stanwell's the beach where we had our Australian wedding), where we'll have a picknick in the park. We'll see. Well, that's our holidays so far.

We wish you a Happy Easter Break (at least to those ones, who'll read this post before Easter), greetings to wherever in the world you're at,

Steph & Claudi

Gsi-dney... schon wieder ein Blog?!

Zur allgemeinen Erklärung:

1. Wir haben beschlossen, einen gemeinsamen Blog ohne Passwort mit hauptsächlich geschriebenen Einträgen zu erstellen, um somit den Informationsfluss zwischen dem Ländle und Sydney sicher zu stellen.


2. Für alle nicht-Eingeweihten: 'Gsi' steht für Vorarlberg/s'Ländle (kommt vom gebräuchlichen Partizip der Vergangenheit: i bin gsi) - und 'Sydney' ist die Hauptstadt von Australien... BIEP! Reingefallen. Die Hauptstadt ist natürlich immer noch Canberra, aber Sydney kennt dafür jeder.


3. Da wir grad den 2. Tag unserer Osterferien genießen und zwar eine Liste mit Dingen, die wir erledigen wollen, haben - aber's lieber gemütlich angehen, scheint nun der perfekte Zeitpunkt zu sein um einen solchen Blog zu erstellen. Außerdem eignen sich Blogs ganz ausgezeichnet zur Ablenkung, wenn man dringend an einem Essay arbeiten sollte, aber alles andere lieber täte...


4. Der Vorteil an diesem Blog (im Gegensatz zu unseren msn-blogs) ist auch, dass jeder Comments hinterlassen kann, was uns ganz, ganz wahnsinnig fest freuen würde.


5. Wir werden über kurz oder lang versuchen, jeweils eine deutsche und eine englische Version jedes Eintrages anzubieten, um schon mal für nach dem College und all die (englischsprachigen) Kontakte, die wir hier knüpfen, vorzusorgen.