big, little, laughing, praying, teaching, listening, working side by side, even standing on a mountain top together…we all need them!

andrea and tobi are married!!!

My boys have two big sisters here, Andrea and Jess. We were at Andrea’s wedding after Christmas which ended her six months of living with us and Jess is leading worship at our church’s young adult retreat right now. As you can see in the photo Jonathan is a ‘young adult’ at this retreat!! Andrea and Jess are godly influences in the lives of Jonathan and David! Sooo thankful!!!

Karoline and Charis are praying sisters, meeting weekly this past year.  They shared their story at our January women’s breakfast on encouraging one another on to love and good works. Note the purple megaphones and Pom poms 🙂

Karoline and Charis share their story

Charis is heading up a new women’s ministry in the church to help women grow in community. She has asked big sister Uli to join her in this work and they are praying for a younger woman to join them. Their first event is march 4 on being a prayer warrior mentor. Yes!!

sisters by choice 🙂

Leslie and I adopted each other decades ago. We both have sisters across the ocean that we miss. So we decided to be there for each other in everyday life. Like bringing my boys and a plate of thanksgiving dinner to the hospital two days after my accident. And she didn’t forget to bring desert!

We need to know each other in order to love and encourage each other on to love and good works. As women’s ministry leader, I desire to see all the women God allows into my life, grow in their love for the Lord and serve Him using the gifts He gives them.  From personal experience I know that even the ickiest task can be transformed into a joyful community experience with a sister working alongside you.

Thank you for your prayers for us and upcoming events!!!

Feb 17-18    Leadership Team of befreit leben (freed life) discipleship ministry. Planning meeting for September small group leader’s training  seminar

March 4 evening for women    Focus mentoring

March 25 mom’s conference

Sept – leadership training weekend

Oct – our church’s women’s retreat.

Christmas Now (2016):

Christmas Then (2015):

So, can you spot the differences between Christmas Now and Then?

Yes, much has happened in the last year and the boys and I thank the Lord that Christmas will be celebrated at home this time around instead of in the Hospital.

We wish you a blessed celebration of Jesus’ birth, and pray that you would discover new reasons to thank the Lord for his love and care.

Leanne, Jonathan and David

and Temmie and Max 🙂

On the road…

Jonathan passed his driver’s test. License already came in the mail!
Way to go Jonathan!!!!

Jonathan got his license!

David’s not driving yet (phew!) but he is heading into prep for this year’s school musical, Bye Bye Birdie. Auditions this week!

I will soon be the shortest one in the family!

On the road again…

I will be heading out Friday for a week. The boys are off school and were not sad at all to have a week of no one telling them to clean up and do the dishes. As long as they eat some vegetables and glimpse sunshine occasionally I’m good.

Friday to Sunday I will be at our local church’s ladies retreat. As women’s ministry leader I have walked along side our new team leader, Josefa, as her team prepared for the retreat.
Praying that the weekend will be full of learning and laughter and deepening relationships across the generations for all 59 of us.  Our small groups leaders are older women in the church who each invited a younger woman to co-lead with them. A good step toward mentoring in every day life. Please pray for many more steps like this.

Then on Sunday afternoon I drive on two hours towards Salzburg for a five day seminar on dealing with trauma. This time I get to be a participant. The leadership from ‘befreit leben’, the discipleship ministry I work with is sending me. I am so grateful to be able to attend and I expect it to be a time healing for me personally after this past very hard year and also enriching for my ministry to women.

Thank you for praying!

Leanne

Dani (right) and my friend Heidi will be co-leading a small group at the retreat

What is normal?

for David it is riding the train to school each day in Vienna -grade 8!!!

for Jonathan it is heading south from the same train station to go to college each day to become a kindergarten teacher!

for me it is moving towards the end of physical therapy as I recover from my accident last November when a truck hit me while I was riding my bike

AND

continuing with mentoring and leadership training including a four day training session next week an hour from here. So excited that we were able to translate, into german, Open Heart Ministries’ “The Journey Continues” for Befreit Leben (freed life), and to see it coming into the hands of leaders who will take it home and train new leaders!  Please pray for us!!! Sept 21-24

One year ago today was Warren’s Memorial Service.  I shake my head.  A whole year without him.  Friends tell me they have tried to picture themselves in my shoes.  They can’t.  My response is “Me neither”.  Although at some point every day the truth reaches me.  Then I can’t move, I can hardly breath.  Just a tiny speck of the truth reaches me.

It is like that with heaven too.  Maybe it is just an incredible sense of peacefulness in the face parenting challenges (is anyone really smart enough for that job?) or a belly laugh when I get David’s joke and he joins in the laughter.  This too stops me and I take it in.  Just a speck of what is to come.

I relish the heaven on earth moments that take my breath away.

Thank you all for your prayers these past weeks.  We sure needed them (and still do).

On the first anniversary of Warren’s home going to heaven I wanted the boys to remember their dad’s teaching and taste heaven.  We did both.  So many letters came in from friends and family that it took us a week to read through them all.  The boys will each have a book of dad’s words to keep with them through life.  Jonathan came up with the idea of Geo-caching for a way to taste heaven – adventure, treasure, discovery,  excitement, fun… It was great.  Amazing that even our little town in Austria has hidden treasures.  I will check in with my computer tutor to see about putting up some of the pictures from that day.

I am just getting started with this Blog, but I look forward to communicating our lives and ministry with you.