A Time of Transition: Part 1 - Family Values

Well, it's been a long time since we posted something here; in fact, June 30, 2011 was the last time to be exact, which probably means there are very few of you left who even remember that we have a blog. However, we thought this may be the best way to keep people updated on the transition of our family and the church here in Vienna (as it relates to us). Over the next six months, we hope to post periodic updates of what and how we're doing; who knows, maybe we'll even post other family-related things or updates on our adjustment once we're back in the States. For those who may still be clueless at this point, our family has lived the last five and a half years in Vienna, Austria but is planning to move back to the States in early July 2013. Below is an article from our last newsletter, in case you didn't already receive it. Thanks for the prayers for our family and the church here.

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Much of what we do in life is the result of encounters we have had with others and the wisdom we have had the privilege of gleaning from their experiences - victories, failures and life lessons. One such lesson that our family has learned is the significance of a time of transition. The month of July meant not only the beginning of summer break and a vacation with the Hensal side of our family, but also the beginning of our family’s last year in Vienna. As you can imagine, this reality comes with a range of emotions: sadness knowing that our time with our spiritual family, dear friends and teammates is limited; a bit of nervousness perhaps about the unknown - where we will live, what Josh will do and how our children will adjust (or, really, all of us for that matter) to life in the States; excitement about the opportunity for the church here in Vienna to grow and mature in this next stage of its walk with God as well excitement about a new phase in our family’s life and walk with God; strangeness about our changing role with the mission and church here and the accompanying changes in our friendships with people here.
From people much wiser than we are and who themselves have gone through and even studied families going through transitions - like an international move, we have received much advice. One of the suggestions is to spend some time as a family establishing the values of your family - those aspects that remain constant while much of the rest of life changes around us. One family that we’ve heard about chose 12 values and spent one weekend travelling each month of their last year on the field to discuss each of their family values. The goal of this time is to discuss and collectively identify what it means to be a part of one’s family (i.e., who are Hensals?). Our family took our first family values trip over the first weekend in November and traveled to Prague, Czech Republic. We are trying to combine these times away with visits to European cities we have not yet had the opportunity to see or to cities where people dear to us live. Our time in Prague was a combination of sight-seeing, Bible study, meaningful discussions where the kids (at least the older three) really contributed and a painting that reflected some of what we saw and experienced. As our first value or description of who we are, we chose the word “Himmländer” (i.e., citizen of heaven), which is a word that one of the Christians in Germany created to communicate Paul’s idea from Philippians 3:20 that our citizenship is in heaven. Our passports are American, our home is in Vienna, but our allegiance is to God! This reality as a follower of Jesus was not only important for the Christians in Philippi to grasp, but is also important for God’s people today. For this reason, we wanted our children to understand that they are Americans and, in many ways, Austrians, but most importantly they are citizens of God’s kingdom.
Other lessons/values will follow and a handful of trips are planned, so we would appreciate your prayers for our family and the church during this time of transition. May God be glorified and the church be strengthened. - Josh and Kim