Day 6: Work Hard, Play Harder

Psalm 40:5 “Many. O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.”

I woke up late this morning and it’s probably because I stayed up so late last night. The guys had already come over from the Babcock’s house and they were getting ready for our prayer meeting when I finally rolled out of bed. We had a quick breakfast, a short prayer time and then we were off again to work.

Today we were all kind of transient workers. We each took shifts in different areas, except for Larry who was doing all of our electrical work. We continued paneling the basement walls and started on the ceiling. The guys started drilling holes through the concrete to anchor the new walls that will be going up. Hopefully someday this room will become a second kitchen to be used kind of like a guest house.

In the garden we dug a trench and laid concrete blocks to make a decorative surrounding to the flower beds. It was hard work but it was a nice day today. It was mildly cloudy, but no rain!

For lunch Annemarie made a thai food dish. It was interesting, but not my favorite. But she did have caprese (tomatoes and mozzarella) as a side dish so I was more than happy. Annemarie also insisted that this afternoon we take a side trip and take a break from our work. It was kind of hard to do knowing there was still more work to be done, but she made a good point. We’ll all work harder if we have a good rest and get to enjoy some of our surroundings.

Before we headed out on our mini-adventure, we crammed some more work in. Kim, Toby (Rick and Annemarie’s son) and I went to the Babcock’s house and started hauling loads of “rubbish” to the dumps. Yes multiple dumps. Austria has strict recycling and garbage laws because the pollution was getting so bad in Europe that it was causing, and still causes acid rain. First we loaded up all the “green” garbage. These are like trees, grass, weeds from the garden and bio-degradable materials. That went to one dump. Next we loaded up paper and cardboard. That went to another dump. And finally we loaded up wood, carpet and just regular garbage. That all went to a 3^rd dump. The final dump could actually take everything, but it was farther away than the other two dumps, and we couldn’t fit it all into Dave’s vehicle…which by the way is about the size of a mini-cooper. All of the vehicles here are tiny…even the livestock trailers. On our drive through town we saw a truck hauling little pigs. They were probably about a year old, but they were all crammed together in something about the size of a Ford Ranger pick up. It made me happy because it’s been a while since I’ve see cute little pigs.

After our trips to the dump, we quickly changed our clothes and jumped in the cars again. We drove about 45 minutes away to the small village of Dürnstein, along the Danube River. Dürnstein was first mentioned in history in the 1100’s.

During the third crusade Richard the Lion Hearted was captured and held captive somewhere in the area. One minstrel went wandering around the hills singing King Richard’s favorite song. One day he came upon a castle and heard someone singing along with him, from deep with in the dungeon. The minstrel knew that this was where King Richard was being held captive. He got word back to England, they paid the ransom and worked out a deal, and King Richard was freed from the Dürnstein castle. This story got me thinking about Robin Hood. I entertained our group by pretending I was not only Robin Hood, but Little John and Maid Marian as well! They were dually impressed by my bow and arrow skills as well as my ability to multi-act.

The hike to the top of the castle was a little difficult, but well worth the strain. It overlooks the beautiful Danube River and you can see many little villages throughout the valley. The region in Austria is known as Wachau (pronounced Va-cow) and is a renowned wine region. There were some beautiful grapes and even apricots and oranges throughout the town.

The town also has a tiny cemetery. Because it is on the side of a cliff and it’s hundreds of years old, there is no where for the cemetery to expand so it’s a little different than ones in the U.S. A family has one plot. When someone dies, they are buried in the plot…for up to 30 years. Then someone else from the family, lovingly digs up the plot, cleans off the bones and stacks them in the bone house. Hundreds and hundreds of bones are stored in one building. It was weird to think that all the bones I saw were real people living and working and existing in such a beautiful place. It was a haunting and peacefulness that coexisted in a way I’ve never experienced.

We did some shopping around the town and I stepped into the bakery. It was awesome. I got my first coke of the entire trip, and I got an apple strudel. Definitely one of “My Favorite Things.”

By the time we left we were all worn out, but thankful for the wonderful adventure. We came back to the house, ate a quick meal of sandwiches. Then we had apple-rhubarb crisp, with freshly picked rhubarb and apples. We ate our desert as we sat around the living room and shared how we got to come on this trip and asked for prayer requests. It was a beautiful end to the evening.

Ways to pray: Pray that Joe gets to do a trip like this sometime, and hopefully that he and I can go together, Pray for FHWC to become more mission minded, pray for the upcoming vote at FHWC, Pray for continued strength as we work the rest of this week. There will be more work than we can do, but just pray that we can get more accomplished than we originally thought.