Septemebr 8th 3rd day of Vienna Missions Trip

September 8th 3rd day of Vienna Missions trip

Rebekah (my wonderful friend and roommate) and I got up early, got ready and I Skyped with my parents. This is one thing that my family and I did every morning and evening of the trip. It was so comforting to see their faces, hear their voices, and catch them up in Vienna world. ;) Another wonderful thing that my parents did for me while I was gone was they wrote loving notes to me for everyday of the trip. It was always nice to read their encouraging loving words to me every morning.

We then headed down to breakfast. Breakfast always consisted for me of eggs, fruit, turkey, beans, and bread. They LOVE bread and Nutella. It is literally everywhere. The eggs tasted like plastic at the hotel, but I ate them anyway for the protein. I am still alive, so we're ok. :)I suppose that is a big adjustment for any international trip--getting used to new foods or their preparation. Just another growth opportunity! Every morning after breakfast our choir met up in the lounge to have worship, devotionals, prayer time, and practice. We only practiced a little today because we had scheduled a tour to Schonbrunn Palace! A wonderful part of our trip was knowing we were there for the missions opportunity but it was a bonus to be in a beautiful location with spectacular museums and palaces. I  knew we'd be singing as the Spirit led in front of, or in these areas for tourists.

As we were driving on the beautiful cobble stone streets and seeing all of the lovely architecture, I kept thinking of how blessed I was to be here and I thanked Abba (Father) over and over. Our tour guide was telling us tons of interesting facts as we drove past each building. It was amazing to see all of the history in this city and learn about how long this city has been there. In the area that we were driving through,  most of the houses were raised up from the street so that if there was a flood it wouldn't damage the houses. We drove past a college there that was built 650 years ago! Our country is so young compared to that! This reminded us how long this city has been here. The queen and king who ruled  Austria and lived in the palace that we were going to today was named Marie Trace and Joseph Franz. Mr. Joseph Franz was German and the Austrian people didn't want to be ruled by a German so they demanded that  Miss Marie be their ruler.

After driving around for about 30 minutes, we finally arrived at Schonbrunn Palace!! Yay!! The outside was so stunning and I was really looking forward to touring inside. This palace was the Queen and King's SUMMER palace! When we headed in, it was breath taking. I couldn't believe that we were actually standing in a real palace in Vienna. I felt like I was in a dream. When you first walk in, the floor is lined with cobble stones so that the coachmen could take the visitors straight to the door every time that they visited without the horse hooves making too much noise. I thought that was so clever and interesting. 

When we got up stairs there was a sign that said, "No taking pictures or videos please." I was disappointed that we weren't able to take pictures, but it was good to make photographic memories in our minds. The first hall that we walked into was the coronation hall. There were beautiful paintings on the ceilings, marble on the floor, and beautiful chandeliers everywhere. There was so much gold! Each of the rooms had gold as well. It was incredible and the rooms were so large. In this palace they had 1,224 rooms but we were only allowed to see the first level. I was so thankful to go and see this beautiful palace. I kept imagining about what it says in the Bible in John 14: 2,3 " In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me..." If this palace is this incredible, I can not even imagine how spectacular heaven will be when we are there with Jesus (Yeshua) as King  It  reminded me to prepare more and more each day for His return. After we were done with our one and a half hour tour, we headed outside to the beautiful gardens. There were so many lovely flowers growing everywhere.

After we were done going through the beautiful gardens we made our way to St. Stephen's Cathedral. Walking on our way to the Cathedral we stopped at three different places to sing on the streets. It was so fun to see all of the different people walk by and watch us sing. Our choir director had 1000 postcards made for our chaperones to hand out as we sang. The picture was of the Colorado Rockies  along with an explanation in German saying that we are "ChoirFire from America and that we are in Vienna to sing about the wonderful love of Jesus. So many people took videos, pictures, worshipped, or clapped along. There was even a man from Israel that begged us to come over to Israel and sing for the people there. How cool is that?! I had a blast! When we made it to the Cathedral it was amazing to see how tall and huge it was! The people back then made the Cathedrals here so tall to show that we can never measure up to God. 

When we first walked into this gothic cathedral, it was overwhelming to see how tall and beautiful it was. There was a pure golden alter in the front, lovely stain glass windows, and paintings of people in the Bible. There even was a huge pipe organ that had 17,774 pipes in the organ!  It is Europe's largest pipe organ. I think that it was really cool that they would build something so tall and beautiful to worship God in. We, unfortunately weren't able to sing in the cathedral, but it was quite a blessing to be able to be there. After seeing the Cathedral we took the tram to meet up with Mrs. Ali at the international school that she taught music and choir at. We then went outside and some of us wanted to climb up these 100 stairs to see the view of Vienna from four different angles. It was quite a hike to climb up there but it sure was worth it. The view was so breath taking! You could see all of Vienna and the Austrian Alps. I am so glad that I was able to go up there, it was sure worth it.

The school was very large and their primary language is English. When we first entered the music classroom, everyone clapped for us and they were all so welcoming, which was comforting. I was kind of afraid and nervous that they wouldn't treat us kindly, but everyone in there was SO friendly.  The choir there has 50 children in it but most of them were on tour and only 10 of them could be there. They sang three songs for us. Everyone in there was so talented! We then had the chance to sing Amazing Grace, Hold on to the Rock, and Seize the Day for them. Our choir isn't as big and maybe not as talented but I still think we did a great job. They gave great compliments and feed back to us afterwards, it was so sweet. What an incredible cross cultural exchange for both our groups.

After we finished singing, Mrs. Ali brought out homemade chocolate cake and iced tea for us all! It was so yummy. The cake was one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever tasted. We all gathered together and just started talking and laughing. We had bonded with Mrs. Ali when she came to Colorado to give us voice instruction so we felt comfortable being reunited with her. What's really cool about an international school is that you get to hear about all of the unique places each student is from. After eating cake and talking for awhile, Mrs. Ali's son (Yohanus) sat down at the piano and started playing fun songs. We all joined in and started singing along. It was so fun to be able to do that, I had a blast with that!

After that fun and memorable second day of Vienna, we joined Mrs. Ali and Yohanus at an Italian restaurant called Moulin Rouge. Our server asked if all Americans were as nice and friendly as us. It was so sweet of her. Part of what I reminded myself for the trip is that not only are we to be representatives for Christ, but we are to be polite and pleasant ambassadors of the United States. Her comment helped us know that we must be doing okay. For dinner, I ate this whole (really thin) cheese pizza for dinner. It was super yummy!

After dinner, on our way back to the hotel, we stopped by the opera house. Every night they show a live taping outside on the big screen of the show for free. It was really fun to watch and experience that. It was a very long, fun, and memorable day today and I hope you enjoy being on the journey with me as I review our time. Come back for our next day adventure.
With Love,
Kaila