September 11th, 2015
We did the usual that morning-- got ready, had breakfast, I
Skyped with my family, and we had devotionals and worship. One thing I have
loved doing when I get up in the morning on the trip was Skype with my family.
It was great to see their faces, hear their voices, and catch them up on life
over in Vienna.
At devotionals that morning Mrs. Porter felt led to go back
to the train station to sing to the refugees again. After we all heard this
some people decided to give them some of their clothing. Mrs. Porter encouraged
us to give out our Choir scarves, which we were during our street and “lead by
the spirit, impromptu” performances. I gave all of the five bags of food that
my mom had packed for me to take care of my snack needs. Emma #1 gave a whole
bag- (maybe 30) bread roll from the hotel.
When we arrived at the train station that day, a lady lead
us to a donation area outside. I donated all of the bags of food. Some people
gave them the clothes, and Emma gave up the bread rolls. Mrs. Porter got a name
tag authorizing us to collect donations and the people at the donation area
gave us a translater for the day named Lina. While our group was waiting
outside to see what we were to do next, I had noticed six grocery carts full of
water bottles, six seven foot high bins full of food, and 1 large bin full of
blankets. It was encouraging to know that many people in Vienna were stepping forward unexpectedly and
giving up unwanted items, donated food, and giving their time to help with the
refugees there.
After we were ready to go, our group headed down to the
lower part of the train station where arriving and departure trains were. We thought
it might be a good idea to raise more money and sing where the flow of people
was. There were a TON of people passing by to go to work or school. We
immediately started raising money when we opened our mouths. Lina even sang
with us, which was fun. There was a man selling newspapers near by. He came
over and gave us all of the money that he had earned that morning. That money
could’ve paid for his next meal or to pay his bills, instead, he gave it up to
help the refugees.
There were a lot of people that stopped to watch and donate.
There was one lady who burst into tears
when she heard us singing Amazing Grace. Mrs. Ellison went over to see what the
matter was. The lady had told her that her father had died last week and they
sang Amazing Grace at his funeral. It just really touched her heart. You never
can judge someone by how they act, talk, or look. You never know people’s
stories. They could possibly be going through cancer, a death of a family
member or friend, going through bullying, or even having a rough day at work or
school. We can be a light of Christ and friend to anyone. We can be the ones
that give them hope, joy, love, or even some sunshine. We have to make sure
that we do not judge people on the outside. Love them no matter what, because
that is what Yeshua (Jesus) did. WWJD. (What would Jesus do?)
*Side track for a moment* On the 8th when we were
singing Emma #2’s grandmother was handing out our choir fire cards that said in
German, “ We’re a Christian choir from USA. We’re here to share the news of
Jesus. Have a great day. God Bless.” When she was handing these out she met a
man from Israel that was
begging her to get our choir to come and sing to the people in Israel. How
cool is that?!?! That would be a dream come true if we did that someday.
We sang for three hours straight again that day and Jackson and Kale raised
$800 dollars! For these two days of singing in the train station, our choir has
raised $1,200 dollars for the refugees! After singing for a while, we headed
upstairs where most of the refugees were. The first part that we went to, they
had 50 buses lined up ready to unload the full buses of people but there wasn’t
any room at the train station. They couldn’t unload them until they cleared up
more room in the station. I felt so bad for the people waiting to get off those
buses. We were going to sing to the people on the buses but there wasn’t enough
room for them to unload. What must have been going through their minds?
We went back over to the place where we were yesterday and
we stood for two hours today. Our voices were very soar, but God gave us
strength. While we were singing, three drunk people came up and asked us to
sing certain songs. They were trying to sing with us and danced in front of us.
I got really nervous and scared that they might do something. I kept telling
myself though, that God has a plan and a purpose for everything. I also kept
saying to myself that there were police men near by and God was by our side. It
was really hard to try not to be nervous and to put my trust in Him, but He
gave me strength.
We all wanted to go back to the children’s center, so we
did. I tried coloring with a little girl, like I did yesterday, but the little
girl just shook her finger at me and kept shaking her head no. So, I blew
bubbles for the children instead and they all really enjoyed the bubbles. There
weren’t as many children as the day before, which was good. There were a couple
of boys and girls that were there the day before and on the 11th
which was so sad to see. It was hard to know that some of these families
possibly didn’t catch a train to their destination. Since Mrs. Porter felt led
to let our choir hand out our choir scarves, I gave mine to a little Arabic
girl and her Arabic mother.
At the train station that day I didn’t feel like it was as
empowering day as it was yesterday. However, but I am still very thankful that we were able
to go, raise all that money, sing, give our scarves, and preach the news of
Yeshua (Jesus.)
We headed back to the hotel after another long day at the
train station. Some people stayed back at the hotel to rest but Mrs. Porter,
Mrs. Nelson, Mrs. Ellison, Kira, Abby, Emma, Sariah, Kale, and I all wanted to
keep exploring. We all left and went to the St. Peter’s Cathedral. In Vienna, they call it a
hidden cathedral because it isn’t as tall like the other cathedrals and it is
in between two buildings. It had a beautiful green roof and the lovely sound of
bells were ringing because the bells were letting people know that the mass
service was starting soon.
Even though none of us are catholic you can still go inside
to see the cathedral. It was beautiful when you walk in because they had lovely
paintings of stories from the Bible on the ceiling that looked like Michael
Angelo paintings. There was amazing stain glass windows all around the cathedral.
I think I liked St. Stephen’s Cathedral the best, but this cathedral was still
really beautiful and amazing.
After going into the cathedral we walked around the corner
to the Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial. If
you have seen ‘Women in Gold’ you would of seen the Judenplatz. I was really
wanting to go and visit this memorial, and I am really glad that we were able
to go. When we walked around the corner I had tears that started coming down my
face. The memorial was in a box shape --the Austrian’s call it a cube-- and
there were 65,000 books that were made out of clay all around the “cube.” These
books represented the 65,000 Jewish Austrians who were killed during the
Holocaust. I got so emotional seeing this memorial seeing and knowing that that
many Jews were tortured and killed. All around the cube were the 15 names of
Nazis Concentration camps that those poor Jewish people had to be dragged off
to and killed. In the front part of the memorial they had German, English, and
Hebrew writing. In each of the languages it said, “In commemoration of more
than 65,000 Austrian Jews who were killed by the Nazis between 1938 and 1945.”
I was able to read some of the Hebrew, but I mostly read from the English
one. I went around the whole box and
took pictures of each of the Nazis concentration camp names. It just hurt me so much to know that that many
people that we love and support were killed for their belief. Seeing this
memorial it really made me think about the past, the present, and the future.
It also made me grateful for my life. I am so glad and thankful that we had the
opportunity to be able to go to the memorial.
He headed around another corner and there was a Gelato shop.
Kira, Abby, and I wanted to get some; so we did. On this trip I’ve been trying
to try some new unique Austrian foods. I got some gelato that was called
Stracciatella. I first didn’t know what it was, but as I start tasting it more
it tasted like one of my favorite ice-cream flavors: cookies n’ cream. It was
really tasty.
Straight down the street we could see the Hofburg Palace,
so we decided to go and see the Palace. This palace was so long and large! I
couldn’t believe that this was the former Queen’s winter palace. There were horse drawn
carriages everywhere, which made this experience feel more authentic. We didn’t
have enough time to tour inside but the outside was still very beautiful.
We headed back to the hotel and the lobby was packed because
all of the other orchestras and choirs were arriving for the festival. At
dinner we didn’t have the dining room all to ourselves. Instead, it was packed
with so many international musicians. Our choir was pretty much the only group
that spoke English. The other groups spoke English but it was very broken up. At
dinner I had beef soup, chicken, a bread dumpling, salad, and a special
Austrian cake. It was all very tasty. We finished the night with stories and
praying. At our devotional time that night, Mrs. Ellison had told our group
that she didn’t really think this was really going to be a missions trip but
when she saw us serving to the refugees and the light that we shone, she
instantly knew that we were there for a purpose. I Skyped with my family, and
some of us were tired but we wanted to just relax so we watched the Book Thief.
