Haus-Bound: To the work

For the next nine days, our time is devoted to the Haus. This means long work days for me, starting just after breakfast and going until 7:30 or so. Mark spent the first days of the week in meetings and lecture preparation, and I in orientation and training. Today (Thursday) the students arrived! And they are the reason we are here. They arrived from 13 countries. Some drove a few days straight to get here, others flew. Most are ministers of churches large and small, here to earn their Masters in Practical Ministry. Mark is teaching counseling techniques, and there are two other courses offered this term, including Apologetics and New Testament teaching. All have begun their courses online months before and have already completed some assignments.

There are three professors and 22 short term workers from the states here to make this session happen. They do construction projects around the property, clean toilets, make beds, and cook up three meals a day for between 60 and 75 people. The other volunteers are church groups from Ohio and Florida (the villages). I have been posted to the Kitchen and love it so far. It's a lot of work but also a lot of fun. Fortunately for me they don't hold it against me that I have a good cook for a husband and know little of the kitchen. I can, after all, follow directions. The most frightening thing is that Theo, in charge of the kitchen, has warned us that we'll be banned from the kitchen if we are caught licking our fingers. This was easy until today when we made a chocolate custard for dessert. YOU try getting chocolate custard on your fingers and not licking them. It's hard! I do feel a little like I am on an episode of Cutthroat Kitchen or some show - as we race to get meals out to our guests! Maybe I'll soak up some cooking ability along the way. Mark can always hope.

In our free time (mostly a 1.5 hour break in the afternoon and the evenings after 7:30 or 8:30) we chat with the other volunteers or head out for a walk in the Vienna woods. On Sunday we will have a service here and then head to Baden for a short visit. One evening we may head back to the Stift to experience Vespers or Compline service to hear the Monk's Gregorian Chant in their 12th century church building. But tonight, after meeting the students we are in our apartment for the night, reading, writing, and relaxing.

Another full day awaits tomorrow!