An Update from Ken Meyer and Calvary Chapel Vienna

March 12, 2025
| No Comments

Life in the Church

The view from a local rooftop—that is just a portion of Vienna—how many people here have not heard the truth about Jesus? Too many. So, please pray for our outreach this Saturday afternoon. We will be offering coffee and cookies next to the front door of our church, which is a fairly busy sidewalk. Pray that good conversations will ensue, and that people will be open to hearing about Jesus.

Vienna is an international city, and it is not unusual for people to come and go. About a month ago, we had to say goodbye to the Barr family, who were a beloved part of our church. They were reassigned from their post here to a different role in the Philippines. But it was great to have them with us for a few years, and we were blessed by seeing a baby boy added to their family while they were here, which was a big answer to prayer. And a week after their departure, one of our worship leaders moved to the other side of Austria, who we also miss. This is something we have experienced many times over the years, since many people in Vienna are here on three or five-year job contracts. And yet, we are all just here temporarily, aren’t we? For even if some people live here forty or fifty years, this is not the final destination for any of them. Nobody is a permanent fixture here nor anywhere, and as my grandfather used to say to people, “have a great day, and a wonderful eternity.” So, whether we see some people visit our church just one time, or for many years, may the Lord help us to have that eternal perspective and build them all up, pointing them to Jesus.

A Short Testimony from Michael

[W]ho I mentioned in my last update because he came to faith in Jesus recently… He and I were talking the other day, and one of the things he said was, in a way, really good to hear: “in the past, I used to do whatever I felt like, whether it was right or wrong. But now, it is totally different, and even my small wrongdoings bother me.” May the Spirit of the Lord keep working in him. Thankfully he is still consistently coming to church on Sundays and Wednesday nights; pray for him to keep growing in Christ. Pray for Uwe as well, an enthusiastic brother who has known the Lord for about seven years now. He and I are reading through the book “Absolute Surrender” by Andrew Murray together. May the Lord bless our time together.

Oasis Update

Since our church Bible study is on a Wednesday, I now visit The Oasis refugee ministry on the occasional Thursday night for their café/film evening outreach. Last week, I was really encouraged to meet a couple from Iran who had to leave their home because of their new-found faith in the Lord, and were recently baptized here in Austria. They are trusting in the Lord with a real joy, despite their unpredictable future as refugees here. We praise the Lord for how He is working in these different ways!

Turning Fifty

Last month, I hit that milestone and celebrated my 50th birthday.  It happened to be on a Sunday, and some people at church prepared a special birthday card from a 50 kmh speed limit sign, and then shared some really meaningful words of encouragement with me.  On one hand it is hard to believe that I am fifty, but on the other hand, this week I am feeling my age, since a nerve in my back is aggravated and will probably take a few more days to relax. The other day, Michi said that I looked like an insect stuck upside down trying to get upright, as I tried to crawl out of bed without tweaking my back any further, LOL.

An update about our brother Farid: in my last update, I shared that he received a new liver. Thankfully, his body seems to have accepted it, but he is still at home doing physical therapy to regain strength in his legs.  A few weeks of lying in the hospital bed caused such atrophy that he could not stand on his own; he is getting stronger but he is not able to resume his daily activities yet. I have still preached at his gathering a couple of times lately, without him, and they have been blessed Bible studies, building up a small group of Arabic-speaking believers with the help of a good translator.
Christopher is now two years old, and his very favorite thing to do is to ride the train. We live around the corner from Westbahnhof, a big train station, and we can ride the trains within the city limits with our normal subway pass. So we now make full use of that, going to the city border and back, often visiting a playground out there too. 🙂 Sometimes we have seen an “overnight train” parked at the station, and while I did my best to explain what it is for, he thinks that people are just asleep in there, all the time. 🙂
In the Fall, Oliver turned ten, and so we took him and some friends to a special Austrian chocolate factory, where it is an all-you-can-eat chocolate tour! Crazy. But really, really fun. And surprisingly, even these young boys reached their point of saturation, and admitted that they were ready to go outside and run around instead.
Just last week, Evelyn turned twelve! Little Christopher was there ready and willing to blow out her candle for her. 🙂 He wanted to claim it as his birthday, but alas, it was Evelyn who got to have some friends over, and they each got to decorate their own mini-cake with frosting and sprinkles. The children are such a blessing to us, each in their own unique way.

Thank you for praying for us, and don’t forget to say a prayer for the outreach we will have this Saturday. If you feel led to support us financially, a link is below. Just be sure to type my name, “Ken Meyer,” in the subject line next to the donation amount, and then it will be faithfully passed on to me here in Austria.

https://give.onecollective.org/

May the grace and peace of the Lord be with you all,
Ken & Michi Meyer

Missions