About Anna

Short version;  Christian, Writer, gardener, English teacher, walker, Brit in Austria!

Long Version; I moved from the United Kingdom to Austria in 2007.  I’ve been married for 33 years to Dave who worked for a few years in the  local Garden centre in Tamsweg, but chucked it in due to stress!  We have a very small business looking after holiday houses and he is now working at Burg Finstergrün where I have worked, as a gardener for the summer ( but he doesn’t have to work with Erna). He loathes the internet, but thinks this blog is a good idea! We both felt a call to move here but still haven’t really found out what God wants us to do yet!

We are members of the local Protestant church and have a non-denominational housegroup, all of which are struggling a bit at the moment.

We planned to work as Missionaries but it just didn’t seem to be right for us.  God has used this time to feed us through the media ministries of many television evangelists – the best of whom are Andrew Wommack and Joyce Meyer.  I’ve learnt so much and I’m using this Blog to share what I’ve learnt and how I’ve applied it to my life.

We have  two kids, our daughter is a Nurse and our son works as an Electrical engineer on railways, and is  married to Michelle.  I have an Honours degree from the Open University in English and History. I went back to work once the kids were old enough to be left to wreck the house on their own and worked in Fine Art Insurance then in Riding therapyfor six years. I ‘ve always been into horses (pony mad kid!) and to work with teenagers with learning difficulties was a dream job.  During this time my mother died, the dog died, daughter went to University, son was rarely at home, and I was banging my head against a brick wall in my job as I’d stupidly moved into more office work. We tested this call in every way possible and are sure we’re where he wants us, but are struggling with the way forward. I gave the love and work with horses back to God when we left England only to have it given back.  I worked teaching riding  (which was a great way to have to improve my German) for two years.  In my last summer my boss (75!) suffered severed injuries in riding accident leaving me to run the yard.  By the spring I was burnt out. So I left the horses behind and have had  many jobs in the past few years, including  working as a cleaner in the local castle, for a local business, and other hotels and a disastrous job teaching English.  All of which is detailed (often painfully)  in the blog! I now help Dave with the business, do home tutoring in English, and have re-trained  as a TEFL teacher and so take a course for the job centre in the autumn.

Dave and I  believe  God has a plan for our lives, that he will bless us so that we can be financially idependent so we can work full time here for him.  After 8 years, we now have a dog, Swingle who has brought us much joy and penury! At the time I write this, I’m fighting with homesickness, and I’m taking each day as it comes!