Switzerland at Last!

(Ari, Heidi, Me)

Well, here I am in Switzerland and I hardly know where to begin…

After 22 hours of travel, from Norfolk to Atlanta, then to Frankfurt and then from train to Lyss, I finally arrived in Wiler, Switzerland.  Right away I met my roommates Ari (from Quatar) and Heidi (from Seattle) and we hit it off right away.  There are 23 students in my DTS and we represent 12 different countries.  Aside from my DTS there are two other YWAM schools here on base as well.  So there are about 50 students living on the base in all and we represent 19 different countries.  I have already learned so much just in the past 10 days that I could go on for hours about all of the incredible experiences I’ve already had.  But I will just touch on the events that stand out above the rest. 

I absolutely love living in this cross cultural environment, I love the people, the languages, the accents, the different approaches to life, and the relationships that are forming.  I prayed before I left that God would grant me an easy transition into life here in Wiler, and He has been more than faithful to answer that prayer.  I am thrilled to be here and it feels like the most natural thing in life.  God is awesome.  I look back and see that everything in my life up to this point has prepared me for the experiences I am having here in Wiler. 

Now, I’d like to share with you a few experiences I’ve had since arriving here. 

·        We have anywhere between 2-4 hours of class a day.  Then we also have small group times and other events that we are involved in throughout the week. 

·        Everyone has a chore that they are responsible for while living in the community.  This chore is called an “Amptli”, it means a small responsibility that we do in service to others.  For my amptli I join with three other girls on base and we are responsible for all of the laundry; that’s laundry for over 50 people. 

·        We also have meal times together as a whole base but mostly we are interacting with the members of our own DTS.  We also will soon have the opportunity to volunteer at a local refugee compound and minister to refugees from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East on a weekly basis.  Or we may also be working with families in the community. 

·        Also once a week our DTS divides in half and one group goes into the closest big city, Biel, and the other group goes into the capital, Bern, to pray.  And every other week we switch cities.  This past week I was with the group that went into Biel.  At one point early on in our prayer walk, I prayed that God would lead me in how to pray for this city that I knew nothing about.  Then I sensed God leading me to pray against a spirit of heaviness, a spirit of fear, and a spirit or bondage.  So I did.  Around that time a member of our staff brought the group to a halt and explained that we were now standing in perhaps the most notorious red light district in Switzerland.  I was so in awe of God in that moment.  He had made me aware of spiritual warfare and taught me how to pray even when I was unaware of where I was standing and of the specific areas of wickedness that surrounded me.  In the next half hour we just walked around a large town home with red lights shining in the windows and prayed for the women trafficked inside.  It was a powerful time of prayer and there was a sweet moving of the spirit.

·        The next day we were told the mission field locations that we would be able to choose between for the last half of our DTS.  The three countries are Bulgaria, Ethiopia, and Ireland.  We are not supposed to talk about them among each other, we are simply to pray and ask God to tell each of us individually where he is leading us.  So later this week I will be able to tell you where God is sending me for the field portion of the DTS.  So that’s exciting.

·         Then on Sunday I was able to attend an international Vineyard church in Bern, where I was able to listen to the translation through a head set. 

So in summary, life is so good right now.  I feel like a sponge.  There is so much that I can learn here, not only from the lectures, but from my fellow students.  Every day is new and different.  One day I may learn all about the culture of Malawi, then the next I may learn from a fellow student all about Cambodia, Qatar, India, or South Korea.  Not only has God made the transition smooth but I am finding that I love living in this cross cultural environment even more than I ever would have imagined.  God is also providing opportunity to minister to fellow students on a daily basis.  He is teaching me what it means to love those around me well, in the way that they each need to be loved.  Only God knows their hearts and He has been so faithful to teach me how to love and I still have much to learn.  One other major lesson that God has been teaching me is that of intercession.  I feel that God has begun to show me that He has so much for me to learn in this area.  So it is my prayer that in the next 6 months God would teach me more about what it means to enter into his presence and intercede in accordance with His will.  I have a desire to see God move in power and I believe He has so much to teach me about prayer.  I believe that I need to be in a constant state of expectancy.  I need to be ever aware of His presence and expecting to hear God’s voice.  He has already begun to teach me a little bit about how to let Him guide me in prayer so that I may know I am praying in accordance to His will and I know that He has so much more that He wants to teach me about prayer.  So I am excited about all that He has in store.    

Coming Soon

I arrived in Wiler, Switzerland 9 days ago and I have already learned and experienced SO much!  I'm sorry I have been so long in giving you an update but I promise that it is coming very soon.  I will try to put up an update later today.  Thank you for your patience and for all of your prayers, God is doing a very good work.

"By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us"

     I will be leaving for Switzerland in 9 days; hard to believe.  I knew that there would be a lot of details to take care of before my departure but it seems the more I check off of my list of things to do, the more the tasks on the list seem to multiply.  Just as I take care of one major detail, rather than being settled, the more complicated it seems to become.  So in all it has been a huge learning experience.   I have never traveled out of the country before and so tasks such as purchasing train tickets online can become quite confusing.  Yet even as I stumble through these tasks I am trying to absorb every piece of advice I can gather; gleaning as much information as possible.  I know that I have so much to learn and the lessons are just beginning.  As my departure date quickly approaches I am struck with the enormity of the call God has placed before me.  I have come to an even greater understanding of what it will mean to have God’s power be made perfect through my weakness.  In and of myself I am completely unequipped for such a task as the one God has given me.  Yet that is just it, I am weak but God’s power is perfect in my weakness.  This is just one example of a paradox found in the Christian life.  As I fumble through all that must be done in the next 11 days, I am reminded that I am not alone.  I am so excited about all that God has in store for me yet there is still so much that I am unsure of.  But this is faith; the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen.  I know that God has called me; I am thrilled that He has finally opened the door and beckoned to me saying, “This is the way now walk in it”.  God is continually leading me into a state of awe.  I am overwhelmed by the magnitude of what He has asked of me and yet so at peace in the understanding that He is in control.  He is so faithful.

            During the first few months of support raising I was so exuberant about the good work that God was doing and overwhelmed by His faithfulness as support came flooding in.  Then in the past month and a half though I was still excited I was also becoming overwhelmed with making preparations to leave.  My prayer became a request for God to remove any and all stress over travel details and that instead He would fill me with joy and complete peace.  As I began to sense that God was indeed answering that prayer, I began to petition Him yet again.  This time along with my prayer for peace I prayed that God would give me a renewal of vision or a restating of the call He has placed on my life; a refreshed understanding of His will for my life.  I don’t know why this was such a great desire of mine, I guess it went along with desiring to have a sense of peace in my departure.  I wanted something, a word, to hang on to and to have as a reminder when things got tough.  So during the Christmas Eve service at Restoration church, during communion I was praying towards this end yet again.  As I prayed I sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit in a sweet way.  I asked that he would answer my prayer and give me a word but at that point I had to go stand in line for communion.  When I got back to my seat I was disappointed because I felt that I had missed my opportunity to hear God; as if God’s timing or desires could actually be interrupted by me.  Then as I bowed my head yet again in prayer, He spoke.  He simply said, “love people for me Bethany”.  That was it; He called me by name and spoke that simple word.  Yet even as the sweetness of His words poured over me I realized the depth and seriousness of it.  In order to walk in obedience to this word, this call, I am required to lay down my life, to give of myself.  Still there are not words to describe how sweet it is when the King of Kings and Lord of Lords whispers your name and simply asks you to love.  I was comforted beyond measure.  In those five words God was reassuring me.  No matter how big a task he places before me, no matter where in the world He takes me, no matter how many complications may arise or how many details threaten to overwhelm me, God is God.  He loves me so dearly, He knows me by name, and at the heart of His call on my life is His call simply to love; to give of myself in the same way that He gave of himself for me.  God has called me to love people; He has called me to a specific time and a specific place to love people for Jesus. 



            In 9 days I will be heading off to Wiler Switzerland.  I have no idea what God has in store for me there but I do know that while I am there I am to love people, whatever people God brings my way.  God has called me in this way to lay down my life.  And I am going to Wiler to learn more about what it means to love well, I will be learning how to best love the people God has placed on my heart; victims of human trafficking.  I may not know how to love these people well on my own accord but by God’s grace, I pray that He will be able to love them well through me.  I know that the journey God is taking me on will not be easy but I do know that His power will be made perfect in my weakness.  And in my obedience to His word I trust that I will bring Him glory and joy and in turn His glory and joy will bring me joy.  Thus my prayers have been answered.