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.