Sunday, July 14, 2013

PHOTOS!

This post won't have me saying much, but photos speak louder than words right?!
ENJOY!

Our expectations for the school and what we want to do (I'm the red)

My room (bottom bunk in the middle)

This is the Canaan House (staff house)

some of downtown Lausanne

Cathedral in Lausanne


Largest stain glass window (I think that's what they said)

Me and Karina in the Cathedral

cleaning up after dinner!

Our class theme is walking on water, so painted out feet...

...to put on our wall in the class (right before this we had a really good time praying for each other and having our own experience of "walking on water"
My first Swiss Chocolate that I bought!

Construction worker doin' his thing in st

Swiss Night! 

Cheese and cheese fondue!

Araceli and Our speaker for the week Rebeca (she works in Amsterdam evangelizing)

Tiara!

Joel and Thomas with the chocolate fondue

My Wonderful Class and Staff! Top left: Joel (staff), Tiara, Karina, (Rebeca -speaker for the week), Middle row: Becky, Manuel (staff), me, Eunsil (staff), Sabastian. Bottom: Mariela (staff), Maria, Araceli, Eun Song, Joy (staff)

Eun Song and I before going on outreach

The Jazz Festival (largest one in the world) in Montreux  

Beautiful view in Montreux

Sunset!

Evangelizing team


Korea traditional dress. We have a Korean team called One Voice with us for the 2 weeks of the jazz festival to  do outreach with

Dustin Kelm

World Champion Cyclist

10ft cycle

One Voice Team doing a drum dance

Swans in Ouchy, Switzerland

Karina at the Lake

Gelato in Switzerland after the lake!

Monday, July 8, 2013

God Loves Different

SO last week for lectures our theme was "Hearing God's Voice" and of course touching on all the different ways he can speak to us (through the Bible, meditation, nature, worship, prayer, others, prophecy, etc.) Near the end of one of our lectures, the speaker wanted us to go outside, spend a little time in prayer, and listen to what it was God wanted to tell us. She instructed that we bring back one object to the classroom to talk about what it was God had told us.

As I went outside I walked down the driveway toward the bus stop on the road a little ways down. I sat there and just sort of observed all that was around me (still grasping the fact that I was actually in another continent!). The day was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. The sun was shining and there was a perfect breeze coming around every so often.

And this is what I ended up writing down:

God loves Different.
With man there are no 2 alike.
Nature, His creation, repeats this.
How many different types of tress, birds, flowers, types of grass?
Everything has it's own uniqueness. Not even just for His sake; though, so He doesn't become bored, but for man's sake as well.
In everything He does, He thinks of us.
He communicates with us all in different ways - In our own way that He has intended for us. 
He is a personal God.
He cares about the birds and the trees as well as you and me.
How boring would life be if all there ever was was one type of fish, one type of flower, one type of tree. There would be so little excitement and never any new discoveries.
Having differences allows us to show our uniqueness and the beauty and the creativity of our Father, the one who made us.

Thank you Lord SO very much for making my world full of life, differences, and uniqueness. You are a Father who cares about the most minor of details. And that makes all the difference in the world.



For my object that I brought, I ended up bringing more than one. I grabbed 5 different kinds of flowers (they were small ones from the grass) and 2 different kinds of leaves. I stucked them in the folded area of my paper where I had written everything down.


So far the lectures have been great and super powerful! And I'm looking forward to the rest of them!

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Switzerland!!!!

I HAVE ARRIVED!

I am in the land of Swiss chocolate, Swiss watches, and yes Swiss bank accounts!
When I arrived in Geneva I knew I was in the Switzerland airport because the advertisements on the wall were all for watches and then the clocks that hung down from the ceiling were Rolex!!

I was a day late to arrive since my first initial flight was completely canceled in Norfolk. I had no way to reach my international flight, so I got to spend an extra night at home (which my mother was extremely thankful for!)
    My long flight wasn't too bad. Luckily we were served a meal and we could control the movies we watched. They even had TV shows, games, and music options! At the end of the flight, I had arrived in Frankfurt, Germany. While I was sitting and waiting for my next flight to Geneva, a gentleman leaned down to me and said "wow you are beautiful"...and then sat down and introduced himself as "Lorenzo. I am Italian." Not so sure if that line had made girls swoon over him before, but it didn't phase me any. I tried to be cordial until he began to say he loved me and wanted to get married. In my head I was just thinking "Does he really think this works?!" He kissed my hand and after that I was looking for a way out! He continued to ask for a kiss and I said no and he asked for my hand but I refused. And again reiterated his love for me and his admiration of my beauty. Eventually I was able to escape by saying I need to check my flight, but not after I had to give him my e-mail address (don't worry I typed out a fake one...0.0) 

Once in Geneva, from the airport, I had to get a train ticket and find my way to the train station. Oh and carry my luggage which consisted of two luggage bags and my carryon. Luckily for me I have a smart father who had given be a bungee cord to tie my carryon to one of my other luggages so I could effectively roll the luggage. (however it still was difficult to do) After asking for help a couple times I successfully had my train ticket AND had gotten on the right train. The scenery was beautiful. On one side were the mountains with Geneva lake down below and on the other side were neighborhood type village clusters with breaks between of fields and farmland. I sat admiring it all and wishing I had someone to share it all with.

From the train station, I had to find the McDonald's where a staff member from YWAM was picking me up. The problem with getting out of the station was I had to go up 2 flights of stairs....a bit hard to do with three things of luggage. I made two trips (probably looked a bit ridiculous too, but made it up the stairs successfully!) Found the McDonald's and was on my way to the base!


The base use to be a hotel way back in the day (it's been remodeled some since). There's a forest nearby where we can run trails, go on bike rides, not to mention they have a PING PONG TABLE! The internet cafe is where we get the wifi, but the hours of availability for the wifi is limited (so mostly likely not a whole lot of online stuff since I'll have to use that time to do schoolwork). The meals are cooked for us or we pack them when we have a sack lunch/dinner day. In my room there are 3 other girls: Eun Sung is from South Korea, Tiara is from Canada, and Katrina is from California. Our room is a bit small, but no worries there for me.
So far just have been doing orientation type things and explanations of things expected and to do.

Sorry I don't have any photos for this blog. I haven't had time to connect my phone to my computer, but I'll get some up soon.

Much love,
Rebecca