Wednesday - Switzerland

This morning I woke up a little bit later than usual; I went to bed later on Tuesday, and my legs were very tired from all the walking I had done on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday... The body said: no, your will maybe strong, but I am not going along! Can you imagine that? So, I was moving rather slow and when Fritz proposed to take me up to the Belpberg, I said: only if there is no walking! He said it would be no more than 200 meters, and that Vreni would come along also. As you may have noticed on the pictures she is walking with crutches at the moment (on Monday she will be a free woman again!). She had corrective surgery on a bone in her left foot and has been in a brace for several weeks now... she can't wait for the whole thing to be over! So up the Belpberg we went in Fritz and Vreni's 20-year old Volkswagen camper! They are quite the adventurous couple, travel all over Europe in their little VW bus and know how to have a good time.

On top of the Belpberg we had a good view of the surrounding area and even the Alps in the distance and parts of the Jura on the Italian side of Switzerland... It's a beautiful country and I told Fritz and Vreni that the landscape sometimes looks like we are in a doll house... it's picture perfect with the little house plopped down in green pastures with cows and sheep. Gorgeous, really!

We were back at the house before 10 and Fritz left again in the bus to go to the Quelle church office and then on to the VW mechanic to have the battery changed. At 11 Matthias Nowak came by to pick me up to bring me to his home in Zimmerwald and have lunch with Franzi and himself. We spent several hours together over sparkling water, rosti, sausage and salad and coffee. We talked about the last year and a half of my life and about Delta church and VBS that is happening at the Delta church in Bern in July. It was wonderful to be with them and make plans for mission teams!

At about 2:30 in the afternoon, Gunter and Cornelia Bruttel came to the Nowak's home to pick me up for the second part of the afternoon at their home! The Bruttel family lived at Coastlands for 1 year in 1996/1997, and now their children Michelle and Philippe are young adults... That is how I know I am getting older! Catching up over homemade Swiss apple pie and a nice cup of coffee was great. I very much enjoyed their stories about their internship and about their life right now...

By 6 o'clock I was back at the Schaller's home where four others were expected to arrive shortly to join us for dinner and have cell group at the house. Two out of the four came to Coastlands with Kurt Kammermann's team in September and said that they had such a good time then and enjoyed very much to taste the atmosphere of our church. It was really funny again to notice that I understood some of the things that were talked about during the meeting... Vreni is always happy to translate a bit, but in these type of settings it is rather distracting I think, so most of the time I just listen and more often than not I do understand a whole lot more than I (and others) thought I would...