Thursday - Switzerland

Thursday was a beautiful day! The sun was out, the sky was blue (mostly) and the trees are getting their new leaves! After breakfast Fritz, Vreni and I went to the Quelle church with enough time for Fritz to give me the grand tour of the Quelle office, the rooms for the kids and youth, and finally we all ended up in the Foyer for the daily Quelle coffee break. It was quite a delight to be with Camille and Lily, with Esther and Karina and their children and see Kurt Kammermann be a grandpa! I said my "see you later" to Robby, Claudi, Joel and Salome and then Aline Waelti with her 3 daughters and I walked the short distance to their home. Aline and Thomas were interns at Coastlands just about 5 years ago, and Aline was pregnant with Hanna, their first one. Now there is also Lena and Nina... On our short walk home, both Hanna and Lena took to me like bees to honey, held my hand and wanted to show me their bedrooms (I believe that now to be the ultimate test of trustworthiness). They actually made me sit on the couch in their living room and read them a book. They even wanted me to do that after their mother told them that I would be reading the book in high German instead of Swiss German... so there I went. I have no idea if they actually understood what I was saying, but they responded in the right way at the right time. I guess that means something!

Fritz came to pick me up around 12 noon and we hurried on home where I set the table and he made the fondue. It was delicious! I had fun telling them about the "Asterix and Obelix in the Helvetica" episode where the guy who looses his bread in the fondue pan is punished by "kiel halen"... I don't know the English word for it, but it involves a long rope tied around a ship (from the deck down the outside and underneath the ship and than back onto the deck on the other side)... with possible death as side effect. Not pleasant. Any how, I spent the rest of the afternoon with Fritz and Vreni. We went to a glass factory in Helgiswil, and had a great time with each other and watching craftsmen blow glass... Remarkable!

On the way home, Fritz and Vreni dropped me off at the home of Thomas and Julia Zahnd where I enjoyed a lovely dinner with them and their kids Antonella and Dario... Thomas and Julia and I all shared about our lives and where we find ourselves in the midst of it. I had the privilege of praying for them, and am so very grateful that we are friends!

I need to let you know that the hockey game on Tuesday evening was actually game 5 (not game 6 as I had told you previously) between Bern and Geneva. Tonight (Thursday) game 6 is being played, and at the time of closing of this blog post the end score is unknown. I go to bed now; tomorrow is Friday and travel day!

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...

Tuesday - Switzerland

Tuesday morning I woke up early and excited about the day ahead! Fritz, Vreni and I had breakfast and by 8:15 Fritz and I were at the train station in Belp to make reservations for the international trains I will be taking on Friday (I will travel to the Netherlands then), as well as buying a ticket to take the train to Bern at 8:35. At 8:55 I was at Bern Haupt Bahnhoff, and met Anna Saurer and Katrin Schiesser. Anna was an intern at Coastlands in 1995 and she and her friend Caroline and I shared a room and many great moments together. Katrin and her husband Flo were interns in 2008. It was great to see them! They got me a cup of coffee and we found a nice little cabin in the train. The first leg of our trip (train ride from Bern to Interlaken Ost) took an hour and I did all the talking. The second leg (train ride from Interlaken Ost to Brienz) took about a half hour and I made them talk and during the third leg (a bus from Brienz to Ballenberg) we laughed and joked and admired the landscape. Ballenberg is a park where the different regions of Switzerland are represented in homes, farm homes and buildings, equipment, vocations and lovely farm animals. We had a great time walking around and watching bread being baked in a stone oven with a wood burning fire underneath, watching someone cook a pot of vegetable soup on a wood burning stove and actually tasting it, and watching a blacksmith at work. It was lovely talking to the very friendly people who baked and cooked and worked the leather of the cow bell leashes (I have no idea how you call those things, but they are beautifully decorated with hand stitching). We had a great time and at the end we visited the Ballenberg Chocolaterie and treated ourselves to some local handmade chocolates.

Around 3 in the afternoon, we did the trip in reverse order: bus, train, train and then arrived in Ostermundingen where both Anna and Katrin live. At Katrin's home, the three of us were joined by Pia Freiburghaus, who was an intern at Coastlands in 2007 when Bob was also an intern and we were living on campus. It was so great to see Pia and catch up with her. We told crazy stories about things that happened in our internships and had a great time together! Pia dropped me off at the Schaller's home and then I watched a little bit of ice hockey with Fritz (who used to play) and Vreni: Bern against Geneva in the finals for the Swiss Championships... The team who wins 4 out of 7 games will be the champions. Tuesday's game was game 6 (Bern had won 3 and Geneva 2)... It was rather intense, I can tell you that! Ultimately, Geneva scored the winning goal in overtime, and now both teams won 3 games. Thursday evening is game 7!

Monday - Switzerland

As opposed to what some people may think, "Baerlauch" is not made of cow tongues and in actuality it is quite a delicacy... "Baerlauch" is wild garlic or broad-leaf garlic. It grows out in the forests and its name refers to the fact that bears love this stuff and would dig it up from the forest floor! It's lovely what you can find out from Wikipedia!

Well, Monday morning started out with breakfast and laundry, and Fritz being called in to be emergency transportation for Albanian pastors... Because of the ash cloud that has been hanging over Europe none of the pastors who had visited the European Foursquare Convention in Spain was able to take a plane back to where they came from. All the Swiss pastors took a bus from Spain all the way to Bern, and Fritz met them to take 3 Albanian pastors who had traveled with them to the train station in Bern for their next section of travel home. I am glad I am traveling by train and automobile and not by plane at this time.

Fritz was back at home a little after 11 and all three of us piled in the car and went to a kitchen design showroom. Fritz and Vreni are selling their home to one of their sons, and are buying an apartment in the downtown Belp. Yes, they are downsizing and excited about it! They would like to update their new kitchen a little bit and went to see what was available at the showroom and it was so fun for me to come along and admire the European modern kitchen designs... really gorgeous! So the three of us went around the store, opening and closing all doors and drawers, and peeking into ovens, steamers and refrigerators...

At about 12:30, the Schallers dropped me off at the building where Quelle has their church, because one of the flats on the second floor is where the Henger Family lives: Robby and Claudia were interns at Coastlands more than 10 years ago, and Robby is the guy who gave me Edna; it was a very happy reunion for all of us! Joel Henger is now 13 years old and Salome is 11; both of them are tall and blond and blue-eyed and they have great smiles, just like their parents. We had fun talking Englisch, German and Dutch while eating lunch! At 2 o'clock, the hair stylist made a housecall at the Henger's home and Joel and Salome got their haircut while Robby and Claudi and I sat around the table with a cup of coffee and talked up a storm...

After the hair cuts were taken care of, Robby and Claudi and I went for a walk by the Aare, which was great and it turned out to be rather warm; spring is certainly in the air and maybe even here! We were back at the Henger's home right in time for a couple of glasses of water, and the short walk across the street to Bernhard and Susanna Eichenberger's apartment.

Susanna had invited Roosmarie Wunderli and Kathy Witmer to come along for dinner in Thun with us. Susanna and I picked up the other 2 ladies and drove to Thun which is a really nice old town located beautifully at a lake. The plan was to sit by the water for a little bit and then we would go to the city center and pick a restaurant at the Munster Platz and eat dinner. Well, as it turned out, on Monday Susanna's favorite place at the lake was closed! So, we helped ourselves to some chairs by the water anyway and enjoyed the view of the mountains, and started our conversations, which continued and continued and continued when we went to the Platz and decided that we were going to eat Thai food. We had dinner outside under the setting sun with a lot of coming and going people around us, and we talked and talked and talked. Again, lots of tears and laughter... Susanna brought me home by 9:30 and I thoroughly tired and happy!

Sunday - Switzerland

I have had inquiries regarding a few things I mentioned in my blog, and since certain people are so very insistend upon finding out what is what :-): here is the explanation. The tool that Gisela is holding in her hand on the picture at her mother-in-law's grave is actually a hedge trimmer with a round blade, not a brush of any kind... With the trimmer we tried to cut down and shape the hedge planted on the grave.

With the phrase "Auf Wedersehen hier oder im Himmel" I said to Aunt Traude "See you later here (on this earth) or in heaven". Now for sure, I will see her in heaven and no more on this earth.

On Sunday morning, the three of us had breakfast and got ready for church. Quelle starts their gathering at 9:45 with coffee (of course!) and conversation and we joined them right on time :-)! Again, I saw lots of old friends during that time as well as later on during the break-out time and after the service was over... Daniel and Roosmarie Wunderli (they stayed on campus in 1996), Pierino (a pastor from Italy who will be visiting Coastlands in June), Susanna and Bernhard (both were interns more than 10 years ago), Thomas and Julia Zahnd and others. Of course my calendar for this week is now a little bit fuller than when I just got here! So much fun to see all those lovely faces! Kurt and Christine Kammermann were not in town this weekend; they went with Gunter and Cornelia to a young church in the Jura to help out there.

It was a great service (Vreni translated a few things for me) and I even started to understand a little bit of Swiss-German. At some point at the end of the service, the worship team was singing a song in Swiss-German, and I did not understand a word of it although I could see the words on the overhead. Nevertheless, I cried and I was wondering what that was all about. Then I looked again at the words of the song and all of a sudden I just understood what the words were: You are all I want, You are all I need, You alone... It seemed like my spirit spoke the language already; it was just my brain that needed to catch up!

After church we went home, had a quick lunch and we all went down for a nap. Of course we had been talking about the ash cloud that has been hanging over Europe and specifically over Switzerland in the last few days. Today we really noticed because the day light was just a bit different; it felt darker everywhere. After the nap, Fritz and I went for a walk to the river Aare. We crossed the fields with farms and cows and chickens and walked to the river... Fritz is a wealthy source of information and is in his element in this area. He told me about beavers that escaped from the zoo in Bern and that are now around the river and we surely saw the traces of the beavers' work: fallen trees with bite marks and the bark and leaves chewed off. We sat by the river and I even put my feet in the river! Very cold and fast moving water, that's for sure. We walked and talked for almost 2 hours and it was so refreshing to be out.

I find great joy in seeing all my friends and also at the same time it takes a lot out of me. Not everybody knows the story about Bob and his passing, and I tell them. I cry, they cry and then we wipe our tears and talk about the Lord and what is really important in life. It is remarkable what happens in a relatively very short amount of time. I can only say that the Lord has his hand in my travels and conversations, and I don't even try hard; it just happens and that is so wonderful to me, and comforting. It is comforting to know that He indeed goes before me and that He takes the words I say and lets them sink into people's hearts where those words are needed or speak to something that is deep and hidden.

When Fritz and I came home from our walk, it was pouring down rain all of a sudden! Strange light and strange weather, that's for sure. Fritz and Vreni's daughter Tabea came over and cooked dinner with her mom, which was fun to watch! We had a lovely dinner and evening and retired to bed by about 10... I still need to find out what "Baerlauch" is since I ate it for dinner...

Saturday - Switzerland

Thank God, Saturday was indeed a new day! Most of the headache was gone and I felt a thousand times better than Friday evening. In hindsight I don't think it was at all surprising that I had a physical reaction to the hospital visits, Aunt Traude's passing and the news from California that 2 people from Coastlands passed away. I pray and I cry.

Fritz, Vreni and I had breakfast and at 9:30 we left the house and were on our way to Quelle, Kurt Kammermann's church in Kehrsatz which is about 6 kilometers or 4 miles from Belp where Fritz and Vreni live. At 10 o'clock on Saturday mornings a lot of people from Quelle church get together and hang out for a little bit, and then, YES YOU GUESSED IT: they clean the church together! It was great! I met many old friends (Kurt, Bernhard, Gunther and Thomas and Aline for starters) and made many new friends! And I cleaned the stairwell at the church... That was not just a stairwell. Quelle is located in a 5-story building; the meeting room is on the ground floor and then there are offices and classrooms on other floors, as well as businesses, doctors offices and a restaurant. My new friend Monika and I did 5 floors of stairwells and landings. Monika did the mopping after I had vacuum cleaned the steps and the landings. The really cool part was that I carried the vacuum cleaner on my back; it was a backpack vacuum cleaner! Very clever and extraordinarily great for the job! It took us almost an hour and a half to get it all done; I felt very satisfied to have done my part!


At 11:30 Fritz and Vreni drove me to The Rosengarten in Bern, where Elisabeth Skottke was waiting for me outside a beautiful restaurant. We wanted to have lunch outside but the wind was rather strong and cold, so we decided to relocate inside. We had a lovely lunch together and caught up on each other's lives with tears and laughter. I know Elisabeth since about 16 years or so from Coastlands and this afternoon I spent with her. After lunch, we walked down to where the old bear cave used to be. There has been great joy in the city of Bern for the happy arrival of 2 bear cubs in the town! They are in the news now pretty much daily, as a dose of happyness in a rather dreary world. Since the old cave could not hold 4 bears, the city of Bern decided to relocate them to a hillside near the river and make it safe and viewable all the way around... and there sure are a lot of people who want to see what is going on with the bears. Papa Bear has been separated from the family, for fear he would eat the little ones. Mama Bear and the cubs were sleeping outside on the wall and looked very happy and lazy.

Elisabeth and I continued to walk and talk along the river Aare for a while, then crossed over and took a little cable car type vehicle up the hill, so we did not have to put our old bones through the strain of walking up hill. We chose a nice terrace to have dessert and had a great time together!

We walked through the old town of Bern and Elisabeth showed me the toy store where she works and trains young people with psychological problems. Her job is to train, evaluate, instruct and correct these young people to get them ready to enter a professional work environment. It was great to hear her explain the process and how she likes to further these young people's development! I bought some flowers for Vreni at the flower market and on the way to the train station we ran some other errands and then Elisabeth put me on the train from Bern to Belp (an 11 minute train ride on the fast track). Fritz picked me up in Belp and showed me where I should walk to get home from the train station if need be.

Back at home, Vreni had cooked dinner and we were expecting the arrival of a couple, Fred and Susie who would join us for dinner this evening. The five of us had a marvelous time, with lots of laughter, mostly caused by language issues. Fred and Susie own a language school and they themselves have surely an ear for languages. They even knew a bunch of Dutch words of which "slurf" was (hands down) the favorite! We laughed so hard it was painful....

Thursday and Friday - Germany and Switzerland

Thursday morning was a morning of going places and seeing people. Gisela and I first went to the hospital to see Aunt Traude, which was actually rather difficult because the nurse on duty was not the kindest person... but Gisela can be quite convincing, so we were let in the door at the ICU and could stay for 2 minutes. Aunt Traude was in very much pain and it was sad to see her. We prayed for her and when we left I told her: "Auf Wedersehen hier oder im Himmel". She smiled and understood. Gisela emailed me later that Aunt Traude went to be with Jesus on Saturday morning.

After the hospital visit we went to Aunt Traude's garden. Aunt Traude kept a beautiful garden with roses and all kinds of other flowers, as well as a green house with the most gorgeous orchids. We picked some of the flowers for the table decorations at Kaffee Klatsch in the afternoon and fertilized the roses with cut-up pieces of banana peel. Yes, you read that right: save your banana peels, cut them in small pieces and spread them around the rose bushes, and they will bloom like you would not believe! There is always something new to be learned, now isn't there?!

Our next stop was Gisela's brother's house where her niece had a cake ready for pickup for the Kaffee Klatsch. We picked up the cake and drove over to the church, dropped off the cake and the flowers, and walked across the street to the bank, where I finally got some money.

Then we went home where Gisela prepared lunch and I prepared for the Kaffee Klatsch in the afternoon. Gisela and I sat and talked for a while and then I had the privilege to pray for her. It is so great to know that I don't have to know all the answers; the Lord does however, and the only thing I need to do is ask Him and He will give me what I need. It is really a wonderful arrangement!

At 2:30 in the afternoon we left the house with all my luggage and drove to church where Gabi already was making coffee and hot water for tea. Slowly but surely, a total of 14 women of all ages gathered and we were having a great time with the cakes that people brought; of course I had to taste a little bit of all the offerings... After we had devoured the cake, we sang a few worship songs and it was my turn to talk and to be translated. Funny enough I was not really nervous; I was just very aware that if the Lord did not infuse my words with His spirit, they would all fall flat on the tables without any life in them. I gave my testimony (a short and condensed version) and then I mentioned a few things that I feel the Lord likes me/us to do: to be grateful, to be courageous and to be obedient. After all was said and done, there were tears and laughter and many times "Auf Wedersehen" to me :-). It was great to be there and make friends with Gabi and Renate and Maria and Hilde and Reinhild.

At about 5:30pm, Gisela and I got back in the car and we drove to Estingen where Jurgen and Gudrun Zeeh pastor a church. Estingen is in the Schwabisch Alb, which is a beautiful area in southwest Germany. The Zeeh family lives in an old farmhouse that they have updated and remodeled. Jurgen and Gudrun have 3 children: Malia, John and Ben. And when I arrived Gudrun's sister Monika was also there for a vacation. Gisela and I said our "see you later"; she had to drive back to Frickenhausen, and I stayed with Jurgen and Gudrun. I would really like to go back to Gisela; she is really a missionary in a western country without a friend to talk to.

We had a quick dinner with breads and cheeses in the eat-in kitchen and got to know each other as fast as we could :-). A few minutes before eight that evening, Jurgen and I walked over to the church building and attended a planning meeting for the coming weekend when the Shelter Alb would host a "Cleansing Stream Ministries" weekend, where several members would be involved in prayer teams. It was great to see how people were involved and how they looked forward to participating in something that they had experienced before themselves, and they were now anticipating and preparing for others. After the meeting Jurgen and Gudrun and I sat around the kitchen table and talked for a long time. Finally at 11:30 we went to bed.

The next morning I got up and went to the kitchen were Gudrun already was busy getting the kids to school and making coffee. We had a good conversation, breakfast, and I got ready to pack up my bags again. Right before it was time for Jurgen to get me to the train station in Reutlingen, the door bell ran 3 times in a row and 3 different women walked in the door. It was great and fun! One of the women was Kirstin who was an intern at Coastlands in 2001. It was great to see her and reminisce for a little bit about the time that my sister Klasien was visiting California and they became friends. Kirstin is doing well, working in a bookstore/coffee shop and enjoying church life at Jurgen's church. Then it was finally time for me to get in the car and head for the train station. Jurgen helped me get my EurRail Pass properly stamped and activated and he put me on the train with instructions on how to change trains in Stuttgart and Zurich. It was really nice traveling first class in the German and Swiss train...

I arrived in Bern punctually at 3 minutes before 4 o'clock in the afternoon and my friends Fritz and Vreni were waiting for me! It was so very nice to see familiar faces after meeting so many new people! They took me home and showed me my bed and I was so very grateful!

That evening at 6, Fritz dropped me off at Kevin and Camille Kammermann's place for dinner, where I met Lily who is a gorgeous little girl with beautiful blue eyes and the longest black eye lashes I have ever seen! Unfortunately, I was not able to stay very long due to a not-so-nice headache (potentially a migraine) that had bothered me all day long already... Kevin brought me back to Fritz and Vreni's house and I was in bed by 8pm in hopes that Saturday would be a new day...