Outreach!
Well, Jake and I write as we are very excited because we just were informed of our four outreach location options!
We are to pray over the weekend and seek where God is leading us...Please pray as we consider these following locations and let us know if you have any thoughts for us! Thank you so much.
Uganda and Sudan
Costa Rica
China and Phillipines
Tanzania and Burundi

 

Korean New Year! Morning exercises.  Best view of Swiss Alps yet!

A typical day for us...

I am making an entry in the blog! I believe that Jake will be more excited about this than anyone else:) I thought I'd share a bit about what our normal schedule looks like.

Weekdays...  6:30 am breakfast prep (for me anyways...)

                      7:45 am breakfast has been eaten and cleaned up

                    7:30-8:30 am is set aside for alone/quiet time with God

                    8:30 am either worship/intercession/bible study

                    9:45 am lecture with dts speaker of the week

                   12:30 pm lunch

                  1:30-3:30 pm work duties... aka "life skills" jake spends this 

time working on the maintenance team

                   4:00-6:00 pm considered free time unless other mtgs are 

planned

                   6:00 pm supper

                    7:30-9ish pm either free time/community mtg/outreach prep

Weekends...  Saturday: Ski/ministry on the slopes day (unless weather changes our plans)

                     Sunday: Day off (unless skiing instead of on Saturday) 

On a deeper note, God has revealed to me recently His desire for me to use this season at YWAM Lausanne to grow in intimacy with Him... to become confident ONLY because of His love for me and mine for Him.  Psalm 145:14-19 is a passage of scripture that has been given to me.  I believe these words could be an encouragement to all of you as well! My most recent lesson in faith is leaning/depending on God to be my healer... to know that He created my body and therefore cares when I have issues with digestion! He's also showing me how when no one else does, He understands the depth of JOY I experience when dinner at the base includes broccoli! 

We've had an amazing week here at YWAM Lausanne.

Maureen Menard was our teacher for the week, and she taught on the Holy Spirit.  We spent most of the time studying scripture in the Old and New Testament, as well as hearing stories about what God has done in her life.  While she does believe and taught about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, she thinks that most people forget about the main role of the HS, which is to work inside of us and draw us closer to God the Father on a day to day basis.  All of the information is too much to write in a blog, but we'd be happy share more via e-mail or in person when we return!

Below is a picture of our base, and the hotel we are living in.  We may or may not have mentioned that there are about 30 people in our DTS.  (You can view their pictures by clicking HERE)  There are three other schools happening.  "Introduction to Biblical Counseling," "Introduction to Communication and Design," and "Sprungbrecht."  All together, there are about 150 people living at our base.  The Sprungbrecht school, which is high-school age students doing a mini-version of our DTS, left on Thursday for 5 weeks of outreach in Cairo, Egypt.

On Saturday, we explored the city of Lausanne.  As we were running to catch the metro in to town, I (Jake) got on the train with Lauren close behind.  The doors began to close, and I tried (to no avail) to keep them from closing with my leg.  A few second later, the train was speeding away with Lauren stuck at the station.  All of this after Lauren had warned me three times not to get on the metro without her.  Back home this wouldn't have been a big deal, but things are entirely different with no cell phones!  Luckily, we were able to find each other at the next stop.

Lauren is planning to write more mid-week, so check back!

It's about 1:00 pm here in Switzerland, meaning that it is 7:00 am for most of you in the States. It's still so weird for me (Jake) to get used to this!  

Overall, we're having an amazing time.  The weather has been beautiful, and it has been a great chance for us to focus on growing individually and in our relationship.  Here are some of the highlights from our first "real" week of DTS...

Swiss Night - Early in the week we got to experience a bit of Swiss culture at the base.  This included a presentation on the culture, as well as bread, cheese, fondue, and many kinds of chocolate!

Loren Cunningham - The founder of YWAM spoke to us via webcam from the YWAM Base in Hawaii.  The base we are staying at (Lausanne) was the first base Loren founded in the 1970s.  He shared about how YWAM grew from a few people in our hotel to training nearly 30,000 missionaries annually.  For me, one of the biggest lessons was that when God calls you to do something, he often does not show you every step from beginning to end.  Typically, you must be content with only knowing the NEXT step.

Sickness - A flu/fever has been making its way around our base the past week, and I had it pretty bad from Wednesday to Saturday.  Lauren has stayed completely healthy throughout the week, which she attributes to her healthy diet!

Villars 24 Hour Race - One of the practical ways that we show God's love is volunteering in community events.  Villars (a local ski resort) hosted a 24 Hour Race from Saturday afternoon 

to Sunday afternoon.  Teams of racers had people pledge a certain dollar amount for each kilometer they complete.  Over 200,000 francs were collected to teach disabled people to discover the joy of skiing!

Our part in this was to maintain the race course and assist if there were any crashes.  Lauren's shift was from 5:00 am - 8:30 am, while mine was from 7:00 am  - 1:00 pm.  We didn't get a ton of sleep, but we did experience an amazing sunset/sunrise.  This picture is of us in front of a chalet (that we would like to have someday) in the mountains.

Class Time - Our teacher for the week was Mike Oman, who spoke on the "Father Heart of God."  We went through the book of Exodus, looking at how God led the Israelites out of Egypt, and revealed His nature to them.  It was very encouraging and reinforced many things we've learned in the past, but nothing too ground breaking.

Personally - On my end, I've been learning a lot about myself.  Most important is that I tend to keep myself WAY TOO BUSY, and busyness kills both joy and spiritual growth.  YWAM has been a lesson for me in slowing down.  I've also been re-reading "Mere Christianity," by C.S. Lewis.  One of the primary issues he covers is that of pride.  He claims that "It is pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began."  This past week I've been discovering the tip of the iceberg of how pride affects my life and actions.

We love it here in Switzerland. Yesterday we experienced skiing in the Swiss Alps for the first time! The air was crisp and the sky blue and sunny. Since arriving on Wednesday afternoon, we have met people more than 10 countries and had some time to explore the nearby small town of Epalinges. YWAM Lausanne's housing is an old hotel and we have a small room on the second floor. Tomorrow our daily classes and work duties will begin. Both Jake and I are anticipating a great speaker and much time for reflection!  

Feel free to check back to our blog, as we plan to update it most weekends.

Welcome to our blog!  We're planning to keep this fairly up to date with pictures, videos, and thoughts from our YWAM DTS in Lausanne, Switzerland.

This is where we're headed