Saturday, July 4, 2009

Intro to Switzerland

I am finally here at my first destination, Grabs Switzerland, so far it has been an adventure, I didn't know what to expect at first, but it has been so great! My plane ride was very good as well. My plane went from Houston to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Zurich, Switzerland. On the plane to Atalanta, I met a brother who loved Jesus, he was a minister named Jim Dant who had just finished a conferance in Houston and was going back to Atlanta where he pastored a church. It was neat, we talked about the Lord and prayed together before we left again. The plane ride to Zurich was funny, I took all of this natural sleeping aid stuff so I could be jet-laggless, but I think I was sleepier before I took the stuff... so I got a total of about three-four hours of sleep before I took got off the plane, it was about an eight hour flight. When I arrived I got all of my things with no problem and walked outside to the pick-up area. "Am I actually here? Switzerland?" that was my first thought. Near the other side of the world, no one speaking english, things look different, and my international cell phone decides not to tell me how to operate it in a foriegn country. I had no signal and no way to figure out how to get ahold of Nickolai who is supposed to be picking me up. My stomach slowly begining to churn I and evil anxiousness creeping forth, I start walking toward and bench and I see to men approach me "are you Chris?" and relief covers my heart, it was Nickolai and Philip, coming to pick me up. Thank you Jesus!
I met these two wonderful people for the first time, and how thankful I am for my tribe (believers)! They speak english very well, and showed me around Zurich a bit because they had gotten a bit lost themselves on the way home. haha.








Major differences?
  • The terrain is very mountainous, beautiful rolling hills, open feilds, tall pine trees, natural flowing streams, the highways are smaller, and the cities are all surrounded by mountains.
  • The people all speak english very well! As well as on average about two other languages other than their own. There is so much self expression here, artsy houses, active people, and fun cultures
  • Instead of having hick country people, they have hick mountain people who only ever stay in the mountains and never leave the area. Apparently they only like you if you have a certain last name. haha
Similarities?
  • They have most of their worship songs in english, so I had no problems singing with them, except I didnt know the english songs they sang
  • The state of the church (how they explained it) is exactly the same as in America, many believers, not many followers.
  • Alot of the youth culture is the same, skating, snowboarding, smoking pot, clubbing, and the style isn't much different.
  • Babies are still afraid of me.
I love the brothers that I have met so far and know I will be making lifelong friends. I wish I could capture my whole experiance and post it for you guys, but you need to experiance this place for yourself! Everything here in Switzerland is so beautiful I would have cried six or seven times just from the veiw of the Lord I see in the mountains and trees had I not been surrounded by people everytime.

dwelling in the vine,


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