On Monday I went to Zurich with my friend Lee who spent a few months here in Congo as a tutor for the Phillips' daughters. Besides seeing a beautiful cathedral and doing some shopping, we needed a little entertainment. When I told Lee I had learned to say "I want a Swiss husband" in Swiss German, she dared me to try it out on some unsuspecting Swiss man. She works at Starbucks and we decided if I pulled it off she would buy me a mug. That was too good to pass up! Plus we had a lot of laughs along the way...

I was so proud of myself when I approached these two young men at McDonalds and rattled off my little speech: "Ich bin Americanerin. Ich will en Schwizzer hurate. Ein foteli?" Their answer? "Uh, sure you can take a photo. But we're Dutch." No!!!!!!!!!!!

I learned my lesson and when I approached this hotdog man, I first asked the question "Bish tu Schvizzer?" But the answer came bluntly and disappointingly: "Nein." Why can't I find a Swiss guy in Zurich?!! I had to work up my nerve all over again and find someone else to ask.

He may have his eyes closed, but here I am with my Swiss man! Mission accomplished! We finally found one in the train station. I felt bad afterwards 'cause Swiss Germans aren't exactly known for their spontaneaity and I think he was confused :o)

Here I am with my prized Zurich mug. It even has a photo of the church tower we climbed that morning! I can get good coffee at the Exotic Palace in Brazza, but nobody has lattes here and something about Starbucks just makes you feel so good, like taking a little sip of home.

I took literally thousands of photos during my stay in Europe last year, so I didn't feel the need to take too many this time, but I coulnd't resist this beautiful shot through the autumn leaves.

I stayed with Lionel and Diana (left) who were pretty much the greatest hosts ever. It was wonderful to meet Heather (center) and Dana (right) who will be joining my team in Congo next year. I also really enjoyed hanging out with Angi (2nd from right) who will be working from Nairobi for Eastern Congo Group. Here we are enjoying an amazing curry meal prepared by our personal chef Lionel.

The appartment I stayed in had a great view! I forgot how wonderful the architecture is and I really enjoyed seeing the beautiful lake again.

The Hills Were Alive

The days were crisp and the mountains gloriously clear during nearly my whole trip. What a blessing!

Home I suppose

I confess I was not in a very good mood as the planes took me from Basel to Paris, Paris to Addis, Addis to Brazzaville, a 24 hour journey home, although "home" is a rather odd word to use for the Congo. Two practically perfect weeks in Switzerland don't exactly prepare one to re-enter life in Africa.

But the smiling faces of my colleagues greeting me upon my return won me over and I'm at peace again with the world :o)

I spent 10 days in Neuchatel, where I studied French for 8 months last year, and 4 days in Hombrechtikon (near Zurich) with a family I work with in Congo who is home on furlough.

The 10 days in Neuch were a flurry of lunch and dinner dates, meeting new friends, catching up with old ones, and taking in the beauty of life in Switzerland again. I didn't really feel like being a tourist and basically just pretended like I lived there again, going to choir practice at church, shopping in my favorite stores, going to the university Bible study, and having long talks with friends. My short stint in German-speaking Switzerland was a special time with colleagues and a fun opportunity to see a different part of the country.

I guess I'll post some pics over the next week and let them tell the stories.

Too good to be true...and yet it is!

Hey, just a quick note from la Suisse! I'm having an absolutely fabulous time. I'm easily pleased with the simple things of life like drinking tap water and eating cereal with real milk. Wahoo! I love walking on the fall leaves and coming in from the cold with rosy cheeks. It's great to bundle up and dress in all black. The food is every bit as good as I remember it and I'm more convinced than ever that the Swiss eat better than anyone else in the world.

Adventures I will have to post about later include hiking a mtn in the middle of the night, being the only spectator at a curling competition, biking downhill on a gravel road with snot literally being shaken out of my nose, meeting Jean-Pierre's girlfriend, etc.

I've had lunch and dinner invitations almost every day, and I've pretty much gotten to see and hang out with all my old friends. It's an extrovert's dream vacation. I'm super happy with my level of French and it's obvious to me now that it's a lot better than when I left. I've even been told twice by cute boys that an English accent in French is 'charming'!

It may be a little hard to leave this place, but it's nice to know I'll always have a second home here.

Oh how I love Switzerland

 Switzerland, I'm coming back to you! I leave on Monday for 2 weeks in Suisse and I can hardly believe it. Suddenly my profile pic REALLY started to annoy me. I had to get rid of scarfy head. So I decided since I'm going back to Switzerland that I should use this pic of me in Gruyere last year. It's pretty much my favorite ever. 

Woe, Despair, and Mourning

Oregon SIL has been CANCELLED for the coming summer!!! That was the reason I was using to come home for a few months! Alas, alack, woe is me! Well, in any case, I'm still going to need to make a trip home. I'm already committed to being a bridesmaid in Amber my friend since first grade's wedding! But no more dreams of living in Portland for the summer, and I don't know how long I'll be able to come home for. It might still be July through mid-October, but it might be for only a month.

I just trust that the Lord knew this was coming and will help me know what to do. My teammates and I had these big plans for me meeting my future hubby at ORSIL :o) Thankfully, God is sovereign over our schemes!!

The Emergent Church

In case any of you are confused by new buzz words like “emergent” and “relevant” and “post-modern” and “missional” that are being thrown around church today, I thought I would give you a little summary and post some links to cool sites you can check out. I am definitely NOT an expert on this subject, but I enjoy it and I appreciate many aspects of this movement. I’m sure I’m missing a ton of stuff that could be here, but feel free to comment away if you’ve got other ideas. Here are some of the basics as I see them…

Emergent Christians like:
Contemplative prayer: Some people are discovering that the way Christians used to seek God is still good for today.
Social activism: Christians should be the ones championing causes for the poor and the environment.
David Crowder Band: Great music, don’t know why he’s specifically such a favorite.
Candles: Maybe the Orthodox Church was on to something with that whole engage all the senses during a service thing.
Helping the poor: Jesus was serious about this. We should be too.
Podcasts: Where would the EC be without blogs and podcasts? It’s built upon the backs of this tech savvy generation.
Social justice: No Christian should observe injustice and do nothing.
Ancient Christian writings: Did you know that Christians wrote a lot of good stuff before Yancy and Maxwell or even Lewis were around?
Art: Art has refound its place among expressions of worship. Contemplating and creating beauty transports us into God’s presence or expresses our prayers.
U2: Bono is a hero. Plus they make good music.
Discussion: Everybody has something to share. Nobody likes being preached at all the time
Blue Like Jazz: A really popular book by Donald Miller (who lives in Oregon!!)
Meaningful symbolism: The cross is very relevant, let’s not down play it to clean up Christianity any more.
Powell’s Bookstore: Who doesn’t love Powell’s?

Emergent Christians do not like:
The war in Iraq
TBN
Pews
Cultural Christianity


Major sites to check out (If you haven’t heard of these sites already, you either a) don’t have any Christian friends, b) don’t spend any time on the Internet, or c) are old. Just kidding. Sort of. It’s just that I run across these sites continually)
www.BurnsideWritersCollective.com
www.EmergentVillage.com
www.RelevantMagazine.com

Here are some Emergent Churches (note that all are in the Pacific NW. It’s kind of like the Emergent Mecca)
www.MarsHillChurch.org
www.ImagoDeiCommunity.com
http://evergreenlife.org/index.html

Some bloggers of this genre (some of these are well known, others are personal friends, others I just found while researching this post):
www.thelongbreak.com
www.theoblogy.blogspot.com
http://i-wonder-as-i-wander.blogspot.com/2006/10/myths-about-emerging-church.html
http://emergingwomen.blogspot.com/
http://nextreformation.com/?cat=9
http://nextreformation.com/?cat=18
http://desertpastor.typepad.com/paradoxology/
www.aaronstewart.blogspot.com
http://sunbean11.net/journal/index.php

Some other stuff:
Amazon recommended books on the EC
http://www.whatsremarkable.com/
www.lowercasepeople.com

I think there’s a lot of good things about the Emergent Church, but of course every movement has its pitfalls too. In any case, it is undeniable that it plays a big role in what God is doing in the US these days.

Oh, baby!

 Say hello to my new little niece Everly Pegs 

Nostalgia

Let's have a moment of remembering together what my life was like at this time last year and read a blog archive. That first picture of the vineyard is my desktop wallpaper right now. It's almost painful remembering these beautiful days in Switzerland. But not so painful considering that I'm GOING ON VACATION IN SWITZERLAND IN 2 WEEKS!!!! Yeah, I'm pretty much stoked.

I would just like to thank my friends Missy and Amber for the role they unwittingly played in the planning of this vacation. I got two postcards of Switzerland from these ladies on the same day. I was like "Ha, ha, I should pretend like this is a sign from God that I should go back to Switzerland." But then a few days later my mom called and asked "Why do I keep thinking about you and Switzerland? Are you supposed to go back there?" I was like, "Uh, sure, I'll look into it." From there everything just fell into place and on the 23rd I'll be hopping on a plane to visit my home away from home! And there was much rejoicing! I love you Missy and Amber and Mom!!!!

Random pics

 Would you let your 4-year-old play with a machete?!
 Awwww, cute wittle duckies.
 I think it was like goat mating season or something. They kept having head butting contests. I like this photo. 

Would you eat this?

  These are grubs. Mmmmmm.
  Let's see, which one is tastiest?
  Annette actually ate the grubs, baked into a paté like concoction that was fairly good but unable to disguise their crunchiness and still too psychologically traumatizing to tempt me :o) 

Trying my darndest to post some photos

  One of the fun things we did in Ouesso was have a pizza party :o) Some of our friends had heard about pizza and they begged us to bring them some from Brazza. We had to improvise a little. We brought pita bread and cheese and italian seasoning with us and then bought tomato paste, garlic and onion there in the village. It was delicious! Although the African response wasn't too enthusiastic. I think cheese must be too heavy when you've never eaten it before