Switzerland

I've been here for 5 days, and so far, each day I wake up it's hard for me to believe I'm here. I'm living in a chalet, in the suburbs of Lausanne, Switzerland. The landscape is hilly, with green grass and pine tree accents, with the Swiss Alps in perfect view, no matter where you are. It's been cloudy and rainy the past week though, and each morning I've woken up to a heavy mist hovering slightly above the ground. It feels a lot like Oregon. But everyone here says that's just because it's springtime. Once summer hits, everything comes alive, and spending time outdoors all day becomes a necessity and a joy. The Alps become even more crisp and lake Geneva sparkles.

The chalet in the summer time

The Sunny Smiles Preschool visible from the chalet

signs on trails in the nearby forest

the beautiful, other wordly forest

Creatures I found along the way

 We've started our studies, and most of us are catching on to the method of Inductive Bible study. So far, we've studied the book of Philemon, the shortest letter in the New Testament. I had no idea there was so much to be found in just a few short paragraphs--information about Paul the Apostole, Timothy, Onesimus, the church of Colossae, and a mega message of grace and forgiveness. Soon we'll be studying books with up to 50 chapters! I can't imagine the amount of information and history to be inferred and discovered through using the inductive study method in these books. Starting May 1st, we will begin our travels--Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Greece and finally Rome. We will be doing the same amount of work during this time as well as staying in typical backpacking conditions. I'm anticipating my character to be stretched during this time, as it usually is with travel, but I'm also expecting the Bible to come alive in ways it never has before. We will be camping on the beaches of the Red Sea, hiking through the Sinai peninsula, visiting Ephesus, the Colosseum, the sea of Galilee, and much more. I'm learning, just through these few days of study, that the bible is a book not meant to be read for face value, but mean to be explored and discovered. It is a 1,000 piece puzzle waiting to be put together. And the end picture is a beautiful one--not one of those disappointing Thomas Kinkade puzzles, or the ones with a yawning polar bear or something.

I will keep blogging as much as possible! Thanks for reading.

Also, please email me if you get the time. I love being updated on the lives of the people I love.