I can't believe time has flown so fast! Many apologies to family and friends for not posting in so long...it's been quite the whirlwind of events in the past two weeks. From making connections to Youth For Christ and the World Council of Churches in Geneva, to 'tweens, teens and meeting up with old friends, I've been busy!
Church services have been wonderful. I participated in my first Anglican service at Christ Church (complete with white robe) two weeks ago. It was great to be part of the beauty of a ritual that I'm not used to. We were celebrating Harvest Sunday, and it was great to meet church members and become connected to people for the first time at the Christ Church parish. That afternoon, I went to a small town nearby called Lutry where a wine harvest festival was also being celebrated. It's called the Fete des Vendanges. At the end of an all-town parade, vineyard workers come by and pour wine into your glasses. That evening I had a lovely dinner with the Christiansen family from Scots Kirk, and was able to spend some time with a former PTS student (who used to hold a record for number of times he stole the clapper from Alex).
I am actually beginning to be quite shocked by the number of PTS alumni floating around. As it happens, my pastor from Scots Kirk was in need of pulpit supply this past Sunday. The person found to fill it was another former PTS student and preceptor of my sister, Amy (Visco)-Na when she was a student at PTS. He now is the senior editor at the World Council of Churches. In a short trip I took to Geneva early last week, I had the pleasure of meeting him, his wife, and getting a tour of the ecumenical center where the WCC offices are. There is a photo album of the chapel that I just posted- it is beautiful- check it out.
As for the rest of my Geneva trip, I was able to meet up with the Youth For Christ people here in Switzerland, and make some connections not only with them, but also with other youth workers in the greater Geneva area. It is a blessing to have these people close by for support, ideas, and friendship! On the last day of the trip, I was also able to meet up with a childhood friend that I hadn't seen in years. Megan and I used to run through the fields (when they were fields) behind our houses together as childhood next-door neighbors. We swapped many old/ new stories, ate good food, and I got to meet her boyfriend Kriston!
Since then I've had a 'tween night complete with my first batch of Scottish shortbread and skits/ discussion about Matthew 13:1-9. The teens gathered after church at Scots Kirk on Sunday for McDonalds (tell me I won't, Francey) and movies. We're looking forward to a pumpkin carving night this Friday and much, much more...
All in all I have really started to fall in love with this place. I am thankful that I've been planted here for a year, and hope to continue growing in the light of God's abounding grace. My heart beats steadily with my family far away. As the great poet said, "I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart)"
“Peace to you,” he says. “Peace to you.” Quiet those fears. Let me quiet them by taking them onto myself. See? It is I, myself. And my gift to you is peace. Not just what you used to think was peace. For this peace comes, indeed, from the other side of the grave. It’s a whole new peace. Call it “my” peace, he had once said. It’s his unique peace, because it’s won by taking fear and death into himself, as he bears our infirmities and carries our diseases. Bearing them, he frees us. Invading our prisons, he releases us. Carrying our death in himself all the way to cross and grave and beyond, he swaps that death for his own life, swaps our fears for his peace, swaps our anxiety for his calm and love, swaps our hunkered-down imprisonment for his mission that came from the Father and now involves us, as well. “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” Released from the prison of our fear, we get to live and move in the freedom and audacity of his own mission.
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