August 1 (Swiss national holiday)

On August 1 my parents, my brother, & I had breakfast on a hill close to the lake of Thun. It was a beautiful day!
While just sitting there outside the restaurant after the meal we started talking about the Niesen, a close mountain we could see very well from where we were sitting. My dad said something about going up there and meant it as a joke, but immediately my brother was all for it, and me, too!! So, we spontaneously decided to go up there since we all hadn't been in quite a while.
It felt pretty odd to all of us to go up on a mountain wearing nice clothes and flip-flops or sandals...!! We felt like tourists who knew nothing about Swiss mountains!! :) It was hilarious.
The cable car ride up was fun and way steeper than I remembered it. Alongside its path there's the longest stairway in the world with 11,674 steps. It's open only once a year to the public for a stair run (and we saw people exercising for it...they were basically running up that steep mountain ;)).
We all couldn't get enough of the beautiful view from the top of the Niesen. So beautiful. I always think it's so amazing how things look different if you get to see them from such a big distance or from above. That might be why I love flying so much - it just always takes my breath away... I think after that day we all appreciated the beauty around us even more.
After just enjoying the view for a while we sat down on deckchairs in front of the restaurant up there and later my brother and I decided to go for a walk/hike to a part of the mountain where we saw a herd of cows in the distance. It took us longer than I first thought it would but it was a lot of fun. Since my brother has been gone for the last six months and I had just been on vacation it was awesome to have some time together. Sometimes walking was kind of difficult in flip-flops but my brother was my great protector so I didn't get harmed. :)
On our little hike we saw one of my brother's friends who was just getting ready to take off with his paraglider and we watched him and the guys with him take off. My brother's friend told us he was planning to land very close to the lake and in case he wouldn't be able to make it he was wearing an inflatable life jacket and his girlfriend was waiting for him in a boat on the lake... I thought that was funny. :)
So after my brother and I greeted the cows ;) we headed back up towards the restaurant where our parents were sitting outside and enjoying a drink and a band that played traditional Swiss music.
Back home we celebrated with the youth group from my parents' church. We went to see the huge fire that's being set up just a little up from our house every year and, of course, watched all the fireworks we could see in every direction.
...That was one of the best First of August I can remember! :)

Trip to California

This summer I went back to Thousand Oaks, California, to visit! It was an awesome trip & I had a wonderful time. It was great to see so many of my friends there & to get to spend time with them. I also loved meeting new people & experiencing the "new" Shepherd's House (with a new pastor and many new members). :)
Just in case you don't know or don't remember... I went to that church (Thousand Oaks Foursquare Church "The Shepherd's House") in 2006/2007 to do an internship for six months. Since then I hadn't been back and had only seen two people (David and Bob!) again. So this was a trip I'd been looking forward to for a long time and it was just as great as I expected it to be. :)
Because quite a couple people have asked me where exactly Thousand Oaks is, here's a little map:


Below you can look at pictures of what I did while I was there... But I must say that it is hard to put certain things into mere images. There's moments and situations you really can't capture with your camera... Like warm hugs from people you haven't seen in what seems like a long time, deepening friendships and feeling like it hasn't been long at all, meeting kids that last time weren't even born yet, smelling the Ocean and the Southern California air and feeling like being home again (and it's the same with certain buildings; e.g. the Shepherd's House and Jonathan & Michelle's house (my home back then)), tasting food you've been wanting to eat again in a long time (e.g. Mexican food!), going to various places where you remember making so many wonderful memories and making new memories there,
and most importantly, seeing God's work and His faithfulness in so many ways and knowing that no one, except God, can be so good.

Click on "View All Images" for a slower slideshow or to select the pictures you want to look at.
Be forewarned...it's a lot of pictures!

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

A Day on the Train - April 15, 2009

Prayer & Studying the Bible

You see, today we try to organize. We try to get a bunch of people together.

God never did that. God takes individual men. He takes Moses to the backside of the desert. John the Baptist was in the wilderness until the day of his showing forth. 

Jesus, the Son of God who had left the Glory, spent thirty years in training to minister! John the Baptist thirty years in training. The apostle Paul at least thirty years. Moses at least forty years;

and we want to go to Bible School six months and come out like a super prophet! It's the time factor that kills most of us. 

Tell me how much time you spend alone with God and I will tell you how spiritual you are. 

Not how many meetings you go to. 

Not how many gifts you have. 

Not how many sermons you preach. 

Not how many records you've made. 

Tell me what time you spend alone with God . . . 

and I'll tell you how spiritual you are.

- Leonard Ravenhill - 

And here's the same on video:

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This is so powerful!

On the Sofa

House Sharing...

This is what the tree right outside my window at Johanna's house looked like in October...

...and in December! Pretty amazing, huh?! :o)

Here are a couple pictures from the time Johanna and I spent with Bob while he was here. We had such a great time and it was awesome to see him again!!

This was in Bern where we spent a couple of hours walking through Old Town window shopping... ;o)
The main street of Old Town

Bob in Bern :o)