Now we are back in Switzerland and we LOVE it. We have been able to invest so much in old and new relationships and have been able to pass on much of what we have been given.
We got to go trekking!
- And that with two different groups of friends and siblings (in christ).
- And in doing so, marvel at and enjoy God’s wonderful creation, enjoy good fellowship, and encourage each other in our faith.
- In addition to trekking, we were also able to quickly reconnect with all the young (and not so young) people in our circle of friends. We are delighted to share all the rich experiences we have had!
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Rejoice in the Lord every day. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Philippians 4:4
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:17
- These were our guiding verses on both of our Alpine treks. With these, we ventured into Christian meditation together with our friends. Unlike its Eastern counterpart, Christian meditation is not about emptying the mind. No, Christian meditation aims to fill the mind with what is good and right. In our simple example, it worked like this: We memorized the verse. And then every time the climb became strenuous and the thin mountain air took our breath away, we could no longer talk—and had to retreat into our thoughts alone. Here we asked ourselves what this one verse could mean. The same verse every day. (Almost) every day, HE spoke to us anew.
The word “meditate” comes from the Latin “meditārī,” which means “to think, to consider, to practice.” So meditating can mean making a real effort to immerse yourself deeply in a biblical event. If you want to try it, it may help to do some of the following in your mind: - Take only a short passage, such as a verse, a parable, or a paragraph (stop feeling like you always have to finish a chapter!).
- Activate your senses: (especially for stories) How does it taste here? What do I hear? How hot is it? Do I see anything in the background? Allow the moment to feel truly realistic.
- Think word by word: (especially for individual verses) Is God trying to tell you something with this particular word? Or something else: Always read the entire verse, but place the emphasis on a different word each time.
- Conduct an interview: with the author of the letter, with an astonished disciple, with an angry scholar, with a healed woman, …
A lot of reflection
- What comes next? What does God want from us, what is HE calling us specifically to do? These questions tormented us during the first few months, but we were able to gain the following three insights:
- 1. We have not received an answer to the question of whether we are called to be intercultural ambassadors of God. In other words, we have neither a yes nor a no, but we have peace in knowing that we do not need to know this yet.
- 2. We have received a very specific calling for the next stage of our lives. Interestingly, God has laid on our hearts: Learn to pray. Get to know me more. Learn to stay in dialogue with me.
Of course, we have been in conversation with our God for a long time, but this rather simple call came as something of a surprise. But okay, let’s get practical: how do we do that now? Where (or from whom) do you learn to pray? From those who have dedicated their entire lives to this topic, of course! So we are now pleased to announce that we will be living with the Deaconesses of Riehen as part of their community, praying with them, and participating in their activities until February 2026. We are really looking forward to it (the Deaconesses are so cool!). - 3. We see it as our secondary calling to pass on everything that has been given to us in recent years. This means several things: We want to walk with our community/congregation as disciples. We want to challenge those people. We want to challenge ourselves.
Basel City Outreach
- What do we mean by challenge? We spent an outreach-week with Bridgetown Church and Steinen Church in Basel. During that time, we learned different ways of approaching people who have nothing to do with church or Jesus.
- Challenging ourselves now means that we are willing to take on these and other challenges again, first on our own and later together with others: How do we reach people? How can we as Christians convey a relevant message? Do we even believe that we have a relevant message to convey?
- We would like to thank the Basel outreach team, who have invested so much in us.
And now, thank you!
- We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us in prayer, with advice and practical help, accommodation, teaching, or financially through the wedding during this first year of “being married and seeking God.” We have been blessed beyond measure by all of you!
- Of course, we want to stay in touch with you, which means that we will continue this blog for the time being, just less frequently. If you don’t want to miss out, you can sign up here to receive notifications by email. We do not intend to translate our further blogs, but you should be able to auto-translate the sites with your browser. If you struggle, contact us or just enjoy the pictures
- And now, for those of you who really want to know exactly what we have learned over the past year: we have written it all down for you here! Let’s have a deep conversation!
- And if you would like to see more photos of the wedding, click here!
Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me.
Psalm 66,16