Why am I in Switzerland?

Though I'm not sure I know all the way why I'm here, I expect there are reasons. I think I know a few and hope to discover more. As far as what I'm doing, it's a 12 credit school with University of the Nations (YWAM) called Advanced Principles of Communication (or APC). The school is primarily designed for people involved in communications in some capacity (journalism, design, music, etc). It's basically based on the premise that we've all experienced what we believe to be Jesus in ways we can't deny, but also that there's much we see in the church and world around us that feels difficult to reconcile with the promises of our faith. Abstractly, we believe God's authority and goodness, but practically things appear messy and chaotic. We could simplistically say something like "we live in a fallen world," but where is our response as people who are taught to pray to God, "your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven?" Martin Luther is quoted as saying, "If the gospel is not relevant to the issues of the day, it is not the gospel at all." The focus of this school then, is basically to examine the content of our gospel next to the state of the world in which we live to see if our "good news" is really so great (and how we can practically walk in line of it).

On a lighter note, I posted some snapshots from my train ride from Salzburg to here (via connections in Zurich & Lasaunne)

New Years in Austria

After arriving in Austria (Bellingham to Salt Lake City to Cincinnati to Frankfurt to Salzburg), I met up with my friend Alex, who traveled through the Caribbean with me on a discipleship school in 2006. She's loads of fun and it was great to get to know her family and friends in person a bit. The day I arrived, they took me to a hockey game and then introduced me to some fine Austrian beer after.

On New Years Eve, Alex's brother in law took me "arschbobbing." If you break this down, it's exactly like it sounds: "Arsch" (as in ass) + "bob" (as in bobsledding). The exercise and adrenaline were more than welcome. In the evening, we brought the new year in with style (see pictures below).

Fondue dinner


(Left to right) Sabine, me, Jason, Martin, & Alex

Martin making a special festive beverage
(ask me the ingredients in person, if you like
it's called "feuerzangenbowle")

Crazy downtown fireworks in the fog

22 hrs + Touchdown!

Hello World!

Greetings from Switzerland and welcome to my new little electronic portal where you can spy on my adventures and musings from afar. Over the next few posts I'll put up a few pictures and stories from my mini pre-trip to visit a friend Austria, then I'll do my best to briefly explain why I'm in Switzerland and what I'm up to here.

Until then...