Korean students

 YWAM Lausanne includes about 25% Korean students and staff.  Since the founding of this base more than 40 years ago, many young Korean Christians have come to take courses and in Discipleship Training Schools.  Lectures are given in both English and Korean in at least one of the quarters of the year; and even in Quarter 4, in which Terry and I are volunteering, and in which the focus is French and English, the students are helped from time to time by having the announcements and teaching translated into Korean.  There are courses in basic English given throughout the year.  The Korean students have varying levels of proficiency in English, but one thing is certain--they are all improving. 
As one of my volunteer opportunities, I was asked to tutor five students.  Four of them have individual times, and one other joins into a group discussion once a week.
JungMo wanted to improve his English because he is involved in leading the worship times.  He wanted to be able to pray aloud in English.  After our first lesson, I encouraged him, "OK, now you can pray in English!"  He was a little taken aback, but did so.  Then he was so pleased that he had overcome this hurdle.  The next step with JungMo is to pray in English before worship time, in front of the whole group.  I challenged him to write down a list of Biblical words.  We've been using our time together to discuss each word and how it is used in a sentence. 
HanSol, sometimes called Hans Solo by his friends, was interested in learning to preach in English.  We discussed the story of the Prodigal Son, and I learned a new perspective on this well known parable as he expounded on his views.
ChangGyu and I reviewed English grammar quite intensively, mostly having to do with the various past tenses, and the irregular past participles of verbs. One day he told me of his adventures with the ambulance and the insurance company, after he fell 3 metres onto some rocks at the lake.  We worked on polishing his story, and he made a speech to one of our small groups. 

ChangGyu

AeYoung and SuHyun joined in a discussion group once a week.  We drilled for a few weeks, for example, picking up slips of paper which  required an answer of more than "yes" or "no".  Then I asked their advice on restaurants in the city.  The girls said to ChangGyu, "We saw you housekeeping in your room."  They were intrigued that ChangGyu and his wife had a little fridge in their room.  "I have a fridge, too", I said.  "I just put my food on the windowsill." Laughter.
What do you want to talk about next week?" I asked them.  Their response was unanimous.  "Jesus!"
We spent the next few weeks going over the topics that had already been introduced in various meetings. I wrote down some questions to get them started, and they quickly photographed the questions with their phones! It wasn't boring, because they had to come up with personal applications to the ideas presented.  Originally they may not have understood everything that had been said. It was interesting to hear their individual stories. 
The first discussion was about hearing God's voice, then we talked about difficult times in our lives, finally we explored in more detail the ways God had provided for us.

SuHyun and AeYoung

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JungMo, HanSol, and ChangGyu

When the students realized we were actually leaving early the next morning, there was a steady stream of knocks on our bedroom door, as they came, one by one, to say goodbye, offer a box of chocolates, letters and cards, and say, " Please come back!"

Last Eurail Trip

It was umbrella weather as Terry and I walked to the far bus stop early Saturday morning. That bus only comes once an hour, so we made sure we were there in good time.  The three day weekend for L'Armistice made for crowded conditions on the train; we were lucky to get seats in second class.  Many people sat on the floor all around the doors. We'd settled on Lyon as our destination, it being only 3 hours away, and the third largest city in France.
I'd heard there was a big shopping centre right beside the gare in Lyon.  It, too, was too crowded to be fun.  I was already tired, and wondered what I was doing at a "mall" so like the giant ones back home.  I'd wanted to explore the Carrefour department store, but all we did was buy some chocolate.  I should say, I picked out the chocolate.  Terry said, "I'm staying right here with the buggy while you look."

People sitting to eat their sandwiches

After trudging to the Hotel du Parc we'd reserved online, and resting awhile, we went out walking again.  Lots of beautiful buildings, squares, fountains and statues.

City Hall, Place des Terreaux

 

Lion at Place des Avocats in Vieux Lyon

  These paintings on buildings are called "trompe d'oeil", an art technique to create an optical illusion.  The eye is fooled into thinking that the painted objects exist in three dimensions.  There are many of them around the city; in fact Lyon is called the French capital of  trompe d'oeil.  We only saw this one.

Place Bellecour, one of the largest town squares in Europe

Do you see the Subway in the background?

Bortholdi Fountain at Place des Terreaux

The next day it had stopped raining.  We'd had a delicious meal at a restaurant near the hotel on Saturday night, and a "continental breakfast" of fresh croissants, cheese, jam, meats, orange juice, and tea and coffee in the morning. 

Our destination was the Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere, seen in the picture behind Terry. Also on the hill is a metal tower that looked familiar.  It was actually built in 1894 to resemble  the top part of the Eiffel tower in Paris. Lyon grew up around two rivers, the Rhone, and the Saone, hence many bridges connect parts of the city.  We took a 3 minute funicular to the top of the hill, stopping halfway up to see some Roman ruins.

Roman amphitheatre

It's hard to believe these ruins have been here since the Romans came to what was then Gaul in 43 BC.

Terry and I were clambering over the rocks and taking pictures of the view when a red vested man started yelling at us, "Interdit!"  We found out as we exited that area that we weren't supposed to be climbing on the walls.

The Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere was huge, the ceiling covered with tiny crumbling mosaic tiles, the interior ornate. I wanted to see the scene showing Joan of Arc, but there was scaffolding everywhere because the mosaics were being restored.

Another interesting feature of the Old Town were the traboules.

These are indoor passageways from medieval times connecting parallel streets, that allowed people to quickly get from one area of the city to another.  During World War II they were used for info-gathering and escape routes for the Resistance

This relaxing day included a stop at a patisserie, where we had delicious quiches, and then pastries on top of that.  Well, an experience we both enjoyed. I tried not to think of the calories. A gentleman peering into the window at the same time we did  proclaimed, "This is a good one."  He was right. 

We came home satisfied with our weekend, despite the rainy start.

Return to Lucerne

Twenty years ago our family, with all three boys, was in Lucerne overnight, on our way back to Slovakia from an Easter trip to Paris.  I'd always wanted to go back to this  beautiful city.  We had been living in New Denver, B.C., situated in the West Kootenays on the glacial Slocan Lake.  The area reminded the early settlers of Switzerland, so they named the local school "Lucerne".  When Terry taught there, it was the Lucerne Elementary-Secondary School, with all grades.
Lucerne was Bongwol's choice for a trip with us before going home. There are a certain number of day passes for unlimited travel sold for every day; if one went to Epalinges, one could buy them with no complicated questions asked, but only 3 per day are sold. Bongwol managed to get a pass for Nov. 3, which gave her unlimited access to anywhere in Switzerland on that day, by rail or by bus.
The train trip itself took 2 hours 15 minutes with no changeovers; we arrived in Lucerne at 10:00 am. Our first destination was the tourist information, conveniently located in the railway station.  Then we walked through the Saturday market, and across the wooden Chapel Bridge with its octagonal water tower.

These paintings on the ceiling of the bridge are from the 17th century; some of them were destroyed in a fire in 1993, when a leisure boat moored under the bridge caught fire.  Parts of the bridge were reconstructed, but some paintings were destroyed completely, and only charred wood remains. Now the bridge is a non-smoking area with security cameras!

After pushing our way through the Saturday market, we crossed the Reuss River via the Covered Bridge; this one was original.

Bongwol's dream was to go up Mt. Pilatus, so we hopped onto a train that rode for 20 minutes along Lake Luzern.  We were so blessed by the weather today--beautiful sunshine and a high of 16 degrees C.

This is the lake looking back towards Lucerne.

a little like Slocan Lake

 

At Alpnachstad we bought tickets for the cog train, but had to wait about half an hour before we could board.  About halfway up, we started to see patches of snow.  Apparently one could see Ibex on this mountain, but the only one we saw was the stuffed one at the observation building on the top.  I could just imagine it jumping from rocky crag to rocky crag as in the photo below.

 

 

Half an hour later, we were at the viewing platform, which included a hotel, restaurants, and a gift shop.  We were at 7,000 feet!  Terry and Bongwol climbed another 5 minutes on foot, to a higher viewpoint, but I was too hungry.  I scouted out the buffet style restaurant instead; later, Terry and I shared a "smokey" and the fast food version of rosti.
The name "Pilatus"  probably comes from a Latin word for cloudy, but we were blessed that day to be able to see a fine view.

I'm not smiling because I'm hungry and I forgot my sunglasses
 

Terry was thrilled that he was in his shirtsleeves, but he's actually wearing several layers under his shirt.

On the way down, there were fewer people in the train compartment, so we had more freedom to lean over and take pictures.  Sometimes we went through tunnels. This cog wheel train is supposed to be the steepest in the world at a 48% grade.

 

There are still leaves on the trees at the lower levels.

 

 We had a great day!

This is the last time we'll be able to go on an outing in Switzerland with Bongwol!  On Nov. 5, she flew back to her home in Texas.  We're going to miss you, Bongwol! Thank you for blessing our lives. We hope to meet Bongwol in January in California, when she goes to visit her daughter. 

 

 

Locarno

"Sorry about the weather," said the agent who printed up the itinerary for our train trip to Locarno.  It was raining when we left the Base, but we hoped for warmer temperatures in the balmy, subtropical corner of Italian-speaking Switzerland.  The rain made it hard to take pictures from the train, but we persisted; the journey took about four hours each way.  At the halfway point, we were to change trains in Domodossola, a small town that is actually in Italy. 

"There's absolutely nothing at this station,"

said the same train agent.  He was right.All we had time for was to board the next train, but I overheard a group of people who had longer to wait. "Let's have hot chocolate," the woman said. "Italian hot chocolate!" 


The new train was a panoramic train with extra high windows; it wended its way slowly through the mountain passes leaving plenty of time to admire the changing foliage. The rain slowed down, and vineyards, rivers, and mountain scenery reminded us of beautiful British Columbia. 

Sometimes we could see the highway below us

At the little stazione along the way, I would quickly snap a picture while the conductor had the door open to peer out, check for passengers, and blow his whistle; all in the space of about ten seconds.

This was the first station back on the Swiss side:

At Locarno, we looked around for the funicolare to take us up 355 metres to Orselina; our destination was a church called Madonna del Sasso.  In 1480, the Virgin had appeared to a monk on retreat on the mountain. The rain had tapered off, and we were hopeful it would stop completely.

Locarno is on Lake Maggiore, most of which extends down into Italy.  The tops of the mountains surrounding it were still covered by low-hanging clouds.

Several tiny chapels had groups of carved wooden figures; we liked this one of Jesus with his disciples at the Last Supper.

Here's a picture of the ornate baroque ceiling of the church itself.  My pictures of the interior of the church don't do it justice. The way down consisted of many steps; pilgrims of old followed this path on their way up the hill. At the bottom, we found a museum but didn't venture farther than these archways in the courtyard.

 

uPalm trees grew in this balmy climate, and from the train we even saw trees laden with oranges.  I wondered if they were the bitter, ornamental kind, because no one seemed to be picking them.  We wandered around the Piazza Grande, and had a thin crusted pizza, just to say we did.  I hadn't had pizza for at least four months, but it was disappointing.  We figured out the topping choices by deciphering both the Italian and German words on the menu.  No French on that side of the menu, let alone English!  When we finally neared Lausanne on our way home, what a relief to hear the French language being spoken again! It's amazing how our ears can now easily recognize announcements of the next station, or which track our connecting train leaves from.

On the way home, all too soon, the rain had completely stopped, and we snapped a few more vistas in the remaining daylight. This was a reservoir.

Some mountains on the way home, which weren't visible before, had snow on their peaks, but the biggest surprise was waiting at Chalet-a-Gobet.  Oh, now we feel right at home!  Terry is not impressed!

The leaves aren't off the trees yet!  We chose to get a ride in a van the next morning to the English-French church, rather than walking for 25 minutes in the blowing snow to the French church.  The day's high in Locarno was 15 degrees Celcius; now we're around  0 Celcius.  I wonder if it will last?

 

 

 

 

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Geneva

Forty years ago we were in Geneva for the first time, when we drove through France in our little Renault 12 station wagon.  Last weekend our Saturday outing led us to this beautiful city, and we realized we we were on an "anniversary visit".
The first visible landmark was a gigantic jet of water rising up out of the lake to the height of 140 metres.  We don't remember seeing this before.

Having bought a Geneva pass for the day, we headed for the first attraction on our agenda, the museum of the Reformation.  Terry especially appreciated having a hand held audio commentary; he actually said it was the best museum we'd seen in Europe because he could understand every little detail about each display.  We read all about the formation of the Protestant church started by Martin Luther, who said the Bible was the authority for life rather than the church.  The Swiss leader was John Calvin, to the left. In another wonderful part of the museum one could smell different scents of the Bible like various spices, and myrrh.

After eating lunch in the amazing sunshine, we looked inside the Protestant Cathedrale de Saint Pierre, whose  plain interior with its high gothic arches closely resembled the Lausanne cathedrale. Walking back to the lake, we decided to take a boat ride featuring beautiful mansions, famous villas, and the parks and gardens bordering the lake. We could even see Mont Blanc, but it was too hazy to get a good picture.

After an hour's cruise around the harbour, we were just in time to hop onto a little train for a tour of the "vieille ville", the old town. Finally, as we rode through a beautifully landscaped area, we spied a familiar landmark, one we'd also seen forty years ago, with the four famous reformers in relief -Calvin, Beza, Farel, and Knox .
We didn't have time to inspect it up close.

Cathedrale de Saint Pierre on the right


We wanted to go on one more "train" ride at 5:00 pm, but when the driver showed up he said "Route barree", and his sign language did not help the waiting people understand he wasn't doing the final ride of the day.  They kept pointing to the schedule, but to no avail. 
We manged to get back to the Base at the decent hour of 7:30 pm, happy with our day's outing.