Packing day!

With only a few hours left in Switzerland before we leave for outreach, I thought I'd fill you in on the past few weeks happenings & also tell you all how excited I am for Africa!!
First things first, my mum visited last weekend! It was so nice to see her & somewhat emotional on both accounts! She arrived on a beautiful day & got an amazing view of lake Geneva & the Alps as we drove back to Burtigny. Was so lovely to hear from people at home, even had a few cards & some amazing people sent some skirts out for me after they'd heard that I was short on skirts for outreach! I now have plenty to keep me going for 3 months! On Saturday we went into Geneva & spent the day chilling out by the lake, eating lots of amazing things & catching up on the past 10 weeks of news!

Even though it was hard to say goodbye, I know these next few months are going to fly by & before I know it I'll see my amazing family & friends again! 
Last week we had Raymond Serex teaching on Giving up your rights. He was a great communicator & had some brilliant stories. I was definitely challenged by what he was saying, and know that God is going to continue showing me areas in my life that I need to give back to him.
So, I'll bring you up to speed if you're not sure what's happening with outreach. Our team will leave Burtigny on Friday 29th, very early in the morning!! We fly to Brussels first & then get a connecting flight to Kigali, Rwanda. We will then stay at the YWAM base in Kigali until Sunday. From Kigali we are going to take a bus to Bujumbura, Burundi. This will be an adventure in itself as the bus is public & apparently an interesting ride! It will take about 6 hours to get there & we will then stay in Bujumbura for around 4 weeks. We will take the bus back to Kigali after these 4 weeks and then stay in Kigali until we fly home mid June! In terms of what we'll be doing there, we don't know 100% yet! We'll get involved with the ministries in the surrounding areas, which could be to visit; HIV aids patients, street kids, widows & orphans. We will also be involved with things at the base & help out where we can! We also hope to spend some time in the bush whilst in Rwanda! 
Today is packing day & I'm trying not to stress out! I'm making to-do list after to-do list to make sure I don't forget anything. 
We had a great surprise yesterday & for our last lecture were taken to this beautiful log cabin on a hill side. It was pretty foggy so we couldn't enjoy the view, but it was great nevertheless! We had out last talk from Edwin, the current base leader. He spoke to us about the fact that our attitude is a choice & we can choose to have a good attitude! We then toasted marshmallows & had S'mores, American style!! 

I wanted to say thank you to all the people who have emailed me & messaged me & I'm sorry if I haven't had chance to reply, time seems to have just ran away with me! Also.. for the people I meant to Skype but didn't get chance.. hopefully we'll get a chance soon, but if not, see you in a few months! 
Thank you for all your prayers too & I'll try my best to update you as soon as I can. 
I went on a beautiful walk yesterday & managed to acquire a dog. For those of you that know me, you'll know that I'm not the biggest fan of dogs! So to go for an hour & half walk with one was quite an achievement.
Here are some photos from my walk.

My 'We're going to Africa on Friday' face.

The dog.

Burtigny!

Love you all!! 

Emma x

'Courage is not the absence of fear. It's the will to persevere even in the face of fear.' Christine Caine

The past few weeks have been challenging and amazing at the same time! It's been a busy few weeks and I've only just got chance to sit down properly and blog! I'm right now very much excited, because tomorrow my mum is coming to visit and it will be the first time I've seen her in 10 weeks! It doesn't seem that long at all, but it will be amazing to spend time with her before I go away to Africa. Which, by the way, is 2 weeks tomorrow!! Again, time is flying by! I feel like I haven't given it loads of thought, mainly because we're so busy here, but also because I know if I do, I'll miss what God is going to do in the last few weeks of lectures. Too often, I live in the future, always looking ahead and not just being in the present. I read a blog post yesterday about living for the moment & love what it said.. 'And now, as tomorrows come so much faster than they did then, I see things differently. I see that I missed too many todays because I was worrying about too many tomorrows. Opportunities to love, to forgive, to be healed, lay unused at my feet because I was looking for what God had in His hand.' If you want to read the whole blog, it is:
http://outofedenministries.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/live-today/

The week of the 25th-1st, we had a French speaker, Etienne Atger, who spoke to us about Spiritual Warfare & the Kingdom. Some of you might be wondering what is 'spiritual warfare'? If so, I'll try and explain briefly! In my understanding, spiritual warfare is the battle between the Kingdom of God & the Kingdom of Darkness (Satan). In Ephesians 6:12, Paul writes, 'For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.' This means that there is a battle going on around us, that many of us are unaware of. We're told though, not to fear, because we're not fighting for victory, we're living in the victory of Jesus. This is such a vast topic and I don't think I'll be able to explain it or do it justice, I have however, found an article on this topic. Which, if you're interested, you should read. Its answering, 'what is spiritual warfare?', 'how do we recognise it?' & 'how can we win?' 

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/deeper-walk/features/27282-spiritual-warfare-is-real

That week, we also went to visit a campus in Lausanne, called Pepperdine, which is a branch of a university in California. We went & had a time of worship & a few of the DTS students shared their testimonies. It was nice to meet some new people, even if there were a few awkward introductions! Side note- here in Switzerland, it's normal when boys greet girls & girls greet girls, to kiss on the cheeks 3 times. The amount of times I've been caught of guard or just totally ignored someone by accident is crazy & at times very embarrassing! 
On the Thursday of that week we had our very own Swiss night, here in Burtigny. We ate Swiss food & had a quiz to see how much we knew about the nation. Who knew that.. Per capita, American's eat 12 pounds of chocolate annually & the Swiss eat 21 pounds per capita?! Yes that's right, I'm at home here! 

We spent last week staying in a church at Geneva. We left the base on Saturday & spent the day with the church youth group doing some evangelism on the streets of Geneva. Brilliant opportunity to practice my french! That evening we led the youth group and some of us gave testimonies, including myself. I shared a bit about how God had been working in my life over the past few months. It's pretty scary sharing & being vulnerable with people, but I just prayed that God would use my story to help/encourage/challenge the people there. The rest of the week we;

• Served the Church
• Visited World Vision
• Explored Geneva
• Prayed for Geneva
• Spent a lot of time in McDonalds & local Patisseries!

Here's some pictures I took when exploring:

We spent a good portion of the week eating McFlurry's! After coming from Burtigny, a place in the middle of no-where, McDonalds was a luxury! 

Jenna, Aubrey & I

It was a great week & we definitely got to know each other a lot better. I realised though, how much I'm going to miss the team going to Europe!! But trying not to dwell & just enjoying our last few weeks as one team.

Last Friday night a group of us went back to Chaux-de-fonds, to the church, to host an african worship evening. I'd been asked to play the piano. So, even though we were learning the songs right up to when we started the service, it was a great evening, full of joy & celebration.

This week we were able to meet the DTS which started in September, as they got back from their outreach on Monday. We've been able to hear the stories & I've definitely been getting a lot more excited after seeing the photos etc!

I recently finished reading a book for my book report, Undaunted by Christine Caine, the co-founder of The A21 Campaign- anti-human-trafficing organisation. She speaks about how God rescued her from a life where she was unwanted, unnamed & unqualified. It's an amazing book, full of stories of God's goodness & power, it has challenged me & I'd recommend anyone to read it. 

This week we've had a woman called Heather preparing us for outreach. She's been giving us teaching on unreached people groups & understanding of cross-cultural ministry. It's been an amazing, eye-opening week so far!