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! 

'There's no point trying to preach the Gospel to someone who's hungry.' William Booth

So first things first, you may be excited to know that we've finalised outreach plans! We're going to be spending 4 weeks in Burundi, followed by 8 weeks in Rwanda! The decision came after lots of prayer and discussion and I'm so happy with the decision! We're all getting very excited and this past week we were each asked to research a topic and present it to the group. I chose education. Here are some of the facts that I found out:
- A Rwandan is expected to complete an average of 10.6 years of education. The actual   average is only 3.3 years.
- In Burundi, only 47% of girls primary school aged attend school
- After the Civil War in Burundi ended in 2005, 1/4 of the schools were destroyed, forcing many students to walk miles to reach the closest school
- In Burundi, the Elementary schools have limited resources
       - Only 3.5% of schools have electricity
       - 29% have access to clean water
       - 14% have no toilets, because of this, a lot of the girls quit school
- In 2009, more than 16,628 students walked 12.5 miles to school everyday

Most of these facts shocked me, but its important to remember we shouldn't pity these people. Instead we should have compassion, which should lead us to action!

I LOVE the walks around here, last week I discovered my new favourite spot, a bench overlooking Burtigny, the valley, on a clear day you can see the Alps, Lake Geneva & the city of Geneva. I also found some horses..

Last week we were looking at Biblical Worldview. I had no idea what this meant & what it would involve. The teacher was British, which is always cool because they can relate to you on certain things, especially since this week we talked a lot about our different cultures! The main points I took away from the week were:

- God DOESN'T change! (I needed to be reminded of this) 
- Our World is constantly changing, yet we're fully accepted by an unchanging God
- Sometimes we need to obey, before we understand

'Our Worldview is a framework of fundamental beliefs through which we view the World      and our calling & future in it.'

- There are 3 main worldview's:
      - Naturalism
      - Animism
      - Theism
We then looked at 5 questions and how each of these worldview's might respond to such questions:
1. Is there a God, if so, what is he like?
2. Where did we come from & what is the nature of humankind?
3. Where do our ethics come from? How do we know what is right & wrong?
4. How do we know?
5. Why are we here? What happens when we die?

- Jesus had a 3-fold ministry- sign, word & deed. These were all integrated into his ministry & he didn't separate or focus on just 1. Both Luke 4:16-19 and Matthew 9:32-38 show us how he put them into action. We need to learn from this & allow them to flow naturally from each other, like Jesus did.

We can't have the Kingdom without the King & we can't have the King without the Kingdom!

- The Church needs to understand that acts of compassion are an expression of the gospel.
- Poverty is often more than just material. When we go into the nations, we go as broken people with the spirit of humility, knowing we also have poverty in some areas of our lives.

' If we ignore the World, we betray the word of God which sends us out to serve the World. If we ignore the Word of God, we have nothing to say to the World.'

The birthday girl & I!

We had some excitement on the base last week as it was Jenna's birthday, which meant we had a nice meal as the DTS and sung Happy Birthday in so many languages! It was also pancake day, but unlike home, we didn't have any pancakes! However, after making it known that I'd missed pancakes, one of the staff on the base, Shelby, invited Aubrey and I over to hers on Saturday morning for pancakes! She even had lemon & sugar for me! 

View from my bedroom window!

This past week has been a long one! We had teaching on Reconciliation & Relationships from a guy called Wilson from South Africa. The teaching was brilliant but challenging too. This meant it was quite emotional at times & I think for me, I may not have picked up loads of 'practical' things in the teaching which I can tell you, but God definitely spoke to all of us & we had a time on Friday morning of taking things back to the cross & reconciling with one another. 
We looked this week at Paul's perspective of Reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21. We then went through it step by step and looked at the following points:
- Radical love
- Radical perception
- Radical change
- Radical ministry
- Radical ambassadors

We also looked at our 'Root System', in other words, whats influenced us such as our culture, upbringing, ethnic group etc. And asked the question, do we need to bring this to God & is there any area thats influenced us in a negative way.

We also, on Thursday evening, had a time to celebrate the different cultures. We were told to get together with others of the same nationality & put together a 5 minute little presentation on what we loved about our culture etc. So Sam & I decided to do a little drama where we gave the news headlines in true BBC style. We also got them to stand for the national anthem & had a personal message for them from the Queen (I put a mask of the Queen on & addressed them!) They found this quite funny, but some of the humour we had in the headlines didn't go down too well.. we've realised since being here that us Brits definitely have a certain sense of humour that others don't get!! 

Sam & I doing our broadcast

Aubrey- USA, Jenna - Canada, Hanielle- Benin & Me!

This weekend we went as a DTS with some staff to a place called Chaux-de-fonds, which is on the Swiss-France border, about an hour and a half away from here & quite a few degrees colder with much more snow! It was an evangelism weekend with youth groups there. So, on Friday night & Saturday morning we had a time of worship & talks. We were then sent out on Saturday afternoon in groups, to hand out Bibles & speak to people about Jesus. I definitely admired the teenagers there who were willing to go into their home town and approach people they may know. I thought about if I were at home, would I have the guts to stand in the city centre & hand out Bibles, knowing I might see someone I know! It was a great time, not just speaking to the public but also getting to know some of the people in my team, and of course practising my French! But with temp down to -7 we were so so cold by the end of the afternoon!

Chaux-de-fonds

Our team for the afternoon

 It's been a very busy week, but great at the same time! 
If you pray & would like to know prayer requests I have a few for you! 
- Preparation for outreach goes smooth, for finances & booking flights. 
- We're also thinking and praying at the moment about which areas of ministry to get involved in when we're on outreach, so wisdom for that would be good!
- For me specifically, I think I can sometimes get overwhelmed at the need that there is, with poverty for example, so pray against the thought that I can't do anything to help because its just too overwhelming!
- I've got a lot of ideas about where my future might be heading, well even just the next step after DTS, with many options.. so please pray for clarity & wisdom to know what to do!

Thank you so much, if you've ever got any other questions or want to know anything I haven't said, drop me an email- emmwilcox93@gmail.com
Love you all
Emma x

Worship, Skiing, Basel etc..

This past week we were looking at worship and what worship means to us. The speaker, Sylvain, was Swiss and spoke french, which meant we had a translator speaking english this week. It was another great week & we were able to explore different means of worshipping God & that we all worship in different ways. Many of us, when we hear the word worship, would automatically associate it with worship songs we sing in church. However, the Bible tells us to worship God at all times, in all places. Which means consciously giving praise to God in our everyday lives. 

Here are the main points I took away from this week:
- We worship what we know
- Worship = All that I am to all that He is
- How do we maintain a love for worship?
- Praising God in the difficult times is a lot harder, but it produces more fruit
- Psalm 139 'I am fearfully & wonderfully made'
- No one else can praise and worship God for you!
- We sometimes worship our intelligence. Intellect doesn't equal wisdom!
- Opposite of worship = Idolatry
- Your God is who you give your time, money & thoughts to. Who or what are we idolising?
- Our worship isn't dependant on our feelings
- What do we need to give up to God? Offer back to him?

At the end of the week we were challenged by the speaker to pray about what we had been idolising and on Friday morning we had a time where we gave them back to God, some symbolically put something at the foot of the cross, others wrote on a piece of paper and others gave it to God in their hearts. It was a powerful time and a great end to the week.

Since being here in Switzerland myself and a few others have really wanted to go skiing but havent had the chance! One of the leaders, Catrina, said she would take us on Friday afternoon to a place about 35/40 mins away called Les Jouvencelles, which is in France. So there were 5 of us that went, I have only been skiing once, 5/6 years ago for a week and Stephan only for 1 day about 15 years ago! So we thought we'd be staying on the baby slopes all day, however we managed to pick it up pretty quick and with a bit of persuading managed to do a red run!! For those that don't know, the difficulty goes, green(easiest) then blue, then red & then black. So we were pretty pleased to have done a red! One cool thing when we were going down one run, the run split into 2 and you had the choice to ski into France or Switzerland!! Pretty cool hey?! Catrina took her camera, so here are some of the photos she took...

On Friday night one of the women on staff had a Pyjama party, so we went across the road to her house for some girly time! It was great fun and we had some awesome chats whilst eating chocolate and painting our nails.. you know, girly things! 

If that wasn't enough excitement for one week, some of us were invited to Basel to stay with Sebastian's (DTS student from Romania) sister & Brother-in-law and their children. So, Aubrey, Sam, Jenna, Sebastian & myself were picked up on saturday morning by his brother-in-law. Basel is about 2 and half hours from Burtigny and the journey was beautiful, we were able to see loads more of Switzerland. Basel is on the border of France, Germany & Switzerland. I really wanted to just drive into Germany & have a little walk round to be able to say I've been there!! On saturday we went into the centre of the city and walked around. We also climbed a tower in the Cathedral which meant we got some amazing views of Basel & the surrounding areas, including France & Germany! We ate so much amazing food! On Saturday night we had the Swiss tradition of Raclette which was delicious then on Sunday we had Romanian food- Peppers stuffed with meat & rice. It was a lovely weekend and so nice to see more of Switzerland!!

The Swiss doing what they do best!

This week we're looking at Biblical Worldview & after this mornings lecture I can tell I'm going to learn a lot!!

Emma