Staff Retreat to the Swiss Alps

Today is quite balmy - a huge 5° C last time I checked. This is actually pretty good considering the weather we had just last week. As I may have mentioned in another blog entry, even the Germans and Swiss are getting a little tired of this winter. The cold and snow are coming more frequently than in the last couple of years, but it is probably closer to normal patterns -I guess last year we were just really lucky. As I look back over last year's February blog entries, I see that the weather was still rather cold, but man, we didn't get this much snow. On the upside however, we have hardly been sick at all this year! Yaahoo! Here is a picture of the school about a week ago. You will note the parent parking to the left and staff parking on the right. I took even a tumble off of my bike for the first time last week on some ice - Oy! that was no fun. I'm still limping a little from where the steel bike pedal hit the knuckle of my left foot.

Okay, so where else in the world could a school take a staff retreat to the Swiss Alps without it sounding like one of those boondoggles that a bailed-out bank had to cancel after receiving BILLIONS of our taxpayer money? Well, our staff retreat probably cost less than a similar trip to the Oregon Coast. We were able to stay at a hostel where the accomodations were basic - twin beds (no sleeping together), bathroom and showers down the hall, etc. But the view - Oh, the view...
This was actually the view out of our window. Okay, I can take bathrooms down the hall for one night for a view like this. I created a panorama of our room's view below. If you click on the picture itself, you should be able to get it to open in a seperate windows with a larger image view - it is fantastic.

This is a view of the other side of the valley. Our hostel can be seen along the very left edge of the picture. It is the small tan'ish colored building almost half way up, above the red tile roofed building. Whether or not you see it, what you can see is the glory of God's creation in the Alpine region of Switzerland.

From our room, there was a really beautiful church to our left. There were several terraced levels as one approached the entrance. We took a walk over and up to the church and what do you think we found on those terraces? (Any guesses?)

For those of you that guessed graveyards, give yourself a gold star. It wasn't necessarily what I expected, but they were beautiful none the less. I don't know if we have mentioned it before, but graves and honoring those who have passed over is significant for most Europeans. Since many families live in the same town or village for generations, this shows their respect for family after they are gone.

The many markers were primarily made of wood - this is just one example. Isn't it just wonderful? The grave sites are well tended and quite beautiful.

The church also has some magnificent stained glass windows. (I know Jesus didn't look like this, but I appreciate the beauty and craftsmanship)

Since this was a staff retreat, I wanted to give you a picture of our staff. There were a couple of folks missing, but these are the souls with whom Delynn and I have had the priviledge of serving for the last 18 months. The woman in the back center, Aubrey, hails from the Pacific NW, actually from Eugene, and she has the same birthday as I do - 12 June - but obviously she was born many, many years later. She teaches are 1st and 2nd grade girls (well, the entire class of 8 students are all girls). She is a really excellent teacher and we are proud to serve with her. We could tell you great, compelling, touching stories about each of those here but we will save those for another day. What a blessing it is for us to know each one.

We took a day trip on Saturday further up into the Swiss Alps. The last picture is in the village of Lauterbrunnen. Delynn and I will be returning here in a couple of weeks during our Fastnacht break to recreate some more together in the Alps. Obviously, this day had quite a bit of cloud cover, so we are hoping for some clearer weather the first part of March. We'll see - whatever happens, we look forward to our break.


We pray God's blessing on everyone who reads this. When we see the wonder and beauty of His creation, we are continually amazed that God would make this for us. May you too see something of God today. Keep your eyes open; expect that God will cross your path in some way today - maybe big, maybe small. In all, be thankful and give Him the glory He is due.