This week we had the DTS class from Yverdone join us in Burtigny to listen to the Chatel base leader, Thomas Gunder, speak on the identity of God.
I'll get straight to the JEER for the week. Thomas' teaching left a
lot to be desired. We all know a lot about the issues that he has with his father, but that's about it. The first 2 days were decent - he gave us Lindt chocolate and went through a brief synopsis of Louie Giglio's "Indescribable" presentation. Although I saw Louie give the presentation live
twice, the intricacy of God in the universe and our bodies is something that we can probably all be reminded of every single day and still not completely grasp. Unfortunately, on Wednesday, everything went downhill. Thomas obviously still has a lot of issues that he is working through with his father, and his speaking style is something that I have a hard time relating to and following. I think the rest of the class felt the same way, because everyone who wasn't asleep was doodling.
Wednesday night we had a Q&A with him, which was relatively interesting. He was more personable in a smaller setting but I still have a hard time relating to him. I did have the chance to talk with him about raising children in the mission field though, which is something that really interests me, since David and I may very well find ourselves in that situation. He made a good point that you are going to have ups and downs with child-rearing no matter what culture you're in but mentioned that a struggle was that his children weren't Tongan and weren't really Swiss, so they had a hard time fitting in. On the other hand, they were raised in a community seeing first-hand the role of God in their family and community, which is something that cannot be replicated in the ho-hum of "normal" Western culture. We have a
long time before we need to consider this (I hope - hear that God?), but I was glad to have his opinion.
We haven't had it yet, but my CHEER for the week is going to be making dinner on Saturday night. David and I are in charge of cooking dinner and we are having MEXICAN food, which is my favorite. I'm really looking forward to having tacos and guacamole and salsa :) I also had a great time cooking chicken fried rice with Melissa on Wednesday night, and spending some quality time with her. Our rice didn't turn out
quite like we planned but soy sauce makes
everything good and it was a nice change of pace from noodles. I've always enjoyed cooking and the food here is very different than what I was used to eating at home, but I've come to see it as a fun challenge - a new, totally different kitchen, different ingredients, the metric scale - and it's fun.
