SNOW

We woke up to a winter wonderland Wednesday morning! Snow was falling all day long and covered our lodge and surrounding area. We had some free time today so we went out on the hill behind our lodge and built a kicker (jump) and all of us boarded off of it! So fun and exciting to finally get back on my board. All of our prayers for snow finally came true; one of my friends here did an all-day fast on Tuesday for snow! And it worked!

I led everyone in devotional time this morning. Each student has to do it three times through out lecture phase and I was the first student to go. I gave a little teaching, or sermonette as the leaders here call it, on one of the nine fruits of the spirit: self-control. I gave them examples from my own life, biblical examples, and where I have already seen self-control at work in some of the students. It was interesting teaching on the subject because self-control has translate into discipline and this bunch of 18-20 year old snowboarders don't want to hear it! I noticed how uncomfortable it made them in their seats, so I switched up my game plan a bit and praised these young guys for acts of self-control I've seen in them here. They responded well and a few came up to me after devotional time and asked further questions or if I would pray for them. God is so awesome. We had our weekly worship session on Monday night and the Holy Spirit made another magnificent appearance. We not only had a non-believer come and experience Christ's love, but Jesus spoke to me through my friend Sean. During worship, a song was playing that spoke about laying down your worries and burdens at the feet of Jesus. I felt the need to go to the back of the room and start to simply pray. My pride was on my heart as I asked Jesus if He was proud of me; I've never really thought about it or thought that He truly was. I know that He loves me unconditionally, but never knew if He was proud of me because we fall short so often being human. A few moments later, my buddy Sean walked over to me and simply put his arm over me and started praying for me. When we were done, he hesitated a bit and looked uneasy. I asked him what was up and he told me that God has been telling him all evening to tell me something. He told me that God wanted to tell me that He is proud of me. How crazy is that!? Sean said that God had told him too a few different times and he just thought it was nonsense. When I told him that it wasn't nonsense at all and that it was exactly what I needed to hear his face lit up and gave me a huge hug. God is so awesome again!

We have free time tonight so my small group is going indoor rock climbing together! And Saturday we are going cross country skiing for a few hours! I've never been cross country skiing in my life! Nor have I had a pair of skis on my feet since I was in middle school! I'm really stoked to go.

I have been receiving so many encouraging comments from people, thank you all so much for them. I hope all is well with you and I remember you in my prayers (which is often because we literally live out the verse, "pray without ceasing"). I miss you all!

Psalm 139:14

Gruezzi! Welcome to German 101, that means hello, it is the formal way to greet adults here in Switzerland.  To say the last few days have been unbelievable would be an understatement.  I know it has been awhile since we last spoke and I would love to unload everything right now on here, but you'd probably go crazy reading such a long post and I just don't have that much time!  So here we go!

This is pretty cool, so one of the reasons I came to YWAM is for guidance and direction from God and to learn how to truly hear, feel, and see the holy spirit move in me.  The very FIRST teaching we had on Monday was on 'Hearing God's Voice.' If that wasn't a sign then I don't know what is!  Another awesome story like that, before all of us students arrived here and before our leaders knew anything about us, they spent a day praying for each of us hoping to learn something about us from God.  In turn, we had a prayer session the other night where our leaders shared with us what they had revealed to them.  Arnold, my mentor here, shared with me a couple visions that came to Him concerning me.  He told me that he pictured me with an orange ball playing with youth from all across the world.  Lets see, what could that mean? Maybe a basketball in my hands doing sports ministry around the world? What are my dreams again? Oh yeah, sports ministry.  He also had James 1:3-4 on his heart while praying for me, which says: "Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  This had been something that has been an issue of mine for months now! Those are simply two of the many amazing stories thus far.  

There hasn't been any snow fall here around our base since we arrived last week, but the mountain tops surrounding us have snow.  Hopefully, all the snowboarding areas will be open in two weeks because everyone here is incredibly anxious for some snow.  We are having a board waxing party Saturday afternoon, I'm pretty stoked.  Our days during the week are so packed that we haven't had any time to simply hang out with each other; so this weekend will be a great chance for us seven guys to hang out.  Out of the seven guys, three of us are from Oregon! How crazy is that, then one is from British Columbia, another from Huntington Beach, another from Detroit, and last, but not least Norway.  The guys from Norway is David, and he might be one of the funniest guys i've ever met.  So far, all of us have been getting along very well and we've all bonded very quickly.  Four of my leaders are from Switzerland, another one is from somewhere in Canada and my mentor here, Arnold, is from Holland.  To say that they are all awesome wouldn't give them enough credit.  They have done an amazing job leading and teaching us thus far and I honestly feel blessed to have the opportunity to learn from them.  

I'm going to take some pictures of our base and the surrounding area this weekend so I can put them up for you all to see.  And we are going on a long hike on Sunday so I will hopefully be taking some gorgeous pictures then as well.  I will try and post more often, but like I said, my weekdays are packed!  I want you all to know that I miss you and think of you often.  If there is anything specific you'd like to know, just drop me a line and I'd love to answer it.  

Day One- Sorry it is so long!

Wow, I am finally here and it is freezing! What a day God gave me today. It started with a wonderful send off in Portland with my family and Kirsten; incredibly blessed to have them in my life. I had a direct flight from Portland to Frankfurt, Germany and sat next to a sweet elderly lady that literally talked to me every moment I was either awake or had my headphones off. She and her husband are on the tail end of their 20 year traveling time or experience or however you'd like to word it. And yes, I said 20 years, they have basically spent my entire life traveling! She proceeded to tell me stories from Africa, Australia, China...Fiji, Argentina, Peru...you get the picture. I was able to sleep for the first two hours of the flight, then I watched the new Indiana Jones movie (not all that good) and Leatherheads (also not very good); so I talked with my new friend most of each movie.
Once I hit Frankfurt, I realized two things that I immediately regretted not bringing. A watch would have come in quite handy walking through an airport where there are virtually no clocks. Plus, my phone couldn't find service so I couldn't use it as a source of time. So I sat down on my computer thinking I could check my email and Skype some people and 10 minutes into using my computer it dies. Where's my power cord? In my checked luggage...fantastic. I was able to reach my lovely mother, however. I decided just to walk to my gate and hang out there and read until my flight boarded, but to my surprise I had the Amazing Race in my waiting room and on my flight. There were 7 teams of two hanging around being interviewed by the crew with their huge cameras and all. Lucky me I was the only one in the whole crowd they decided to interview! So I had two teams come up to me with their camera crew and talk to me about who I am, where I'm from, and a ton of other random questions. I had to fill out a release form so they could put me on TV and everything! Pretty crazy, right?
I landed in Zürich to find both my bags waiting for me which was such an answer to prayer! I walked through customs and had this grizzly looking man run up to me and give me a hug and then said, "You're Matthew, right?" Arnold is his name and he led me to the rest of the YWAM people so I could meet all of them and then he treated me to McDonald's: the home of the $12 McChicken value meal. How horrendous is that? I felt ashamed having him pay that much for me knowing I could get 12 McChicken sandwiches back home for this price! There are seven guys and two girls in our class, along with six staff members: two married couples and Arnold and another lady. So far, everyone is really cool and down to Earth.
Today has been a roller coaster ride of emotions, but I am happy to finally be here and I know I'm supposed to be here. Thank you all again for your prayers that got me here safely! I'll post pictures and a random video I took in Frankfurt tomorrow! Miss you all!