I had a great time in Switzerland. Its really a crime not to come to this country - they have done so much to make life easy. Switzerland is a unusual place. The people have a down-to-earth mountain-people feel to them, and yet they are incredibly structured and organized. Imagine Beverly Hills in the Appalachian Mountains, and you get the picture. Visiting Switzerland is like a trip to the chiropractor - you find yourself getting aligned, adjusted properly, re-calibrated to the invisible Grid of life that Switzerland does so well in making visible.
The Foursquare Europe Team made me feel very welcome and embraced. Check out the gifts in my hotel room! They also gave me some glass napkin holders and were constantly asking me what they could do to serve me. I felt like a king! One thing that hasn't changed about Pentecostal denominations is the language of gift-giving - they are fluent in it.
They also gave me permission to be myself - to speak how i wanted to, without doing my preacher voice. So i talked casually, invited participation, read some poetry (sTorm) with the visuals i have been working on.
Marc and Kathy Shaw were the people behind the conference and they did a tremendous job. 21 countries were represented and all were taken care of. Marc and Kathy are leaving Europe to pastor a church in Hillsborough, Oregon. It was obvious that their 16 years in Europe have built an incredibly strong ministry and many will be sorry to see them go. But go they must, and there will be reward and rest waiting for them.
I got invitations to many cities - Kosovo, Belgrade, Tirana/Albania. Dang - where will i get the time?
For those of you asking, the background music from the presentation was "Where is the Love" Black Eyed Peas (instrumental version) and the Swiss coffee time video at the coffee break was produced by my friends at the Fuse Factory in Lausanne.
Those of you I talked to about blogging - Typepad.com and blogger.com are the places to start. I recommend typepad if you dont want to get your hands dirty with html code and blogger if you would like to save some money and learn some computer language.
Reinhold Scharnowski came to visit me on Sunday on his new vice - a Triumph bike that he shares with his son. We went for a walk in the hillside and got a little lost before we found the trail again. So nice to see him again.
