Lausanne Life

Let's begin with Swiss cheese and bread, shall we?

We've been in Lausanne, Switzerland at the YWAM base here for a month now.

Our home is on the southwestern corner on Lake Geneva.

Time flies. We are diving into the Gospel of Luke for 12 weeks. When I say dive, I mean like jump off the high dive so that you touch the bottom of the lake dive.

DAILY LIFE
We live in an old hotel, the first property purchased by YWAM 50 years ago.

The second floor window on the left belongs to the kids. No screens on windows. In charming Swiss fashion, we shut the green shutters nightly to give the pretense of bedtime. Chris and I have our little dorm room across the hall from them.

The kid's room

Our home with about 80 others students and staff.

Our room

I love how Europeans do bedding. A down comforter in a cover with a pillow. No flat sheet. This is the standard bed everywhere we've gone in Europe to date. This is also how the beds are made-the comforter folded on top. Simple. 

Yes, our beds are still separated. We do love each other, but after 14 years sometimes it's nice to go retro '50's and have one's own space for a summer. 

Proof we love each other in Freiburg, Germany. 

HOW ABOUT THE KIDS?

They are fantastic, for the most part. Clara tears up when she talks about Zoie (the blessed dog we left at home). 

Clara serving at the Montreux Jazz Festival at an outreach. 

Clara and Landon are the two who would prefer that life never change. They would be happy to stay at home with a predictable schedule surrounded by what they know and whom they love. Clara is a little more reasonable. She rallies the troops in her mind and mutters a reluctant assent, because how can one argue with the Holy Spirit? Landon takes more. 

I know, I know the sweet boy is seven-back up off him, Johanna. 

Landon & Chris in our Word By Heart Classroom.

Lily's about face was a pleasant surprise. The most resistant child (well, teenager) recently said she'd rather not go home. She loves the freedom she has here. She doesn't have to go to bed when the others do. She can stay in the common areas with the DTS students. She would rather be with them than with me at this point. This delights my heart. Hang out with me, or with 18-25 year old girls who traveled from around the world to passionately pursue Jesus? My vote is on the hip DTS chicks! 

Lily hanging out with the DTS girls in the Metro.

Painting during the Jazz Festival.

Asher? I hardly see him. I rouse him for breakfast at 6:45am. He eats with us while his motor warms up then he's gone until class. There is a lovely gang of boys on base around the same age as our boys that are having the time of their lives together. Any chance they get, they play basketball, ride bikes and scooters, and run around participating in anything classified as adventurous in their minds.

It seems he's either eating, running, or sleeping. Rarely sitting. Even while sitting in chairs going through the material I can see his legs revving up for the moment we are released for a break. 

SCHOOL

Our days are full. 

6:45-7:15a Breakfast

8:30-9:30a Community worship/prayer or similar gathering

9:50-12:30p Class

12:30-1:30p Lunch

1:30-3p Class

4-6p Clara & I Practical Ministry (housekeeping)

6-7p Dinner

7-8:30p Chris & Lily PM (Dinner clean up)

Side note: I love that work is called Practical Ministry, not Work Duty. Because all work holds the possibility to be ministry, does it not?

Lily super excited I took her picture.

Word By Heart is absolutely, ridiculously amazing. I've taken a fair share of Bible studies over the years, primarily inductive. WBH is a whole different camp of awesome. We spend about 20-24 hours a week absorbing about 7 minutes of text. We talk about it, study it, pray through it, share what we see, and take it on walks/runs with us. 

This school isn't like our DTS. Last year was this intense, blown-mind type of feel each week as our topics and speakers dug deep into our cores and uprooted the nonsense lodged in there. In one sense, DTS happened to us. We sat, while waves of truth and revelation poured over and into us. 

WBH doesn't just happen, there's work involved. Hours of reading, speaking, imagining, and praying  leaves us mentally exhausted by Friday. Although, we haven't had daily AHA! moments, I'm confident swimming in Scripture is changing our DNA. I don't think we are going to realize the impact until the dust settles from this one. 

Years ago, when our kids were babies, to say I was stir crazy would be an understatement. Searching for a productive outlet, I took up knitting. During those early years, you name it, I tried to knit it-skirts, sweaters, blankets, coasters, baskets (I don't sit well.). The first week here, the Holy Spirit gave me a picture-of knitting. It was of a sweater, fully knitted, but not yet bound off. The person took the needle out, but hadn't tied it fully finishing the masterpiece. He pulled the yarn and completely unraveled the entire sweater. Then, He made an altogether new garment. 

I think that's what God is doing here to all of us this summer. I just don't quite know yet what He is unraveling and what He is making. 

One of the leaders here who travels the world teaching WBH with her family has shared with us countless stories of breakthrough, healings, and revelation that have happened while her students soak in God's Word. Then, today, one of the current students shared two things with Chris that he's experienced so far. 

First, up until this school, he literally had no imagination. He's in his forties and has never been able to picture things, or imagine pictures when people are talking. All he hears is words. Not anymore. He can now picture what is being said. His first pictures were of Scripture. 

Secondly, God completely healed his knee from an accident months ago. He was sitting in class, struggling with a topic. Once he resigned to do what he needed to do, the Lord told him, "I'm healing your knee." In faith, he went for a run after class-5 km. The next day-40 minutes. No pain. One of many stories. 

By the way, YOU COULD DO THIS. Word By Heart is one of the few YWAM secondary schools that does not require the completion of a DTS. It is taught at multiple bases worldwide-Florida, Montana, Hawaii, various SE Asian countries, Nigeria, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, Australia to name a few. We are here for 12 weeks. However, you can sign up for just 1-2 weeks if that is all your schedule permits. I would suggest at least two in order to get a feel for the rhythm of the method. Alone, or with your family, you could dive into Luke, Mark, Ephesians, or James. Check out this site and dig around a bit if you're interested https://www.ywam.org/results/?yst=0&GO=true&category_id=7&search_string=word%20by%20heart

Well, that's all for now, Sweet Friends. Much more to say-but I just can't seem to articulate it. So I'll leave you with another picture of Swiss cheese and bread (because we are eating A LOT of it). 

I already ate the chocolate. Daily. Thank God for elastic. 

Running beside you,

The Kennedys

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