New Season

I've decided to resurrect this blog after a multi-month hiatus. Over the past few months, there were many times when I told myself I wanted to start writing again but I'd never take the time to actually do it. I think I have avoided keeping this blog going for a couple different reasons:

1. I get lazy. Sitting down and taking 20-30 minutes to create a blog post is something I usually enjoy doing. I like writing my thoughts down and adding pictures and links and creative elements and posting it for people to see. However...there are also times when I think it just isn't worth it. I base my decision on the fact that I know many people won't read it and most of the content isn't actually important. But even if it isn't important and no one reads it, I still want to update and post regularly. I want this to be a sort-of journal where I can get my thoughts out and write about things I find interesting.

2. I'm too organized. I want everything in order, in a list and sorted. When it came to creating a blog, I seemed to want the same thing. I was so focused on my blog being organized or having a sort of theme that I didn't write or post whatever I wanted to. I couldn't decide if it should be a sports blog, or a food blog, or a photography blog, or a spiritual blog, or an entertainment blog, or any other random category - so I just stopped. The truth of it is that I'm interested in a ton of different things and I have opinions about many different topics. After all, I'm the type that follows college basketball recruiting on television while reading Water for Elephants (BTW - very good story) and drinking a homemade Tazo Chai Tea Latte. I want to be okay with having a post about what I think the Bible is saying in a certain verse, then having a post about why the Atlanta Braves should get another relief pitcher, and then another post about a recipe I tried making for dinner. I don't want to put myself or this blog in a box or try to organize it.

So here goes...the new blog. Some serious. Some sarcastic. Some light-hearted. Some educational. Some intense. All interesting - for me.

Le Chocolat

I have some serious chocolate updating to do! I'm living in chocolate capital of the world (I don't care what Belgium says) and I've been trying tons of different kinds of chocolate, but I've been terrible about writing about it. There is quite a variety of chocolate to be tried here and I've even sampled some other Swiss & European specialties.

The Japonais bar was a bit of a let down from the expectation I had when I found it in the store. It's milk chocolate with Japanese-style honey cookie crumbles and creme as a sort of filling with the chocolate. First, I have no idea if there is anything Japanese about it. Second, it basically tasted like Crunch bar with better milk chocolate. Okay for flavor but rather disappointing.

The Europeans love their chocolate with nuts. (Insert crude Europe joke here). The milk chocolate filled with pistachios was very good, but VERY sweet. The milk chocolate is already sweet and there is a caramel-y filling along with the nuts. I think pistachios are probably an acquired taste, which I happen to like, but I probably wouldn't give this one as a gift.

Nothing flashy or fancy about the Splendor bar - just high quality milk chocolate. It was creamy and full of flavor and had great texture. Eating milk chocolate like this makes it nearly impossible to go back to a Hershey bar.

I think it's impossible to come to Switzerland and not have a Toblerone bar at least once. I had the classic bar of milk chocolate with honey and almond, and I finished this one quickly. Normally, I'm not a fan of honey and chocolate, which is popular here, but the almonds add some saltiness to keep it from being too sweet.

In terms of major Swiss chocolate companies, I think Lindt is the best Switzerland has to offer. Fortunately for us, there is no shortage of Lindt products in the U.S. And yes, a Lindt Chocolate Truffle is just as magical in Switzerland as it is at home.

I was intrigued by chocolate filled with champagne truffles and ended up being disgusted after one bite. It had Champagne in the name, it smelled like Champagne, and somehow I thought it wouldn't taste like Champagne. Genius. The worst thing about this bar was that it tasted bad even after I swallowed it. I ended up giving away most of it to some people who were big fans.

I have a new favorite chocolate chip cookie. Nicole made this one night for an event we were having and they were AMAZING. The cookies were thick and they had big chunks of chocolate in them and I think I had about six. The best part about these babies - she's making them again tonight!

We stumbled upon a high-end chocolate shop in Geneva a couple weeks ago and were blown away with how fancy it was. It was a very tiny store and there was only one person working but they probably had a hundred different types of truffles. The employee put on a satin glove before touching any of the chocolate and everything was very precise. It was way out of our budget, so we got the smallest piece of chocolate we could find - milk chocolate with pistachio. It was delicious and you could tell it was very high quality. The flavors would fill your mouth as you chewed and it was something where you literally savored every bite.

Nicole surprised me with treat from the grocery store. I don't know anything about Movenpick, but they seem to be the Haagen-Daaz of swiss ice cream and they have many bizarre and creative flavors. We got the Swiss Chocolate flavor and it met my expectations. It even has shavings of chocolate blended in to add some texture.

God bless the French. We spent a day in Annecy, a French town near Geneva, and sampled as much of the local cuisine as we could. We knew we couldn't go to France and not have a crepe - so we stopped at a street vendor and got a nutella crepe, a grand marnier crepe, and a gauffre, which is a heavenly French waffle that is covered in powdered sugar and tastes like a funnel cake. I pigged out on the gauffre and Nicole liked the nutella crepe so much she went back and got another one.

Ovomaltine seems to be the European version of Chips Ahoy or Oreo. Nothing special - although it might be good in a Blizzard or milkshake. Someone notify Dairy Queen!

Apparently, this is the Swiss drink. There is no shortage of Coke in this country, but Rivella is more local. It's a carbinated drink that tastes similar to coke but has a citrus sort of flavor to it as well. It's not bad - but it's also nothing special.

I bought this at the store but I haven't opened it yet. I've had it before at the Coke Lounge in Epcot and I think I remember liking it. It's a type of Coke that Coca Cola sells in Europe and it has an orange flavor to it.

There's many more crazy things I've tried but I think that'll do for now. Looking forward to trying some South African food in a few weeks!

I-C-Y-U-R that way!

In our class this week, we are talking about personality types and how people interact in groups. It is to help prepare us for the outreach phase of our program and to figure out the best ways we can function in our outreach teams. In order to identify our personality types, every one took the Myers Briggs Personality Test and we received our results today. According to the test and it's terms, I'm an ISTJ, which means I'm an introvert, who works through my senses and feelings. Our results included a lengthy description of what a person with the given personality type usually acts like and some of the points stuck out to me with how accurate they are:

-"usually have an offbeat sense of humor"
-"They're not comfortable with breaking laws or going against the rules. If they are able to see a good reason for stepping outside of the established mode of doing things, they will support that effort."
-"They resist putting energy into things which don't make sense to them, or for which they can't see a practical application."
-They are not naturally in tune with their own feelings and the feelings of others. They may have difficulty picking up on emotional needs immediately, as they are presented."
-"Likely to be uncomfortable expressing affection and emotion to others."
-"Have difficulty understanding a theory or idea which is different from their own perspective."


And according to the test results, I share the same personality type as Clint Eastwood. Just what I always wanted!

Here is the link to take the test if you're interested: Personality Test. It really is quite interesting to see the results and see how it affects our interaction with other people.

Hi Bear

In my Bible reading from this past week, there was a verse from Proverbs that stuck out to me as both awesome and profound. Proverbs 17:12 says, "Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly." I think there are times when we breeze through the Bible because we know the big ideas and we think most of the Bible is basically saying the something - love God & love others. It's true those are the main things we are commanded to do, but there are so many other great principles God wants to reveal to us through the Bible if we are willing to look for them.

How great is the image of a bear being robbed of her cubs to show the danger of a situation? After watching a disturbing amount of Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel in the past year, I can tell you that a mother bear being separated from her cubs is not a pretty sight. Some of the most vicious attacks on humans have occurred when people accidentally came between an adult bear and her cubs. It's believed that nearly 80% of fatal bear attacks come as a result of a bear protecting her cubs. If the mother bear senses a potential threat to her young, she will attack the threat and usually won't stop until the threat is completely destroyed.

So try to picture being attacked by an angry animal that weighs over 800 lbs and is over nine feet tall when it stands upright! And the Bible says it is better to be in that situation than to associate yourself with someone who is being foolish and making unwise decisions. Wow! When it comes to thinking about the people I want to spend time with, I usually make that decision based on who I like, who is funny, and who do I have a good time with. The issue of whether or not that person is making wise decisions usually isn't a big deal unless I think their decisions will affect me. The problem is, their unwise decisions and unwise actions will affect me because their character will have a subtle influence on me. As I continue to meet new people and find myself in new situations, I need to continue to remember the angry bear protecting her cubs.

Sacrifice

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing, and perfect will." 

Romans 12:1-2

I don't know if there's a verse I've heard more in the past year. It's a favorite verse of our pastor and it seemed like he tried to include it in every sermon we ever heard him give. It was painted on the wall of a random church we visited in Haiti. And it was referenced in our school during last week's teaching on sin and repentance. The more I hear this verse and reflect on what it says - the more it challenges and encourages me and the more I want my life to be a reflection of this verse.

We aren't really sure why God led us to Burtigny. There can't be more than 300 people in this town; this is a small YWAM base; and everything is primarily French. YWAM has many other bases around the world and I don't know why God led us here instead of one of the hundreds of other bases. Yet, we made the decision to offer our lives and our time to God and trust him. We had other plans that probably would have been easier but we knew we needed to make a sacrifice. Living in Switzerland at the foot of the Alps isn't a huge sacrifice, but living on a base with 30 other people and having little independence or "alone" time has been a big adjustment. Yet, I am beginning to see the verse in Romans 12 being experienced in a practical way.

There is no conforming to the pattern of this world here. The biggest shopping we get to do is visiting the grocery store on Saturday afternoon. The only TV we watch is an occasional movie. The reading is mainly the Bible and an occasional extra book. And there is little talk about making money or buying things because none of us have any money anyway. It's easy to not conform to the pattern of the world because living in Burtigny feels like we're in a different world.

As we've been here, it feels like it has been an opportunity for God to transform our minds. We have been able to focus on reading God's word and have had many conversations and heard different points of view on who God is. And through this process, it feels like we are testing God's will for our lives - his good, pleasing, and perfect will. So as we try to figure out why we're in Burtigny, our hope is to continue to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God and he will reveal his good, pleasing, and perfect will for bringing us here.  

My Life is a Box of Chocolates

I've had a tough time adjusting to the food here. We went from choosing our own food and having the freedom to be really picky and really healthy to eating food on a base. Lots of starch, lots of red meat, very few fruits and vegetables, and lots of butter and oil. It's tough to shop at the grocery store because everything is very expensive and it's hard to tell what you are buying when everything is in French. However, I have decided that I won't miss the opportunity of enjoying the chocolate while in Switzerland. Swiss grocery stories have entire aisles for chocolate and there are all sorts of chocolaterie shops where you can try different things - so I'm going to try as many as I can! Here's some of the stuff I've sampled so far:

I picked up the equivalent of chocolate pudding at the grocery store - and the Swiss have this stuff figured out! It tastes like a Frosty from Wendy's and it's rather cheap. 

This is actually a brand of chocolate from Latvia. The company is called Laima and someone gave me a dark chocolate bar with hazelnut - which goes great with a shortbread cookie.

This next one is the Nestle brand that's sold in Switzerland and it's called Cailler. Nestle's headquarters are based in Switzerland and I tried their classic milk chocolate bar. Very good and very similar to the milk chocolate from Ghirardelli.

When we were in Nyon today, we stumbled across an awesome chocolate shop called Rapp. They had an amazing selection of pastries, truffles, and chocolates, and I couldn't resist trying one of them. This was a chocolate mousse cake with white chocolate shavings. It was a great mid-afternoon snack and it reminded me a lot of the chocolate mousse from the Cheesecake Factory.

The latest addition to the menu is a Caramel Milk Chocolate Bar. The brand is Frey, which is considered to be one of the most popular and best value in Switzerland. I haven't tried it yet but I have high hopes for this one.

I'll be sure to update when I try more different flavors and brands!

Choices

My Choice

by: Bill McChesney

I want my breakfast served at "Eight,"

With ham and eggs upon the plate;

A well-broiled steak I'll eat at "One,"

And dine again when day is done.

I want an ultra modern home,

And in each room a telephone;

Soft carpets, too, upon the floors,

And pretty drapes to grace the doors.

A cozy place of lovely things,

Like easy chairs with innersprings,

And then I'll get a small TV -

Of course, "I'm careful what I see."

I want my wardrobe, too, to be

Of neatest, finest quality,

With latest style in suit and vest,

Why shouldn't Christians have the best?

But then the Master I can hear,

In no uncertain voice, so clear,

"I bid you come and follow me,

The Lowly Man of Galilee."

"Birds of the air have made their nest,

And foxes in their holes find rest;

But I can offer you no bed;

No place have I to lay my head."

In shame I hung my head and cried,

How could I spurn the Crucified?

Could I forget the way He went,

The sleepless nights in prayer He spent?

For forty days without a bite,

Alone He fasted day and night;

Despised, rejected - on He went,

And did not stop till veil He rent.

A man of sorrows and of grief,

No earthly friend to bring relief -

"Smitten of God," the prophet said -

Mocked, beaten, bruised, His blood ran red.

If he be God and died for me,

No sacrifice too great can be

For me, a mortal man, to make;

I'll do it all for Jesus' sake.

Yes, I will tread the path He trod,

No other way will please my God;

So, henceforth, this my choice shall be,

My choice for all eternity.

The following poem comes from Making Jesus Lord by Loren Cunningham. The poem was written by Bill McChesney, who was an American missionary to the Congo. McChesney wrote this poem before he left for the Congo and was killed in the Congo uprising in 1964. He was 28 years old.