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After being silent for about 6 months I decided it was about time to let you know what is up in my life!

APC (Advanced Principles of Communication)
October - December 2002


This school was probably the most challenging school I have done with the UofN so far. During the school we looked at different issues that the world is facing and learned to view them critically from many different angles in order to not just give simplistic answers that come predominantly only from a moral viewpoint. The workload of the school was very intense and I was really challenged with it. Each week we were required to collect articles on 10 different issues that were at the forefront of the media. Towards the end of the school all the students wrote several papers on those different issues using all the articles we had been doing assignments and focused on what a Biblical solution might be to those issues. You can find those articles [here]. It was a great time of learning and being stretched in what I thought was right and wrong and finding out that there often is more to an issue than just a black and white answer. It was a fun group and a lot of my friends that I had met previously in the year attended the course.

FLS (French Language Seminar)
February 2003 - 6 weeks

After spending Christmas and New Year at home I went back to Burtigny in February to learn French. Yes you heard right - me who failed both French and Spanish at Highschool actually went to a French language school without being forced too. I was really amazed by how much I was able to learn and realized that sitting down and learning vocabulary (which is how they taught at Highschool) just didn't work for me. The French school was very practical, we had a lot of interaction with the people in and around Burtigny and were able to apply what we learned straight after class. I was amazed by how much I learned in only 6 weeks. Since I've been living in a French speaking village this is a great way to be able to get involved in the life of the people around me.

CBVM 2003 (Communication and Biblical View of Man)
April - June 2003 / this time as staff


After the FLS I decided to staff this school working together with Jenni who was my own CBVM school leader last year. CBVM is one of my favourite schools and I would recommend it to anyone in YWAM who wants to begin or continue an awesome process of discovering how to communicate more effectively on many different levels. This process brings up a lot of issues within oneself regarding communication towards others, oneself and God. As staff on this school, I had a great time and learned a lot about leadership, public speaking, teaching and time management and sometimes crisis management as well.
I was able to become more comfortable using my giftings in teaching and speaking before people. It was also great to be on the staff side of things for the first time within YWAM. I got an inside view of how to run a school and all the work that goes with it (and boy it's a lot!). Also being able to influence others in a staff role, having part in different students' lives and seeing them change and mature during 3 months has been really cool and a privilege for me.

Knowfest 2003 - the present
Right now I am on staff of the Knowfest in Burtigny. It's basically the same teaching as in the APC but more condensed and in seminar form. It's targeted towards working professionals and other people that don't have the time to do a whole 3 months course. So this is a 4 week seminar that anyone can join for 1 - 4 weeks. The first two weeks are Landa Cope's Teaching on Old Testament principles of life (www.ottemplate.org) and her critical thinking model. The last two weeks are mainly personal study and discussion times on a topic of interest. I am really looking forward to doing some of my own studying and research during that time.
Landa Cope is the director of the training center here in Burtigny and through her teaching I've found out some amazing things about what God thinks about sexuality, voting, the judicial system and tons more. I've also been really excited that my dad was able to attend the first week of the seminar. I had a good time showing him around letting him see what I do everyday down here in Burtigny and just spending time with him.  

The future and Rachael
The future is something I have been thinking about a lot since the beginning of the year. One of the reasons I haven't communicated in a while is that I always feel uncomfortable sharing things that are still in process. Partly because I am afraid of being wrong or just need to be in control of it all - so bear with me as I work through this. Coming into Youth With A Mission I had my studying down with the University of the Nations, College of Communication - or so I thought. During the past year I have been rethinking a lot of things regarding my future and specifically questioned my decision to study design.
I realised that the reason I mainly chose this area was because I was comfortable with it and didn't know what else I would be good at. But through doing the CBVM, APC and other things over the past year, my thinking has totally changed. I found that I have a gifting in public speaking, teaching, researching and writing. Wanting to stay in the UofN I looked for different degree tracks and decided I would love to do the B.A. in journalism which would give me more specific training in these areas of my gifting and a good foundation for the future.
So then I came up with this other fantastic plan to finish my degree by 2006 and then after that hopefully finding opportunities to work and influence the area of education. I had it perfectly planned out to the last detail - my next 20 years seemed secure - and then it happened. Another glitch in the perfect plan... I hadn't made room for anyone else!

Rachael came along and my carefully thought out plan is again being transformed. Actually she has been in my life since last July when she came to Burtigny to be on staff and study. Since then we started developing a really good friendship and soon became best friends. We hung out a lot and enjoyed discovering this area of Switzerland together. Then on one hot and sunny day in April we finally shared honestly with each other about how much we loved our friendship and decided to take things further by starting a more serious relationship and we have been going out since then. It has been a great process of getting to know each other and has challenged me in many ways. Something weird happens when another person just walks in and becomes part of your small little universe. Suddenly the choices you make don't only affect you but often have a direct impact on someone else - makes you think about what you are doing a lot more. So I would say it has been a very fun time of learning and growing and allowing her into my life more and more.
Trying to figure out my future wasn't all in vain though - I have accepted the fact that my very German detailed plans probably won't work out the way I had put them together - but it gave me a real sense of where I would like to head in the future. No I can't say that I have the full picture but what I do have is and idea and a passion to start with. By hearing Landa Cope's teaching several times this past year it was interesting to figure out what God says about education, family and government. I want to influence those domains and possibly get involved in developing education systems in developing countries.

Not by taking our western idea of education to them but looking at what forms of education are already in place that are effective and building on them. I don't believe it will help developing countries if we bring our industrialized form of education to them that only focuses on giving knowledge. I would much rather see the family and community keep the responsibility for educating, teaching not only the knowledge but also values and imparting a sense of identity and value in their children which we have lost to a great part in the western world. To be honest I have no idea on how to get there but it sure does motivate me to get going even though it probably will look a lot different then what I am thinking about right now. I am also really excited about how Rachael compliments me in this vision and passion and we have been getting excited about how we could possibly go on this journey together. We will keep you updated on how things develop in our relationship and what we are planning on doing. I don't want to go too much into my thinking for the future yet as this email is long enough just trying to catch up on what has been going on this year.

Thanks for your interest in what I am doing and for your friendship. Hope all is well with you.
Many greetings from Switzerland
Andy