Week 4: Diving Deep!
We started this week with another Sunday morning in church. We enjoyed spending time in prayer, worship, listening to the sermon and getting challenged. Every week we meet new people and get to know them while drinking coffee and snacking cookies.
Sunday afternoon we prepared for our next tramp. For dinner we had another delicious journey – this time our Swiss French teammate prepared a meal for us.
Monday morning, we started early for our three-day tramp. The weather got a little bit rainy this week but didn’t cover our good mood. We know: “There is no bad weather, only different types of good weather.”
We spent the nights in two different huts. There first one was very crowded and the second one very small so a few of us decided to stay outside. Sleeping under a tarp was a great experience even though we had to share our sleeping bags with sandflies. We met a lot of people during our tramps and in the huts as well, so we had the opportunity to talk to them about our faith and what we’re doing right now in this discipleship training programme. Some of them were quite interested and we keep praying for them.
Some of us described this week’s track as the hardest one so far. Challenging not only in a physical way; we had a lot of deep talks and reflecting time during the hike. That shaped us as single persons as well as a team.
When we arrived at the second hut, we decided to take a quick bath in the river next to our campsite. Starting the campfire afterwards in the rain was one of our highlights this week. Beside that we had the opportunity to improve our card playing games.
After three days of tramping, we arrived at the large property of an older Christian couple. The next day’s we stayed at their home and enjoyed the simple life completely off the grid, they live. Our barns were in the midst of goats, sheep and deer. In the evening even some sheep came to visit us. We appreciated the hospitality and a copious amount of delicious meals and great homemade cakes made by our hostess.
During those days we were diving deep into our study, debriefing the questions from the tramp, and reflecting. In this Christian leadership training, we learn a lot about ourselves and how we act in certain situations. That helped us to improve our leadership skills and to understand group dynamics better. This week’s study was about the Holy Spirit and how he shapes us while living in us. Reading about the early church made us think about the importance of prayer, worship, sharing bread and living in union for the first Christians and for us today.
Having home church this Sunday was a great opportunity to meet new people and to see how they live as a different kind of church community. Each of our team shared a little testimony of what we learned on OTG so far to encourage one another and the whole home church.
Monday, we returned to basecamp, ready for what God planned for the days ahead.
We thank God for the time together as a team, everything we learned this week, our healthy feet during the tramp, challenges and growing through them and the great nature we saw.
Thank you for all your support in prayer!
Please keep praying for us:
-Our OTG Team van is still in the garage and getting repaired
-Health for all our team members during the next hike
-God challenging us, helping us to progress and reflect everything we learn and experience
-That we can enjoy and value every single moment
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Written by Jeannine (Switzerland) & Nele (Germany) on behalf of the entire Off The GRID Team