Pics: Switzerland L'Abri Adventures

L'Abri (Pronounced: La'Bree) was where I found myself for a few days in Switzerland.  I was so thankful to be able to stay there.  It was a large chalet, with about 20 young adults (mostly from the U.S.) living there for 1-2 semesters, taking a break from life to investigate their Christian beliefs.  
They had responsibilities and there were full time staff living there, helping with maintenance, raising their own families, and living in near-by chalets.  I had lots of fun meeting all the people who were staying there.  We went on night walks and played "attack" games, where we would run ahead, hide in the woods just off the path, and then when the group came by, jump out and scare everyone.  I was really good at being a stealthful Indian.  :)  Then on the walk back, a few of us made up a game where we were pretending to be walking through the woods during WWII, trying to avoid the Germans, and our parents had all been killed.  It reminded me of a book that my dad read to us when we were young, The Silver Sword.  

The students had study time every day, where they would 1) attend a lecture about a certain topic (eg; religious beliefs engaging science, or redemption) led by one of the staff  2) study for three hours on their chosen topic, taking notes, to write up a thesis about it at the end of their stay (eg; women in the church, the nature of God, the Holy Spirit and His role, etc.... basically anything that they wanted to study, that they had been confused about or had questions in their minds about).  They had a really extensive library for all their topics; shelves of audio recordings of all previous lectures and rows of books on all kinds of spiritual subjects.  

We went for walks to the local village, and I was so glad we did, because one night, I rode the bus up from the waterfront and the bus driver didn't understand where I wanted to get off, so we passed it.  I had no idea we did, because it was dark, and I was still new here.  We rode all the way to the top village, where I had been on a walk before, and remembered, kind of, how to walk back to the Chalet.  I talked with the driver before getting off to check that he wasn't going back, no he wasn't this was his last stop, and then the bus parked for the night.  I prayed, and got off into the dark night.  I started walking back down the road, knowing that it would be about a 20 minute walk.  There weren't any street lights as I got away from the town.  I saw a place up ahead that reminded me of the short cut we had taken before, so I prayed about it, and started walking across the hill, away from the main road.  About five minutes into my walk, I realized that it was really dark over here, and that I would have to know which turn to take, and I wasn't so sure.  I prayed about it and thought, "Ericka, what's smart?  What should you do?"  Well, I thought, the smartest thing would be to go back to the main road and walk down it, and it would eventually wind down to the Chalet.  So that's what I did.  I hadn't walked 20 feet back on the main road when I heard a car coming behind me.  I prayed, "God, please let them stop to pick me up."  (We were in Switzerland, and I figured that in these small villages, it would be very safe to hitchhike, compared with other places I had been.)  A nice black car drove around me, and then pulled into a driveway up ahead.  Hmmm.  Maybe they're turning around.  The car stopped and a lady got out of the driver's side.  "Do you need a ride?"  I couldn't believe it!  They were stopping for me!!  I jogged over to the car, and the lady asked me where I was staying.  I said, "L'Abri, its a Chalet just down the road about 5 minutes."  "We can take you there."  Thanking her, I got into the car.  I didn't feel scared at all.  This was God's personal provision for me, and I knew it.  A man was driving, and I thought it was nice that the wife had gotten out to ask me, so it wouldn't scare me.  I found out they were from America, and had two daughters in their early twenties, and the dad had seen me on the bus.  Oh!  I remembered him.  I had smiled at him and a few other people as they got on the bus.  He said my smile told him that I was a nice girl, and so when he saw me talking with the bus driver in the last town, and looking confused as I got off and began walking down the hill, he thought of his two daughters and how he would want others to help them if they were ever in need.  So he got off and got his wife and they drove down to find me.  If I would not have gotten back on that main road right when I did, they would have passed me, and I never would have received their help.  God is beyond amazing at how He coordinates taking care of His children.  I started to get tears in my eyes thinking about all of this.  He really was my Daddy, taking care of His little girl.  I thanked the couple for helping me and told them about how God was taking such good care of me through people like them.  Then said a prayer for them and their two girls - praying for God's blessing for them.

I got to go paragliding over the Alps while I was in L'Abri.  Again, it was an amazing provision of God.  The one day that we could go, the weather was spectacular.  The next day it snowed, and stayed cold until I left.  I was scared at first, again thinking, what if I die?  How will I pay for my medical bills?  But there were three other girls and one guy going, so I thought, if they're doing it, then I can too.  We rode in a red van to the site on the hill where we would fly from. Two Swiss guys were our guides.  That made it much better.  They would be going with us.  

They spread out two huge rectangular parachutes on the grassy hill.  They asked who was going first, and two people volunteered.  I decided I could go at the end.  They got their harnesses on, one for the customer and one for them, that were hooked to the parachute, then they started running down the hill, with the chute dragging behind.  Then wind filled the chute, and it rose up above them, and all of a sudden they were flying!  They floated quickly and effortlessly over the drop off and out over the trees and down into the valley below.  When it was my turn, I got harnessed in, and then we started running, and then, my feet just lifted off the ground!  It was amazing.  (I thought we were going to have to jump off a cliff for the wind to lift us; it was much easier and less scary then that; we were on solid ground, and then the wind picked us up off the hill.  I consider it to be a 1 out of 10 in terms of scary-crazy things to do.  Skydiving alone was a 9 out of 10.  I really think that a grandma could do paragliding, if she had someone running with her.)  

We floated out over the valley; and it was like "flying in a painting" like one of my friends said. The mountains were glorious, the valley full of fields and vineyards and towns.  I loved it!!!

Switzerland is my favorite country.