Euroadventure Stop 5: Bern, Switzerland

 We arrived in Bern off the train early afternoon on Saturday. Waiting for us on the platform was the smiling, familiar face of our much-beloved friend Brad. Man, was it good to see a familiar face after so long! And so refreshing to speak Canadian again, too.

Brad's working and studying with YWAM in a small town called Wiler outside Bern, so he toured us around town for a bit before bringing us back to Wiler for dinner and beds at the base.
Bern is one of the three largest cities in Switzerland, even though it's less than 400,000 strong. No city in Switzerland, not even famous ones like Geneva or Zurich, has half a million people. The whole country is about 8m, which means that they're really evenly distributed and many of them live in quite small towns. By all accounts the Swiss enjoy a really high quality of life, and Brad showed us all the pretty and impressive things, but he showed us the dark side of their prosperity and where the gospel is still needed in a place like this.

These gardens were all spread out behind the Parliament buildings

Ironically, even though we were still just a stone's throw from the capitol buildings, this park is a major hub for the Bern sex industry. Brad's team is working on issues of social injustice and so he had a wealth of information on the subject of the dark truths behind Bern's smiling wealthy facade.

This gorgeous river runs through town, and we took a very nice stroll along the river bank. it was nice to breathe fresh air again.

Along the path by the river were a whole bunch of these things: workout and gym equipment with little signs showing how to use them. As if joggers are meant to stop to do some parallel bars before continuing their routine.

When I saw this I could hardly resist snapping a photo. We haven't been to Amsterdam yet, and already European attitudes towards cannabis were showing themselves. The laws there are similar to the ones in Canada, but I guess relaxed enough to allow pot drinks in vending machines. My question: why are the labels only in English when the Swiss speak German and/or French?

 On Sunday, Brad took us to an international church in Bern. He and his fellow students/missionaries usually go to the English service, but since it was Easter the English congregation was doing a joint service with the German and French congregations that use the same building. The result was a multilingual, multicultural worship experience like I've never been in before. It was so cool to sing songs you know but in words you don't. Singing worship in German, praying in French, hearing teaching in all 3; it was quite an experience.
After service, we and Brad's team were invited to the English pastor's cottage out in the country for Easter lunch. I got a few more shots of the beautiful Swiss countryside and we got to meet some really really cool people doing ministry in this place.

I think it's safe to say we enjoyed Bern and Switzerland way more than I thought we would. I thought it would be nice to see a friend and take a break on our way back to the UK. Instead we were encouraged, refreshed, and invigorated by the beauty and the energy of the place we were in. It was awesome. If any NCCFers reading this haven't been keeping touch with Brad, fire him an email. The work he and his team are doing is really awesome and I'm sure he'd be happy to tell you about it if your ask.