November in a Nutshell

I have really been a slacker about updating my blog this month but here is just the highlights reel of all the great things that have gone on this month!

Wine tasting near Nyon on Lake Geneva. We got to walk through some beautiful scenery on a not too cold fall day! There was also a little train that you could take from place to place-my favorite part!

Looking through the vines down toward the lake and mountains

Le petit train!

Our group

I love trains!

This month our iCafé was Thanksgiving themed. As the American, I had lots of work to do! We also got pies and other food made for us by people in the local church which was really great!

Together with Brandon, another American, we were dressed up as pilgrims to tell the Thanksgiving story.

All the desserts that people made for us!

We whipped some cream!

on the tables we had people write what they were thankful for

Hello, students! 

Raclette is a traditional Swiss meal and I got to try it for the first time this month.

The special raclette set. On top you can fry meats and on the bottom in the little pans you melt your cheese.

Then you put the melted cheese on whatever you want-but usually potatoes!

Bon appétit!

The Christmas markets have begun in Lausanne!

Keeping warm

And sometimes, just for fun we take advantage of just being in Lausanne.

chilling in Ouchy

That's right, we can spell!

Water you turned into wine

Psalm 34:8 "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him."

"Everyone who drinks water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life." ~Jesus, John 4:13-14


Just a taste, that's all the wine they splash into your glass. They want to entice you to buy. Because a taste is never meant to be all that you have. You are supposed to taste, find that it's good, and then lay down the money for an entire bottle. That's what wine tasting is about for the vineyards. For us poor students, it's about getting free wine (well, we had to pay a small fee) and perhaps visiting the countryside of Switzerland. 

Jesus talked a lot about wine. From his first miracle of turning water into wine to his great example of "I am the vine," he used an example that his audience could relate to. However, he knew that wine doesn't completely satisfy thirst the way water does. That is why he uses water to demonstrate the life-giving good news. 
So many people "taste" Christianity. For some, it perhaps makes them thirstier, but for others they are immediately turned off. They say that they prefer the red to the rosé but the white is ok for you. But, fortunately, Jesus is not like wine, he is like water. Water is necessary for survival and it's something which everyone has a taste for. Jesus is for everyone. That's why he came to die so that we might live.