THIS TIME FROM FRANCE

This time I am reporting to you from France, we arrived here at the WEC HQ on Rue de Mulhouse in Illzack, France last night just in time for the evening meal. But, right now, I want to tell you about our time in Switzerland, where we spent 3 days with the staff there. It is a sending base responsible for around 100 missionaries around the world; it is slightly smaller than the Canada Base. The building is a bit smaller than Canada but the number of staff is considerably larger. They have recently acquired another house, the same size, across the St. and now would be as big as or even bigger than the Canada HQ. The staff are wonderful and friendly people who, without any reluctance, held all their meetings and sang all their songs in English just for our sake. We spent individual time with many of the staff getting to see what each person does; it is a well-organized operation with each person doing one specific thing.

Getting to know everyone took up a large part of the first day but Markus (the administrator) took us around from office to office and made sure we moved on in a timely fashion as each person was so willing to share what their duties were and to try to understand us and Canada SB, as well as what Gateway is all about.  The second day we ventured by train in to Zurich and wondered around the old part of town there. Now if I have anything to complain about in Switzerland it would be that they have special prices for everything, I mean really special prices. At McDonalds a fish filet cost 9.90 Swiss franc which translates to $11.58 CDN. That is for the fish filet sandwich, not the meal with fries and drink. We looked in the windows of stores at the prices of things, like a watch, that’s a thing you wear on your arm so you can tell what time it is, for 64,000, a hand bag for 8,600 or a pair of shoes for 820. Yes, we quickly realized we were in the wrong part of town, but then we found out those prices were normal. My heart broke each time I had to spend a Franc because they are so special. Ok, Erwin quit complaining, get over it, bite the bullet, and buy a hot dog they are only $9.00.

We caught a boat and went up the Zurichsea (a very large lake or a wide spot in the River Rhine) to a town called Rapperswil where once again we climbed to the top of another hill to see another castle. We also saw a museum that was established in 1736 which means, the museum itself would be older than anything in Canada. From there we caught the train back to Ruti and the Headquarters. The next day, after we did a short presentation at the afternoon prayer meeting, we drove here to France and so after a few photos I’ll bid you Bon Voyage till next time.       

God Bless. With love

Erwin & Gail

WEC House in Switzerland

The Swiss Alps from our belcony

Fun in Zurich

Less fun in Zurich

These were the cheap ones. I don't know why you would need one, just look up in Switzerland and you will probably
be looking at a clock and it will probably be ringing or chiminig or making some form of racket

The boat on the Zurichsea

Just for you Shirley

OH look a castle on a hill, How unique

And up to another castle on the hill It would have been so much eisier if they had  built them down at the bottom
What were they thinking

The old and the new

More Alps

On the road again