Life in Burtigny

Welcome to Youth With a Mission Burtigny! (aka the nunnery)

Hello everybody welcome to my school. This is a photo of the front of the base with my back facing towards Geneva, Switzerland. To give you a more formal understanding on Kevin's life in the missionary community I will answer the What, When, Where, Why, and How questions of my adventure.

Starting off with Where? Well my official address is YWAM, 1268 Burtigny, Switzerland. It is a small farming village located 30 minutes north of Lake Geneva and Italy. The base that I am staying at for the training part of my trip is an old orphanage/farm that was donated to YWAM over 30 years ago. The base's website is www.ywamburtigny.com if you would like more information.

Next we have the When? It's been almost 3 months since Nathan and I left Smithers to travel the world. He is flying back to Canada on Dec. 1st but not until he explores one more country in Europe. I won't tell you which country it is so his photos will be a little more of a surprise. On the other hand, as of Dec. 16th I will be headed toward the opposite side of the world, all the way to the capital of Rwanda, Kigali.

The What? This question is a little complicated, but please let me explain. At this very moment I am completing a missionary training school within YWAM call a DTS. (discipleship training school) This DTS is designed to train young adults in the area of ministry with a large focus on personal growth. Every week we have a guest speaker who teaches on a specific topic. The topic vary from relationships & communications to cross culture living & evangelizing. After this lecture phase our class will head into both Jordan and Rwanda as two teams to live out what we have learned.

My Great Leaders! One couple is Dutch and the other American.

Why, you may ask am I doing all of this? This is not a simple answer either. One reason I traveled half way around the world to learn about ministry is because I love to travel. YWAM has bases all over the world and even Canada. But I chose Switzerland because I love to meet new people from different countries and learn new things. Adventure is part of my nature and getting out of my comfort zone is very important to me. Lastly and most importantly, I really felt a call by God about a year ago to go to Africa and be a part of the solution there. I believe just experiencing the pain and hope of the people will deeply impact my life.

The room I share with 2 Swiss and a Chinese roommate.

How am I here? I owe most of the impact of my decision to do a DTS to my close friends that have already done the school in other countries. (you know who you are) But also from my family, who has supported my decision since I told them 6 months ago. Another source of inspiration was growing up in Smithers of who's occupants have support a orphanage in Uganda, and praying for Rwanda every night before dinner in 1994 when the genocide was taking place there. Its amazing how everything has come together and really lead up to this moment. I am very thankful for all of that. Well that just about sums up my life at the moment, but as most of you know it won't stay that way for long, so stay tuned.

-Kevin

The DTS classroom, where all that learning gets done.