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in closure
My time at L’Abri is almost at an end. We will leave Monday morning; everyone has to
be out by the 10:05 bus. Vicki, Jill, and I were pondering the fact as we ate
lunch outside today that we’ve been here for almost two months. When I think of where I was when I came in…
and where I am now, the change has been tremendous.
yesterday, as an example of joy
Yesterday was a Thursday, our last Thursday at L’Abri. Our Thursdays are always wonderful because we
get a day off to hike and enjoy Switzerland. Yesterday’s Thursday by far topped the
charts.
We woke up early, dressed, and ate a hasty breakfast in the
kitchen. There was a fairly large hiking
group today: the regular group of Philip, Andy, Peter, Benjy, Jo, and I, as
well as Rachel, Vanessa, Matt, a new and wonderful girl named Anna, and Chad. We started off at 8:30 for the little ski
town of Villars,
a good hefty hike to begin the day. We
made great time and caught our bus at 9:28 up to Les Diablaretes. It was a stunning half hour bus ride up
through green valleys with glorious views of the snow-capped peaks. We could see fences high up on the mountains
to prevent avalanches in the winter.
We arrived in the little ski town near the mountain range
called Les Diablaretes, and from there we started off on a beautiful 2 hour
hike up to a cable car. The hike wound
alongside a rushing river, through a green valley, and up through rock and cow
pastures to eventually end at the cable car station. We talked about taking a dunk in the river, but
we realized we were heading up to snow and it was better to deal with wet
clothes one our way back.
The cable cars were as big as the cable cars on the London
Eye and just as classy. We took a
10-minute ride up to a high snowy peak and hopped on another cable car up to a mountain
peak. The view was stunning! At the very top we could see mountain ranges
all around, covered in a smooth blanket of pristine snow. When the clouds cleared—we were above one
layer of cloud and into the next one at 3000 meters—we could see all the way to
the Matternhorn, glistening in the sun.
We quickly discovered that there was much fun and games to
be had up at the top of the mountain.
The snow was so permanent that we saw a huge dogsledding team, skiers,
and even a snowboarding hanggliding contraption. This is July in Switzerland!
We also saw right next to the cable car station was a
state-of-the-art rollercoaster contraption leading about 1,000 meters down the
mountain, looping back and forth. We
explored further and learned that a ticket was only 6 Swiss francs and that the
thing you rode in down the track was actually more like a go cart fixed on a
track… and you could control it! Chad and I
decided to go together because it seemed like potentially more fun to scream
down the mountain with a companion and—boy oh boy—were we right. Chad
didn’t use the brake much and we SHOT down the looping track, at times sweeping
around curves so fast Chad
thought we’d go off the side of the mountain if the cart came loose. But it didn’t, and I screamed the whole way,
and everyone back at the station laughed at me screaming all the way down the
mountain. After that there was no
stopping me, and so Peter and I and then Benjy and I went down together. They both brought their cameras, so we have
some great shots, and for Benjy’s go I drove and he put his camera on video and
sat in front of me and filmed the whole episode. It was AWESOME.
After a couple of hours up at the top of the mountain and
MANY pictures later, we got back in the cable cars and rode back down. We took the same trail back through the cow
pastures and rocks until we got to the stream.
Peter, Benjy, and I were still keen to go for a swim, but the boys
wanted to get all the way to the waterfall to do so, which was quite a hike up
the rocky riverbed. We were already
pressed for time to make our bus back to Villars, but somehow we convinced
everyone to follow us up the slick rocks and loose shale to the base of the
waterfall. It was a tough scramble over
the rocks, but the waterfall was beautiful when we finally reached it! Benjy and Peter and I headed up the rocks to
right where the waterfall fell down.
Scrambling up the slippery last rock as liquid snow drenched me was
somewhat mind-numbing, but when I sat down at the top of the rock and looked
through the waterfall at the valley, I just screamed for joy. It was an utterly exhilarating moment. I’d cut my leg coming up and I was convulsing
with cold, but it was so worth it. We
got pictures of the three of us waving our arms in victory at the top. When we were finally done with all our waterfall
shinnanigans, it was late… much later than it should have been. Jo met Benjy, Matt, Peter, and I at the
bottom of the stream—still chattering—and told us we were going to have to RUN
to make it back to Les Diablaretes in time.
We had to make a 1.5 hour hike in 55 minutes. We broke into a run, jogging through a bull
pasture, slipping under a wire fence, sloshing through mud, and eventually
joining the trail we’d followed earlier.
I was running with the boys at the front of the pack, jogging around
tree roots and through slick patches of mud, keeping a fairly steady jogging
pace. I wondered how soon it would take
me to fall back, especially with my plaid backpack on my back and because I’m a
girl. But I kept up with them for all of
the 40-minute run, and I absolutely loved it.
We couldn’t talk, we just concentrated on where our feet were going
next, and I looped my thumbs through my backpack straps and ignored my icy
clothes and ran and ran and ran. It was
exhilarating.
We made it to Les Diablaretes just in time. Some people rolled in with just a couple of
minutes to spare, but all of us made the blessed bus. We collapsed onto it, some of us still wet
from the waterfall, too tired and too thrilled to say very much. It had been the most fabulous day.
We arrived in Villars with time to spare before dinner, so
we did some chocolate shopping (Migros brand Swiss chocolate at 45 cents a
bar!) and then hiked back down the mountain to L’Abri. I broke away from the group for awhile and
took a quiet trail along a stream down the mountain, praying out loud for
wisdom to close off my time at L’Abri and thanking the Lord for the absolute
beauty of His Creation. As I was telling
Philip on part of the walk back, one thing I have learned about here to an
exponential degree is how MAJESTIC Creation really is. I never fully realized before, and I know I
still have so much to discover. But my
time in the Alps really have put a great love
of the outdoors in my heart, and I have realized how passionately I love
hiking, running, and adrenaline rushes. J Where this will go back at college, I don’t
know, but I don’t want to forget the absolute joy of being out in Creation for
a full day, basking in the woods and streams and beauty. Brother o’ mine, ready for some Blue Ridge Saturday hikes in the fall?
a snapshot of now
I’m sitting on the green striped couch in the lounge,
listening to people talk about bringing Swiss cheese back to the States. Drew and his adorable girlfriend (and my
roommate) Ema are talking now to Leah (with her PhD in physics from Cornell)
and Margot (a vet from Australia). Ema’s sipping tea and trying to read Tom
Robbins as people talk; Drew and I just had a disagreement about the brilliance
of White Noise. Some people
headed up to Villars to sip beer and talk, other people are reading quietly in
bed, others are making music down in the library (Farel House), others are up
at the Targets talking and strumming a mandolin. A beautiful L’Abri evening.
Right now I know I am relationally exhausted and becoming
ready to leave, but it will be like ripping my heart out to hug everyone
goodbye on Monday. We’ve all been knit
closely together, and the core group of us who’ve been around for over a month
have invested hours of conversation, hikes, tears, musical compositions,
confessions, Mafia games, and cups of tea into each other. This entire month and a half has been a
blessing beyond a blessing.
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23
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