|
Dear Friends, It is now nearing the end of January. We are three weeks or so into our winter term and it definitely feels like winter. We are in the middle of a snowstorm as I write this letter. It’s getting to that point in the term where students are starting to feel more and more comfortable with each other and with us as workers. It is now that we start to get to know people a bit better. At the beginning of each winter term we have a number of students with us from Calvin College in Grand Rapids Michigan. They come for their interim break and are able to get credit for their three weeks here. This year we have had 5 students with us. They are just coming to end of their time and it has been a pleasure having them with us. In March we will have Dr. Mark Fackler from the communications department at Calvin here with us to give a number of lectures. We look forward to his visit. As many of you already know, Claudia Reich, who has been working in Chalet Bellevue for the past 3 years or so, has left us and returned to Germany to pursue other interests. She is missed and we wish her all the best in her life back home. Dave and Anna Freidrich have moved into Bellevue to fill Claudia’s position. Dave has been working here now for a year. He and Anna were married this past summer and have spent the fall term living in Chalet les Poulet. Anna is currently a helper and her and Dave, together with Kay Stiefvater, are running the house. Kay has now been working with us since the fall. We have appreciated all of the workers who have begun in the past year. Karryn Goldsworthy has also been with us for a year. We will soon begin the application for a work permit for Karryn. Please pray with us that this all goes smoothly as this process can be quite difficult. In terms of students, we seem to have another good group. We currently have around 25 here. We are full for this term and next term. We are already taking bookings for the fall term and even some for 2005. Greg and Lisby were remarking the other day that they have never seen the demand like this. As usual most of our current students are from North America but we have a couple of women from New Zealand, 3 students from Korea and the first Scotsman to come along since we’ve been here. Once again we have a fairly large number of students who are struggling with their faith or have lost it completely. Over the past couple of terms we seem to be seeing more and more agnostics or outright atheists. Some of the more common questions have to do with the problem of evil, and questions about knowledge, pluralism, and post-modernity. There are also quite a few students with deeply personal questions. We have a couple of students right now who have experienced immense suffering in their lives. A couple of other students are focussing their studies on Eastern Orthodoxy and Church history. While the questions are often similar to others that we hear, each student brings a fresh and unique perspective to them. It keeps things interesting here. Jim and Gail Ingram are continuing their sabbatical. They have been off since July and will be off until this coming May. Their presence has been missed but we have managed with a bit of extra help and by reducing our numbers by a few. Our numbers will continue at this level for the next year or so because next fall and winter terms Greg and Lisby will be taking their hard-earned sabbatical. My parents, George and Laura Bradford have been here twice in the last two terms to help out. They have spent the months of September and January here. George has been preaching and they have contributed in terms of cooking and hosting meals as well. Their help has been appreciated. We have just come through a rough year financially. There were a number of months where we took pay cuts and some others where we just scraped by. We feel blessed though because at the end of the year we were able to purchase a couple of much needed washing machines in Bellevue. We were also able to have the kitchen floor re-tiled. These two things were becoming growing concerns. This fall though, an electrician told us that Chalet Bellevue was in desperate need of re-wiring. Switzerland is starting to insist that all homes are inspected and each needs to be up to certain electrical standards. Bellevue will not be close to reaching those standards when our time comes. The electrician that pointed out our need said that it would likely cost CHF 20 000 per floor to bring us up to code. For those of you who have been here you know that Bellevue is 4 and a half floors high. Please pray with us that we are able to come up with a solution to this problem. One other concern that we have has to do with the learning of French. Most of us who live here do not have a very good command of the French language. It can be very frustrating when dealing with life outside of the L’Abri community. My wife, Karen, and I find it especially difficult when trying to deal with our children’s teachers and other parents. Not being immersed in the French speaking community makes it harder to learn. A number of us here take or have taken lessons but without having to use it every day the progress is slow. We are praying for some sort of solution to this. Life here is good. God continues to bring interesting and challenging people to our doors. He continues to guide us in our work with each one of them and we continue to see the reality of Christian truth manifested in changed lives. I would like to thank each of you for your continued interest in this work and would ask each of you for continued prayer as we are approaching the 50th year of L’Abri’s presence on this mountainside. In Christ, Richard
Bradford |
 |
