Villigen Convention Switzerland 2012

Old friends, new friends and a realignment of values.

The clump of trees in  middle

For readers not familiar with our faith, our church has annual conventions throughout the world where we can get together for 3-4 days to listen to the experience and wisdom of our missionaries both national and internationally. In Switzerland they have 3 conventions and we were invited to attend the convention at Villigen.

This convention consists of around 200-250 people from all ages predominately from the German region of Switzerland There are actually 4 distinct regions to Switzerland each with their own language and cultures. German, French, Italian and Romania. .

Because we are in the German region of Switzerland, German was the spoken language but we had English translation for us ignoramuses who do not understand German via a wireless system to our head phones.

The missionaries were predominately from Switzerland but included people from South America, West Africa, USA, Germany and Scotland to name just a few. The venue is held on a person property where their garden has become tent city. There is a meeting tent, a dining tent and accommodation tents although some are sleeping in the garage and others in the loft. The kitchen is a converted shed and they bring in porto loos for ablutions.

Catering is a communal effort

After the convention everything is packed up and the people have their garden back.

The old friends were Donald Campbell, Graham Snow and Mike & Adele McBeth. Mike is currently working with the NZ  Olympic Tri-athlete team in France as an Osteopath and came across for the day..  

The people were extremely welcoming and we leave with friends, memories and inspirations that words cannot describe.