Chocolate, Cheese & Jazz

We joined a team of 100 people from 20 nations in Switzerland for outreaches at the 51st Montreux Jazz Festival. This Regeneration outreach began 10 years ago by a small team from YWAM Lausanne and has grown into a powerful presence at the Jazz Festival.

From July 2-15, 2017 we shared the love of Jesus with people from all over the world. Our team played music, danced, unicycled and acted on 3 different stages throughout the festival, all along beautiful Lac Lèman where vendors and buskers busied crowds.

The original "stage" of Regeneration is next to the Bible Kiosk which is a permanent fixture in Montreux and open year round. The driveway to the Euro Hotel right in front of this Kiosk provided a nice open space for our performances. We were interrupted only occasional by a car driving into the underground hotel parking. We also sometimes had to work around handicap vehicles parking in the nearby spots.

TrEd making noise for Jesus.

The Covered Market, or Marchè Couvert in French, is the other venue we presented in each night. At the end of the length of the festival, and elevated just off the beaten path it was difficult to draw crowds at times but the roof did allow us to continue performing and sharing even on rainy days.

    

MoMo the Eskimo wows crowds with her unicycles, too!

During the middle weekend of the Jazz Festival we were able to use a great stage out in the thick of things where we drew the largest crowds.

Luzanne lighting up the skies with her ribbon dance.

We personally had the privilege of meeting and praying with many families vacationing from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, a lady from Egypt, a clown from Italy, Syrian refugees, local Swiss people, a couple from our hometown Edina, guys from New York, England, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Russia, to name a few.

Throughout these 2 weeks, our team gave out 120 Bibles in many languages, distributed refreshments, prayed with 325 people, painted faces, manned bouncy castles and much more. The best part was that almost 40 people prayed to surrender their lives to Jesus for the first time! We are so thankful for this amazing opportunity to share God's love with so many people and we pray seeds scattered will turn into much fruit.

Let's Festival!

2016 was the 50th annual Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux Switzerland. For the 6th time, we joined YWAM Lausanne for their Regeneration outreach 6-16 July 2016. For 10 evenings in a row, we presented the UniShow along side various other creative means, sharing the Hope and Love of God with the world who came to the Festival. The setting was along beautiful Lake Geneva. This year we had 2 performance areas and thankfully one was a stage under a huge roof so the 4 days it rained and stormed, the show could go on!

We shared the stage with a number of bands, Korean fan dancers and drummers, a stomp/dance team, dramas, and a fellow unicyclist who was developing her act for the first time. It was fun to see our new unicycling friend launch her performance ministry dream on her birthday during this outreach and even greatly improve over just a few days. She was inspired by how Dustin integrates his skills and sharing his faith.

Beautiful Korean Fan Dance.

trEd Dance team.

Our new unicycling friend.

Not only did our group perform, but some from our team handed out refreshments and offered prayer. Since there is very little geared for children at the festival, another group had kid's activities and were able to share God's love with them and their parents.

We were able to connect personally with a few people after shows. One guy from Vietnam who lived in Denmark talked to us for a long time sharing his different beliefs and listening to ours. We were able to give him his first Bible.  He said receiving it was the highlight of his vacation. A lady came up to us with tears in her eyes, amazed that we had come from all over the world to perform for free and share the hope, love and freedom God offers. We were told that 2 girls prayed along with Dustin during one outreach as he led a commitment prayer to surrender their lives to Jesus!

Throughout these 10 days, thousands heard the Good News that Jesus saves and we know many people were impacted.

Dustin tried to blend in with a group of 50 Alphorn players who walked through our performance area.