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.

Swiss Bliss

The 44^th Montreux Jazz Festival on Lake Geneva has come to an end. Dustin performed several times each evening during our 10 day outreach with YWAM Lausanne. His finger is healing nicely (praise the Lord) and didn’t hold him back for long.

The Gospel was shared at each presentation by Dustin and Heartbridge (YWAM Kona Hawaii’s Creative Outreach). Even though the audience was very fluid during this type of outreach, we know many heard the clear message that Jesus saves and brings hope. We had the opportunity to pray with people after the events, many on holiday from the Middle East. Katie connected with a local Christian girl who was a God-send and provided translation as they together talked and prayed with people.

As we were loading the van one evening, someone was holding Dustin's 10 foot uni straight up in the air preparing to load it when a couple young local unicyclists rode by! Needless to say, they excitedly came over and through translation, visited with Dustin. They came back to the festival several evenings following to show their amazing trials skills and watch and hear Dustin in action.

Please pray with us for all the seeds that were planted among the large audiences and the individuals with whom we shared Jesus. We pray He will take these seeds and multiply and grow them!

What a treat to work with YWAM Lausanne again! Their hospitality, love and passion for Jesus, encouragement and inspiration is some of the finest around. We felt like we were serving with family. Thanks God and YWAM for another great Regeneration 2010.

Check out the YWAM Lausanne site for videos and recaps of each evening outreach. If you can only watch one video, watch Day 1, but we welcome you to see them all and even join YWAM for this outreach next year!

For the love of Switzerland

Due to God's great provision, we are in Switzerland again for Regeneration 2010 at the Lausanne YWAM base doing outreaches at the 44th Montreux Jazz Festival. Beginning July 7, each evening we have performed and shared Jesus in Montreux on the promanade of Lake Geneva along a mile stretch of vendors and various activities. We are sharing the stage with Heartbridge from YWAM Kona Hawaii for an exciting evening of eye-catching entertainment with a purpose.

During Dustin's act on Saturday, he caught his finger between the chain and chain ring on his 6 ft. unicycle. Even with gloves on it was a bloody mess yet after a quick wrap with duct tape and through God's strength, he was able to finish the show and still powerfully share the gospel message to the large crowd gathered.

The vendors near our performance area along Lake Geneva have to endure our crowds and music each evening. Dustin felt led to build better relationships with our “neighbors” and after set up one evening, before the rest of the team arrived, had the caricature artist sketch him, and the hair braiding ladies braid his beard. During the shows from then on, he told the audience that he wasn’t going to pass a hat after his performance but if people really wanted to give, to give to our neighboring vendors and he thanked the vendors for putting up with us.

It was encouraging for the whole team to later find out that, unbeknownst to Dustin, the YWAM leadership prayer meeting that very morning had sensed that God wanted someone to get their picture drawn by the caricature artist and promote and thank them during the shows. God is moving and speaking!

Check out the YWAM Lausanne site to see for yourself videos and highlights of Regeneration 2010.

Switzerland - Jazz and Unicycles

Our ministry at the 27th annual Montreux Jazz Festival continues. We have had a great stay at the very first YWAM base ever established and have thoroughly enjoyed partnering with the team here.

We have one more night of outreach before we pack up and fly back home tomorrow morning. Each evening Dustin has drawn large crowds during his 2 or 3 shows. Though the audience is fluid, most people have stayed to listen to Dustin's testimony and the gospel he shares in between his riding. We know many seeds are being planted and God's Word will not return void. We have had many great conversations with people after the shows with people searching for the truth. We pray that God will keep working in thier lives until they surrender to Him!

Even when Dustin is not performing and all the unicycles are lined up, it is amazing how many people will stop and look at them and take pictures. This gives us the opportunity to talk with them and give them a card with Dustin's picture and testimony.