The Switzerland FamilyLife ministry began in December 2004 at the EXPLO conference in Basel. The emphasis was on equipping married couples and laying a foundation for pre-marrieds. They recruited couples to be coaches for pre-married couples.
The FamilyLife staff has grown to three full-time people and four Swiss Campus staff couples as conference speakers. They have marriage conferences called “Ehe mit Vision”–Marriage With a Vision.
The conferences create great interest in starting or being involved in small group studies on marriage.
Comments from conferees:
“My husband could not be motivated to attend a marriage seminar for 20 years. Now he is very enthusiastic.”
“The talks were never boring, all of them full of good information and touching the heart.”
“Now I am open to the Holy Spirit. For the first time I feel free to pray with my wife.”
FamilyLife Switzerland has a partnership with the Alpha Marriage course. “Der Ehe-Kurs” is a secular, church-based marriage course. The format is similar to basic HomeBuilders. There was a one-day seminar that trained couples to lead this course. There were 300 people in attendance representing 19 denominations.
The huge number of attendees and the solid effects did surpass our expectations. “Der Ehe-Kurs” bears the signs of an uncontrolled movement. God is recruiting couples to help others in their church and neighborhood. We are glad to contribute to this development by training people and supplying material in the German language.
–Hansjôerg Forster, Director of the FL team in Switzerland
Their strategy is to develop a pre-marriage conference by using associate staff to reach the local churches. They have trained 24 coaches!
Mr. Forster said, “We are not called to lament the disastrous state of marriage and family in our society, but to build up strong relationships as models of the power of God.”
