In 1970, after spending two and a half years together with Springbok Stampede, a musical show with a message, in southern Africa, as well as completing my last two years of senior education with the travelling school, I was invited to attend a conference at Mountain House, Caux, in Switzerland.
What a place! I was awestruck by the beauty of nature all around me as I travelled to this enchanting international conference centre in the village of Caux - winding up the narrow mountain road, through the village of Glion, gorgeous wooden chalets that looked like they had come straight off a chocolate box cover, each with window boxes filled with flowering plants, and cows grazing in the lush fields with bells ding-donging around their necks.
I was shown to my room in a turret on the corner of this magnificent building which looked like something out of a Disney movie to me! Sometimes, with the windows open, the clouds would float in one window and go out the other! The view was breathtaking – down, down to Lake Geneva and the Rhone valley, and the mountains of the Dents du Midi in the distance.
While there I had my first experience of listening to my inner voice – nothing like a voice really – but a certain number of insights that I would not have thought up myself. This changed the direction of my life and helped to make the Christian faith I professed more real.
Why I write this is because I have just been looking at a fascinating 18-page document on the For A New World website. It is entitled A Historical Journey of Caux, by Andrew Stallybrass. It is not only very interesting text but also videos and photos of the early days of the conference centre. One particular video clip, without sound, really struck me – men hammering away with chisels at a concrete floor for laying important pipes and cables, others carrying dozens of mattresses into the building, children scrubbing tables on the terrace. I was struck by the sheer physical hard work of all these people to transform the former hotel and then refugee centre into a place of healing after World War II.
I feel very privileged to have visited this remarkable place a number of times, serving as a volunteer to cook and serve meals for participants to the conferences. Yet I knew very little of the history and background stories of how Mountain House, now Caux Palace, became the place that I was experiencing the fruits of. So, thank you Andrew for this enlightening addition on the For A New World website.
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