Cedric, sfc European Direktor berichtet:
A new season, a new European Season Opener
And boy what a fantastic edition it was! Not in the ways you would think at first, because if you think of it, it was an absolutely crazy experience for most of us! But nonetheless, in my eyes, it was a successful edition and definitely one to be remembered for a long, long time! Let me tell you what happened ...
So the Euro Season Opener is the official SFC kick-off for the Europeans (aka the Euries), where we gather Christian snowboarders and skiers, and their friends, to a glacier in Europe to gather in fellowship, worship, prayer, and shredding. The goal is to reunite after a long cold summer and to catch up with old friends, and make new friends amid the snowy Alps. It's where we look ahead into the season and share about the weekends, camps, and conferences that are happening and where we addres the needs we see throughout the winter.
This year we were blessed to have a couple of our favorite partners attending: Unbound SRS, Altitude Mission, ACTS, and Livex. Each of them represents the vision and mission of SFC in a unique way. These are great organizations and you should definitely look them up and try to visit their events!
Ah yes, but what made it such a crazy experience Cedric, you ask, well, as has been the case for the last Season openers, we are blessed with a big fresh snow dump mere days before the opener, only this time, it was literally the wednesday and thursday of the opener that so much snow fell in Europe and on the Swiss highways that all of us who arrived on thursday, one way or another, got stuck in blizzards on the highway, advancing at a rate of 50 meters per hour, or driving between 30 and 50 km/h on other roads. Some of the participants even decided to sit out the storm and spend the night wherever they got stranded. Luckily all of us arrived in the end without any accidents, praise!
For the location of this year's opener, we returned to an old favourite, the Glacier 3000, where 5ish years ago the season opener was also held, but where the mountain was closed for a full day because of high winds. This year, same old, same old, but we were prepared this time! And wa had a backup plan, and what was supposed to be our first day on the slopes became a day at the thermal baths. The next day the glacier was open but only one slope and one lift, bummer, nevertheless we made most out of it and kept spirits high!
The real reason I picked this glacier was to be as close to the France as possible, to give the French a possibility to come together and to experience a Season opener, and with a fifth of the attendees belonging to the french division, the weekend was demeed a succes to me and I loved to see them togetehr, and to bring their unique and warm personalities to the season opener!
A mes amis montagnards je dis merci beaucoup pour votre participation, votre chaleur et vos couers!
Keep us in your prayers, and as always, be a light on your hill!
Cedric - SFC Europe
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