seetal chile Poscht 07-08/2025

Dear friends of the seetal chile

by Matthias Altwegg

Some time ago, I came across a social media post in which Granit Xhaka, the captain of the Swiss national football team, spoke about his ongoing motivation: "My father never praised me. Never. In 32 years, there was no praise for me as a footballer. I tell them: My motivation is that the day will come when he tells me: 'You played well today, without exception." A "Yes, but..." is typically human. In contrast, we can be certain of a full "yes" from the heavenly Father. "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed among you through us, [...] was not Yes and No, but in him Yes happened" (2 Corinthians 1:19 SLT).

This unreserved yes to the followers of Jesus is the basis for a healthy identity, for the powerful path of sanctification and the full certainty of salvation. God's "yes" is rock-solid and cannot be shaken by anything.

The human Yes-but can - as in the case of Granit Xhaka - be a strong driver for an extraordinary willingness to perform. Many other people are broken by the lack of an unrestricted commitment from their earthly father. However, it is not the path of freedom if someone still has to prove themselves in adulthood and perhaps unconsciously seeks the unreserved yes of the father.

And so there are many other experiences in a person's life that prevent them from fully developing or keep them in bondage: Injuries caused by authority figures or sibling constellations, negative imprints and experiences from childhood, injustice experienced, abuse, rejection, guilt, etc.

Every follower of Jesus is entitled to the full yes of the heavenly Father. The "Living in Freedom" course from Campus for Christ aims to initiate a process of healing in our lives so that we can accept this yes and allow it to spread in our lives. When this happens, we will find great freedom through a healing process. The driver for outstanding "achievements" is then no longer the search for the full "yes" of the Father, but the love of God.

"You are called, dear friends, to live in freedom - not in the freedom to give in to your sinful inclinations, but in the freedom to serve one another in love" (Galatians 5:13 NLB).

Course "Living in Freedom

The path to freedom remains a lifelong task. The "Living in Freedom" course, which we are offering in autumn 2025 at seetal chile, has the potential to initiate or drive forward a healing process in your life. Over four evenings and one Saturday, you will have the opportunity to begin to become aware of things and address them. The course gives you the opportunity to become aware of pent-up, repressed or still unconscious issues. You are cordially invited to join this adventure. Find out more and register? See blog.seetal-chile.ch!

Experiences with Jesus - an invitation to share

Once a month, we celebrate a special evening service in which a person tells us how they experience Jesus in their everyday life - in highs and lows. These personal accounts are always moving highlights in church life and are highly recommended.

We would also like to include more of these testimonials in the morning service in future. These contributions should be registered in advance and follow the principle of the three C's: concise, concrete, crisp - with a maximum duration of three minutes.

Anyone who would like to share a personal experience with God but does not dare to go on stage can also record their contribution in advance in our video studio. The video will then be shown during the service.

Your experience with God can be a great encouragement to many! If you are willing to share it with us, please get in touch. We look forward to it!

Burger family, Central Asia

Dear seetal chile

What do you associate with saying goodbye? The oppressive feeling of giving up something you have grown to love? Tears? Fear of the unknown? Or rather the anticipation and excitement of what is to come?

We have been living in Central Asia for several years now. During our time here, we've been able to get to know many great people and we've put down roots. It is super interesting to live in a different culture, to share God's love in different ways and to be part of society. One downside of our life, however, is that saying goodbye is an integral part of it. This is not always easy for all of us, but especially not for children. They get to know new people all the time, are happy about it, start to build relationships and ultimately have to say goodbye again, sometimes sooner, sometimes later. Especially now that the school year is coming to an end, we are preparing for Switzerland and our short-term student is flying back to Germany, there are always one or two tears. We endeavour to say goodbye and consciously say goodbye to people and places we have grown fond of so that we can wholeheartedly welcome new people and places. But the challenge remains and reminds us that, thank God, this world is not our final home.

Speaking of welcoming, we are looking forward to coming to Switzerland from the fifth of July until the end of August and hopefully seeing many of you. On the 17th of August we will have an event at seetal chile at 13:30 where we will talk about our work and our heart.

We look forward to seeing you!

Jonas, Judith, Ilai, Alya, Jemina and Delaja

If you would like to subscribe to the Burger family newsletter, please contact Stephan and Sabrina Sager on 079 784 49 06.

Our finances

by Christoph Leimgruber

In the month of May, we were able to experience a great sign of generosity: an incredible CHF 63,000 was raised! Thanks to this overwhelming support, we were able to make up a significant part of our shortfall. Many thanks to everyone who supported, prayed and donated - we are deeply touched and encouraged by your faithfulness and solidarity!

Information in a nutshell

Until now, there has been a short summer break in the evening services, with none in July. From next year, we will extend this break a little and stop in June. The reason is that it can already be quite warm in June and people don't want to be lured away from the lake.

Our "Friendship with vision - invest in your love relationship" day is taking place for the third time on 25 October. This day is aimed at newly in love and couples who have been together a little longer but are still a while away from marriage. A special focus will be on communication as the key to a healthy and strong relationship. The crowning finale is a candlelight dinner for you as a couple. You can find more information and the registration form on our blog.

Info about people

Yanick Altwegg, responsible for multimedia at seetal chile, will be spending the period from 12 July to 6 October in Asia with his wife Steffi.

The following people have responded to the call for Kinderhüeti and will be joining the team with immediate effect: Sarah and Shania Michel, Nia Burger, Nora Hefti and Scarlet Krauer. There is a change of leadership in the home team of FiA (Friends in Field Service); namely Sabrina Sager the staff of Tirza Zürcher. The audio team gets Désirée Geissmann Growth. Stephan Sager will be taking over as Kigo leader in the summer and leaving the bistro team at the same time. Susanna Staehelin has been writing our blessing and baptism certificates for some time now. They are real works of art.

The following changes have been made to the cleaning team: Elke Kramer ends her service, Patrick Hugentobler starts as a new employee. In the Cleaning specialist group Carmen Stamps the space previously occupied by Marcel Schmid had held.

Tobias Probst and Yanick Altwegg end their activities as leaders of a Lifegroup. The two groups are now organising themselves independently. Lea Fischer and Rahel Gloor are also stepping down as lifegroup leaders. Hanna Plüss takes over this women's group. The new Lifegroups are organised by Timon Altwegg and Seraina Staehelin managed.

For the agenda

From 22 to 25 May 2026 finds our Community Weekend in Bad Schussenried will take place. Why don't you reserve this date so that you can join us when we spend time together as a church family? This is a good opportunity for people who are new to seetal chile to familiarise themselves with the group - and a good opportunity for old hands to get to know new people.

At 16 August at 14:00 the ecclesiastical Wedding of Nicolas Baur and Tamara Stumpf in the town church in Lenzburg.

At 21 August a day trip takes us to the Emmental. In addition to culinary moments in the restaurant and at Kambly, we will visit our former pastor Tabea Inäbnit in Konolfingen. This excursion is organised by the Generation+ team, and people of all ages are invited!

At 30/31 August the now traditional glow Youth mountain weekend will take place.