Ben’s Blog

Beachen, beachen, beachen! Mit diesem Camp sprechen wir ambitionierte
Beachvolleyballspieler/innen an. Ob du dich für die kommende Saison
einstimmen oder für Beachturniere vorbereiten willst - du wirst bestimmt auf deine Rechnung kommen!

Während den täglichen Trainingseinheiten kannst du unter fachkundiger
Anleitung deine Technik und Taktik verbessern. Aber auch das freie Spielen wird nicht zu kurz kommen und zum Abschluss kannst du das Gelernte in einem kleinen Turnier anwenden.

Nebst dem Training wollen wir aber auch das Meer, den Strand und die Sonne geniessen. Zudem wollen wir Gemeinschaft mit anderen Menschen erleben und über Aussagen der Bibel nachdenken.

Weitere Infos & Anmeldung hier:

http://www.athletes.ch/index.php?option=com_eventlist&Itemid=70&func=details&did=117

If you haven’t seen this you should watch it. Get yourself inspired by this “sermon”!

This was the post Tanja wrote before I came to see them:

“Once upon a time we went to New Zealand, did a DTS and had an amazing time, got to know God better, learned more about ourself and met lots of wonderful people from all around the world. Tomorrow one of them will arrive here at Herrebøkasa — we are so looking forward to hug you again**”

While I’m writting this I am sitting on a train in Norway travelling from Halden to Oslo and then to the airport to catch my flight back to Switzerland.

Since Thursday night I was here in Norway visiting Paul and Tanja with Naomi and Benjamin. For those who don’t know them I met them in New Zealand and since then we stayed in touch and visited each other every other year. It’s really interesting to follow the phases of a persons life or in this case of a couples/families life. The first time I visited them in Norway there was just Naomi… a little really cute baby girl. Half a year later they came to visit me in Switzerland, Naomi a little bit grown up but still a adorable baby. Now two 2 years later it seems that lots has changed! Benjamin has joined the family, Naomi a 3 year old lovely young lady! J But what really encouraged me was how faithfull God is. I remember the last time we saw each other we prayed that God will lead them in the next steps so that their vision can come true.  (It’s their dream to have their own house with lots of land around and to have a place where people can come and rest, find peace, get refreshed and encouraged in what they do, so basicly to open up their house for anybody and to serve other people!) To see how God has been leading them and starting to fullfill their dream… it’s just awesome! Living in their own house, close to the woods and and and… GoGod!

So here is what we did during my stay: We went to the beach, had a bbq in the woods, me and Paul went on a bicycle trip (I mean thats a “must do!”), went to church, played with the kids, went shopping, went on a prayer walk and got to see Naomis kindergarden. It was all about sharing life… just at a different pace I am used to… I can honestly say that this is a place where you can find peace, new encouragement, refreshment and way more! Thank you Paul and Tanja for opening up your house and having me these couple of days! It was such an encouragement and blessing! How awesome is it to have friends all over the world you can share life with, going through different stages of your life, praying for each other and seeing each other every once in a while! It’s such a privilege to know you Paul & Tanja!

Hope to see soon!!

Hugs! Ben

Last week I was attending the ESTL (European Sports Leadership Training) in Altenkirchen (Germany). The training was ment for people who want to lead sports ministries or making a difference as sports people AND christians in this world. One of the big questions I had in the beginning of this year was how to bring the passion for sports and my believe in God on the same page. What does the bible say about sport? Does God want me to do sport? How can I make a difference as a christian when I do sports?

We started with Genesis 1:1 where the Bible talks about how God created this earth, then how he created man in his own image (V27) and put Adam and Eve into the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it (Gen 2:15). Then the fall and the consequences that came along with that. Fortunately the story doesn’t end there. We then went through Romans 12 where Paul encourages us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices - this is your spiritual act of worship (Rom 12:1), not to conform to the pattern of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind (V2).

So in Gen 1 God created us in his own image. God is a creator so are we! God is creative so are we! God gave us bodies to move to do crazy twists, to run fast, to jump high, to kick a ball far and and and! God created sport when he created us! God actually loves sports! He is totaly into it! The “problem” is just that we are all fallen people and non of us is good! Let’s be honest our sports world is pretty much corrupted! Money, drugs, doping, hatred, anger and so on. The question is now how can we make a difference? Read Romans 12! It gives you a lot of answers! Living sacrifice, act of worship, be transformed… God wants us to do sports and to worship him with sport! We can make a difference when we are transformed by the renewing of our mind. Sounds kinda easy… it is… and still it is not! (at least for me…)

During this week I understood more and more that God created me as an athletic person on purpose! So he wants me to do sports! Doing sports also means to be in relationships with other people. Opponents, team mates, referees, mentors, coaches… How do we live in these relationships? Do we live them according to Romans 12:9-21? (it’s all about love) I’m honest with you: I don’t do that all the time! I never saw Romans 12 in perspective of a sports person. So I’m on the way to learn how to put that in action! I might write another post later on this year to let you know how Romans 12 practicaly changed my sports live!

You might asking yourself what the heck has this post to do with the title “A Vision”… Lots! Let me explain this:
In the beginning of the ESTL week I prayed to God that he would give me a dream, a vision, a picture, a word or just something that I could hold on and that would specify my call for sports ministry I believe he put on my heart in the beginning of this year (I mentioned that in the post “What a Week!” earlier this year).

It was the very last session! Danno Graham talked about Timothy 4. It’s all about team building, getting hurt when people desert you and on the other side how people are going for the cause! “If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far go together!”

While pondering on the words Danno has just told us I got a very clear picture in my head. I’ve never had something like wise. It was so real, so clear, so self-explaining. And that’s what I saw:

We talked about team building and the next moment I get this picture of a swiss map with people holding each others hand across the land! How awesome is this! I just knew that God is going to build up a group of people all across Switzerland who have the same passion: God & Sports! They are going to use synergies, resources, connections and and and! I’m so excited! How this is going to look like… I don’t know yet! God knows and I’m sure he will reveal more details as we walk close to him!

Are you passioned about God & Sports? Do you want to start a sports ministry at your church? Do you feel called to work with sports people? Do you get goose bumps while reading this or does your heart beat faster than usually? If yes I think we should get in touch! You might be a part of this team across Switzerland! We want to make a difference in the sports world of Switzerland as genuine christians who are not just reading the bible but putting  in action the principles the bible talks about! Let’s go hard for this cause! It’s worth it!

To get in touch with me write me an email on: 4u ‘at’ 2beni.ch.

Hope this post was either inspiring, challenging or encouraging! BB!

Although the weather forecast for the first week of August 2011 wasn’t too good for the Engadin it turned out that the computer models weren’t too accurate because we were blessed with awesome sunshine, warm temperatures and just a few drops of rain.

Starting of with a nice trek up to the Languard we enjoyed the first day of the camp. Then on Monday we got our bikes ready and fighted our way up the hill. Tracks and more can be found on my runtastic account: http://runtastic.com/de/users/Ben-Schroff. A flowy, fast and really enjoyable trail downhill made the day perfect! The next day I played tennis in the morning and then we rocked the beach court in Pontresina in the afternoon. Wednesday was a “recovering” day… hm… playing games in the morning like a crazy version of “Völkerball” and Baseketball wasn’t that relaxing… but fun anyway! Cause we had not enough of playing beachvolleyball we went again the next morning. Then I managed to do a 7a climb in the afternoon which actually surprised me! I haven’t been climbing for ages! But it made me happy! Another bike trip was on the program for the next day and then it was already Friday afternoon… and time to get the bike movie clip ready for the evening! All in all in was an awesome week, tons uf fun, good people & inspiering! Also the spiritual times were challenging & inspiring! Especially the one about “Flow” (held by Flo :-)! So the word “flow” was the word of the camp! And… more is to come! I’ll post this next month… I’m planing on a Beachvolleyballcamp in autum 2012 as a project which is a part of the SBS (Sports bible school) with AiA. If you are interested in taking part in this new camp send me an email and I’ll keep you posted on that personally!

If you want to get a little impression of our bike trip watch the clip and enjoy!

Watch it in full screen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frdJwW9IPAE

How about that? Nice weather, freaky trails, hiking up a mountain for like 1h with the bike on your back, 2000 meters of pure downhill in one go, chilling at the lake, having fun with my brothers family and enjoying the time with a good friend of mine? That was on an extended weekend in June 2011 at the Lago di Como in Italy. Just about a 4 hour drive south from where I live you can find this beautiful spot of earth. Im telling you right a way: Finding the trails is not a peace of cake! You often think: Yeah that looks sweet (which it really is!) but after some 500 meters of altitude difference you realize that you just hit the dead end of this trail. Because it sucks to climb up all those meters you just rocked downhill the only option is to cross the forest horizontaly and to hope to hit another trail pretty soon. Unfortunately the maps are not as accurate as the ones we are used to have here in Switzerland so that was another challange. The easiest way to get around in this area is with a GPS though.To give a little impression how it looks like down there we took some clips while riding. Sometimes it looks pretty steep on one or the other side of the trail but don’t worry that’s only because of the wide angle cam I used for those clips.Hope you enjoy the clip and if you wanna see more of those just come back later this year. Im sure I’ll catch some other runs!

Watch it in full screen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NXRkp57EYA

This has never happened to me before: 41 days on my skis in one winter season! WOW! 15 of those days I rode only off piste. The seasons kickoff was actually already on October 29th a beautiful day in Les Diablerets on the Glacier 3000! Then I completed my first J&S course in December, some days riding in Engelberg and Davos and teaching at a school skiing camp were the activities over new years and in the beginning of Januray. Scroll down a bit an read the post “What a Week” to get an impression of the week with AiA in February. And there was still more to come! The ultimate Freeride Week in the beginning of March (read more about that in the post “Freeride Week 2011″) was definitively the highlight of this season. Pure powder! How amazing was that! So I’m looking back to an awesome winter season with lots of riding on piste and off piste and even a few cross country tours! (some days were really spontanious… like a friend calls me on monday 11am “Hey Ben, its snowing up here try to get tomorrow off work and lets ride some nice lines” me looking at my boss, he nods… and set is the next day of powder fun! It was actually more than once like that! What an awesome job I have! Ok… lots of overtime or working on weekends makes this possible)

But now summer is here. To stand regularley on the beachvolley court, to ride one of my 3 bikes or to balance on the slackline… those are the activities during the warm season! Looking forward to a sporty summer 2011 season!

Have a nice weekend! And go Switzerland! (Soccer EM 2012 qualification game Switzerland - England tonight)

Earlier this evening I was at my godson’s house sitting on the couch with him. While he was playing some crazy game on his iPod touch his little sis jumped onto my lap, grabbed a book and look at me with the obvious expression: “Please tell me the story”. The contrary of my godson playing around with his fancy iPod and his little sister looking at a “old school” media I got reminded of the clip BOOK. So check this out and have fun! Good night!

Our week started on sunday 27th February. Till late saturday night i didnt know where I would ride powpow for the next 6 days! But then the desision came: Lauchernalp! (at least for the 1st day!). We were a bit disappointed when we arrived at the hotel and there were just a few inches of snow and our question was obvious: Where do we ride some nice powder tomorrow? Our wide skies were ready to dive into half a meter of snow! What a surprise when we got to the top of the Lauchernalp the next day and had to realize that there was at least 40cm of fresh, virgin white snow! None of us had to ride in the track the guys infront of you just ploughed into the snow! It had enough for everbody! AND! We were always the first ones to draw lines into the next hillside!

Now this was not just the case for the first day! It was pretty much like that for the rest of the week! This was due to our awsome guide Chrigu from ROCK & POWDER Team.

Here’s a rough outline of this amazing week:

Day 1: Lauchernalp
Day 2: Lauchernalp - Lenzerheide - Lötchenthal
Day 3: Lötschenthal - St. Petersgrat (by helicopter) - Wetterlücke - Stechelberg - St. Petersgrad (by helicopter) - Lötschenthal
Day 4: Andermatt
Day 5: Disentis
Day 6: Disentis - Bristen (Amsteg)

I had my GoPro helmet camera with me amlost everyday and took some amazing clips! But I need some time to edit those and cut them into a nice freaky movie! So come back later!

For the meantime you can check out some pictures here!

Im März bietet das ICF Mittelland 3x an einem Samstag morgen ein Sport Programm an. Das Fit & Fun – Angebot für alle, die sich fit halten oder es werden möchten. Du bist herzlich willkommen auf deiner persönlichen Fitnessstufe einzusteigen. Fun und Gemeinschaft kommen nicht zu kurz.

Für weitere Infos und Anmeldung –> hier