Traveling through Switzerland is quite an experience. Essentially, everywhere you go you’re surrounded by mountains. It’s spectacular.

To make it even more scenic, ancient ruins summit countless peaks and centuries old villages cling precariously to the sides of mountains – some reachable only by geared train cars.

It takes a certain type of person of a peculiar moral fortitude to live here. It’s not for the faint of heart. But the reward is constant breathtaking beauty, a kind of violent majesty. Up here, being cold is a way of life, and surviving amongst the hills requires discipline, determination, and the absence of a complaining nature.

But it’s these kinds of people that I love being around, and I find them not only here in Switzerland, but anywhere that people are willing to pay a price for the Gospel. They each have a story to share, a testimony to impart. They are the conquerors, the victorious, the noble.

I was sitting with Jennifer in the church cafe after teaching all day when one of the students asked me if I’d like to hear her testimony. I’ll admit, I was in the midst of catching up on some work and really didn’t want to be bothered. But I’m trying to be better about not seeing people as interruptions, but as the ministry itself.

Meet Regine. She was trained to be a medium at age 14, studying white magic and skilled in necromancy, séances, and ouija. While she was taught that white magic helped people, she always knew something was wrong.

Finally at age 30 she bumped into a strange man in a night club – strange because he was one of the only people she had ever met that she could not read his thoughts. The idea that he was a more powerful medium than she was seemed out of the question, so followed him only to ask him what was his secret.

“He started to laugh and laugh and laugh,” Regine said. “When he finally told me that he was a Christian, I was the one laughing. ‘How stupid,’ I thought. ‘People that believed in Jesus, how stupid.’”

But her inability to read his thoughts continued to plague her. So the Christian gave her his phone number and offered to speak more with her.

“He even gave me a Bible,” she explained to me. “But I found it impossible to read. It was in a completely different language to my eyes.”

Eventually the Christian invited her to a special event at his church – three nights of meetings with a guest minister.

“The first night I arrived, but couldn’t even go inside the church. There was a presence in there that was foreign to me. So I ran,” Regine said. “When the Christian called me to ask how the meeting was, I explained there was no place to sit so I had to go home. So he insisted that I try the second night.”

Regine went, but only got halfway down the isle before running out of the church.

Once again the Christian man called and asked how the meeting was; Regine explained she left early.

“He told me I must try again the third night. So I went, still curious where this man’s power to resist my magic was coming from.”

On the third night, Regine found a seat near the back.

“The guest minister, Ray Brooks, walked in and looked right at me with the big smile on his face.”

Little did Regine know, but sitting all around her were some of the most well-known names in francophone Christian ministry, including my friend Jean-Marc Bigler and his wife.

It was a total set up.

Eventually the guest minister asked people to come forward for prayer. Regine decided to go, but was determined not to close her eyes as the minister had asked: she wanted to confront this power head-on.

That’s when Ray laid hands on her to pray for her.

“Suddenly I felt this incredible love wash over me,” she explained. “I remember seeing my shoes, then everything went white. I have no memories of what happened next, but they said chairs went flying as I started to roll across the floor. I was talking with a different voice and my face was disfigured. I only remember waking up pinned to the floor and seeing Jean-Marc’s face with this big smile hovering over me saying, ‘Welcome to the family.’ It was the greatest moment of my life. I was free.”

Today Regine emanates the love of the Father in a way I can hardly describe. Because she knows just how destructive the power of the enemy is, she has a strong ministry reaching those involved in the occult and witchcraft, sharing the all-powerful love of Jesus with them and declaring the victory that Believers have in Jesus.

I asked if I could share her story on my blog with you and she wholeheartedly consented. “Please tell them, tell them all,” she said. “God is so good – beyond good. The enemy only desires to kill you, and manipulate people through until they’re dead. But Jesus only gives life.”

I love living among the mountain people, among those who weather the attacks of the enemy and live to see great victories.

Regardless of your physical geography, I encourage you to live amongst the mountain conquerors: the view is well worth the price. So is the company. ch: