December

December was a busy and exciting month full of many blessings! We worked really hard, and saw God come through in big ways. 

During the month of December, we had two big Christmas outreaches planned. The first one was a party hosted at our apartment where we invited Agape students and our non-Christian friends to come, hang out, and celebrate Christmas. Two of our involved Agape students, Jonas and Donerse, put together a program presenting the Christmas story through Scripture and songs. Jonas also shared a short message about the meaning of Christmas, and the different ways we can react to this good news. He challenged us to react like the shepherds - who go immediately to see Jesus, and return praising God and telling everyone they meet the good news of the Savior come to earth. We also had a scavenger hunt for the different "characters" of the Christmas story, who all slowly made their way to our manger scene. After the message, we did our white elephant gift exchange. We had asked students to bring something small and funny, but as the white elephant concept isn't huge in this culture, we had mixed results. For the most part, people just brought chocolate (not that anyone complained!). We did have some funny ones though - my favorite was a tie between the giant pumello and the Buzz Lightyear lotion!

Our second big outreach was a "Fete de Noel entre filles" - a Christmas party for girls - hosted by Jeanette and Kathryn. We (the team) spent many hours that morning baking many, many sugar cookies in preparation for the afternoon. It was well worth it! As I was talking with some of the girls, I realized that none of them had ever decorated cookies before. I had no idea this was an American tradition! As a result, they were all pretty excited, and everyone had a really good time expressing themselves in an artistic (and tasty!) way. After the cookies, we spent some time as a group (there were about 30 girls in total) sharing our family and cultural Christmas traditions. There was a lot of variety, and it was really fun learning about what other people did to celebrate. Next, Jeanette talked to us about a gift she had received as a child - a wedding Barbie. She had coveted and dreamed about the toy for weeks, and was so excited when she opened it Christmas morning and realized it was hers to keep! After a few weeks, however, the excitement wore off and she started playing with it less and less. She no longer valued it as much as she had before. Jeanette used this present as a way to talk about the best present she had ever received - the only one that is still as valuable to her today (and even more valuable) than when she first received it - Jesus! It was a beautiful message, and many of the girls were visibly touched by what she shared.

We also had a Soiree Film (a movie night) in December organized by Leo, one of the Agape students on the Outreach team. It was so exciting for us to see him taking ownership of this event! We watched a film called "Life in a Day" that was made by Ridley Scott - and many others! The movie is actually a compilation of movie clips shot and uploaded to YouTube by people all over the world. All of the clips date from a single day (July 24th, 2010) and were shot in many different countries. The film was very interesting and thought provoking - with many beautiful, touching, disturbing, and tragic moments. We had a really great discussion afterwards in small groups with questions that Leo had written. I was in a group with Floriane, a non-Christian friend of Kate and Amy that they met on campus. She is very sweet, and fun to talk with. I look forward to how God will use that night, and our interactions in the future, to continue to speak truth to her!

Right before Christmas, I also had the opportunity to make the most of my days off and do some traveling! Teammates Kate, Caroline, and I took the train up to Strasbourg in Alsace to spend a few days exploring the city, eating well, and doing some serious shopping at the Christmas markets. Strasbourg is such a beautiful city and we had so much fun together! It was a great vacation (even though it was brief) and we returned feeling rested. We also had the opportunity to see the Body of Christ in action in a really cool way while we were there (and before we left). Caro had been working on finding a place for us to stay, and contacted some friends from church who live in Strasbourg. One of them, Simon, had told us that his parents had just purchased a place in the downtown area that should be ready by the time we were there. Unfortunately, he emailed us the week of our trip to let us know that it wouldn't work, but that his friend Sophie could help us. We emailed Sophie, and she responded right away saying she would have to check with her roommates, but that she would love to host us. It was such a blessing to meet her, to have breakfast with her, and to have her trust us after she left halfway through our stay to take care of her apartment. Although the Christian community here in France may be small, it is very connected and people have a very strong sense of hospitality. It was really cool to see it in action!

Finally, Christmas arrived! Christmas Eve we got together as a team with a few friends who were still in town and not home with their parents to eat some delicious chili and watch The Nativity. Christmas day started with scrambled eggs and monkey bread with my roommates and opening presents from each other and our families by the tree. Afterwards, we swung into high gear to prepare the mashed potatoes, salmon, green bean casserole, and desserts that we were bringing to our team dinner at the Skur's house. Everything didn't go completely according to the original plan, but it all got done and we had a lot of delicious food and great fellowship together. After supper/dinner, we had our team talent show (Caro's idea) that was a mixture of the serious (Kathryn played piano, Ainsley sang) and the silly (Amy danced the Napoleon Dynamite routine and Caro walked on her hands). Next, we opened our secret santa presents for each other and the Skur kids opened their gifts from us. It was a lot of fun and a real blessing to all of us far from our own families to spend time with our Montpellier family on Christmas.

Right after Christmas, we left for C.N.A. (Camp du Nouvel An - Camp of the New Year) - our Christmas conference in the Pyrenees. More on that soon - I promise! In the meantime, thanks for your continued support and prayers! I hope you had a very Merry Christmas, and that your New Year would be blessed!