It has officially been almost 9 weeks since my last post...yikes. My sincere apologies to anyone who has been waiting on the edge of their proverbial seat for an update from this side of the pond. It has not been my intention to keep you in the dark! Instead, it has been a combination of factors including, but not limited to, lots of events, lots of details to organize, lots of traveling, limited energy, and limited free time. As my dear mother said in our last email exchange, "UPDATE BLOG. Last entry Dec. 8th (2 months)" Happily, as Paul told the Romans in his letter, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Phew! Thanks for extending me grace on this one!
In thinking about the best way to fill you in on all that has happened in the meantime, I decided the most effective plan would be to create a photo overview of the last 2ish months - so here goes!
The above photo (Leila on the left and my teammate Amy on the right) is from our girls-only Christmas party that we hosted mid-December. We decorated cookies together, talked about our Christmas traditions, and then Joelle shared about the greatest gift she has ever received - Jesus! Leila is one of our more spiritually interested friends, and we were able to have a really deep and honest conversation about where she is at in taking steps towards God. It was so encouraging! If you want to hear the next part of Leila's story, check out my January update letter.
Above is Amandine, a new friend that my teammate Megan met on campus the previous week. As part of the Gospel presentation, we offered one of the girls a free gift (the cute little box she is holding in her hand). She volunteered to accept it, and when talking to me afterward shared that she was especially touched by the gift because of what Joelle had shared - she said that hearing her story made the gift so much more meaningful. Then she asked me if I had ever had a moment in my life where I opened the door of my heart to Jesus, like Joelle had explained. I was flabbergasted - how often does someone so clearly give you an opportunity to share your faith? All in all, it was a very encouraging time sharing with the girls who came.
The end of December meant the approach of our national Christmas conference - called CNA (Camp du Nouvel An, or New Year's Camp). It was a wonderful, encouraging, rich week where we were able to come together as different individual movements to learn, grow, and experience God in the beautiful Alps! Above is a group of students who went hiking up a nearby trail during one of our free afternoons.
Stéphanie (French intern in Rennes) and two students enjoying the free day excursion to the beautiful city of Annecy. Other students spent the day at Les 7 Laux, a nearby ski resort, and came back tired but happy.
On New Year's Eve, it is a French tradition to have a special dinner and a big party late into the night - and this CNA did not disappoint! It was so fun to see everyone dressed up, and to play games, dance, and worship into the new year together.
We had two fantastic speakers - a young husband and wife team who came to share with us what it means to live missionally, to be "100% sent" wherever God is calling us.
One of my favorite parts of the week was the amount of time we were able to spend praying together - for each other, for our campuses, and for God to move supernaturally in France.
For one of our nightly programs, we did a "cardboard testimonies" evening - we asked students and staff to reflect on the different ways God has transformed each of us as we put our faith in Him and seek to follow His leading, and then synthesize those transformations down to a "before & after" to write on their pieces of cardboard. It was amazing to see and hear each student's story as they shared with their small groups, and then to spend time together praising and thanking God for His work in our lives. Above is Martin, a student, and Louis, a French intern. Their "befores" are fear, and nothing.
After - peace and confidence in God, relationship!
Throughout the camp, in the midst of all the details to organize and things to think about (I served as part of the planning committee), God really met with me in very individual ways. I learned a lot and was incredibly encouraged by my quiet times with Him. I also got to enjoy beautiful gifts like this stunning sunset over the Alps. Our biggest prayer as the planning team was that everyone who came would experience God in a unique and personal way, and He far exceeded our expectations!
A short two weeks after returning from CNA, we were on the road again traveling to southern Spain for our Stint Mid-Year conference. The conference is for all Americans serving on short-term internships with Cru in Europe, Russia, Africa, and the Middle East - about 200 of us in all. We were met in Spain by about 50-100 American staff members who made the trip over to pray for us, counsel us, teach us, coach us, and encourage us.
Another fun perk of the week was our free day adventure - my roomies and I chose to go to the Rock of Gibraltar. As Megan said, "Calling it a big rock is so deceptive! It's so much bigger than I imagined!" Bigger, and rockier! It was an absolutely gorgeous, sunny day and we really enjoyed the lovely mixture of man-made history and natural beauty.
After Mid-Year, my teammate Kimberly and I decided to take advantage of our compensation days and extra weekend days to travel to Scotland. While there, we got to visit the University of Glasgow (above). I still can't believe people go to school here! We were walking around, exclaiming to each other, "It's like Hogwarts!" Then we heard someone whistling the main theme from the Harry Potter movies and we had to laugh together!
We were also able to take a day trip from Glasgow and visit the beautiful village of Stirling (castle pictured in the above picture). I've never seen so many gorgeous rainbows!
After Stirling, we traveled to Doune and were able to tour Doune Castle - the site used by Monty Python for the filming of the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We loved the castle, and really enjoyed the audioguide (done by one of the members of the Python crew).
The next stop on our tour was the lovely seaside town of St. Andrews, featuring some of the most beautiful ruins I have ever seen - including the cathedral pictured above.
Our last stop was the scenic and historic city of Edinburgh - truly a beautiful and incredible city. All in all, I came back from Scotland with many great memories of adventures, a much richer understanding of Scottish history, and a great desire to watch Chariots of Fire (which I finally watched this evening!)
Phew! That's a lot of traveling and a great many things to catch up on! I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and I look forward to sharing some very encouraging stories from the last two weeks - but I'll save that for the next update! Thanks once again for your prayers and for all your support and encouragement - God is richly blessing us here in Montpellier, France!
