Mount Blanc
Beautiful medieval city of Conflans
Amazing View!Wrote this blog entry progressively over the week:
Monday marked the third week I've spent in France and commenced a three day stint of painting and cleaning at the language school. Living here has given me the opportunity to spend time with missionaries--an amazing experience I encourage everyone to seek out. Most of the missionaries I've met have easily shared with us their testimonies, their homes and their lives to us three inquisitive interns. Meeting these people has given me a lot to think about, and when I have a lot to think about, I make a list. So here is a list of observations upon meeting missionaries:
1. They are regular people who trust God, and let Him have the first place in their lives. Missionaries aren't more spiritually gifted than anyone else--they just choose to listen to God's promptings in their lives to "Go," and they try hard to be faithful to His call. This amazes me.
2. The people I've met sacrifice the status quo for the Kingdom of Heaven. They try to look to the greater cosmic consequences of their actions--the furthering of God's Word in a world that continually rejects Him. Families leave the comfort of family and singles leave the possibility of comfortable married life for Christ--because His way is better than life. This challenges me.
3. The people I've met practice humility and selflessness. Thierry said to us the other day that doing missions means you are concerned with loving people, this is a lesson he has learned again and again doing mission trips to Nepal. I got the same response when I asked Thierry how he feels about foreign/American missionaries coming to France-- are you offended by their different cultures? His response simply that you have to love people, you have to want to share the gospel with them--and the gospel is entirely cross-cultural. It speaks through our cultural insensitivity-- there is power when we go in God's name out of love for His people. This fact gives me hope, and increases my often weak faith.
Each day after lunch Monica, Mike, Phil, and I spent time together doing a devotion or asking Thierry questions about missions. This was such a valuable time.
Now, I'm at champfleuri! Camp Totally English Days (TED) starts tomorrow, and all the counselors just finished our day long meeting. It was the easiest meeting I think I've sat in on (this is my third year as a counselor at TED) but I'm definitely feeling the stress of adjusting to a new environment all over again--something I've had to do a lot of this internship.
So camp starts tomorrow-- Prayers would be appreciated for the American campers who are trying to be intentional christians during their time at the camp and the French youth that are coming that don't know Christ or are struggling to believe. ALSO prayers for the counselors that we can gel as a group and work together.
Monica, Mike and I are all excited to be here, but definitely feeling run-down--emotionally and physically, so I would also appreciate prayers for us as we could rely on each other as a team and not take out our stress on each other, you know?
More updates coming as soon as I can find another moment to sit down!
