Yesterday we arrived in France. Here is us at the airport with all our stuff (the rest of our things will be arriving by boat in 4–5 weeks).
It was a surreal 24 hours or so as we tearfully said good-bye to loved ones on the American side and then were warmly welcomed on the French side by many of our teammates. It has been an emotional rollercoaster the last couple of weeks, and my emotions were unpredictable at times, sometimes I was cool and collected, other times tears rolled uncontrollably down my cheeks. Even though Ryan processes his emotions differently, I know he’s been experiencing much of that same rollercoaster. But now we are here and ready to take our first steps. I wanted to say we were ready to "jump in" but now that we're here, I'm thinking one step at a time is probably best. We start school on Tuesday and in the meantime we’re trying to explore a bit each day. Our goal today… find the Carrefour supermarket which should be within walking distance (a good thing since we don’t have a car, a bike, or a skateboard). Tomorrow, the goal is to visit the church in Magny, which is about 30 minutes away. Thanks for reading and thank you so much for all the support and encouragement you provide to us.
For the past month, as part of our intercultural training, we’ve been attending an African French-speaking church. We found out the first week that almost all of the members of the church are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa. Yesterday was our last Sunday worshipping with them and it was sad to say good-bye. Here is a picture of the congregation, although several people were away yesterday so it was a smaller group.
We learned a lot from our African brothers and sisters. We learned to be active in our praise and worship. When we sing a song that says, ‘move forward toward the Lord’ we can’t just stand there, we have to literally move forward. The same goes for ‘walking’, ‘turning’, and ‘lifting our praise’. You really do it and do it with conviction. I learned to dance to the beat and clap in rhythm (or at least I tried to). We also learned from their passion and zeal for preaching and teaching the word. We learned from their weekly practices of fasting and prayer and intercessory prayer. We learned from their service towards us. Everything is done in French and we were not supposed to ask for a translation. However, each week when we arrived, one of the ladies who could translate would automatically get up and begin translating the service into English. It was impressive that there was no hesitation, and no chance to argue against it; they just wanted us to feel a part of everything that was taking place so they invited us in. We learned about sacrifice. Many of our friends came here during a turbulent time in the Congo, and many don’t have the resources to travel much or return to visit close family of friends. While we were visiting, the Pastor’s daughter came to visit from England; it was a reunion they had been waiting to have for 14 years. This isn’t to say that we Westerners do not experience trial or suffering, but simply to say that we have been humbled and inspired to see how others can turn challenging circumstances into great joy and contentment.
We are so grateful for our time together. Please pray for our brothers and sisters at Holiness French Church, specifically that they would find a new meeting space as their currant space has been purchased by an outside party and they cannot afford to stay. We are confidant the Lord will provide, but they need wisdom and resources for the coming weeks.
If you have ever had a big life transition you know it can be difficult to figure out what you’re feeling. Excitement mixes with fear. Fear turns to panic. Sadness and joy seem to take place simultaneously. Then all of these emotions pile up one on top of another until, if you’re like me, the only feeling left to experience is sleepy. As of Thursday, we are three weeks away from moving to France. We’re excited, afraid, sad, happy, worried, confident, and most of all tired. It’s been a long journey with many hills and valleys, but it’s really only the end of one chapter and the start of another one. The story thus far has been about getting to France, but the next part is about living, working, and following Jesus in France. We’re turning to the next chapter and we’re not sure what to expect. It’s emotional.
Throughout it all God has seen us through, and we know that He will see us through… because He’s good. But in the midst of it all our insides are spinning, our minds are racing, and our bodies need a break.
Recently, our colleagues in France launched a new blog called World Team France. A lot of the church planters and church workers in France have blogs like ours, but this one is meant to be a collaboration so friends and partners can have another avenue to see more broadly what is happening with World Team projects in France. So check it out and enjoy. I have also added it to the partner links on the right side of our blog and hope it will be one more way for you to stay informed, pray, and participate in other ways with what God is doing in France.
By the way, a recent post featured us and another couple that just arrived in France. So don't miss that one here. :)
We want to apologize for keeping many of you in suspense. It has been so encouraging how many people have reached out to us by email, text, and phone asking if we are at 100% yet. It is humbling to know how many people and churches are lifting us up in prayer and standing behind us in so many ways. Thank you so much!
We have also been on the edge of our seat waiting not only to hit, but also to stay at 100%, so we can send out the subsequent celebratory announcement. We are close but that day hasn’t quite come yet. So I wanted to share where we are today. There are two answers that I will briefly explain.
- First, we have the percentage of what our partners have pledged. This is usually the percentage we go by for announcements because we trust that what is pledged will come in. We were holding steady at 100% pledged but this week dropped back to 99.8%.
- Then, we have the percentage of what is actually coming in. This becomes more important now because we are getting ready to leave for France and will actually need 100% to be coming in so we can you know live and eat and stuff. Right now, what is actually coming in is about 97.5% (about $170 per month shy).
We are within reach and expect to hit 100% soon in both pledged and actual giving. But I just wanted to update you on where we are. In the meantime, a lot of other really cool things have been happening. We will share about those in the next week or so. Thanks again!
It is hard to believe that on January 1st of this year, we marked our calendar for June 30th and asked God that we would reach 100% by that day. Today, on June 28th we are at 97%. It seems reasonable to hope that we will reach 100% very soon, if not exactly on June 30th, it will probably only be a few days after. We are so thankful to God for answering our many prayers and for confirming that He is able to provide and that He desires for us to go and start new communities of believers in France.
Thank you to all those who have recently joined our team or have increased their giving, and thank you to everyone who has been on our team for a while! Your faithfulness has been a great encouragement to us.
This week marked a bit of a milestone in our journey of getting to France, which is that we reached 90%. In fact, we are praising God because we are at 93%! Thank you so much for everyone who has been giving, praying for and encouraging us, it has been truly amazing! Seven days ago we were at 88% and we are floored that the Lord has provided 5% in one week (this matches a record only hit once before). Please keep praying, specifically that we would break this record and reach 100% by the end of June, one more week to go.
