Language School Wrap-up

It is hard to believe, but our full-time language studies have come to an end. We will continue to study and work on our french until we feel fully confident and comfortable in the language, but not with the same intensity as these first 10 months. We've now experienced and seen how important it is to be very strong in the language if we want to invest in France long-term. Not feeling fully confident can add extra pressure and stress to both the little and the not so little things we do everyday. But we can say with confidence that in these 10 months of intensive study, we have learned a lot and improved a ton. There are days when our french just flows and we have no problems, but there are still days that we struggle to find the right words or sentence structures. It is such a cool thing though, to learn another language, and so far it has been very rewarding. 

We are so thankful for the school we attended and the amazing teachers who passionately taught us with patience and perseverance every day.

The place where we studied, laughed, cried, and even lived for several months

Our amazing teacher Régine whose passion and humor made learning a blast

Our class (1 of 4 classes, with around 50 students each year)

Our class, throughout the year many others came and went as well 

The learning environment 

The phrases we learned well and still use a lot!

Our Paris Kitchen

In a post a couple weeks ago here, I mentioned that we were doing some work on our kitchen. In France and other parts of Europe, it is still fairly common to get an apartment with next to nothing in the kitchen. When we got our place, our kitchen had one very old cabinet with a huge sink and a gas range... and that was it. So we had to get appliances, and we decided it was worth it to replace the base cabinet and add a few other cabinets for more storage. The kitchen has a lot of interesting angles and old external pipes that made planning a little bit tricky. But with a little planning and the help of friends, teammates, and a trip to IKEA, our "petite cuisine" or little kitchen became a whole lot more functional. Here are some pictures that capture the process. 

The before shot

We got a great deal on our oven and fridge from a couple who was moving 

Our kitchen still in boxes

Demo day, we had to clean behind the cabinet and the pipe needed re-sealed

Ryan and our friend Andrew assembling all the elements 

The day of installation

Two of our directors worked for us for the day, what an incredible gift!

And here's our kitchen now, this is the first time we've ever had a dishwasher,
or a washing machine. We feel truly blessed and maybe even a little spoiled. 

If we get a microwave, it will go where my cookbooks are, we still
need to add a new backsplash and touch up the wall a bit

The other wall

So if you come and visit, I will make you dinner

Day 6 (Last but not least): Pray for Magny

The view in this area is just breathtaking. 

The church in Magny is in a similar place as the church in Meru. Most of the initial church planters have stepped back from the church to allow the French to take over leadership. This can be an exciting but also challenging time for the church. Please pray for: 

• The French pastor and elders who are now leading this church
• A consistent meeting space to be found
• More and more spiritual growth and maturity among the members
• The body to catch the vision to share the love of Christ with others

This is the final day, tomorrow the conference wraps up and everyone heads back to the States, please pray also for safe traveling and that these prayer champions would go back to their homes and churches advocates for what God is doing here in France. We've said it many times, but we are just one tiny piece in what God wants to do here. We need many more to come, to give, and to pray for this work. Thanks to everyone who followed along and prayed with us this week!

Day 5: Pray for the Gospel Café

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—shout for joy before the Lord, the King.”  Psalm 98:4-6

The Gospel Café uses music as an outreach to build connections with French people and create an environment to talk about spiritual things, with the goal of starting bible studies and a new church. Please pray for:

• Consistent funding to rent spaces and pay musiciens
• Direction and wisdom as to the ideal location for concerts
• For the word to get out to more and more people, and especially people who are open to learning more about the Christian faith

Day 4: Pray for our interns

In addition to the prayer conference happening this week, World Team has sent 4 awesome interns, who are helping us with all kinds of things and seeing how God wants to use them, both now and in the future. 

Please pray for these 4 university students who trusted the Lord enough to come to France for part of their summer and serve. Their energy and presence is such a blessing. Please pray for:

• God’s direction in their lives
• Their relationship with the Lord, that it would deepen even more
• That they would gain a lifelong heart for missions
• That their heart for other cultures and people would grow

And here are a couple photos from the prayer walk we led through our neighborhood.

Day 3: Pray for Meru

“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in 

every respect the mature body of him who is the head, 

that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together 

by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, 

as each part does its work.” — Ephesians 4:15-16

The church in Meru is continuing to grow and flourish. After several years of effective ministry there God has continued to bring the church toward maturity. Please pray for:

• Leaders to be raised up and trained to direct the church
• The missionaries as they transition leadership of the church over to the French
• Unity as the church continues to grow
• The church to catch a vision for mission and church planting

Day 2: Pray for Gisors

“Pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, 

so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ…” — Colossians 4:3

The church in the town of Gisor is one of the newest church plants that World Team has begun in France. Several years ago participants of the prayer conference went and prayed in Gisor when there was no work there at all. Now a small church is beginning to grow and show God’s love to that town. Please pray for:

• The team as they host Alpha courses to introduce people to the Faith
• People who have shown an interest in Bible studies
• The first worship services of the church in Gisor
• That the people of Gisor would experience the love of God from this church

Day 1: Pray for Paris

“And should I not have concern for that great city.” — Jonah 4:11

Paris is the heart of France. For the Gospel to take hold in France, it has to take hold in Paris. Right now we are forming a team to begin a church planting movement in an incredibly dense area of the city that has only three churches. We would ask that you pray for:

• The formation of the team
• Our research of the city and its' people
• Finding men and women of peace in the 15th arrondissement
• An open door for the Gospel
• That we would love and serve our city 

Paris Prayer Conference: Introduction

The Paris Prayer Conference is happening this week. Each year World Team invites anyone who is interested to come and see what God is doing in France and to pray. If you are interested in coming next year or in future years, please let us know. Until then we want to share with you what is taking place this week, so that you can pray together with us.

Introducing ourselves

It is interesting how most cultures have some sort of norm in terms of how to meet and greet new neighbors. And unfortunately, a lot of the old cultural norms aren’t really observed anymore. In the States, the old standard was when a new neighbor moved into a neighborhood, within the first few weeks, the surrounding neighbors would come, bringing with them their warm welcome and often some cookies or a jello mold (I don’t know why the jello mold?). In France, the tradition (as far as I understand) was similar but reversed. Here, it was usually on the initiative of the new neighbor to reach out and introduce themselves to the established neighbors. 

Before moving into our apartment, I had thought a lot about how we could make this initial contact, but of course once we moved in, the busyness of cleaning, painting, and outfitting our place kind of distracted me from following through. But this weekend, our opportunity presented itself. 

In France, it is normal to post a note on the eve of a big party or construction work to give your neighbors fair warning that you will be making a lot of noise during a set period of time. Today we knew we would be installing our kitchen, thus creating a lot of noise for a couple days. One day for demo, one day for painting, and the third day (today) for installation. So we decided to stick a note along with some chocolate chip cookies in each neighbor’s mailbox, to introduce ourselves and also to inform them of our kitchen installation this weekend. 

I was a little nervous. Seeing as how we hadn’t run into any neighbors at all so far, I had no clue as to how they would feel about this gesture. But we have been so encouraged. Since the cookie & note delivery, we’ve met 3 neighbors (who stopped by to introduce themselves) and we were thanked by the “Gardienne” (who lives and works in the building). 

So who knows what will come next, but we are very pleased that this initial contact was a step in the right direction. I will post some pictures and details about our kitchen remodel soon.