BonJour!
It's Monday evening around 5:30 pm. The house is
pretty quiet because the teens are out playing the
French form of Bocci Ball at the local park. The past
two days have been a whirlwind of experiences, let me
give you some highlights.
Sunday morning we worship with the church in Magny.
There were about 40 people there, 10 of which were us.
We worshipped in French which was really cool. Jerry
was happy to see how attentive the teens were even
though they didn't understand a word of it. One song
we sang in French was Lord, we lift your name on high.
After we sang it a number of times, Jerry said we
were switching to English and spontaneously called the
team upfront to sing. It caught the teens by surprise
but they did a great job.
After church we went to the community center for
dinner and activities with all the French host
families. It started off a little bit awkward, but we
played some silly games, people laughed, then it was
fine. Dinner was pot luck, French style. It was
delicious. After lunch we talked with the families
and played pictionary. At the close of our time we
gave each family their host-gift. THe really seemed
to like the book on America, it prompted a lot of
discussion with the teens and their families when they
got home. In general the Big Red gum we brought was
not a hit, too spicy. Oh well, it was fun to see them
open the gifts. The teens went back home and spent
the rest of the night with their host-family.
This morning we met at the Moyers at 9 am and had a
devotion and worship, followed by a brief lesson on
2000 years of French history. It was helpful and the
kids enjoyed learning about why French think and do
some of the things that they do. We had lunch with
the Moyers then we were off to clean the Community
center where the church worships once a month. Jerry
and Carolyn get to use the center once a month for
worship and it is free to them. So we did some
sweeping and general clean up of the rooms that they
use. It was fun, then we ended our time there with a
"gut check." That's when we go around to each person
in the group and see how they are doing.
By in large the teens are having a great experience
with their families. For some it's a natural fit, for
others the language barrier is hard to get over.
Continue to pray for them as they bond with their
family. Tomorrow we go do some more prep work for our
times in the schools and we get a little bit more
French history. We will also visit Baptiste and talk
with him about his church plant ministry. Thanks
you for praying for Caleb, he appears to be better
with his jet lag and virus. He is adjusting as well
as a 20 month old can do.
Other cool stories:
At our host family dinner yesterday the parents were
all very interested in how tall Tyler was. It was
funny how they asked, then answer got a little lost in
translation since we couldn't convert 6'6" real quick
into metric. We should have just said 2 meters, which
was his French nick name.
Matt Jordan and a bunch of the teens were talking
during the dinner and the french teens were trying to
understand the phrase "Oh my gosh" They recognized
and say, "oh my God," so they were confused by the
other statement. So Matt explained the best he could
about not taking the Lords' name in vain, so in
respect to Matt the French teens would "osh" other
statements that they thought would be offensive. It
was cool.
Keep praying. Lots of experiences still to come.
In Christ,
Beth
