Now that it's almost March, I thought it might be a nice idea to finish my update of January!
We had two big highlights from January, the vision trip from the U of M that came for a week, and our Midyear conference in Nerja, Spain. Here are some pictures from the two events!
The Vision Trip was a group of 9 students and staff from the U of M (and one North Dakotan who also came along). While they were here, we had a lot of fun showing them our city, the ministry, and giving them an idea of what our life is like here. This of course included seeing the sights and the guys treating the girls to a ride on the carousel!
I also enjoyed helping the students get into French culture a little bit. Here we are having just purchased new scarves to sport back in the States. :-)
One of the biggest blessings to me personally was having 4 other guys here for a week! I spent almost every waking moment with these guys, and enjoyed so much just getting to hang out and have some time with other dudes for a while. I love the women on my team, but having guys here for the week was awesome! This is us at the Skur's house. I'm not quite sure how this happened, but I think it was Ryan Larson's idea...
More importantly, having a boost of 9 fresh, energized workers for the week was a huge encouragement to us as a team. The week the Vision Trip was with us we had more spiritual conversations and were able to share the gospel more times than we ever had our first 4 months here. It was amazing how the Lord blessed us as we and they went out in faith to meet people.
One story that I particularly enjoy was from the middle of the week. Drew (one of the vision trip students) and I went out to go sharing on campus, and after some time with relatively unproductive conversations, we sat down at a small café on campus where many students spend the afternoon. We had sat down next to some guys hoping to talk to them, but they left almost as soon as we sat down, so we waited, and after just a few minutes a group of 5 students sat down. We started talking with them, asking if they had a few minutes to view this short film we were showing and get their opinion on the film. The purpose of the film was to have an easy way to initiate conversations and also to invite students who were interested to a soirée we were having at the end of the week with two short films both based on Jesus' parables.
The group was very interested, but two of the students had to leave for an exam, but asked for my cell # to get together later to check out the film. We ended up having a great conversation with the other three, and invited them to the soirée.
The next day I had a text message from the two who had left early, hoping to line up a time to get together. Their proposed time didn't work, but when we went to campus to have lunch, we ran into them! (Let me just note that the cafeteria is huge, and divided into several sections, so the likelihood of this happening by chance was extremely small) We had a great time just visiting with them at lunch, and asked them if they would come to the film soirée as well. They were very interested, so we parted ways that day hoping they would be able to come the following night.
The night of the soirée they were the first students there, and as we dived into the films we had really good discussions. Part way through the evening another friend of theirs joined us in time for the last film. The film was a modern retelling of the parable of the Prodigal Son. As we discussed the film afterwards, they were pulling out solid biblical themes from the story, and Drew was able to share about what it means to him that God's love for him (and all people) was unconditional and how He is always waiting for us to respond to his call for us to come to Him, just like the father in the story.
(Mélanie, Julian, myself, Peter and Drew (two vision trip students))
Since then myself and the team here has been able to keep hanging out with these guys, which has not only been fun for us, but encouraging as we continue to share what our life as believers looks like to these two friends of ours!
Midyear
The other big highlight from January was our Midyear conference, which was in Nerja, Spain, which is on the Mediterranean coast of southern Spain. It was a week-long conference, where we were able to connect with other STINTers from all around Europe and surrounding countries, share successes and frustrations, learn from each other and get some mid-year training and re-energizing for the second half of our year.
On the way there, Laura, Erin and I actually spent a weekend in London, because it was cheaper to fly to Spain via London (makes perfect sense, doesn't it?). We had a great time - Erin and I got to see many of the sights, including going to Les Misérables in London!
When we got to Spain, it was super refreshing to be in an incredibly beautiful location! We were blessed to be staying in a hotel right on the coast, and the view from my room was pretty awesome:
Probably the highlight of the week for me personally was getting to room with and spend the week with one of my close friends who is also STINTing this year.
As a team it was a really fantastic time to connect with other STINT team from around Europe. Here we are with the other STINT team in France. They're up in the north, where it's rainy and cold! We're glad that we're in the south of France!
One of the big answers to prayer from the week at the conference was that it really brought our team together. After living and working in close quarters for 4 months, we all had sensed an underlying tension on the team that none of us could name or put a finger on. One evening at the conference we talked, shared, prayed and worked things out together for five hours, the resulting conversations of which have changed the dynamics on our team 180 degrees. Since then, we've been closer with each other, more honest, and more comfortable living and working together. It's been one of the biggest blessings I could have asked for the second part of this year.
We came away from the conference with some new ideas for a fresh start to how we worked as a team, one primary thing being that we've been focusing on prayer a lot as a team. We've been praying together every week day either at the beginning or end of the day, and the changes that have happened in our ministry have been huge. We've suddenly had more conversations that lead quickly to explaining the gospel, and we've been able to make relational connections with students very quickly as well. We've had one really exciting story in the last week...but you'll just have to wait for that until I have time to type it up!
Here are some photos from our Christmas conference, Camp Nouvel An.
A view of our main meeting room:
I was assigned to be captain for team 4 - we had a competition on New Years Eve, involving several challenges, including transporting small beans across a room with a straw, stuffing one team member's mouth full of marshmallows, a quiz and blind pictionary (draw with your eyes closed, or use someone else's hand)
We had one day of outreach in the city that we were in (super cool story to follow), here is a picture of my friend Jad out with a fellow STINTer, Natalie, and another student.
When we returned to Montpellier, the unthinkable happened...it snowed! For all you Minnesotans, this is the sum total of snow that we had all season. Winter is basically over already. :-)
As we ended our semester her e in Montpellier, it was pretty apparent that all of us on the team were very ready for a break.After four solid months of doing ministry, we were all excited to have a little vacation!Before we ended the semester we had seen the kickoff of what is now an ongoing outreach called Thé-O Show, and we had a very successful Fête de Noël, where we shared many of our Christmas traditions with our friends, and most importantly shared about what the true origins of Christmas are.
A few days afterwards, we took off for the Alps, eager to find snow for Christmas and some R&R.We spent the week in the French Alps in a small little village tucked away way up in the mountains.There was snow in abundance.We spent time sleeping in, playing cards, eating together, and even went sledding in the middle of the night on old air mattresses that were basically dead already, and much more so after we sled on them!
One of the highlights of the vacation was the day before Christmas Eve, when we spent the day in 3 countries!We woke up and had breakfast in France, then drove to Geneva (Switzerland), where we enjoyed part of the afternoon and lunch, then we drove along the north side of the lake and eventually back into France to see and go through Mont Blanc, which is the highest mountain in Europe, and had dinner in Italy!Let me tell you, the pasta in Italy is worth the trip.Wow!We had a little trouble getting back into France, because after we had driven most of the way up the mountain on the border, we discovered that the mountain pass was totally closed!It was so snowed in that there was no way anything would get through, including the semi we found trying heroically to turn around at the top of this mountain pass.On our way back down we talked to a local who told us that the pass was closed 8 months out of the year.Thanks for letting us know before we drove all the way up the mountain!Oh well…
Christmas was a good celebration.We had a fairly traditional meal together and spent time reading and reflecting on the prophetic and gospel writings surrounding Christ’s birth.With no gifts, no tree, no lights, really nothing to remind me of “normal” Christmas, it was nice to be able to focus on why we actually celebrate this holiday.It was difficult to be away from family and from home, but I was also glad to be where I was.
Some pictures of the vacation:
Erin and I in Genève, Switzerland.
Here we are in a cute little town somewhere east of Genève. We think it looks like Stillwater!
One of my co-workers here in Agapé recently sent out this devotion to all of us working here in France. I thought it to be challenging and very insightful. I wanted to share it with you all.
“I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD.” Psalm 118:17
Dear Friends,
We would like to offer this short devotion for 2009. May it be a source of inspiration for each of us every day of this New Year.
According to a recent study, witnessing is becoming more and more difficult for believers, notably in the West, where intolerance, under the guise of tolerance, has reached unimaginable proportions. The more we live in an environment hostile to the Gospel, the more we remain silent in order to hide behind the reigning political correctness. Those who evangelize have become a ‘rare breed’ to the extent that many Christians believe that witnessing is solely the work of pastors and evangelists who are ‘paid’ to witness and proclaim the works of the Lord.
Such thinking can cause our zeal for sharing the Good News to diminish or even to stealthily disappear. From time to time we may share what God is doing at church, in a prayer meeting or on very rare occasions. So it is not surprising that our fire for the Gospel goes out leaving behind a wisp of smoke without aroma.
In the verse 17 from Psalm 118, King David turns upside down our perspective and understanding. In singing: “I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD,” he clearly linked life and witness. According to the Psalmist, this was a fact of life that needed no changing: “if a child of God lives, he must, therefore, sing and celebrate the works of the Lord.” To be alive simply means “to witness.” The interconnectedness between these two is so obvious that it leaves us no excuse, no justification for our following Jonah on his flight toward Tarsis and away from God’s will.
How often do we recount the works of God? Whenever we participate in the Lord’s Supper? Every once in a while? This verse reminds us of our “raison d’être,” (literally: "reason for being"), the true purpose for our existence on earth. May it not be a grudging necessity. May celebrating and sharing the works of the Lord become an integral part of our daily lives. Therefore, whether in groups, among family or by ourselves, let us all SING without ceasing. And during all the days of 2009, let us say: “If the Lord grants me life, I will proclaim his works and I will sing his praises!” It is a worthy goal and a beautiful expression of our faith!”
A week ago I was able to have the opportunity to visit a good family friend from the states, who was visiting the south of France for a few days on a pilgrimage that he was participating in, bringing him over to Spain and Portugal, and for a few days to the city of Lourdes in the south of France.
We spent only about 24 hours together, but it was a most wonderful 24 hours!I learned a lot about the history of the city and was able to ask him all sorts of questions to help me understand many things about the Catholic Church.This was especially helpful as the strong tradition in this part of the world is from the Roman Catholic Church, and it was helpful for me to understand a few more things as Fr. Jim was able to explain them to me.
It was also splendid to have the feeling the whole time that I was hosting him in the south of France, my home for the year.I was thoroughly amused when I first arrived and joined the group he was traveling with for dinner.This was my first encounter with a group of Americans who had just arrived in France as tourists since I’ve been here, and it was rather amusing to me to suddenly discover what small French-isms I had unconsciously picked up already in my first two months here.I found myself wondering why all of the Americans were taking so much effort to cut something on their plate, set down the knife, transfer the fork to their primary hand and finally succeed in eating whatever they were cutting.I hadn’t realized that I was wielding fork and knife concurrently in left and right hands throughout the meal, which is the European way to eat.I was also enlightened when our server brought out bread, which I promptly took and set on the table (as makes perfect sense in France).I realized a little later that Fr. Jim had delicately balanced the bread on his plate so as not to place it on the table, and that he was lifting the whole mini-loaf and taking bites right out of it.I, on the other hand, was tearing off bite-sized portions of the bread, which is the custom here.Funny what little things you don’t realize you’ve started to do until you have someone from your normal culture show you what was normal back in the States.
In Lourdes we were able to visit the shrine and cathedral there, both of which were very cool.We celebrated mass, which pleasantly reminded me of our good old Lutheran liturgy back home (it never ceases to amaze me how similar the orders of service are between the Catholic and Lutheran churches).We toured the cathedral, which was so beautiful.It was interesting because a cathedral was first built there a long time ago, but then was found to be too small later, so they built another one just in front and below it.It was very cool how the two were incorporated, making it look as if they had always been designed together.
Fr. Jim and I spent much time on Saturday enjoying a café and at a sweet little restaurant just next to the river.It was in typical southern French style – sitting, enjoying, taking a coffee, basking in the gorgeous fall weather…It was in all a fantastic day.
I left Lourdes, my heart full from great conversation, and my bag full from gifts from my family that Jim amusingly carried in for me.I got to ride the train back and watch the sun set over the Pyrenees Mountains.Wow.Gorgeous.Unfortunately, I had a fearfully quick transfer that needed to be made in Toulouse, and my first train was late and my second train left early!This left me unexpectedly stranded overnight in…
Toulouse
Fortunately, Toulouse is probably the best city in Southern France for me to have been stuck in.After spending a good 45 minutes in an office with 7 other travelers who missed the same connection, the details were settled and since there were no more trains going to Montpellier that night, 4 of the travelers took a train to a different city, and were assured that the train company would pay for a taxi for them to get the rest of the way to Montpellier.The rest of us settled for first class tickets on a train the next morning, one person was put up in a hotel, one was going to stay with her uncle, and I had accommodations lining up for myself.One woman also informed them that we would need food, and so we were all given a non-perishable “this-meal-would-last-until-2010” lunch box.It was a nice touch.
I mentioned that Toulouse was a good city to be stuck in – this is because Toulouse is home to an ICS (International Campus Staff) team with Agapé.Toulouse was actually the partnership city from the Upper Midwest part of the states several years ago, and when a full-time team was established a few years ago they were able to open up the partnership with Montpellier for sending STINT teams like ours.We had met the team back in October for an in-country briefing, and enjoyed the time immensely.When I discovered myself stuck there, part of me was excited to hopefully spend some time with the team!
I was able to connect with them, and it happened that they lived just down the street from the gare (the train station).Aaron brought me over for dinner, and then I was able to see the city at night with Carrie and Tiffany.It was great!I had never been to Toulouse, and to see the city was really cool.It’s much bigger than Montpellier, and is known as the “pink city,” because many of its buildings are made out of brick, giving it a very predominantly red color.Later that night I was up late with Aaron and another friend of his, Felix, and then after only a few hours of sleep I was back on the train riding first class back home.It’s nice.
My travels were not over.Just three days after arriving back in Montpellier, I was again on a train headed right back in the direction I had just come, but this time stopping in…
Narbonne
Halfway between Toulouse and Montpellier is the city of Narbonne, and thus it was the site of our joint Fall Retreat, called week-end étudiant! (literally, student weekend).Yes, even in November it is still fall here.We don’t really believe in blizzards or cold weather.Any of you staunch Midwesterners, just think of me as you freeze your way to class or work.:-)The purpose of our Fall Retreat was to take a weekend and get away, build community within our Agapé movements and with each other, and spend time focusing on the theme for the weekend, which was faire des disciples (making disciples).It was admittedly stressful leading up to it as we tried to get everything planned very quickly, and suddenly the day that I left Toulouse Aaron had to take an emergency flight back to the states because of a family emergency, leaving them with one less staff person and their whole team pretty shook.
We were also afraid that none of our students would come, but at the last minute two of our students had other things change so they could make it, and we brought four of our students to the weekend!With all of us staff and the students in Toulouse and Montpellier we were around 20 people, and we had an awesome weekend!We did a lot of relaxing, we connected with each other and heard messages about and studied together what it means to both be a disciple and to make disciples.
The weekend started out with a game where we divided up into four teams, each a team of four people.Each person on the team was given a handicap, and each team was charged with having to complete five simple tasks.The handicaps were simple, one person on each team was blind, one person couldn’t speak, one person had their hands bound and one their feet bound.The tasks were also simple:to be sure people knew each other, each team had to write their names on one wall (and you couldn’t write your own name!), each team had to successfully get each team member underneath an ad-hoc limbo setup, each team had to get each member successfully across a room following a narrow path (try doing that blind or with bound legs), each team had to correctly finish and identify the beginning of a bible verse, and each team had to get one member to successfully perform a handstand, and prove it by having Katie take a picture of them doing it.It was a lot of fun and helped us to see in a very real way what it looks like to function as the body of Christ – we need each other and because we bring different strengths (and weaknesses) to the table, it is important to work together to accomplish the tasks that are set before us as believers.
Day two of the retreat started with a session with worship and a speaker from Toulouse.We heard about the importance of being filled by God and allowing that overflow to reach out to others in the body of Christ and then also to the rest of the world.We followed the time with some personal time with the Lord, a picnic lunch and then free time in the afternoon.This was really super.We hit the town to see the sights, and we were not disappointed.There were two cathedrals we visited, one was Cathédrale St-Just St-Pasteur and the other was the Basilique St Paul-Serge.The first was a monstrous cathedral, attached to the Hôtel de Ville and right across the street from the place we were staying.
It was incredible, and probably one of the biggest cathedrals I’ve yet be in (at least that I can remember).Part of it was actually outside, which I think maybe was because part of it was ruins, but I couldn’t quite figure it out.Either way, it made the character of the place very very cool.
The second cathedral that we visited took a little while to get to, but one of our students, Josias, had done some research and especially wanted to see this cathedral.It is one of the oldest in Europe, and when we went inside, we could see that it was ancient.In fact, the cathedral was first build in the 3rd century, and so our guide of the church (the caretaker we think) said that it was basically as old as Christianity, especially in that part of the world.The building as it stands we think dates from the 12th century (still ancient), and was absolutely stunning.
We got a tour of the whole church, and it ended with a tour of the crypt, which was attached to the church, and was the crypt from the 3rd century.In fact, inside the crypt there were remains of an old Roman mosaic that dated from the 2nd century.All of these ancient artifacts were incredible to see, and we were amused and a little shocked as the guide giving us the tour nonchalantly pointed things out with a giant key that he was carrying, usually striking whatever sculpture, painting or artifact he was talking about with it.At one point he hit something in the 3rd century crypt that started to wobble.Yikes.We freaked out.
After that amazing piece of history we also checked out the canal in town, saw the first lock-and-dam system to be ever built in France, and returned to the place where we were staying.
That night we had first a snack, then another session, dinner and time to pray for each campus/city.It was a wonderful time just to celebrate things that the Lord was doing in each of our ministries, and also time to pray for things that we are dreaming about for the future.Afterwards, as one must do because of being on retreat, we stayed up late playing games.We taught two of the students from Toulouse how to play Nertz with us.It was pretty wild.We already have an outstanding challenge for our Christmas Conference, Camp Nouvel An.
One of my favorite moments from the weekend came the last morning of the retreat.We had a time of looking at the Bible together, and then a time of worship.Our worship for the weekend was led by one of the Toulouse students, Bahri, and the first morning he was joined by another girl who had brought her violin.That morning at breakfast she had asked me if I wanted to play along using her violin.I said “of course” as long as it was ok with her.When we had a time of worship I joined Bahri (he was playing guitar), and it was one of those moments when things really clicked.It was fantastic!Afterwards, we had a time of getting together with one or two other people and sharing about what we learned over the weekend and praying together.Bahri and I paired up, which made me pretty nervous, since he really didn’t speak English.What followed was one of the coolest conversations I have had yet this fall.I suggested that we start by praying, and since Bahri really only spoke French, I even prayed in French for the first time!I prayed some in English too, but it was still a big moment for me.Bahri then shared about how he had really been challenged that weekend to set aside other things that were distracting him from focusing on God as being the most important in his life.Wow!I was able to encourage him as well (remember – this was all in French – yikes!) that I had appreciated not only that he led us in worship all weekend, but that I had really seen his heart as he played and led us in song.I learned that some of the songs we had sung and he had shared he had actually written himself, which was so cool.As musicians we connected over the subject of worship and how much we express our hearts through song and worship.It was beautiful to make that connection.Earlier in the weekend, I had thanked him for playing after the first session, and his response was similar to responses that I myself have given to so many people, which was expressing just that it is such a joy to lead and to play.
At the end of the weekend, we all were saying goodbye as people departed, and I received my first bise from a guy from Bahri (the French kiss on the cheek greeting or farewell).This doesn’t happen between guys unless it’s with someone who is a close friend (between most guys you just shake hands).It meant a lot to me.In fact, the whole weekend did.To see the body of Christ working, to encourage one another, pray together, have fun together: this is why ministry excites me.To bring more people into the life that we lead as Christians and to encourage and build into people who are already in the body of Christ, this brings me great excitement.In the spiritual darkness and hopelessness that we see every day as we talk with students, taking a weekend to minister within the body of Christ filled me with great hope and energy to keep going, to keep moving forward, to remind myself that the cause is worth the difficulty of doing missions overseas.
Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
(from Heb 12:1-2)
The whole group!
Our group from Montpellier!
That leads me to the last city,
Lyon
Just north of Montpellier about 2 hours, Lyon is the second largest city in France (depending sort of on how you count – people from Marsailles say that they live in the second largest city in France).I visited Lyon yesterday (Wednesday), completing my quad-city tour.I went up for a violin lesson with a violinist who plays in the Lyon Opéra, who is a colleague of a colleague of my teacher back in Minneapolis.It was awesome.It felt so good to have a lesson again, and our personalities blended quite well.He was pleased with my level of playing (his first comment was on my great intonation – yes!), and we were able to get a lot of work done on the music that I’m learning.He even invited me to play in a masterclass that he is doing in a few weeks.I’ll be excited to keep going back and continue to have a chance to not just maintain my level of playing, but grow from working with a new teacher.
I was also able to connect with some friends from the Agapé ministry in Lyon.I got to see their offices and spend a few hours with them and have lunch.It was super fun!After my lesson too, I had a little extra time before going back to the gare to catch my train, so I stopped for a little treat – just a little taste of America that you can’t get in Montpellier to make the rest of my team jealous.
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