From France to England

Hello from Darwen in Lancashire, England! :)

My what a week this has been. I write this from the chilly north of England, but only a week ago, I was still at the camp in central France.

Last Thursday, I was still involved in the pastor's retreat. That day I continued to help with childcare and kitchen work. Here are some of my little buddies.

Doesn't get much cuter than that.

The beautiful young ladies :)

In the afternoon I got the special treat of going to Jared and Rebekah Stevenson's house, which is about 10 minutes from the camp. Alexi and Anne Marie from the church in Rouen also came with their kids. We had a wonderful time of fellowship together for a few hours. Jared showed us the house and renovations that are continuing to be done as well as the gardens. We also spent some time talking about spiritual things. Alexi shared his testimony for a while. It was so encouraging, because for some reason, that afternoon I sort of had a breakthrough with French, and I could understand a large amount of what he said. It was so wonderful to hear his story. I also got to talk to his wife and Rebekah for a while about my own family. Again, I tried to just speak French for the most part, and I was amazed at how much I was learning. Praise the Lord for how He is helping me progress! It was very special. Finally I was able to really start to build meaningful relationships with some French people in their own language.

The kids at the house

With Jared, Rebekah, Anne Marie, and the kids

Later that evening at the dinner meal I sat with another family from the church in Rouen and got to speak a lot of French. So special!

On Friday, I had the privilege to join the families on an outing they were doing a mountain nearby. It's the highest point in central France. We had a little picnic in a park at the foot of the mountain, and then took some cable cars up. There were about 800 steps to climb to the top after that. It was a very foggy day, so we kinda got stuck in the clouds. Super cool. :) As we were headed back down the steps, a thunderstorm came in, and we got rather soaked. Thankfully, we all made it back in one piece. It was another great time to get to know the families.

One of the French pastors, David, snapping a few photos :)

When we first got up there, we were completely surrounded by clouds, but then they cleared out a bit. What a view!

That evening we had an end-of-camp banquet. It was about 3.5 hours long, complete with lots of special music, games, and times of testimony. We had it in the nice meeting hall down the street from the main camp building, where we usually do services. 

They were supposed to imitate chocolate melting in a storefront window.

Jared was the last one to melt down, so Alexi shouted, "Le chocolat americain!" haha

Mercedes and Mr. Rick 

Jess and Mercedes

Children of a pastor from Marseilles presenting a special

Saturday morning was sad as I had to say goodbye to the friends at the camp. What a privilege it was to work there! It was especially hard to say goodbye to Mercedes. We were buds. :) 

Right before I left

The rest of the day Saturday I spent traveling home to Rouen with some American missionaries, Paul and Glenda Stetson. They minister in eastern France, but Pastor Stetson was going to speak at the church in Rouen on Sunday, so it worked out perfectly for me to leave the conference with them. It was about a 9 hour drive. Kristi had left that morning to go to Paris to do another music conference. Fred and Ruth Coleman had arrived on Tuesday, and they were all headed there for the week to minister. As we had planned the summer, Kristi thought that even though I'd love to be at the music conference, I get to see the Coleman's all the time at BJU :) , so it'd be a nice time to work in England. I had her apartment all to myself for the weekend though! :) 

Sunday I took the bus to church and met a few guys from the church on the way, so that I would know where to go for the walking bit. We had a very nice service. Afterwards, a number of the church leaders went out for lunch with the Stetson's and I at a crepe restaurant. Then a few of us went over to Alexi and Anne Marie's house to relax and spend time together. It was wonderful to see their home! It was also the final day of le Tour de France, so we watched that for a while. Fun! Jerry and Celine took me home to Kristi's, and I got to stop by and see their home as well. Jerry is one of the elders at the church, and he also offered to drive me to the airport the next day.

At the restaurant

Monday morning, Jerry took me to the Paris Beauvais airport to catch my flight over to England. Thankfully, I was able to take my violin as a carry-on again. My flight was delayed awhile, so I spent a long time in the airport, but my flight over was short and sweet, about 45 minutes or so. :) I flew in to Manchester, and was out of the airport so quickly. I met the Cunninghams right away. I had never met this family before, but have a number of connections to them through other friends. It was a joy to finally meet. They have twin sons, Robert and David, who are 15. We all spent a nice evening together at their home in Darwen, which is just outside the city of Blackburn, about an hour from Manchester. The boys are very much into video gaming and just all-around being professional teenage boys. :) I hope to be a good friend to them while I'm here, as they have basically no fellowships with Christians around their age. 

Their lovely home here

Mrs. Cunningham is also going through a very difficult time as she just found out she has breast cancer. She had her first chemo treatment three weeks ago and is on a good week right now. Next week is her next treatment, so that will be more difficult. I will be doing more cooking and things around the house then. We've had many good conversations since I've been here, and it's special to just get to build a friendship.

On Tuesday, we cleaned the house a bit and then had a ladies Bible study with some women from church. We had a time of prayer, Bible study, and then a tea and scones time. :) They are studying "What Do I Know about My God?" by Mardi Collier. 

The ladies at the Bible study and Mrs. C (far right) :)

:) :) :)

Tuesday was also a difficult day for me personally. On Sunday, I Skyped my mom, and she told me some difficult news. One of my cats, Cody, had started to fail in his health about a month before I left, but we hoped he would get better or at least last until I returned home. That day she told me that he had rapidly progressed for the worst, and that I would need to say goodbye. That was very difficult. On Tuesday, she had to have him put to sleep. My cats are very special to me, so that was very hard. He was 13, so he's been my special buddy since I was 8. I am thankful in a way though that the Lord allowed me to be away when this happened. Please pray for my mom and I though, as this is a hard loss. 

Here's a photo of Cody from a few Christmases ago

On Wednesday, Mrs. C and I and the boys went into downtown Blackburn and went shopping. It was special to see a bit of the town, and I was able to get some gifts for friends. I was even able to find a dress for my senior voice recital this year! We got it in the Blackburn market at a shop run by a Muslim man. The dress was made in Italy, and sent to France, bought from France by this man, and he is now selling it in a market in England! Talk about a roundabout trip. :)

In the parking garage with the twins before we shopped. This is them "smiling for a picture" ;)

Mrs. C and I spent a good bit of time working on music for the Sunday service yesterday as well. Today we went in to town and grocery shopped for things for the next week or so. Basically, I'm just helping around the house as I can, with dishes, cooking, cleaning, etc. Please pray that God would use me to truly be an instrument of grace to their family. They already have been to me! 

Tonight we are having prayer meeting at their home. Looking forward to it. It sure is nice to be surrounded by English once again. :) Farewell for now!