well that wonderful time of the year has now come and gone. For Christmas this year (or Noel in France) we had the eve with Emmanuelle (our cooks) family. Their tradition is fondu and presents as most French families actually do our family version of Christmas on Dec 24th instead of the 25th. On the 25th Kristin and I got up and opened our presents. We bought each other gifts and were given a bunch of others by our families and friends. Plus we bought each other 10 euros of stocking stuffers which provided ample opening entertainment for Christmas. Afterwards we proceeded to make beaded gifts for the Reeves children and read the Christmas story. We did that most of the afternoon inside our warm and cozy decorated house. Then in the evening we hosted a Christmas party with the staff from camp as well as an old friend from camp Charles (some of you might remember him from last Christmas in America...he visited LCA). All in all it was an AMAZING Christmas. It was different than home, but it was in it's own way one of my favorite Christmas' because of how crazy it ended up being. God was sooo good this holiday season. Thanks to everyone for their prayers about this. This holiday has allowed me once again to just see how God pours out his blessings and remains steadfast. What an amazing thought to think he sent his only son to die so that I could really LIVE. I love Christmas and the message it brings to us all.
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As for right now. Well we're back to work. We have two groups here. One is another BAFA (counselor training) camp and the other is a large family (about 35) here to ski for vacation. It's kind of crazy with a few added couples on top of that, but we have lots of help and it's been good so far. The best part is that some of our friends from past years have been st0pping in to visit and we have been getting to hang out with some other friends from camps that we have attended. AND the best thing about these past two weeks is that Kristin and I have been skiing. We went on Friday and it was a bit crowded due to holidays, but the snow was great and the weather warm and bright. We're headed back out at some point this week as this minute snow is dumping on the mtns.
With all that's been going on around here I have not had time to update everyone back home much. To sum up life right now I would just say the word joy.
For a long time work here was pretty rough and it was hard to be so far from friends and family. We lacked understanding of French and thus it was also hard to get spiritual fulfillment through church. Wow have things changed recently!
First off we have begun to both understand significant amounts of french. The speaking portion is coming much slower, but we're doing our best. With this understanding we have found that we can now understand our church services and have begun to connect with some of the people we see there each week. We both have fallen in love with french worship songs and I'm on the hunt for a few great french worship cd's...harder than u might realize. There is no French WOW.
In regards to work some of the difficulties have been solved and the staff seems to have really begun to bond. It has begun to feel like we are a family. Please pray for this connection and unity to continue and prosper as it will make these next three months the most fulfilling of our time here! Also please pray for our friend Verena as she is the other roomate in our chalet at the moment. Kristin and I have become pretty close and so far have had no trouble letting Verena into the friendship, but it can be intimidating when you try and break into a friendship as close as ours. Please just pray that we remember this and the three of us continue to bond as we will be sharing the house until April. So far so good!
Life is soo good right now here. I guess to sum it up I feel like France is home. I no longer feel strange when I go out. I've learned to fit in as best as possible, to try and speak my very broken french and they will help me as best they can, to smile and nod and pretend you get everything, and just feel at home here. It is very different and many people have told me that when you move to a different country there is a stage of culture shock. Mine lasted until about last week. yea...thats a long time. I mean parts of it has left long ago, but at the same time I wasn't as comfortable here as I was in America. It felt alien and foreign everytime we went anywhere. There are still some things that throw me every once and a while, but by and large it feels comfortable now. From the architecture to the cars to the liscense plates (we live in 38 for the record...we watch the ski cars to see whos a local and whos visiting...we're locals :) ) A large part of this is due to our ski passes. Because of this we have been getting out of camp much more and meeting people. We have also been exploring more and getting involoved at AWANA's. These outlets have allowed us to see France not just from the inside of the bubble that can be camp and have allowed us to adapt much more to the lifestyle of France. I wish you could all come see this lovely place and meet the amazing people I have come to call my family. I love France and now that I find I can adapt to living elsewhere will probably be back...scary yes, but also a fact. For a while it was hard to come to grips with the idea that my little world that was all I had ever know wasn't going to be all I knew in this life. I was happy with my life and I liked it quite a bit (still do), but God had some bigger plans than I did. I'm still grasping just how big, but I do think France is still going to be playing a role in those plans yet to come. But first of course BIOLA....wouldn't want to forget that!
Probably won't update until the new year so I wish you all the best. For those of you back home may you all enjoy your new year (brians or wherever u find yourselves)! May it be all that your dreaming of. For us here we will be having a little evening soiree with some friends from Froges after we serve the group that will be here. And for those of you still traveling and such may you find people to spend the new year with as well. Enjoy! And God Bless you all!
-ERK
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