TWO DAYS!!!!

so basically this is the post where I announce that I will be home on Tuesday evening! I fly our tomorrow morning and still have yet to pack. Basically today is packing and then skiing for the afternoon! Syched. Plus today I got to meet baby Theo for the first time. He is too cute and slept in my arms for a part of the morning meeting. Needless to say I was just a little distracted. These past few days have been filled with goodbyes and I am getting totally syched to get home. Yea for seeing all of you again soon!

Three Days to Go

So Yesterday was pretty nice. We worked with the group in the morning and then took the afternoon to walk all the way to town and get out hair cut. We decided to hitch hike back because the walk was so long and ended up getting picked up by Gudrun. Pretty funny to get picked up hitch hiking by your own family (basically). Either way all the equipiers have new hair cuts!

Today is my day off so I slept till about 11:30 and then got up and had a quick breakfast. Afterwards I continued the grand search for my stuff project. This place is so huge and my stuff has managed to get put EVERYWHERE! So then I packed some more stuff and figured out my stuff for getting home. Now I'm importing the last of the group's CD's onto my computer and then we're going to go do something fun with Sam :).

Tomorrow we head to church for the last time here and then a lunch with our friends family and a couple friends from church. Should be pretty fun.

I have Sunday, Monday and leave Tuesday morning to fly home...now that is crazy folks.

The Most Amazing ski day ever...

Today we went skiing with the group. Usually this involves us teaching them to ski really slowly. Luckily for us some of them already knew how so we got to play in the snow in the morning. Then we had the world's quickest lunch and headed out for some off pisting with allan and group. So it turned out that we had an amazing group of skiiers and the snow was up to our knees and no one was there...so we went off trail all day and got really sore legs. BUT we had all the leaders with us so basically the kids taught themselves. Yes all of this to say that today I got to ski with the most amazing ski group ever and we skiied the most awesome trails and the snow was deep and fluffy and like clouds. Yes I am tired. Yes it is late. Yes my legs are burning still. Yes I am going to bed right now. :)

So to begin here is the song I have had stuck in my head all day!

Listen to our Hearts
Micheal W. Smith

How do you explain,
How do you describe,
A love that goes from east to west,
And runs and deep as it is wide?

You know all our hopes
Lord, you know all our fears
And words cannot express the love we feel
But we long for You to hear

So listen to our hearts
Hear our spirits sing
A song of praise that flows
From those You have redeemed
We will use the words we know
To tell You what an awesome God You are
But words are not enough
To tell You of our love
So listen to our hearts

If words could fall like rain
From these lips of mine
And if I had a thousand years
I would still run out of time

So if You listen to my heart
Every beat would say,
“Thank You for the Life, thank You for the Truth, thank You for the Way.”

I've always had a love for music. In fact in case you don't know this already I am always thinking or humming along to some song. So no surprises then when I say that one of my favorite forms of worship is through song. To be exact through contemporary worship music, but I do still like hymns. Either way this song is one of those worship songs that has always touched me and I feel like it expresses my love for my Lord. My favorite line though has to be "and if I had a thousand years I would still run out of time". I want my walk with the Lord to be like this song says in that with every beat my heart is crying out to the Lord. I think it's a good reminder to us all and also a wonderful song of encouragment. Kristin and I were able to sing it with some of the french americans living in Alberville during our week there and we all agreed it was one of our favorites from the week so enjoy!

and on another note completly...
Today Verena and I led 12 teens in tearing apart a antique closet with housed about 4,000 spiders. Note I hate spiders please. Luckily for me we are working with southern guys who as soon as I made this known to them took over all spider removal for me :) special thanks to them! It took us so long and none of us could breath because there were so many of us crowded into such a small little closet...think gross spidery dark space. UGGG. Anyways then after lunch the group went into Grenoble and we stayed here. Finally I got some time to pack up some stuff for my departure. I have one full bag packed and most of my stuff at least organized for leaving this coming Tuesday! Man am I excited for some good american food!
So this evening I went to my last AWANA meeting. It was so sad seeing my kids for the last time and saying goodbye to everyone. To end the evening they gathered around me in a circle and took some time to pray for what is coming next. It made me once again remember that these kids say hello and goodbye to so many people and yet each person seems to matter so much to them! As I was about to head out the door one of my favorite TandT'ers came running up with tears running down his face. He wanted to give me a big hug and wish me tons of luck! I felt so bad and hope to stay in touch with them all. It's funny how in such a short amount of time these kids and leaders have become such a portion of my life, a little family here in France! I can't wait to see what the Lord will do in all their lives here in France!
So the countdown towards home begins and we're off to go chat with the group before the "mandatory lights out" time. Silly Georgians.

Georgia Arrives at Champfleuri...

Today a group of 30 teens on a senior class trip from Georgia arrived to work and play in the snow. Have I mentioned we have been getting non stop snow for the past few days. Thursday we are hitting the mountains for some powder play time with the group! Anyways today Verena and I were in charge of organizing group work around camp. Literally about 2 hours in we ran out of work and had to invent stuff for them to do. Picture if you can our laundry room (which of course you have never seen, but try anyways) totally filled with kids sanding, vacuming, dustin, mopping, lifting heavy stuff, shaking blankets, and throwing stuff outside the door to empty the room. Needless to say it was such a mess, but after a few hours of elbow grease it is looking fine! This evening the group had worship and a sermon on Abraham leaving behind his security. It got me thinking of how God sometimes makes us leave our family, our friends, and our land like in this story in order to bring us closer to him. The concept itself if one of those no duh ones and yet if you stop and really think about the idea it can be pretty hard to fathom. I for one do NOT LIKE to leave my security. With less than a week left in my France trip I can still admit how scary it is to me that I live here and that I did and have left my security of family, friends, and land. I would suggest it to everyone actually. It really makes you think not only about what's important, but also about your idols that sometimes you need to leave in order to recognize. So yes I liked the sermon tonight and it made me think during my last week here. I hope that you all had a blessed Easter and continue to enjoy the beginning of your weeks!

Peace in Christ,
em

Happy Easter! Joyeuse Pâque!

Happy Easter and a Joyeuse Pâque to you all! The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed!

First the song we have been listening to all morning with props to Sam...
Delirious--Hands of Kindness

Now some emily thoughts...
Church this morning was amazing. An entirely different Easter Sunday then I have ever seen and yet once again I am awed by how God works in France. Today our church welcomed to the pulpit a gospel choir from Grenoble. They sang like you would imagine the old southern baptist churches to praise complete with long flowy robes and piano accompaniment. Brief sidenote: the pianist(s) where amazing. The best pianists I have seen in a long long time! Alright and back to my original thoughts...Church was incredible. It's funny to see a different way of praising the Lord on such a day! I love being a part of this church and have come to love the congregation as my own during these past 8 months. Next week we are heading to one of the families houses for a brief lunch and farewell to the church before I fly home!

Easter here has so far consisted of a wonderful church service (see above) and a tasty lunch made by Mike. It was quite a surprise to be cooked such a wonderful lunch and we all appreciated this gesture immensly. Come on how can you pass up chicken, potatoes, hot cross buns, cake, and carrots?

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So to catch you all up on life...
Theresa had her baby this past Saturday morning. He was born healthy at 6 and a half pounds and they named him Theodore Jessie Anderson. We cannot wait to get to see he and mommy!

We had our end of season party this past weekend at a wonderful little pizzeria and had our goodbyes. Usually when equipiers are leaving camp Blain does a little presentation with bible verse that describes their time, chocolate, picture frame of their time here, and a tee shirt. So this time it was my turn. My verse is Deuteronomy 16:15(b) I think. Supposedly because of my Joy. Kristin's verse was from Matthew and talked about her servant heart.

Two weeks ago we spent a week working with a missions trip group from Boston that I have previously mentioned. The time was amazing! We had a chance to connect to some other teens living and working in france and a family that moved here around the same time as us with two teens our age. Besides that it was great catching up with old friends and meeting some new ones! It made me rediscover how much I love american teenagers. God works in mysterious manners. The week itself was filled with day trips, shopping, and then the missions side. We helped to restore an apartment for the Language school in Alberville. We also worked with two different youth groups and worked with many of the missionary families living in the area. It was an incredible week for everyone and I think the teens that came over got a really realistic view of missions and the culture of France.

It's snowing. Did it snow on Christmas? No. Is it snowing on Easter? Yes. Strange, very strange.

This past week we have had more snow than any other time here at camp. Friday morning we awoke to fresh snow and more falling from the sky by the minute. We convinced our boss to let us be ski bums and headed to the mountains. The snow was epic and up to my knees in some places! Literally the best snow that I have ever skied in! We will be getting in one more day of skiing as we will work with a group this coming Thursday.

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Since it is Easter I thought I would end this blog by reminding you all what this wonderful holiday means for me! Today is the most important day for me because it is the day that Christ was risen. During the time of the Crucifiction many men claimed to be Kings and yet mine died for this claim and to fulfill the prophesies he rose again making him stand apart from the rest. Without this important day the death of Christ is just the death of another man claiming to be God, but through his resurection he provided a pathway for us to live again and the proof of his origin.

"For God so loved the world that he sent his only son so that he might die for our sins and grant us eternal life" (John 3:16). This same man rose again today. He lived and died so that I might live eternally. He has granted me life through his death. He was sent to earth with this purpose. He died on a cross and took upon himself the sins of the whole world (you included) whether we accept this free gift or not is our own choice, but it has been made regardless. To accept this gift we must acknowledge his death on the cross for our sins. Today is the day we celebrate that our Christ has overcome death!

I hope you all enjoy your celebrations wherever you may be. I am getting yelled at as we are supposed to be going sledding now with a group from church! Salut!

Making Ice Cream...i know our social lives are just that interesting!

So right now we are all rolling this blue ball for making ice cream around the floor. Kinda strange I know, but what else is there to do in an old mansion with just a bunch of teenagers? haha. tomorrow kristin and i head to Albertville to work with Dana Smith's youth group! We know a bunch of people coming and another couple working there this week with the group. It should be pretty fun! Today was great. We got up to work and realized we didnt really have that much to do so about halfway through the day we turned it into a lie on the couches playing cards all day type of day. Pretty sweet. So this is my last post for a while here and then we come back for Spring cleaning and after that one last group before I pack up and head home. So strange! Good, but strange!

Happy Bithday Kristin!

So today was a special day for 2 reasons. One it's kristin's 19th bday and two it was the day of our good friend Laura's baptism. So we went to the ceremony and then had a little fete here. This evening we celebrated kristin's birthday at the buffalo grill in Grenoble avec Sam et Junior et Gaelle. It was a great and terribly fun evening and we even got the whole restraunt to sing happy birthday and bring a cakie thing and it was great!

more to come...talking to my sister!

Skiing!

So this past week has been incredible. We basically got the chance to ski everyday with the group here and this awesome guy Tony whos a really decent skier! So then a day and a half into the week Tony and I are ripping it up in some powder and I jumped onto the trail for a few minutes to hit an ice patch and ended up skiing backwards and biting it hard. I ate some powder! Either way I managed to ski down and ended up going to the mtn doc who told me I had torn a muscle in my right leg and hurt my left knee and was gonna need to stop for 2 full weeks and take some major painkillers. So here I am completly pain killered up listening to this awesome music site i found online. I've discovered this blog for french street bands ( pretty sick really)! Either way the bad part is of course I can't walk much and the group is making sure I bed rest. Also this week has sick powder to play in...think 8 new inches and here I am inside watching. Nice. Not.

Only three and a half weeks left. That's a crazy thought. We're crossing out t's for the coming trip to Albertville to work with Dana's youth group. We're buying out train tix right now and then getting all settled. I can't wait to see everybody!

Other than that kristin's bday is this Sunday as well as our friend Laura's baptism so that should be fun and we have a group too of course!