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!

29/02

So this year is a leap year. Cool right?

anyways,
this week has been...interesting. we've been chilling with some dutch kids. the group here currently has a ton of young adults our age that we've been having fun hanging out with. There is a difference between the dutch and the french and we're learning that firsthand. We also got to taste the exceptional cooking of our resident dutch baker. he made us some really yummy cakey thing thats is very dutch and ive never seen before. other than that we found the christian bookstore in Grenoble this week and bought ourselves some good ol christian french worship music. we also had a baby shower for Theresa (buan's wife, our secretary). Her baby is due right before I leave for America. That's right. Before I leave. Kristin will be staying here for another month to help out Verena. We had been discussing this for a while and we feel this is the right decsion. It's going to be strange returning to America without her, but this seems to be where God wants her right now. So I will be heading home on the 1st of April by myself. Pray for a safe and easy flight as well as travel to the airport which in France can at times get confusing!
other than that we bid farewell to another equipier this week and she headed back to Germany. So now it's Thoman, Mike, Kristin, Verena and me here until the end. We are all pretty tight at this point and Mike has extended his stay here to hang out with us for longer. Verena will be here until August and Thomas lives down the hill and comes and goes. It's been a crazy and good past couple of weeks, but we are looking forward to this coming week. There will be a group about our age here for skiing and we are going with them EVERYDAY! That's a lot of ski time for us after such a long time of working! Hope everyone is enjoying their leap year!

Music--how we roll...

so my little sister is basically my hero and the most amazing person on this planet. besides jesus of course hehe. so she sends me lists of A-M-A-Z-I-N-G music. i mean she searches for days and weeks to come up with these lists. they are incredible! i have a slight (cough) obsession with music. all my friends have learned this sad fact first hand and those of them that have spent a good deal of time with me have learned the types that tend to make me the happiest. i am wicked amped for concerts in LA this coming fall! i have a list. for seriouse though i do. so anyways i am on break today and going through these lists of music. i also read all of Samuel. I liked it. I have been reading through my entire bible. I'm on Acts and now 2 Samuel. It's taken me a long long time, but it's been one of the most benefitting experiences of France so far.

Life has been hard here lately. We have the Dutch here. I know that sounds so neat, but in reality they are loud and demanding! Classy right? So we are dealing with their "needs". This means getting up wayyyy wayyy too early in the morning and having two seperate dinners because they want to eat at ungodly hours! Either way they are here for a week with one other group and then we have a nice easy group to finish the winter season! The time is just going to fly by until we come home. After these next 2 camps we then have a week with Dana Smith's group in Albertville and then Joshua Expeditions (think Bob Jones Uni) is sending a work group here for the rest of our time. Then HOME to you all!

So this past week we have had stunning weather! Think sunny skies and warm weather. We've been tanning and reading outside every afternoon before dinner. I have been enjoying listening to the french teens learn about Mark. It's neat to understand them and the discussions they have each afternoon!

Have I mentioned we have a new secretary for a bit. His name is Thomas and I know him from the youth center in Grenoble. He has really bad stress fractures and has to use special crutches for a while completly taking him out of the ski season and army for a bit. So yea keep his recovery in your prayers.

Pray that these next few months will be amazing here. That we will finish strong. That we will touch the hearts of all those we talk and interact with. That they will find people to replace us at AWANA's. That the camp will find workers for when we leave!

I hope everyone loves snow because i heard a rumor that New England is getting pummled right now! Hope all is well with all of you. stay safe.

I love my friends <3

i love my friends. tonight cedric our recent friend from the ski station stopped in to visit. we played some card games and talked for a long time. its been amazing getting to know and share our faith with him these past few weeks. tonight was amazing as he stopped in on his own this evening just to hang with us! please add him to your prayers. we have such a chance to minister to he and his friends from the ski shop here. pray that God gives us the right words and chances to present the message of the Father's love to him! And more than that just to be there for him as a friend and support of a different world than the one he finds in France usually!

just wanted to add that to those prayer lists. we did a bit of skiing today. then took naps wohooo. then worked a bunch.

week one down...here we go again...

well we just finished up with some worship time with the American Seattle group that just arrived here! There are two famous in champfleuri land people Lyndsey and Dan. They brought with them a bunch of other english speakers!

Yesterday I went skiing with the group that was here from an international church in aix. We worked with a bunch of the young teenage girls on their turning and speed skills. We got in a bunch of skiing last week. Then I skied with Allan's middle school boys group and we did some off piste and blacks. Worked on my non existant mogul skills. i would love to come home able to ski moguls and i totally think its a feasible goal. tomorrow sam and jonathan two old equipe are arriving here to work. then we get some americans and the other group the Grande famille is heading out to ski. life has been hectic here, but one week of winter season is down!