Living Free in Christ

Today, I am sitting here thinking about the past few days. They have all been full of so many encouraging things, I definitely need to share them. Last week, I took a placement test and was placed in the French intermediate class. They have 4 classes here. There are 2 beginner classes, 1 intermediate, and 1 advanced. Last Friday was our first real day of classes. My teacher probably spoke about 10 words of English the entire day, the rest was in French! By the end of the day, my head hurt. I felt as though I had probably understood maybe 50-60% of what she said that day. I was thinking that learning french was going to be an intense task! On Saturday, Sharon and I decided to ride our bikes about 2 miles to McDonalds. When we arrived there, it was sprinkling. As we were preparing to leave it was raining a little bit harder, so we decided to check out the surrounding stories( there was a shoe store-Sharon's favorite- : ) and a large grocery store/mallish place) So, waiting for the rain to go away, we walked around inside- we kept waiting and waiting..and it only began to rain harder!! So, we ended up riding our bikes home in the pouring rain- I wish that we had taken a picture when we got back, because everything was SOAKING wet!! Oh well..It was fun, I guess : ) On Sunday, we went to a french church here for the first time. It was different, but not in a negative way. Afterwards, we ended up going back to McDonalds with about 10 people from the school! Class continued on Monday and Tuesday- I was quite excited, because I felt that on Monday I understood about 90% of what the teacher was saying, which was really encouraging!! It was the same on Tuesday as well. God is definitely enabling me to pick up a lot of things in a short amount of time. I am excited to see where I will be by the time December rolls around!

These last couple of nights have been some of my favorite nights thus far here. I've ended up in our community kitchen with some of the other girls here, and we've had several late night talks about life. Sharing experiences, sharing God's calling on our lives, sharing in each other's pains/troubles- it has been an amazingly, encouraging time for me! God is definitely using the other girls here to challenge me and to teach me new things! I am just so thankful that I serve the God of the Universe...He definitely has been surrounding me with His love! He is good!

Well, today is Wednesday. I do not have classes on Wednesday. Therefore, today is my catch up day. I need to work on homework for an online class back home, do some reading, study my french, and do french homework, etc etc : ) I think I am going to like Wednesday- it is a midweek break : ) Funny thing - lots of the businesses are closed in town on Wednesday- everyone takes a break...all the schools in France do not have classes on Wednesday- it is a law. Just a little bit of info for you: ) Wouldnt it be nice in the States to have a law declaring Wednesday a family/break day?? Oh, the things it would do for our country : ) Anyway, thanks for everyone keeping up with me and for your prayers..definitely seeing God at work in me and those around me!! You could be praying for this: This week I am supposed to have a meeting with the headmaster at the highschool, because Sharon and I are hoping to help in the English there- or do some sort of after-school ministry there. We would love to be able to build relationships with highschool students in hopes of leading them to the Lord!! It seems that much of the youth in Europe do not seek God- hardly any go to church or get involved in church groups..so we are praying that God will use us and the short time we are here, to make a little ripple in the water!! Please pray for this! Thanks! Merci beaucoup!(Thank you very much)