Visa Trouble

I'm in a pickle.

Shall I enlighten you on the situation? Okay. I will.

When I left for France in September the policy was that as long as I left France briefly after a 90 day stay, I would be able to re-enter the country again. So, I didn't get a French visa. However, I found out a few days ago that in mid-October the policy was changed, so that those without visas who stay in France (and other countries within the Schengen region) for up to 90 days must stay out of it for 90 days before re-entering.

I was scheduled to fly back to France today so that I could pack and depart for Senegal with my team on January 2. But since I most likely would have been denied access into France without a visa, I decided I would stay put in England for the time being.

So, Peter (who also does not have a French visa) and I are still in England, staying with Abi's ever so kind family. We're at a bit of a standstill, waiting for the consulates in the States to open on Monday so that we can figure out what on earth we should do! We're looking into the possibility of getting transit visas, although we have no idea if it's possible to obtain those without being in our home states. We are also looking into the possibilty of finding a flight straight from England to Africa. We are also looking into the possibility of joining up with an outreach team in England instead of going to Senegal, should the first two possiblities fall through.

The other issue is that my flight back home to the states in March is out of Marseille, France. And if getting back into France is simply not going to be possible, I will have to pay for another flight home.

So how's that for an update? I've been so aware of all the amazingly good things God has allowed me to do and experience during my travels so far, and I keep thinking, "shall I take God's blessings and not the trials as well?" At this particular moment I am actually really excited for whatever God has. I'm comforted as I remember that he knows the plans he has for me, and that he works all things for the good of those who love him (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28).

But oh, we have so very much to figure out. So many questions, so many unknowns, so many what ifs. Please pray that God would give Peter, his parents, my parents, and me wisdom as we contact the consulates and try to sort this out. Please pray that I would trust God as he opens and/or closes doors. Thank you! I am grateful to know so many folks are supporting me on this journey.

I'll post again once I have updates!

The Lovely Lyme Park

The day after Christmas Abi, Jamie (Abi's dad), Shea, Sam, Peter, and I went to Lyme Park. 

Lyme Park is a large, 1,300 acre estate just a few miles from Abi's house. The estate is vast, with hills that go on and on. Yet again words and pictures fail to portray how amazing this place actually is.

The ladder in the picture below is known as a stile, which allows people to pass over the wall, but not animals. 

Oh I loved it there. It is hands down one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. 

Apart from the mansion, which I'll get to soon, the estate has several smaller structures known as the Lantern and the Cage. The Lantern once served as a lookout tower. 

The Cage once served as a hunting lodge.

It may or may not interest you to know that the Lyme Park mansion was used as "Pemberley" (Mr. Darcy's residence) in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice.

It just so happened that a traveling exhibit with some of the costumes from the film were on display. We shouldn't have been allowed into the exhibit rooms without paying an entrance fee, but for some reason that was overlooked by the park volunteers, and we got a nice sneak peek!

As the English say, it was a "brilliant" day!

Merry Christmas from England!

Avignon

We went to Avignon this past Friday to get vaccinations for Senegal, but we made a day trip out of it, and enjoyed the sites afterwards. It was so fun!

I roamed Avignon with Anna and Sam, because we were all in agreement that H&M would be our first priority (For those of you who are about to Google "H&M", I'll save you some time; it's a clothing store). It was a large, two story one at that!

Our next stop was Le Palais des Papes.

Those two little specks in the lower left corner are Sam and me. The palace is massive!

We climbed several sets of stairs and turned around to realize we were in the perfect location for enjoying the sunset.

My favorite view of the day, however, was the bridge, Pont Saint-Bénezet. Anyone know the song Sur le Pont d'Avignon? The song refers to this very bridge. I love how clearly you can see the reflection of the bridge in the water!

 

Our final stop was the Christmas market, where vendors were selling all sorts of homemade/handcrafted wonderfulness (crepes, candy, hats, scarves, wooden toys, etc). Our time was limited, so I did me some quick window shopping.

Thanks be to God for a wonderful day of sight seeing. J'aime bien Avignon!

JEM Saint Paul Christmas Party

Last night we had a JEM Christmas party. We all dressed up, enjoyed a special meal, and played one of those crazy gift exchange games. I was asked to share some of my personal highlights from the past 12 weeks with everyone, and I thought I’d post a paraphrased excerpt from it here, for posterity (or something like that).

“Over the past twelve weeks God has given me many good gifts, and tonight I’d like to share some of them with you. The first gift: acceptance. I've always been a people pleaser. I've always wanted everyone to like me and accept me. But when you live in close quarters with others, as we do here, it’s pretty much impossible to be accepted and liked by everyone all the time. You're gonna get on peoples nerves at one point or another. Yet, each time I have messed up or sinned against someone, I have been met with forgiveness and love. The love I have experienced here reminds me of the love and acceptance I have in Jesus Christ. Amazing!

The second gift: the Bible. In the past I’ve relied on my parents, pastors and friends for advice when making decisions (big or small). But here, my "advisers" are not around, and I have been forced to turn to God and his word for answers. Because of this, my love for the Bible and my gratefulness to God for giving me his word has only increased!

This is just a sampling of the good gifts God has given me; I could share more! But tonight we’re gathered not only to celebrate gifts from God in our individual lives, but also the gift we have all been given—Jesus Christ—who came to earth to save us!"

After my little speech I read the story of Jesus birth in English, Sophie read it in French, and then we sang Christmas carols. It was a wonderfully festive evening!

Week 11 Festivities

Week 11 was full of good food and memory making! We ended up celebrating Thanksgiving this week instead of last week, because our instructor was from the States, and we thought he'd enjoy sharing an AMURican meal along with us.

We tried to make most of the traditional dishes, however, turkey did not make it onto the menu (it's crazy expensive here for some reason). We had chicken, mashed taters, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole (made by me...you weren't missing out), cranberry sauce, stuffing, pumpkin pie, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and apple crumble (also made by me...this, I'm happy to say, got rave reviews).

Some of the other students even decorated our dining room to make things feel more festive, but it was oh so strange to celebrate without my family. Thanks to my sister, Cara, I did get a little taste of Thanksgiving at home. She made a video for me with clips of my family members saying "hi" and sending love during their Thanksgiving celebration. Thank you so much, Car!

After the big meal, we watched Les Misérables (the 2012 version). Man, the theme of forgiveness and mercy in that story is absolutely amazing! We've been humming and singing the songs from it almost constantly since then.

Thursday night our instructor took us out on the town. We admired Saint Paul's Christmas charm; it was decked out for Christmas with window murals and lights in the trees. I have pictures, but the quality is so bad that I am too embarrassed to post them! Afterwards we ate dinner at a little place called L'Auberg Inn. I ordered Salade de Chevre Chaud au Miel and a Banana Split, of all things! The salad had warm goat cheese and honey drizzled on top of a bed of greens. It was simple and delicious. Believe it or not, that was my first eating out experience since I've been in France! 

Friday afternoon a group of us went to a Christmas craft market in town and on the way home enjoyed a gorgeous sunset. Just look!

  I love late fall tree silhouettes!

The festivities don't end there, folks! Friday evening my small group—Peter, Shea, Sam, Anna—and I went to Mado's house for fondue. (Mado is one of the JEM Saint Paul staff members who lives in town). To be completely honest, I wasn't really a fan of the cheese. The white wine flavor was a bit too strong for my liking. Even so, I enjoyed the experience and the company.

So there you have it: a full, fun week of new experiences. I have many other things I could share right now, but this post is long enough as it is. Besides, I don't have pictures to hold your interest beyond this point anyway. Until next time!

Status Update

Weather: Cold, windy, and often quite rainy

Week Nine: Finished

Feeling: Homesick

New Favorite Pastime: Playing soccer with my JEM people

Christmas Plans: Staying with Abi and her family in Manchester, England along with Sam, Shea, and Peter!

Leaving for Senegal: January 2

Returning from Senegal: March 11

God's Grace: Amazing

This Picture: Just because

A Saint-Just Treasure

I just posted a shortened version of this on Facebook, but I just had to post it here too (especially for my non-Facebook people)!

We just got back from a day in Saint-Just. We were helping our friend, Isabelle, who will be translating for us next week. We did some yard work for her in the morning and enjoyed lunch and a tour of her home afterwards.

Isabelle and her mom live on a beautiful estate that's been in their family for years. The yard was lovely and extremely large. I would pretty much equate it to "The Secret Garden." During WWII the Germans would camp out there because of its prime location. I love doing yard work, so I was in heaven as we raked, broke down fallen branches, and picked up fallen Sharon fruit (Persimmons, I think?) and laid them out to ripen.

And the house, oh the house! It was a mansion (literally a maze of a place) and wonderfully old. Vines with red leaves crawled up the walls of the beautiful, blue shuttered home. The main part of the house was built in 1780, and some of the basement/wine cellar areas date back to the 1300-1400s! Uh, I just loved it! I'm only sorry I don't have any pictures to share. Just use your imagination, okay?

Castle, Confusion, and Clarity

I know I haven't been very "blog post happy" lately. They've been keeping us busy around here...

Two weekends ago we visited Le Chateau de Suze-la-Rousse, which is just a 10 minute drive from JEM St. Paul. It was beautiful!

Can you see the faint outline of a mountain range on the horizon in the picture below? Not the first mountain range, but the one you can just barely see with a layer of fog covering it? That's Mont Ventoux; one of the most challenging peaks in the Tour de France. Cool, huh?!

Then, last weekend we (the students) hosted a dinner party for the JEM staff members and their families. We planned everything: the menu, the decorations, and the entertainment. It was a great success! Everyone dressed up like a Bible character; I chose to be Zipporah. Here I am pictured with my new little friend, Abigail (I'm not exactly sure which Bible character she was). 

Alright, enough about weekend adventures and festivities, let's move on to the meaty stuff: lectures. This week's lecture topic was "The Holy Spirit." To be perfectly honest, I don't usually think about the Holy Spirit on a day to day basis, so I had a difficult time wrapping my mind around the topic. Our teacher really loves God and had some truly valuable things to share, however, a few of his points—as far as I could tell—were not based on the Bible. I've tried not to be overly critical when listening to the lectures, but between the novelty and subjectivity of some of the teaching, my head was spinning this week. I didn't know what to believe about anything! I was anxious, emotional, and confused.

Thanks be to God, I am doing MUCH better now. After several, long phone conversations with my mom, one long phone conversation with my parents' pastor, and praying and Bible reading on my own, I was able to sort through some things. God helped me realize that while it's true I shouldn't be overly critical, I should use discernment. I'm learning not to take everything at face value, but instead to listen to the teaching, then study the Bible on my own, while asking God to help me develop convictions that are from him. A wonderful outcome of this week is that I am really excited to read my Bible more. And that, my friends, is the work of the Holy Spirit!

Happy Friday!

We're pictured here with Denis Drugeau, the president of JEM France and our teacher for the week. Denis talked about how to determine what skills God has given each of us and how to use them in the future. Lots to think about!

Week Four

Week four came and went, and like every other week here thus far, it was good, but challenging. I'm continually faced with the realization that one, God is far greater than I can comprehend, and two, I don't know as much about him as I thought I did. Being humbled is painful!

That being said, I really enjoyed this week's lecture topic. Mark Provis taught on The Bible. Here is a sampling of the topics he covered:

-How to Study the Bible
-The Bible and Science
-Translation Categories/Differences
-The Authority of the Bible

Mark reminded us that every part of the Bible, from the first page of Genesis to the final page of Revelation, points to Jesus Christ (who he is and what he has done). As a result of this reminder I have a renewed desire to read my Bible with the intent of knowing Jesus better.

We also had the privilege of having some guest speakers from Wycliffe Bible Translators come share with us. It was so cool to hear about the work they are doing in Sénégal to translate portions of the Bible into some of the 36 languages spoken there. Especially since we'll be going there in January for our outreach trip. (Do you like how I slid that in there?) Yep, we're going to Sénégal! I don't know many details yet. The DTS staff will brief us more in the coming weeks, but for now it's just nice to know our destination!

Bon Appétit!

Tonight will be my last evening of cooking dinner with Alex. You know what that means? It means I've been in France for a whole month! WOW.

As you may have noticed, Alex is holding a bell. The ringing of the bell tells everyone that dinner is ready. It is then proceeded by one or both of us singing "AuhAuhAa" like Giselle does here in the movie Enchanted. We may or may not sound as good as Amy Adams. You'd have to come visit to find out.

A Tour of JEM St. Paul

I simply cannot believe I have been here for 3 weeks already! And for some strange reason, I've not yet posted pictures of where I'm living. Allow me to take you on a little tour...

La Maison! The kitchen, reception area/lobby, bathrooms, and dining room are all located on the main floor. The JEM offices and staff loft are on the upper level. The laundry room, classroom, and student bedrooms are located on the lower level. To the left you can see part of a smaller building jutting out. That's where our bedrooms are located. Five girls in one room and 3 boys in another room. It's squishy but we make it work!

The reception area is a popular hangout spot for us students. During breaks we'll often convene here for tea or coffee.

This is a tiny little phone booth where we can make calls to family and friends. (Note to my parents: This is where you can picture me when I call you on the weekends!)

 

Not wanting to leave out a single detail, I'm including a brief description of the bathroom, which is complete with one shower, two toilets, and one sink. You can imagine that with eight people it can get a little, well, interesting! At least once each day I find myself doing a little dance around the sink with the other students, as two or three of us try to brush our teeth at the same time.

Ah, the kitchen. This is where Alex and I have been busying ourselves each weeknight to prepare the evening meals. One more week to go! (we are assigned new practical duties every four weeks).

And here we have the backyard. All told I think JEM owns 15-20 acres of land, which gives us lots of space to enjoy! This place makes for some good flashlight tag, let me tell ya.

So there you have a little glimpse of where I'm living. I'm feeling less homesick than I did the first two weeks here, which is a kindness from the Lord. Although I certainly still look forward to returning home in March, I'm also enjoying what God has for me here. I have such a unique opportunity to spend extended time reading the Bible, praying, and getting to know God better. And I find that very exciting!

The Provis Family, Lectures, and Ardèche

I have so much to write about, and so little time, so I'm dividing this blog entry into three separate sections. Here goes...

The Provis Family
Ruth and Mark Provis are our fearless base leaders here at JEM St. Paul. They each teach a full week of DTS, oversee and plan everything we do, and work closely with Anna and Tabea (the staff members who live on the base).

Ruth and Mark are British, and all of us American students are fascinated with their accents and sayings. We love it when they say "Rubbish!" or "That was brilliant!" or "Blimey!". Ruth and Mark have two boys, Eli and Noah, whose accents are equally as fascinating and who are both fluent in French. The Provis family lives in an apartment in St. Paul, which is a 2 minute drive from the base. We are very blessed to have such wonderfully fun people leading our team.

Lectures
I must say that I have found some of the lectures quite difficult to sit through. I've been learning a lot of things that are new to me and/or different from what I've been taught at home or in church. In addition this is one of the first times in my life that I don't have my pastors and parents around to help me process this information. I'm asking God to help me be discerning but not overly critical as I take everything in.

Over the past two weeks God has been showing me that I've been believing things about him that aren't true, things that are based more on my own opinions than on what the Bible says, and it's a hard realization to come to! But I set out on this journey wanting to know God better, and if that requires some humbling along the way, it's worth it!

Ardèche
Okay, it's time for some pictures folks. Today I have some gooders to share with you from our excursion to Ardèche. Ardèche is basically the Grand Canyon of France with a gorge running through it. This morning, we packed a picnic lunch, stuffed ourselves into two little cars, and headed down the winding roads leading to Ardèche. We stopped frequently to take pictures along the way.

Oh man was it immense! Views like the one above were plenty and kept getting better and better with each overlook site we passed. 

We also had the opportunity to make some new friends...

The highlight of today's excursion was Vallon Pont d'Arc, where we stopped to eat a picnic lunch and go swimming.

Pretty amazing, huh? We braved the frigid water to swim underneath the arc to the other side of the gorge. One member of our party started feeling ill, so we bummed a ride back from some super nice French guys who were kayaking near us. Unfortunately, they were a little too young for me.

Our last stop before returning to the base was a Roman wash house in Bourg-Saint-Andéol.

And with that, I will conclude my three-in-one post.

 

Happy Friday!

Week One of Discipleship Training School

One week of Discipleship Training School (DTS) down, but if feels like I've been here forever. DTS is definitely intense. It reminds me of being at a conference, you know, where you sit under lots of good teaching everyday and take in more information than you can possibly absorb in a lifetime...except this one lasts for 3 months! Each week we have a different lecture topic, and this week's was The Nature & Character of God, taught by Daniel Schaerer. Daniel is the founder of YWAM France and loves the Lord soooo much. Here we are at the end of week one with Daniel:

Row 1 from L to R: Guess Who, Samantha, Daniel (this week's instructor), Mathias (a visitor for the day), Christelle.
Row 2 from L to R: Shea, Anna (DTS staff), Peter, Sophie.
Row 3 from L to R: Ruth (JEM supervisor), Alex, Tabea (DTS staff), Abigail, Florencia (our cook for the first two weeks).

A very basic breakdown of our weekday schedule is as follows:

Breakfast 7:00am
Personal Time with God 8:00am
Group Worship/Prayer (Depending on the Day) 9:00am
Lecture 10:00am-12:30pm
Lunch 12:30pm
Practical Work/Lecture/Free Time (Depending on the Day) 2:00pm
Meal Prep/Cleaning 4:30pm
Dinner 6:00pm
Lecture/Small Group (Depending on the Day) 7:30pm
Free Time 9:30-11:00pm

For the first four weeks of DTS Alex and I are responsible for cooking dinner each weeknight. I'm really enjoying the opportunity to sharpen my cooking skills!

Weekends are mostly free at present. So far I've done some hiking and running. But one of my favorite ways to use freetime is to ride one of the base bikes to St. Paul. So fun! I get to ride a bike through this small, French village with cobblestone streets, patisseries, and window flower boxes for the next three months, and technically call it home. Oh la la. C'est bon!

Don't get me wrong. I am homesick. I started feeling it by, well, Thursday. I knew going into this that missing my family and friends would be a very difficult aspect of the trip. But God is here with me, and he promises never to leave me (Deuteronomy 39:6). I will take comfort in the nearness of my God.

Le Coucher du Soleil

If that ain't the glory of God on display, I don't know what is. Thanks, Poppa, for letting me use your old iPhone. It takes pretty sweet pictures! I probably won't get tired of taking pictures of "le coucher du soleil" here, so you can count on seeing more.