The hot weather signals the winding down of my roles here. My last Sozo trip happens in Lyon next weekend before a summer break. My French student is sending in her final work. A Pinterest-worthy Father’s Day card will crown our last Sunday school (no VBS here.) My nanny job also ends as the parents are both teachers and la grand-mere will take my place next fall.
This suits me fine. I am ready to scale back on the busyness and experience more of a sabbatical year with the Lord and my own personal projects. Without official missionary furloughs, I see that we have to discipline ourselves to take seasons of rest and David is onboard. He attended the France En Feu conference in Bordeaux last month and the Lord confirmed his desire to withdraw from IT work at school. When you are spinning plates all the time, it’s hard to keep your eyes focused on the beauty of the Lord! He brought home 4 books by IHOP’s Corey Russell, who was the key speaker and they are feeding the fire in both of us!
It is fun to see our ministries dovetail: I had some powerful healing sessions with a woman recently who had quit attending our church several years ago and with her healing, I’m hoping that she will return to the flock with her husband. In the meantime, she was willing to attend our HOP set and even brought a friend. Our set clearly ministered to her spirit and her friend, a counselor at the local mega-church, wanted more info on Sozo after hearing her testimony!
My trip to Switzerland last weekend was also amazing. The Sozo ministry is the one thing I will continue with next fall as it isn’t as physically draining as childcare and demands no extra preparation time like teaching. Our team looks different for each trip and this was the lightest trip ever! The Lord delivered 3 out of 8 women of demonic oppression and the remaining 5 also had glorious breakthroughs. I learned that there are a lot of strongholds in those beautiful mountains – pockets of witchcraft and a strange mix of occult and new age beliefs blended with Catholicism. Those who practice healing with these powers are even called upon by medical professionals, especially for their help with burn victims!
Olivia’s first year of college also came to an end all the way back in April, but she’s certainly not twiddling her thumbs. Here’s what her summer of transition looks like:
-Apply for French nationality!
-Be a pillar of support to her high school pals who are living the baccalaureate stress right now.
-Get her driver’s license, please!
-Translate a book from Bethel Church into French.
-Tutor a 7th grader in German.
-Spend a few days in London with Alana!
-Lead worship as needed at church and youth group.
-Attend 2 different spiritual events in Germany: Awakening Europe with us in Nuremburg and Reformation 2.0 with French and German youth together. (We’re very excited about both of them!!)
And finally, we would like some prayer support for our final bit of transitional news: 
We have wrestled and waited for 10 years now to do some major renovations on our house and we are in agreement that we must start the work for the sake of our health (mold problems) and the integrity of the outside walls. We now have an estimate of $16,500 by a company ready to refinish the back of the house, move the toilet (exposed cinder blocks above the new glass blocks) and replace our furnace.
Unfortunately, this is only the beginning, but it may be enough to sell the house for a better price than what we were quoted a few months ago. We have heard that American citizens may have difficulty getting a bank loan of this amount in France, but in order to secure the work for this fall, we need to acquire the loan by the end of June.
Unfortunately it falls at a very busy time for David, so as in Zech. 4, we ask you to join us in crying, “Grace, grace!” to this mountain through the end of the month! Thank you!
Happy Summer!
Angela