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Ok, I’m searching long and hard for a title for this particular newsletter, but I think I’ve come up short! I don’t have a wiz-bang theme either. But, I really want to communicate with you all, and I think that’s a point worth making. We’re here at language school in France for exactly the same reason. We really want to communicate some things…with the people of France specifically. Guess what…it’s hard work! Yep, we can see the end of language school in sight (end of June), but frequently, it takes a deep breath and a deep prayer to get motivated for each day right now. We’ve been at it since the beginning of October and we can see both the enormous progress in our language study and the large chasm that still stands between us and the ability to really express ourselves and understand a native French speaker in everyday life. But, we do get up each day (respiration + inspiration = levitation) and we do work at our French because…of the value of what we want to communicate and the value of the people receiving that communication. Many of you are familiar with Jesus’ parable of The Sower. At the end of the parable, Jesus talks about being fruitful in our lives and He says that good seed in good soil will yield fruit. We know that the good seed is the good news that God wants a personal and intimate relationship with us and that He sent His Son Jesus to die on a cross for us 2000 years ago to pave a way for that relationship to happen. That’s all well and good…no…it’s great! But how do I make sure that I am “good soil?” After all, in that parable, there’s a whole lot more bad soil than good soil. I read recently in a book entitled Compassion by Henri Nouwen an interesting and simple ingredient to being good soil…perseverance. Ok, sorry, too simple, I know… But hold on… What happens when you plant a seed in the ground, and you plant it well and you water it? Well, the first thing that happens is that you wait! Not very exciting stuff, of course. You’ve all done that bean experiment in a glass cup and have seen the bean just sit there for a few days. It’s a pretty impatient time for a kid. But, if you resist the urge to toss the thing in the trash or to over-water the bean, eventually you’ll see a small sprout start to come out. Growth! Excitement! It worked! Well… You’re still quite a ways off before anything can be seen above ground, let alone “bearing fruit.” What else is required? Well, first of all more waiting! A key ingredient to seeing fruit in a bean plant or an apple tree or a mighty oak tree is patient waiting and tending of the plant while the process that God designed takes its course. If I don’t do that, I will not see that plant bear fruit. I might see it grow, maybe even a great deal, but if I don’t see it to the “end”, I won’t get to see the fruit. That’s the way it works in my life and in yours as well. For many things there simply is no shortcut. Right now in language school here in Albertville, we’re in a time where re-doubled effort towards perseverance is the name of the game for us. We won’t reach our goal to be able to communicate with French people in French without it. We also know that we’re going to need more perseverance after the school as well in taking our next steps in the process of living in France long-term. We don’t have any more real information to share about that yet. There are some possibilities that we hope to explore at the end of April but the current stance is….wait…and persevere Ok, that’s enough for now. |
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I also wanted to get this newsletter out and test our new processes for sending and maintaining our newsletters, so I’d be grateful for any feedback you might have or notification of any problems you encounter in receiving or reading this newsletter. We will be happy to tweak things as necessary and as possible. May God richly bless you! |