Impact!

Gilberte and Olivia hang out In my last mailing, I mentioned that Olivia and Anna would be attending "Camp Impact" and Olivia experienced just that spiritually and emotionally. A week later, on fire, she joined another group of 200 French teens organized by Youth for Christ to impact their local cities in the streets with free BBQs, concerts, spontaneous prayer, random acts of kindness and nursing home visits. Olivia was on that team and adored her 4 days loving on the forgotten generation.

In the end, we were all impacted this summer:

We started impacting our bodies when David visited a nutritionist who analyzes the blood to see if we could age more gracefully. The diet is simple, well-balanced and good for me too, falling at a good time when we don’t have to feed any more finicky teenagers! We also want to join a fitness club that finally opened up close enough to make it convenient. Join us in declaring that we are getting stronger and stronger!

Tobias!I traded my volunteer work at the school for two new paying gigs, impacting kids in fresh, new ways:

-Babysitting nine hrs every Monday in ENGLISH for two adorable boys, Joseph (3) and Tobias (1). What a joy when all I have to think about is keeping them safe, happy and stimulated – even lunch is prepped for us!

-An old friend from Denver got back in touch and has asked me to teach her 2 homeschooled teens 2nd yr FRENCH via Skype!

 

Our house was seriously impacted when our kitchen water heater died. It was attached to the wall at the end of our dark hallway where we keep a light on 24/7 in order to to find the stairs! To remove the appliance, the handyman had to destroy the paneling, exposing a small window that had been covered over. Hyperventilating at the thought of more sunshine in my life, I encouraged him to knock out more of the wall in anticipation of glass bricks. Well, the owner of the property behind our house came by and started yelling. "Need a work permit… historic building codes… No glass blocks… I’ll take you to court, etc." followed by a registered letter forbidding the work.

The intimidation was a first and it was scary. This was the the only home improvement project we could afford that would have a huge impact on daily life. I started looking at real estate listings while David marched off to the mayor’s office to apply for a permit and get the legal scoop. Apparently, there is no reason why we can’t install glass blocks once the permit goes through and because this man is an immigrant from Turkey, we learned that we are probably coming against the spirits behind Islam. This man serves us kebabs in his local restaurant and has no reason to hate us, but as Christians, the spirit of Islam certainly does. Join us in declaring, "Let there be light!" in all aspects of this situation!

Old window exposedLet there be light!Not yet!

The Sozo ministry will also have a greater impact this year as our team is fully booked for the next 10 months with training weekends all over France, Switzerland and Belgium (starting this Thursday)! One of my current clients is a young psychologist who travels to me during long weekends so that the Holy Spirit can impact her own issues! 🙂

Olivia's residence hallOlivia moved to Strasbourg this week and we definitely felt the impact of attending the 2nd largest university in France in the center of a large international city! No information is handed to you on a platter and yet most students confront the confusing maze of websites, registration and orientation without parental hand-holding. We dutifully walked 10 paces behind as the only parents on campus and after moving in her stuff, we mainly interceded in prayer and kept her hydrated during each failed attempt to run the bureaucratic gauntlet. No less than 2 days later, after more long-distance coaching from David, she texted us with news that she was officially enrolled. David and I reserved a lovely bottle of Merlot to celebrate getting the last baby bird out of the nest!

In closing, I’d like to let you know that you have a new way to stay more in touch with our daily life through personal photos via the social network Instagram. Noah (noahleigh), David (mrdleigh) and I (wannaworship) are all posting pics weekly if you’d like to follow us! David also tweets on occasion!

Enjoying a gorgeous Sept. after a cold, wet August!

Angela

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