The last couple of months have been full, leaving us little time to enjoy or lament our empty nest! (Olivia is doing well, working in French immersion classrooms as a substitute teacher. She joins Rachel in weekly indoor rock climbing, has found a life group for spiritual nourishment and family fun fills up most weekends!)
Our first connection was with Drew, who arrived from the Omaha House of Prayer the day after Olivia’s departure. With a heart for France and needing a change of scenery, he took a 6 week tour of the French houses of prayer this summer. We hosted him for a week so that he could visit the 3 in our region and David scheduled extra sets to take advantage of his keyboard skills. A blessing both ways.
David’s connections in Basel continue as he was invited to play with 2 worship teams for 2 different events. The great thing about Swiss churches is that they pay you for serving – no sign of the poverty spirit that we live under here in France! The best thing was that one of the events fell on our anniversary, so we got a free hotel that weekend to celebrate together!
With our part-time income streams slowing to a trickle this summer, we sent out our first-ever support-raising letter to our newsletter subscribers to find out if this was part of God’s solution for us. Apparently it was not, but a week later we were contacted about boarding a young lady from our church for the school year (and requests for PC repair by friends suddenly came pouring in…) Priscille is eager to make us her adoptive parents, filling holes her parents can’t, while she figures out what she wants to do with her life and volunteering at the school. At 20, she is sweet and selfless, but she needs to be listened to. Needless to say, she is filling my mothering cup as well!
This new relationship is also perfect timing, as this year the church council’s focus is discipling our twenty-somethings. It started with a bang 2 weeks ago when this generation finally grasped the urgency of our building woes over the last 6 years that has kept us at a standstill. So we will be attending leadership and coaching training together this year to build relationship and momentum. Fortunately, Sunday school will take a backseat with fewer children coming regularly, freeing up my energies to focus on young adults. But I am still getting my fix by babysitting, loving on kids without the pressure of preparing a lesson every week!
The summer finale connection was a beautiful Alsatian-Chinese outdoor wedding last weekend. It was a 12 HOUR event with a 1920’s theme with guests from all over the world. I felt like I was on a movie set. David translated the sermon into English and I pushed myself physically to enjoy it to the fullest. These are moments when we really feel like part of the family here, (as we pose with our pastors,) but I am still recovering!
Happy fall, Angela
PS: Want to know an easy way to impact Europe? The Awakening Europe team started an initiative asking for everyone all over the world to declare out loud, “EUROPE SHALL BE SAVED!” at 5pm every day. I’ve chosen church bells for my reminder and found that it makes a real shift in my spirit when surrounded by all the negativity!
This is awesome! I had kept checking your website for your new newsletter and am glad to see it! 🙂 Staying with you guys was awesome, thanks for hosting me and teaching about life in France! Any news on the house by the way?
Blessings,
Drew