February was an exceptional month – there was no Sozo travel, la grand-mère usurped my babysitting earnings, and David’s computing skills weren’t much in demand either. Obviously, God had freed our schedule so that we had energy to host 3 different teams and do some reconnecting with YWAM!

Through our HOP connections, our church welcomed a YWAM team from Brazil to come and do manual labor on our building as one of their outreach projects. (Small teams coming through a few of times a yr are a real shot in the arm to our renovation work, even if they aren’t skilled and don’t speak French!)

I was thrilled to have 6 young women who could help me with some deep cleaning and de-cluttering of certain areas of the church.  I kept 2 of them that spoke English and learned how YWAM schools were helping them to get back on track after their lives had gotten derailed. They were equally interested us, especially our love story! But the highlight for me is often food-related: During the FIFA World Cup last summer, I was reading news stories about the Brazilian culture, rather than keeping track of winning teams. A foodie article about a popular dessert caught my eye that was made by simply heating sweetened condensed milk with cocoa and butter until it was thick enough to roll into balls. David and I have been off dairy since then, but I still had a can of milk unloved and forgotten in my cupboard. Who would have guessed that 6 months later a Brazilian would use it to concoct that very dessert for me in my own kitchen!! And yes, they are delicious!

The 3 young men on the team had no construction experience and they were so proud of the bathroom drywalls they learned to put up. Then on Sunday morning they were all in tears after dancing with us in worship and receiving prophetic words that were right on target. Having lived through YWAM outreaches, I wanted to bless the girls for their hard work and great attitudes. So on Monday, I made sure they got in some shopping since this was their only moment in France. Needless to say, they left beaming…

2 weeks later we had the honor of housing New Zealander Jeff Fountain, director of YWAM Europe for 19 yrs and his Belgian translator Cedric. They spoke to the high schoolers during the day and to a packed house at our church that evening. We mentioned spending a week with him at a YWAM camp in Switzerland in a 2005 newsletter and David continues to receive his weekly musings about European issues. Jeff graciously thanked us for his 36 hr visit with a copy of his latest book – Deeply Rooted.

We got the bed sheets washed and dried just in time to welcome two Chinese grannies. The backstory here is that our church supports one missionary – a local boy named Yohann who has spent the last 20 years in Hong Kong. He comes to visit every few yrs and this time he wanted to bring 12 of his Chinese church family with him and tour this region together for a couple of weeks.

We were told they just needed "bed & breakfast" from Fri. night to Mon. morning,  but plans changed at the last minute, and I was seriously concerned about their level of English faced with longer encounters. I had to feed them Friday night supper without the support of David and Olivia, who had rehearsal at church. They didn’t seem too excited about my chef salad and conversation was awkward.

Then Saturday Yohann decided the team was tired and needed to sleep in and wouldn’t start sightseeing until after lunch.(!) So we spent the morning huddled over my iPad as I tried to use images of Hong Kong to bond, esp. food images! I really hadn’t decided what to feed them, but they were begging for rice. Then "Judy" wanted to visit a grocery store, so we took a quick walking tour of the village in freezing rain and chatted up the owners of the local Chinese restaurant, but much to my disappointment, they didn’t want to stay for lunch.

Then back at home – surprise! Judy unzips her suitcase and digs out 3 cans of apparent emergency rations from home and asks if she can make lunch for us! Relieved, I eagerly volunteer to make the rice, (since they had no idea how to do it without a rice cooker!) Then alarmed at the lack of vegetables that could help us force down what looked like warmed cat food, I offered some cabbage, peppers, mushrooms, oyster sauce and a wok, and she got to work. We ate heartily and happily and didn’t learn until the next day that Judy is a RESTAURANT CHEF back home! Another food highlight!

At church that evening their pastor explained that their church didn’t know what a missionary was until Yohann arrived and now they have formed their very own mission to get food and clothes to poor mountain villages in the Philippines, showing a video to prove it, with our Judy in several scenes. Then at the end of the service to thank the host families, the pastor painted our names in Chinese characters on silk scrolls and they look absolutely gorgeous hanging in my hallway…

What a privilege to be able to touch 4 nations in 3 weeks without leaving home! (Though to be honest, by the end of the month I was so fatigued that I might as well have flown to Asia and back!) But at the end of March, I’ll be flying to England instead, while David nurses Olivia after her wisdom teeth extraction, so stay tuned for more international adventures!

Angela

Olivia was given the Laura Ingalls Wilder collection last year from family to make sure she cultivates an appreciation of her humble American ancestry. I remember being slightly bored by the stories as a child, so tossed my yellowed childhood paperbacks when we moved to Europe before she could grow into them. But reading them now, just as she is growing in independence, she is connecting better with that pioneer family better than I ever did. She starts most of our weekend conversations in the kitchen with "Mother, guess what Laura had to live through this week!" And we gasp together.

Christmas looks more like their 1880 version for us this year: My lack of school involvement means Christmas programs, decorating the chateau and teacher banquets has ended. Our village mayor asked us to decorate our front windows each year, but our newly elected mayor seems to have dropped the initiative. Two Sozo weekends this month also put a damper on my time and energy for other activities. But the good news is that the problem neighbor backed down and okayed 6 glass blocks, so we cut back on gift-giving in order to get the job done before Christmas. Here’s how we are living out the Christmas chapter:

• "The days were short and cold, the wind whistled sharply, but there was no snow."  Olivia is currently living this out, being on foot in Strasbourg this year. But the city holds the most popular Christmas market in Europe and and she is basking in the ambiance this month!
• "They pressed their noses against the squares of glass in the windows that Pa had made, and they were glad they could see out."  The glass blocks and water heater replacement have resembled a giant DIY advent calendar this month, as every few days our handyman opens the door and makes a big mess while inching forward with the work a few hours at a time. A clean house for company, natural light and hot water will be our big gifts this year. (But you’ll have to wait till next month to see the finished result!)
• "They plunged their hands into the stockings again, pulling out 2 long sticks of peppermint candy, striped red and white."  Noah is actually packing US candy canes for Olivia, as they only come in fruity flavors in our corner of the world.
• "And in the very toe of each stocking was a shining bright, new penny!" Olivia got news this week that her scholarship money had cleared the administrative hurdles and is finally on its way.
• "That was a happy Christmas."  I’ve always been pretty disappointed in our church’s Christmas decor, thanks to the poverty spirit behind it. So I jumped at the chance when asked to do it this year. David had misgivings and didn’t want me to do it with my traveling, but with no Thanksgiving and unable to decorate the house properly during renovation, I needed at least one creative holiday project! So I used the tithe of my Sozo earnings to buy and light a 7 ft tree for the sanctuary to grace the youth group’s winter ball, the December tabernacle and the Christmas fete. Ahhhh… I got my fix and honored David by not overdoing it, spreading it out over 3 days.

  Of course the greatest satisfaction came from bringing inner healing to 20 different people during this advent season. The Wonderful Counselor protected me and my amazing teammates well during our marathon weekends.

Christmas blessings from our Little House to yours, Angela

David and I will be traveling on Thanksgiving weekend, so the closest thing to a celebration this year will have to be a thankful newsletter. (David will be accompanying the Sozo team as an intercessor to Belgium for our first training weekend there and I’m excited to have him along for the first time. Olivia will have a tiny feast for 2 with Alana, now her youth pastor and the only other American friend here.)

So instead of just recounting the events of the last several weeks, I will write them as if we were sharing around the Thanksgiving table, "This month I am thankful for…"

• A gorgeous Indian summer that lasted through the first week of Nov.
• The chance to enjoy it (and avoid a 2nd car) by being able to bike to church, to the dentist, to the grocery and to friends.
• The low cost of social medicine with 4 dr. visits and 2 dental visits this month.
• A text message testifying of physical healing after a Sozo with me!
• A better outlook on life by fasting the news and feasting with the Spirit.
• The chance to share my love of the French language with an American teen every week.
• New and faithful support from old friends and continued love and support from family in so many ways.
• 4 hours of pure joy with an 18 month old every Monday morning (before his brother comes home for the afternoon!)
• France continuing to resist the celebration of Halloween, (even tho’ we got egged this year!)
• A Sunday school class with just 6 kids who are more compatible age-wise than last year.
• Being able to bless several lonely Christian French women in different ways.
• A large, thick 100% wool rug given to us that will warm up our salon for Christmas, covering the old, cold linoleum.
• Learning that the value of our ancient French house has dropped by 1/3 in the last 10 years. This knowledge answers the nagging question of whether to sell or stay and make it more livable while avoiding the major renovation needed. Now, David and I are in agreement to purposefully bless this house that He provided until we have the means to buy something better suited for our future needs.

Love, Angela

As I was looking for an image for the newsletter title, I just realized that the Anderson children’s genders and birth order matches ours perfectly. And doesn’t Robert Young make a great image of Father God surrounded by his adoring children?

That is the Father I’m referring to here, and I am happy to report that He is already hard at work to bring light into the darkness we described last month on many levels!

It all happened on a recent Monday morning:

At 6 am we heard yelling in the courtyard behind our house and police forcing their way into the apt. of some discreet Muslims that we have never met. I hear a woman inside complaining of domestic violence and a few minutes later, a pious-looking man in a long robe with flowing beard was led out in handcuffs.

At 10 am the mayor’s office rang to tell us that our work permit was ready to be picked up.

At 11:30 am, on my way home with permit in hand, I crossed the mother of 4 that lives in the apt. next door to the Muslims. The incident gave us a reason to have our first real conversation and it was miraculously warm. Let me remind you that most of the time she looks oppressed and I hear too much daily family dysfunction to be able to approach her without an agenda to "fix" her! So for the last 6 years I have smiled at, cried over and prayed for the sad kids playing in this courtyard, offered some random acts of kindness, and silently forgiven the parents weekly for the angry outbursts, stinky trashcans, exhaust fumes and cigarette smoke that invade our home through the open kitchen/bedroom windows 7 months out of the year. We have never complained, assuming that they won’t or they can’t change without the Father’s intervention, but ever since our conversation, this family has been much less invasive!

That very evening, David sent a separate e-mail to two overly busy friends of ours in the construction business, asking them to come by at the same time to talk about combining the glass block work with insulating the toilet room and plastering/painting the back of the house. The miracle was that they responded immediately and were at the house within a couple of days! We are now waiting on an estimate from them, believing our Father will provide the finances needed as well. Continue to declare with us that there will be light and that the landlord of these two apts. will give us no more trouble, or else agree to buy the house for a good price!

We were trying to please our Father by organizing a second Love After Marriage seminar, but it has fallen flat with only 4 registrations one month out. Cancelling was difficult, especially since we hear about struggling marriages in our sphere of influence every week, our neighbors not included. What was more disheartening was that 3 of the 4 registered couples were not even French! But I suspect that our Father knows our limits and allowed this "defeat" to protect the health and sanity of us and the other couple we were organizing with! Frankly, this gives us some breathing room to get our own houses in order, literally and figuratively! Here is what is currently keeping David plenty occupied, (besides still boiling water in a kettle to wash dishes while waiting for the new water heater!):

• He is craving more time beyond his 8 hrs/week to develop musical creativity with the Lord in the House of Prayer (HOP) setting. He also enjoys meeting and connecting with others called to this ministry to establish strong foundations relationally for healthy growth.
• David is streamlining and updating our outdated leighweb site, as well as working on new websites for the church and the HOP. He still diagnoses sick laptops for friends and helps out with worship most Sunday mornings.
• He has a motivated IT intern (the pastor’s nephew) working full-time with him until the end of Nov., so he is currently doubling his normal working hours at school. This intern is also a guitarist and is happily being discipled musically by David during his HOP sets as well!
• Olivia’s scholarship money did not come in due to mixed-up income figures and re-doing her dossier was another time-eating task that fell under "energy-sapping money management between 2 countries and currencies with multiple bank accounts." 
• People are starting to ask us for help with different relationship conflicts. I guess this shouldn’t surprise us since the Father has healed and equipped us with a ton of relational tools in the last 20 years! Our initial efforts to help a few people as a couple were encouraging, but in truth, David is a teacher, not a pastor, and jumping into people’s messes is not life-giving for him. So I am getting curious to see what the Lord has in mind for us together in future ministry for families, if LAM does not take off here in France.

Our Father also knew that the LAM seminar would happen during Olivia’s fall break, which we didn’t know when we scheduled it 8 months ago. Now she will go back to school with her "love tank" filled up, just like the Anderson kids, instead of coming home to a week of pitching in for her parents’ ministry. And Noah comes home for his dose this Christmas!

Now hit "reply" and tell us how the Father is showing how "He knows best" in your life!

Love, Angela

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!

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!

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 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