Good News Camp, July 2015

"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." Proverbs 25:25

Good morning, dear friends!

Our family in front of a shepherd's refuge

It's amazing how quickly time goes by!  It seems like yesterday that I was packing everything I owned into suitcases and preparing for camp, and here we are at the house again!  My laundry is going, my house smells like the outdoors, my fridge is empty...can I say how good it is to be home again?

We are very thankful for these two weeks spent at summer camp!  My husband attended this same camp as a camper, and has always had such a burden for this special ministry.  After 40 years as a youth camp, this year marked a new direction for the ministry here:  a family camp!  It was a challenge and a blessing to be part of this new ministry!  We were thankful for the families that participated during the two weeks, and are excited to see how the Lord will use this camp in the future.





This was our home away from home.  In the past, the kids and my husband have slept in the campers' tents.  For the first time at camp, we slept in our own little village, with nice beds.  Aah...









We arrived a day early, and there was much to do to get things ready!  Everyone pitched in to get the camp in shape.  Our kids cleaned the game areas...





...and yes, that is my son upon on the roof, cleaning off a year's worth of leaves and moss...







...and my daughter Juliana helping out Françoise in the kitchen, looking stylish as always.






The mornings after breakfast were times spent cleaning and then there was morning Bible class.  There was an adult class, and then a children's lesson which I taught through the story of Pilgrim's Progress.  It was a good time of discovery and fun with the kids.  The map of Pilgrim's Progress was a painting project that Juliana and I had a great time finishing before camp.

It was HOT this year, one of the hottest years that we have had in a long time at camp.  It made for sweaty days and little rest during the day.  The kids still found time to play outside games in the morning, like tetherball or pétanque, a French game similar to bocci ball.

 

 The afternoons were spent with water games....

...or crafts, or board games, anything to stay cool!

 I'm sure that there will be more to say about camp in the next few days, but for now, I am glad to be home and catching up after being gone for several weeks!  Thanks for all your prayers and kind words on our return!

"Helping" the Winners

"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and unto good works..." Hebrews 10:24

Photo:  jill111 pixabay

Good morning, dear friends,

I have missed my daily communication with you all.  I am hoping that after camp things will settle down and I will be able to write more freely again!  Thanks for all your kind words and prayers these last few days...I believe it has truly helped me to be ready with stressing overmuch.

(Maybe you should ask my family how I have been doing...their opinion might be different from mine.)

This time of year in France is the Tour de France, the famous bicycle race that takes over two French TV channels this time of year.  This is a special year for us here in Amiens, because the race finishes today in our city.  So, if you happen to have access to a channel that is showing the Tour, you will see it pass through the villages near our home, and finish in the larger city of Amiens that our family is trying to reach.

I think I'll stay away from the crowds, though.  I'm not very big on waiting hours in crowds just to see the cyclists zip through our city in a matter of seconds.

When our family first arrived in France, I enjoyed watching the Tour de France on TV, especially when Lance Armstrong was a strong favorite for the rest.  His story was an inspiration to me, until I found out that he was cheating on the drug tests.  Afterwards, not so much.  Since Armstrong stopped competing, and there are no really interesting American contenders, I have kind of let my enthusiasm for the Tour dwindle out.

My family still laughs at me though as we remember me watching the Tour in our early days here in France.  I would be sitting on the couch, mesmerized by the cyclists, until my family pointed out that I was swaying lightly back and forth, imitating the movement of the cyclists on TV.  My legs were even trying to move up and down as I was watching them.

I was trying to "help" the cyclists climb the hill, finish the sprint, or stay ahead of the pack.

How silly it seems now, and how many times we have had a good laugh at my expense.  My husband recently purchased a secondhand exercise bike for me to use at the house, and he laughingly told me to make sure to "help" the cyclists today as they arrive in Amiens.

Ha ha.

It's so easy to be an encourager, if I will just take the time to think about it, and do it.  It only takes a few words, a kind gesture, a smile, a friendly hug to lift someone's spirits and help them to keep on keeping on for the Lord.

It comes from...

...kind words instead of critical ones.

...thoughtfulness to other's needs instead of selfishly guarding my own interests.

...compassion for those who hurt instead of judging missteps or bad choices.

...lending a helping hand instead of jealously coveting another's blessings.

...speaking God's truth in love instead of using it as a club to hurt others.

How much I need to grow in this area of encouraging others.

If I can so easily be swayed into "helping" bicycle riders on TV, then surely my love for the Lord and for my brothers and sisters in Christ should come just as easily.

Hope to see you all at the finish line one day!

Happy...what day is it again?

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty, wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."  Galatians 5:1

Good morning, dear friends!

Photo: unsplash pixabay

Yes, I am still here!  I haven't written in a few days, but let me just say that there is light at the end of the tunnel!

This time next week we will be packing up and getting ready for the long drive down to camp.  The kids were too impatient last night and decided that the tents had to be aired out, with them sleeping inside of them.

Needless to say, Mom stayed inside the house.  I'm not quite ready for camp beds and mosquito netting...just yet.

It's the fourth of July here, just like it is in the US, so Happy Fourth, everyone!  But while it is Independance Day for my American friends, here it's just the fourth.  Yes, I will probably cookout today, if nothing else than for myself and the family, but the fireworks and the rest will have to wait until ten days from now.

(That's Bastille Day, for my American friends, the French "independance" day.)

Earlier this year, our family was watching a series of videos about the events of the American Revolution--I have to say it like that to my children, because the French had a Revolution, too--and I had one of those missionary mom stirrings.  As I watched the videos with my children, I was getting excited about the different steps leading up to American freedom from England.  Names, dates and places were mentioned that I shared with the kids, only to be given...blank stares in return.

My son had to memorize the year 1776...in his history class at school.  When I prepared him for the quiz, I expected him to already know the answer.  He didn't.  How on earth could he not know that American independance came in 1776?

Because, while he is American, he is not living in the U.S.  And his overly patriotic mom had not taught him this and many other important points of American history.

My children did not know the words to the Star Spangled Banner.

But they know two verses of the Marseillaise.

Hence the videos.

And...raising patriotic American kids outside of the U.S. is hard.

Living outside of the U.S. gives our family a unique perspective on America.  We love our country, and consider ourselves Americans first.  Our house becomes an American military zone during the Olympics (yes, I am a little crazy during the Olympics, especially during the summer ones.  I think I scare my children at times.) I was relieved when the French women's soccer team was eliminated from the World Cup recently, so that my loyalties did not have to be divided between cheering for them or cheering for the U.S.

(Go, team USA!)

At the same time, we have a love for France and its people, as well.  Thankfully so!  I think I should be happy to be here, especially since we are raising our family here!  And right now, I can't imagine living anywhere else.

While France may not be "the land of the free, and the home of the brave," I still want my adopted country to be...free.

The verse at the top of this blog reminds me that freedom...comes with a price, and a responsability.  And, while I am extremely grateful and indebted to our many military servicemen and servicewomen around the world, who are paying and have paid the ultimate price for these freedoms, there is a different kind of freedom and a different responsability that comes from God:

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty, wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."  (Galatians 5:1)

There is the freedom from God's wrath, from sin's bondage, from a life of destruction and from the torments of hell.  There was a price to be paid, that cost God His Son, that I could never pay.  Jesus bought my liberty, and then offered it freely to me.

There is the responsability now, to live a life that is pleasing to the One who made this sacrifice for me.

American's independance came July 4th, 1776.  My independance came much later, June 27, 1987, but it carries the far greater weight in my life, today.

So, happy birthday, America!  May she celebrate many more years in freedom!  Enjoy her celebration today, all my American friends and family!

May God help us all, to celebrate the freedoms that come from our independance...purchased by Jesus Christ on the cross.

This is why I celebrate the fourth in France here today.