Life and French

at the top of the renaissance monument

visiting the monument with some friends

As you know this month is the beginning of some transitions for us. One of them was starting french with the girls. I thought that was going to be really fun, but really it’s a lot of work to help the girls and our language helper with teaching them french, it takes a lot of activities and a lot of figuring out what is going to be good for them and a lot of “helping” them KEEP listening and participating. It has been difficult, but I hope in the long run rewarding. They are probably only gonna keep this up for a few weeks because Marie Claude will begin a new class soon with some new missionaries coming. Maybe God will provide something to help them continue french after this.

After french class from 8-10 with the girls, we take a break and I homeschool Ava and figure out something to do with Penny… I love this part of the morning!! I am loving teaching Ava school and I am grateful for the time with my girlies in the morning. Our maid has started making meals on Mondays and Wednesdays instead of just Wednesdays because I just don’t have time anymore with doing school with the girls and studying myself.

After lunch (main meal here) I start my class. This week is the first week with my new language helper. I have been so nervous because this phase is different, there are a lot of activities and it is really different than before… I am sort of in charge of what activities we do and when. I have felt the pressure of feeling the need to be prepared for my session and also the pressure and awkwardness with a new language helper that I don’t know at all. And the thing with language sessions is that it’s fairly personal. I am putting myself in a vulnerable spot because I feel pretty stupid talking… because I’m trying so many new things, words, phrases and a lot of the time I sound like baby learning to talk… but I’m an adult, and then there’s my language helper who has to answer a billion questions about all the new words and phrases and about her own life, it’s fairly intense. So as I changed language helpers I was really nervous and quite stressed. My language helper, she speaks really good french but she also speaks fast (she would tell you that too) and naturally she uses some different words than my previous helper, so there is just a lot to get used to.

Once a week we will go out and do something, this is called a “shared experience” the next day I will record her explaining everything that happened during our “shared experience” and then we will play it back and I will ask my billion questions about new words phrases, maybe about some of the things we saw. Well… Today was our first outing. We went to a clothing store that I keep hearing about and is similar to an American store. Patricia (my language helper) and I got a bus to the store, I loved it because there are not lots of people asking if I want at item or shoving things in my face trying to convince me that what they have is the best in the world and that I should buy 20 of them. I could look around with NONE of that!! I ended up buying something that was on sale, because that’s how I roll. I loved that Patricia and I were beginning some life outside the class room, I love that she wanted to see what I looked like in the items I was interested in, and demanded to see! After we finished there, she took me to a store across the street that she liked more, it was a little less expensive and she likes to go there… so I learned that! We waited outside that store for the bus that we needed for about an hour or more and the bus never arrived, so I took a taxi home and she went the opposite direction.

It was actually really good that we ended up just standing there for so long. For a little while we didn’t really talk, we just stood there, but then we began talking (all in french mind you) sometimes it’s hard to just start talking with someone you don’t know that well when it’s in a language you know let alone a language you don’t know. But we began talking about random things around us, then about personal things, about my kids and happenings of the week. It was really good to just talk!!

At the end of today I am grateful because I don’t feel so stressed and nervous about my new helper and new sessions. Life is looking a little more up. This morning after french and before lunch I was folding laundry and doing school with Ava, was texting with a friend letting her know that I was praying for their family and she responded with this “I have been praying for you guys that in 2016 Africa will become your home. And that as you build relationships in the community, the four of you will be knit together strongly to carry out God’s purpose for you there” I needed to hear that. I have felt so out of place this week as I find my place, and as I feel so far from home, I needed to be reminded that those important to me were praying for me and that God had us here and that eventually this will be very much a home. I broke down crying and thanking God for what he has done and for people who pray for us. I have come to such realization of the great need for prayer.

When I got home from my adventure today I got an email from someone in the New Tribes Training… She told me that my newsletter was the best written news letter she had ever received (first of all that blessed me!) She explained how awesome it was that we were real with how we were doing and how everyone who reads what we write can pray for us. Yes she complimented me, but also she got the newsletter in North Cotes because she is a part of Hold the Ropes… people who come together to pray for missionaries. I have been on that side of Hold the Ropes and yes I took it seriously but I take it much more seriously now and I hope that if I am on that side of things again, and even now that I will pray for missionaries that I know. We as believers need to come together and pray for one another against the principalities and powers of darkness. We need to come together with the Holy Spirit and fight these battles. At the end of today I am encouraged with the way God has encouraged me. We are on this journey and some days are not easy. Transitions are never easy, but they are good as they shape and build character. God is good to be faithful and provide, he doesn’t swoop in and make life easy and perfect, but he provides, he provides encouragement, relationship and depth and for that I am grateful.