Rainey Days

I love to sing. Generally, you can tell when I'm in a good mood, because I'm singing. This morning I woke up with a song in my head, and all day long, I've been singing or humming. It started with Hillsong's "More to See," a song I only recently discovered. The youth group here is interested in singing it, and I worked with a team of young adults on the French translation of it the other night. (I have no idea what the legal ramifications are). It's a great song, and I love singing it--in either English or French. There is a bridge that is very catchy, and since it repeats over and over, it's easy to get stuck in your mind. "His mercies are new every morning; his mercies are new every day." This morning, I started out my day with that perfectly appropriate line running through my brain. Then, as I drove to the gym, I listened to Third Day's "These Thousand Hills," which drove Hillsong out of my mind. I kept hitting th...

Do you ever wonder where all your time has gone? I usually think about this on Saturday or Sunday nights. All the sudden I realize that another week is about to start, and it feels like I barely registered the previous week. The busier I am, the more I seem to be surprised by another week starting. Where did the last one go? I was thinking about this yesterday, because I forgot to change my clock. (Daylight savings time in France started this weekend). On Saturday night at church, some of the other young adults reminded me about the time change, so I went straight home and changed my watch. Later, as I sat got ready to sleep, I changed the alarm hour, since I can't sleep in on Sunday mornings like I do on Saturdays. I contemplated several factors: I would be missing an hour of sleep with the time change; a community yard sale was going to make parking a problem at church; I would need to be early to find a good spot, etc. And somewhere in all that thinking process, I never...

My second cousin Nancy passed away this week. She was diagnosed with cancer just before Christmas, and apparently the cancer was rather widespread before her symptoms showed up. She was only in her 50's, and is survived by her husband Skip and her adult daughter Elizabeth. While I know that Nancy has gone to be with the Lord, this is hard on my extended family. My great aunt and uncle, with whom I am close, have lost a precious daughter, and I know this is tragic for them. The funeral will be tomorrow afternoon, and I ask you to remember my extended family in prayer.

Yesterday I wasn't feeling well all day. My back hurt; I was tired; I just felt weak and blah. So when I left work, my only plan was to go home, put on pyjamas and lay around doing nothing until I felt better. I just wanted to eat junk food like potato chips and pizza. After stopping at the store for some comfort food, I came home and vegged out. I called home and talked to my mom and my brother. I instant messaged with my sister. I ate junk food and loved every bite. It made me wonder if I am the only person who has days like that? What is your comfort food? When you have days where you don't feel well or you're exhausted, what is your "feel better" routine?

The pastor I met in Lyon last week was looking for someone to present a few sessions on Islamic evangelism for a spiritual retreat over Easter weekend. He mentioned it to another AG missionary couple who attend his church, and they suggested me. I was thrilled when he contacted me about coming to the retreat to speak on that subject. At last! Something I am trained for, feel called to, and can do well. I was practically kicking my heels up in glee. As you know, I met with the pastor personally a week ago today and I took the occasion to ask a few specific questions about this retreat, so I could better prepare. He had mentioned previously that I would have four sessions, but in our discussion last Tuesday, he said it would be SEVEN hours of presentation. I didn't bat an eye, but in my mind, I thought, "Uh oh. I don't think I can talk about Islam for seven hours in English, let alone in French." Then he mentioned that there would be about 200 young adults in ...

My church in Bordeaux has baptisms every few months, and I always enjoy the testimonies of those who are being baptized. In November, a married couple was baptized together and their testimony was really special to our church. They were SDF or sans domicile fixe (homeless) and living in the downtown train station. They met an evangelism team from the church, who gave them some free food and invited them to the Sunday afternoon evangelistic meeting at the church. They came, were warmly welcomed, and got some more free food. So they came again. Within a few weeks, they accepted Christ. They started the class for new Christians, preparing for baptism. The church helped them go through some social aid programs so that they have some lodging now in a public shelter. I got to know them better on January 1, because we were all invited together to a friend's home for the New Year's celebration. Sitting across from them over raw oysters and goose liver really forged a connec...

I've been infused with an energy that only comes from warm spring sunshine! I love this time of year; I love that the days are getting longer, with the sun waking me up in the morning earlier and the evenings getting longer as well. Je craque (I go crazy) for trees blooming with buds like pink cottonballs. I just want to be outside every minute. Today at lunchtime I sat out on my balcony in the sunshine for the first time since probably October. Yesterday was quite the busy day. I received a call while I was in Lyon, telling me my carte de sejour was ready at the police station in Merignac, where I live. I don't know why I have to apply for my long-term visa at the police station, but that's the system. I went early to pick it up and I have to admit, I felt a certain satisfaction when I slid the plastic card in my wallet that makes me legal for another year in France. This year's picture is slightly better than last year's, at least. It has to be in bla...

I've spent too many hours on trains today. I feel like the room is moving, even though I'm completely stationary at the computer. My trip to Lyon went very well. I went to scope out a church and meet its pastor, Monsieur Chinere. He has asked me to be a speaker for a spiritual retreat for the church's young adults in April. I will be teaching on Muslim evangelism for roughly seven hours over three days. Visiting the church this week gave me a chance to meet him in person and see the ministry up close. He's a dynamic person, with an incredible vision. The church runs about 700 people and has about 40 services a week, if you count all the various departments of the church. He has a radio and TV ministry, a Bible institute, a Christian bookstore (all proceeds support their missions endeavors), several social aid programs, and more. It's amazing. They are looking for someone to act as director for an outreach to Muslim women. They've developed relationsh...

Today's challenge: what to do when you miss the train I am in Lyon, visiting a church here that has a dynamic Muslim ministry up and running. I want to observe their system: what works, what doesn't. Fortunately, I have missionary friends here to visit for two days. This morning I rose at 5:30 AM (ugh) and caught my train just as the sun was coming up. However, we sat on the tracks for about thirty minutes, while the loudspeaker kept announcing "personnel problems." By the time we left, we were way too late for me to catch my connecting train in Paris. So I found out how it works when you miss your connecting train. I had to find the train conductor to inform him that I was in need of a transfer. He told me not to get off on my intended stop but to ride on further across Paris to the Charles De Gaulle airport. There was another train going to Lyon from there. So I followed his advice, with about 20 other passengers in the same situation. We had about fif...

Tonight I made a BIG mistake in French--totally unaware of course. I was preaching on missions to the youth group at my church (my first full-length sermon in French) and I spoke about a "crisis of faith" at one point in my missionary career. I translated it literally crise de foi , only to find out afterward that in French that means "an attack of the liver" ( crise de foie ). Fortunately, no one laughed, because it was a very dramatic story and I think they understood what I meant. They did laugh really hard a few times (appropriately) when I told them different funny stories. Several months ago, the manager of the local pizza place offered me a free beer. I couldn't figure out if he was hitting on me or if it was a promotional offer, to know how I should respond. I ended up just saying, "I don't drink alcohol," which is true, but I said it kind of abruptly, so if the poor guy was hitting on me, I really burned him. They thought that story was ...

Are you a pack rat? I tend to waver between my genetic tendencies to save everything (like my father) and make junk fly (like my mother). I toss quite a bit and save what I think is important. At least it's important at the time--eventually even bank deposit carbons become trash. Periodically, I go through my closets and files to weed out the useless and unnecessary. Clothes I never wear? donated to La Croix Rouge (Red Cross)! Long-expired warantees for my kitchen appliances? Dumped in the paper recycling bin downstairs! Inevitably, I come across a stack of pictures, cards, and other mementos that I can never bring myself to throw away. I have several notes from my former students with their teenage thanks for helping them bring up their grades, deal with their parents, etc. I figure that gratefulness from a teenager is so rare, I should frame these notes in gold! I have a letter that Dad left for me to find on the day he ended his Israel visit in April 1997. Various pictures of m...

Last week when I met with Gerald and Greg, the meeting went so well, I was thrilled with their visit, until . . . *duhn duhn duhn* Greg asked about my speaking schedule for this fall. Now, mentally, I have known for some time that I was going to have to start scheduling churches for my furlough; I'd even gone so far as to suggest in my newsletters that I was ready to start making calls. But I wasn't really ready. I secretly hoped that they would all contact me, thus accomplishing all the work for me! So far, only one or two churches have actually responded. So accordingly, I have started to schedule my services! I've got four on the calendar so far. I'm not looking forward to this ego-smashing endeavor, so pray for me!

Je m'excuse . . . (I apologize) I know that you all love to read my blog posts, and this past week I really let you down. If it's any consolation, I had a great time with my friends visiting! I don't think I went to bed before 1 am the entire week, because we were playing games and watching movies every night. During the day we toured this area, including the Atlantic coast (cold, windy and wet), a nearby castle (one of the best I've seen), wine country (we drank water), and downtown Bordeaux itself (the public park is pictured below). As I mentioned, my "bosses" were here also this past week, on Wednesday. I met them at my office, where I toured them around our new facilities and translated a few meetings for them with the French AG missions leadership and my own colleagues. Then I took them to an excellent restaurant near the train station before they left. The Europe regional director and I both had beef slow-cooked in beer, which sounds awful, bu...