My brother Nate came back through Toulouse after spending about a month backpacking through Europe. He was less jet-legged this time around and got to participate in some of my team's activities. The highlights of his second visit were going on a hike near the Spanish border (and then having a jam session afterward) and taking a day trip to Carcassonne.
France has a carpool system called covoiturage, which we used to get to get to and from the fortified city. It is pretty nifty. Drivers and prospective passengers can post their itineraries on the website along with the price per passenger. Then passengers can sign up with drivers (and vice-versa). You get a code to give to the driver (which they have to enter in on the site to get paid). It worked well for us, and we made some new friends, including a pet ferret with which we shared the backseat on the return trip.
I could write a short novel about how much it meant to me to have my brother visit, experience a bit of my life and meet some of my friends and teammates, but, instead, I made a slideshow. Enjoy!
One of my favorite things about being on a team is having the chance to brainstorm together.
When we were trying to think of creative ways to tell the long story of the Israelites that Stephen tells in Acts 7 (before he is stoned), Binia had the idea that we could do a finger play.
A play turned into a film that we played for our RAPP (pre-church) event on Friday night. Binia and Lucy did the hard work of creating the scenery and costumes and also spending the long hours of filming on their knees. Special thanks also to my brother Nate (he didn't know he came all the way from the United States to be put to work :)) for being my filming assistant and for the old man who reads the Bible in French (which I found in MP3 format on the Internet).
I enjoyed doing the filming and editing (and adding sound effects :)). If you watch really closely you might catch a few malfunctions along the way. The film is in French, but for those who are not Francophones, you can follow along in your Bible (Acts 7:2-45). Happy viewing!
It is officially spring in France, and a great time to go hiking (faire la randonée). Often our team has formal sorties (outings) to go skiing, hiking or head to the beach. This time around we were more informal and each invited a couple friends to join us for a hike up a mountain in a nearby village.
We explored a couple caves thanks to the flashlight app on Assad's iPhone. Next time, I will remember my headlamp!
Spring turned to "fall" for this part of our hike in the woods. Don't we look like a fun bunch?!
The beauty of this view couldn't be captured in a photo.
What? You mean we have to walk back down the mountain too? According to Michael, more people die on the way down than the way up (don't worry, we all made it back down alive).
One thing I am appreciating about living in France is actually enjoying spring. I forget sometimes how much hope spring brings.
We had a meeting for our French association in France last week in Marseille. It was fun to meet and interact with other workers stationed in Marseille and Lyon. Here are a few pictures from our day there:
Tina (pictured on right), from Switzerland, is volunteering with our team for a month. It has been fun to have her around!
Marseille is the largest city along the Mediterranean. It was my first view of this body of water, and it was a rare day in Marseille without a ton of wind. Perfect for taking a stroll by the port!
This monument was created out of the leftover scraps of the Eiffel Tower. If you can't have the tower itself, I guess you might as well take the leftovers?
Our team during our hike.
It was annual team retreat time last weekend. Our whole team along with a couple volunteers headed out to the French countryside to learn from each other, determine our thematic goal for the next year and just enjoy each others company.
**A brief language point**: There isn't a precise French word for retreat. According to my French teacher, "a calm place in the countryside" is the complete phrase needed to describe a retreat. If you said, "Je vais à la retraite," you would actually be saying that you were going to retire :).
An ad for McDonalds in France.
One theme that came up again and again was contextualization. Missionaries have sometimes gotten a bad reputation for forcing their ways of doing things on the indigenous people of a culture.
Here in France, we don't want to merely import the traditions of our home cultures or, in the case of a church plant, coerce the French into worshipping our way. Our message (the Gospel) doesn't change, but the way we share it changes with the context (in our case, French culture).
McDonalds has been very successful in France and is a great example of contextualization. While the trademarks of McDonalds (like fast service, economical prices, etc.) haven't changed, the restaurant chain has changed parts of its menu and advertising to fit the culture.
In the advertisement above, you might notice that the sandwich is served on a baguette instead of a bun and that there is a menu called "le casse croute" (a tradition of the French of sharing a snack or small meal together). These small things have helped McDonalds make its successful entry into French culture.
One of the ways that we practice contextualization here in France is by serving our city through our French association called Connect. Social justice and community are important cultural values and one way that we can show Christ's love in tangible ways. By connecting with people through serving, hosting events and sharing meals, we can provide a picture of the Christian life that makes sense to the people here.
Our retreat wasn't only just serious sessions and goal setting. Check out the photo album to see our team having a little fun.
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