Bonjour, tout le monde!
It's Friday afternoon, and I'm feeling pretty energetic! Sure, we've had 13 hours of French lessons each this week, plus enough homework to make it a full time job. Sure, it has rained every day minus one. Sure, I haven't done anything on my Seed to-do list other than respond to urgent emails. But both Mark and I feel like our French is definitely improving already, and we've gotten to eat lots of nice things. We haven't lost power or water once, and I'm listening to U2 while doing my homework. It's quite a different pace of life.
Bien sure, Mark has gone to play Frisbee three times and has used ultimate as a topic to practice speaking French I-don't-know-how-many times. (It's hard for me to convince myself to start playing at 8pm.) It's also hard to make ourselves go to bed at a normal time when it's 9:15pm and still dusk like it was at 7:00pm.
The group classes for our French lessons are made up of very interesting people! (Almost entirely women, which surprised me.) There are students from: Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Brazil, Slovakia, Poland, and of course less interestingly Canada, Ireland, Germany, USA... Additional languages spoken include also Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, Italian. We definitely come in with the least impressive resumes in terms of languages we already speak. Interestingly, as we practice our French conversations come up around belief and it definitely feels like Europe where almost everyone else in the class proudly say that they are not really religious.
Prayer needs:
- Patience with one another as we're together so much with little other social support here and as we practice French with each other - it can get dicey when we start correcting each other.
- Good "work"/Life balance and also knowing when it's okay to let ourselves not speak French.
- Ability to be present here and appreciate this season while life goes on in Congo and the reality is we'll be returning in six weeks.
It's Friday afternoon, and I'm feeling pretty energetic! Sure, we've had 13 hours of French lessons each this week, plus enough homework to make it a full time job. Sure, it has rained every day minus one. Sure, I haven't done anything on my Seed to-do list other than respond to urgent emails. But both Mark and I feel like our French is definitely improving already, and we've gotten to eat lots of nice things. We haven't lost power or water once, and I'm listening to U2 while doing my homework. It's quite a different pace of life.
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| Abbey Park near our apartment in Brussels |
Bien sure, Mark has gone to play Frisbee three times and has used ultimate as a topic to practice speaking French I-don't-know-how-many times. (It's hard for me to convince myself to start playing at 8pm.) It's also hard to make ourselves go to bed at a normal time when it's 9:15pm and still dusk like it was at 7:00pm.
The group classes for our French lessons are made up of very interesting people! (Almost entirely women, which surprised me.) There are students from: Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Brazil, Slovakia, Poland, and of course less interestingly Canada, Ireland, Germany, USA... Additional languages spoken include also Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, Italian. We definitely come in with the least impressive resumes in terms of languages we already speak. Interestingly, as we practice our French conversations come up around belief and it definitely feels like Europe where almost everyone else in the class proudly say that they are not really religious.
Speaking of:
1) I've been really enjoying this book I got for free on my Kindle! (The counselor I skype with recommended a kindle to help me not think about work all the time, and it has been really great!) Water to Wine: Some of My Story by Brian Zahnd. He specifically addresses the reluctance of Westerners to identify themselves as religious. I feel a kind of kinship with his journey from American Christianity (Consumerism, Fundamentalism, Sectarianism, Individualism and Politicism) to Christian religion centered on the Cross, Mystery, Eclectic, Community and Revolution. He also writes about centering prayer, which has been a practice I've appreciated for the past six years.
2) Sunday was awesome! Our pastor in Bukavu gave us contact info for some friends of his here in Brussels, so we planned to go to their church - and come to find out is it three buildings down the block from the apartment we're staying in!!! And it is a neat kind of city church plant with a large variety of ethnicities. EN PLUS, THEY WERE HAVING A BBQ! What amazing provision for us. It was a good way to launch into the week.
3) I'm excited to be using Le Livre de Priere Commune (the Book of Common Prayer) to continue in the vein of French immersion. It reminds me of the season Mark and I got to spend with St. Richard's Episcopal Church in Round Rock, TX. And I'm thankful for the friends we made there, as well as the familiarity we gained with liturgical worship.
Prayer needs:
- Patience with one another as we're together so much with little other social support here and as we practice French with each other - it can get dicey when we start correcting each other.
- Good "work"/Life balance and also knowing when it's okay to let ourselves not speak French.
- Ability to be present here and appreciate this season while life goes on in Congo and the reality is we'll be returning in six weeks.
We spent the last hour reviewing your posts and making sure we are caught up on your adventures! We are so thankful for this blog to get to follow along on your journey! We plan to email you to set up a time to skype! Big hugs and many prayers! :)
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