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Published: September 11th 2011
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So my first weekend with the Fau family has been a busy one...I could very easily drop off to sleep as I write this...yesterday we visited a forest high up in the Alscacian mountains on the border between France and Germany where the two countries had fought between WW1 - the trenches are still there! It was amazing to walk through them and to be in the same place that so many men lost their lives...if I hadn't been helping to supervise the kids, making sure they didn't fall into any of the old hideouts I might have had more time to reflect on where I was, the history of the place. It is always a strange yet exciting experience to step foot on a place that one reads and learns so much about. But it felt hard to imagine the beautiful forest as once a bloody battlefield.
After exploring the trenches we stopped and had a picnic of pasta and fruit - I think I'm going to lose a lot of weight here! Their diet is certainly very different to the one I am used to.
On the way back to the car I got to play Mum
for a bit and carry the baby - the first time I think!(to carry any baby!) I am not the maternal type but I enjoyed carrying him and I felt proud of myself for not dropping him! Some of you reading this might be wondering WHAT ON EARTH am I doing living with a family like this and working with children in a school when I am not the maternal type and until a year ago, had no desire to ever work with children - you are right to wonder but all I can say is that this is the craziness of God's kingdom - I am learning to sacrifice my own ambitions for my life for his.
Today was my first time in their church - the worship is certainly very interesting! There is dancing, flag waving and maracas - all the sort of stuff I associate with 'weird Christians' but if this is the church God has called me to, then I will have to learn to see it as normal. My introduction to the church involved me standing up (because I refused to go to the front) and everyone clapping as they blessed me and Wales.
During the communion I met an American lady called Elaine - apparently there are a small group of Americans in the church - I never used to like the accent but now I don't care beacause they speak ENGLISH!! Yesterday I hardly said anything to anyone - I feel like a shell which has to stay closed all the time. I was also introduced to Vincent - one of the leaders for the children's group - they don't have a Sunday school at the moment but Laetitia told me that Vincent tried to set up some teaching for the kids but none of them were interested so he gave up - I feel quite strongly that there should be some teaching for the children so I am going to pray into this and then speak to Vincent about it.
The preaching went on for ages - I thought my church was bad! There's only so long I can stand being in a room with children who do nothing but play and adults who don't speak the same language as me. For lunch Laetita invited Lydie and Nadine, two women from the church to join us. Cecile knows Nadine and
had already told me about her to say that she had emailed her about me, asking her to help me spiritually whilst I am at the church. She seems nice and her English is good because she spends a lot of time in America - I'm looking forward to getting to know her and having her for spiritual advice especially as it is hard for me to understand what goes on in the church and I am worried about how I will be spiritually fed.
This afternoon is the family's siesta - the parents and baby are sleeping and I would like to do the same too - ever since I've been here I've been so tired! And ly-ins of later than 8:10 are practically non-existent but I tend to go to bed around 9:30 after the kids have gone, which is good but I still feel sleep-deprived!
I think God is giving me an insight of what it means to be a parent - I know that after this year I will seriously consider how many children I want!
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