A busy Saturday

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After the women's Bible breakfast last Saturday I was due to go and help at church with some painting work. So after completing a few errands in town (namely a trip to the cash machine and Super U) I hurried along to Eglise Josue. I ended up arriving early so was forced to wait a while before being shown what to do. Luckily a fw other girls from the youth group showed up so I was hoping it might be a good opportunity to get to know them better (even after five months of being here not one of them has invited me round to their house).

Before we could began our painting work we all had to make sure we were well covered up. I had come wearing jogging bottoms and trainers and Elizabeth lent me an old jacket, clearly designed for the male sex, making me feel positively manly - not a great feeling. The other girls however somehow seemed to keep their feminine airs and graces, even with their work attire. One of the girls, who is amazingly pretty and who has a great figure too (why did God let some girls have it all?), put on a doctor-style white coat and still managed to stay looking great.

Once we were all ready to begin one of the men in charge showed us what needed to be done. But whether out of exhaustion or laziness, I just couldn't understand what he was saying and I was so scared of making a mistake. I had thought it would just be a simple slap-on-a-bit-of-paint kind of job but I was very much mistaken. The easiest thing to do seemed to be painting the doors so I told myself I'd do that. When it came to allocating the jobs me and an older woman who I didn't know very well, put our hands up to paint the doors. So much for being able to work with the youth and get to know them better.

But God must have decided it would be better for me to get to know someone older. I'd seen her a few times in church - she's always one of the women who gets up at the front to dance and wave flags so I guess I kind of considered her to be a bit weird and hippy-ish. But she actually turned out to be a really nice lady. Her name's Genevieve and we spoke about all sorts of things. I found myself opening up to her quite a bit because she'd experienced simliar problems to me with family and so on. And of course, we were brought closer as we painted and carried huge doors across the room. It also felt good to be serving the church in some way; it made it feel more like it was my own church.

At 3 o'clock I had to leave to go home because Chafika was meant to be coming to cut my hair. After rushing in to wash my hair and get myself ready, making sure I had a French dictionary at hand so there could be no misunderstandings this time, I received a phone call from Laetitia to say that Chafika was running late but she was on her way. And so I waited and waited and waited but still no Chafika. I finally got another phone call from Laetitia after 2.5 hours of waiting to say that Chaifka had cancelled. But she also had some good news - Cecile would be phoning me in ten minutes to talk.

I was looking forward to talking to her so I could show her how much my French has improved and to see if I could understand everything she said - when I first arrived in France and I was staying with her and Alain, it was so difficult for me to understand them.

I filled her in on all my news and was pleased when I discovered that I could now understand everything she said. She also remarked that I've made great progress with my French. I shared with her my desire to stay in France this summer and how God has really called me to work in France. She suggested the idea of me staying in France to go to university, an idea I've only thought briefly of when I was once talking to Rachel. But because I already have a place at Cardiff university I didn't see the point of pursuing this path but when Cecile suggested it, I knew it was something I would have to look into. I know that nothing is impossible for God and His plans are often very different to our own.

That night I had youth group and after an up and down journey regarding the youth group, I decided it would be best to go along with an open mind. But as I pointed out to Cedric on the way there, knocking-over-Wii-moments make my blogs more interesting to read.

When I arrived I did the round of 'faire la bise' but was careful to stay away from certain people (if this wasn't a public blog I might be tempted to share more on this but too bad). The meal turned out to not be too bad. There were more of us than the time before and I sat between Elizabeth and one of the twins. Although I didn't take part in much conversation, I didn't feel as uncomfortable and awkward as I have done previous times.

After the meal we were split into two teams. Me and Claire got put with the boys to even out numbers and because we have short hair - so stereotypical. We each had to write down three objects/countries/names etc. on separate pieces of paper and then put them all together on a giant plate. There were three parts to the game - a person from each team had to come up and choose a piece of paper, describing to their team what it was without saying it directly. The second part was using just one word to deescribe what was on the paper and the third part was mime. Fortunately I only had one go at being up front but I didn't do too badly.

The spiritual time turned out to be rather boring and badly organised so I sat on the outside of my group, doodling in my Bible and trying not to feel too bored. But apart from that the night had gone rather well and I left feeling very encouraged.

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