Salut!

So, I’m not the only occupant of my new flat.  I am sharing it at the moment with a billion fleas that are having a feast on my blood.  Ewwwwww.  I have a flea bomb which I will set off Monday night before I leave.  Please pray that it works!  I am itchy all over and I have so many bites it’s like I have the measels!

Saturday was a big day for my sunday school class.  (11-14 year olds)  They led the service today so Saturday we had a rehersal and then went out for bowling and pizza.  It has been lovely to watch them grow up and see them go from lovely polite little girls to stroppy, boy obsessed teenagers!  (It’s funny for me but not for their parents!)  I have learnt so much about teenage angst from them it’s untrue! 

On the way to bowling we had to pull over the car becuase a full out fit was taking place!  becuase it’s a group of 7 girls and 1 boy, I thought it would be nice for Simon to have some male company.  So I invited one of the lads from last year who had moved into the youth group, with his dad.  I hadn’t remembered (shame on me!) that this lad was an ex of one of my girls.  So tears and tantrums ensued, ‘I’m getting out of the car and walking’ etc.  All quite amusing!  Anyway, as quickly as it blew up, it clamed down and we had a fantastic afternoon.

Today was my last service as a church worker.  It was really lovely.  The kids did a great job.  One lady sung a song for me!  They gave me a framed photo of all the church holding up red hearts - really lovely!  I had a little speach prepared but all I could do was cry! 

So here is my new flat…we started the painting today…these are the dirty horrible walls BEFORE!  It has taken us a whole day to do one room…I was expecting to go a bit faster than that.  I suppose I have watched too much Changing Rooms.  How do they do it all so quickly?  A 4hr round trip doesn’t help either…  But anyway, I’ll be back there again tomorrow and Monday so hopefully all the paint work will get done.  A builder at the Orleans church has very generously given me a day of his time so my prayer for a man has been answered!!  He will be able to fit all the lights, kitchen cupboards, shower etc. 

  My new lounge!

 A tiny dining room.  I really hope my table fits in…

 And finally my new kitchen with door into garden!  Yipee!!

I don’t seem to have taken a photo of the bedroom, but rest assured that it looked much the same as the lounge!  Except now it looks lovely in a very pale pink and white! 

I have an apartemnt in Cachan!!  Hurah!  It’s very exciting and very stressful!

Nothing is ever simple…take this example:

I want to transfer my exisiting broadband packeage to my new flat.

1. ring internet company.  No existing phone line, need to ring France Telecom

2. Wait 10 mins with music for France telecom - no name of previous owner.

3. Ring agency - get name of last owner

4. Wait another 10 mins with more annoying music at FT.  Can’t open line becuase previous owner has not cancelled her phone line.

5. Go to the FT shop armed with rental agreement, passport, date of birth of grandmother’s dog.  Wait 1hr.  Phone line connected!

6. Ring back internet provider.  They proceed to disconnect the newly connected line in order to leave me without a phone line for 3 weeks while they connect their line.

Arghhhh!!!!

I can’t face trying to sort out the electricity or water.  That can wait another day…

Today the packing started in ernest.  I hope to get the keys to the flat next week so things need to be ready to go.  I’m in the UK Friday - Monday so I had better get my skates on!

I’m beginning to freak out a bit and realise the enormity of this move. Arghhhhhh.

I always arrive about 20mins early for church so that I can welcome people.  Today one of the young people said I should wear a badge marked, ‘Machine a bises’!!  (Kissing machine!)  This has made me laugh all day…can you imagine!!  Ha ha ha!!

When I sat down a father ran in with a baby under one arm, another one in a carry cot and two toddlers trailing behind him.  He said breathlessly ‘Can they sit with you?’  I said of course and moved along, he then thrust the baby into my arms, put the carry cot at my feet and ran to the front where he was supposed to be leading the service.  I was a bit shocked and still holding the baby thinking, ‘what?!’, when the mother ran in at a similar pace, thrust a bottle of milk at me and sprinted after her husband!  It was all quite amusing!  They led the service and I babysat!  Another random situation!

http://blog.unjourdeplus.com/

These are videos for kids (and adults) that I occasionally help to translate. 

I went to the agency yesterday and collected papers for my guarentors to sign.  I have to send them back, the agency sends them to the landlord, the landlord sends them back and sometime during the last week of June - hopefully - I can sign officially for the flat.  Please keep praying.  I won’t feel at ease until I have the keys in my hands.  Also, there is so much to do.  The whole flat needs to be repainted.  I have to sell a lot of my furniture, including my cooker, bed and fridge freezer and find new smaller stuff.  All this involves other people becuase yet again being a single female is pants.  Arghhhh!

Thursday afternoon I had a long awaited phone call…an agency rang to say that my application to rent had been accepted and that I could sign for the flat on Tuesday!  Hurah!  It has been 3 long weeks of waiting, praying, and expensive trips to Paris to try and get a place to live sorted out.  The prices you would not believe!  I felt 3 weeks of stress and sleepless nights was a lot but people have told me that actually it’s really quick.  So Praise God for answered prayer! 

This weekend has been another busy ‘un.

Friday night I was invited to a 10th Birthday party!  I had so much fun choosing a present.  Little girl’s are so easy to buy for! 

Saturday evening we had a giant BBQ for the neighbourhood.  The rain held off until about 9pm and the food was good.  Quite a few of our neighbours came and some very productive conversations were had.  I had invited my landlord and he arrived full of questions!  What’s the point of life?  How can he find peace and joy?  Me and my friend Jean-Aime were happy to share a few of the answers with him!

Some of the lads off the local estate came too.  I was happy to see them becuase it means barriers are been broken down.  We had all hallal meat and no alcohol and I was really praying for some of the muslim community to join with us.  One of the first questions the lads asked was ‘was the meat hallal and could they see the packaging?’.  I was impressed with the seriousness and lack of embarrasement with which they lived out their faith.  Are Christians generally like this?

Sunday I was invited by another church to come to their weekend away and lead the kids work.  I took a little team with me from Orleans and it was fun!  There were less kids than we expected and they were younger than planned - but all in all it was a fun time.

Then straight after this I rushed over to my very last roller blading lesson here in Orleans.  It was sad!  I took a tin of Quality Streets with me and shared them out.  It was wierd to say goodbye to the group.  We have good fun together and have been falling over and comparing bruises for the past year so it was strange to say goodbye. 

That’s life, huh?  Moving on…

www.passionworldtour.com

Last night Jean-Aime drove a group of us from the church to Paris for the Passion conference.  It was an amazing night.  It didn’t start too well becuase we got nicely stuck in traffic…

When we arrived we soon realised that there were far more Americans than French!  It was an Amercian organised thing and many had flown to France for the occasion.  The evening was wholly in English with translation.  Which I really enjoyed, being able to worship Jesus in my heart language is always a huge blessing.  But it saddened me a bit too.  We were in France, it was supposed to build up French believers…so why not sing in French?  The talk was also translated but because almost 50% of the crowd understood the English they laughed through the jokes and the French never really got to hear the translation - it was a shame.

Anyway, we had worship from Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and the David Crowder Band - it was fantastic!  And a talk by Louie Giglio which was really really good.  He talked about our lives being like matches.  We can live them for our own little bit of glory, our own tiny 7 second flame…or we can renounce ourselves and throw our lives, our matches, into the glorious flame of Jesus and live forever in his glory.  It was an anazingly clear example of why any one would WANT to renounce himself and pick up his cross and follow Jesus.   It answered the question, "How do I know that my life counts?"  Our lives will count if we live them fro what counts the most; the fame of Jesus Christ.  Cool, huh?!

It was also really cool to be able to pray for Paris, knowing that in a few weeks I’ll be living and ministering there.  To lift my eyes to God and see his glory and not the challenges that are scaring me.

Good stuff!  Praise God!

After church today I went out and did some blading along the river until the storm clouds got too close.  With the torrential rain outside I watched Kyle XY on the replay.  (Don’t think I really need a TV…question to ponder over the next few weeks.)  Anyway, after that I wanted to know what happens (I DO NOT like surprizes!).  So ended up on the ABC American site and heard Kyle and his family talking English - What a let down!!  It doesn’t sound right at all!!  Isn’t dubbing a funny old business!?