august plans

A little behind on my blogging... Can't catch up now, because I'm busy planning for August! Headed to London Thursday to meet Margaret and Sarah, say hey to Grah and Morgan and from there--the adventure begins. I can't believe my time here in Marseille is almost done! It has been an immense blessing and answered prayer--look for more to come in the next couple days on that.

For now, I'm going to try and add a google map of where we're headed--I can barely keep track of it myself (I think you can click on the little balloons). Thank you for your prayers thus far and please continue to pray for Margaret, Sarah and me as we embark on our voyage!

je vous embrasse,

catherine

View our voyage! in a larger map

Videos

So what exactly am I doing over here? Matt Blick (fellow intern) spent 6 months in Europe making films for the different MTW teams and these are clips from the France film he made.

I think you have to copy and paste the link and type in the password below. Enjoy, and let me know if it doesn't work!

Chapter 1 Password: FranceMTW1

http://vimeo.com/3080023

Chapter 2 Password: FranceMTW2

http://vimeo.com/3084021

Youth Chapter Password: FranceMTWy

http://vimeo.com/3084155

*All videos were produced, filmed, and edited by Matt Blick

les aventures continuent

As Lucie kindly reminded me yesterday, most blogs usually have more than one post... so here I go!

After finishing up an exhausting but rewarding week of English Club, fellow intern Matt and I took the bus to Aix-en-Provence on Saturday to meet up with some Vandy friends and see my future home for the upcoming fall semester. I absolutely loved the charming little city that is Aix. From the grungy, more sketchy metro stop in Marseille, it was incredibly refreshing to step off the bus and into Aix. We walked into town and met up with Nathan P. who was awesome and volunteered to be our tour guide and entertainer for the day. We did what most people seem to do in that city--walk around, eat, listen to music, and above all "chill". It definitely has a different feel than the city of Marseille: quieter, smaller, quainter, and chic-er. As much as I have truly loved getting to know Marseille and all it has to offer (which is a lot given it's the second largest city in France), I definitely think I will feel right at home in Aix this fall! (Kate, Kate, Claire, Whitney, etc... get excited!) We wandered the small streets, stopped by the Vanderbilt-in-France Center, saw some of the students' living situations and went into an art exhibit and a couple churches. It was exactly the kind of day Matt and I needed and it was great to get a feel for how things are done by the Vandy students in Aix. (I forgot my camera though, so thanks Matt, for the pictures).

Nathan, Me, & Christopher in front of one of Aix's many fountains

A group of Celtic dancers and musicians we came across.

Since Monday I have been working for the first half of each day on a restoration/physical work project with Pastor Pete and a few others. We've been working to re-paint some old shutters that have been burned at another Protestant church downtown. We had to take down and re-hang the shutters every day before we went home because they serve as the primary security measure for the church. Monday and Tuesday we cleaned, scraped, and sanded, followed by a couple of coats of paint and now they are completely revamped. (Not as good as new, but then again they were VERY old to begin with). And today we went and repainted the exterior wall and cleaned up inside the church. In the process my clumsiness came in full throttle as I managed to kick over a can of paint onto my tennis shoe which consequently Pete thought it would be a good idea to pour paint thinner over. In case you didn't know, paint thinner RUINS shoes and eats up the glue that holds the shoe together. Is there a Trak Shak anywhere around here? Don't think so. Guess that means no running for me! I forgot my camera pretty much every day, but I have a couple pictures from the 2nd or 3rd day. None of the complete project though.

Roger (Pete's son) and his friend Mark gave a hand, but wouldn't smile for a picture.

These were the windows we tackled and the bottom half of the wall is what we repainted today.

Two of eight shutters and the view from my perch all week.

Here I go getting long winded again... Sorry. Tuesday the 14th of July was Bastille Day! The national holiday here in France equivalent to the 4th of July in the US. With a box of pizza in hand I hiked up to the top of a hill with Benjamin and Matt to sit on the steps of Notre Dame de la Garde and overlook the city of Marseille, the Vieux Port, and the Mediterranean Sea. Among lots of French people and French smells we ate our pizza and waited for the "feux d'artifice" (fireworks) to begin. And they did, at 10:30, a magnificent show and some of the best fireworks I've ever seen. I tried to take pictures, but they didn't exactly turn out. Anyway, it was worth the hike and the crowd and everything, I loved celebrating France with all the Frenchies.

View of part of Marseille-there was a wildfire going on causing much more smoke/smog than usual.

The top of Notre Dame de la Garde from where I was sitting.

My view.

Feux d'artifices!

My latest adventure was yesterday afternoon after a 30 minute siesta post-painting-shutters, we went to the famous Calanques of Marseille. A "calanque" according to Wikipedia is "a geologic formation in the form of a deep valley with steep sides, typically of limestone, in part submerged by the sea. It can be considered a Mediterranean fjord." We hiked for about an hour, stopping to go up to the lookout point, and then climbing down into the Calanques, where like Wikipedia says, we found crystal blue/turquoise water surrounded by limestone cliffs. We decided to take the "shortcut" from the lookout point which involved sliding down the side of the mountain at a 45-degree angle in large-chunk gravel and walking through injurious thorn bushes. We then spent a couple hours jumping off the different points, swimming around, and hanging out on the rocks before we climbed back out (a little more difficult for sure). It was a great afternoon, I managed to make it out with just some scratches and a bleeding toe.

From the lookout, the calanque that we went swimming in.

The view on the other side of the calanque.

Me, Matt, & Jimmy. Picture courtesy of the self-timer, the rest of our group (two French/American "MKs" (missionary kids), two French girls, and 3 Spanish guys--all in high school) opted out of the hike up to the top.

In the calanque, or at the calanque? I'm confusing my prepositions in English now...

Oops, I've gone long again. I guess I could have broken that into 3 or so separate posts, but given my limited internet, this is the best I can do for now.

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for the church here in Marseille. It is small and struggling for growth and currently looking for a new pastor.

2. Pray for the missionaries who work extremely hard and who have truly given their lives to this ministry.

3. For me, pray for more reminders of God's presence here and for a greater understanding of His Kingdom.

much love,

catherine

le début

*wrote this on Thursday night, but am just now having internet to post it.*

Here I begin the blog that I have been trying to decide whether or not to make in the first place for a while now. I hesitate one because I question my ability to pour out my thoughts and stories to a computer screen, two, because I'm not sure I would even know how to go about doing it, and three because of the fear of becoming "a blogger". But, alas, I have given in because after being here in Marseille for just a week I have realized how difficult it is to keep in touch, and this seems to be the best solution for the moment. So, I have now decided to proudly bear the title "blogger" with the cheesy picture and all (thank you Lucie). And I have titled it “joie de vivre” which literally means “joy of living”, but if you asked a “francophile", they would probably say that there’s really no translation adequate to describe the full meaning of the expression. For me, it’s simply states the attitude with which I intend to carry out the next six months—taking time to find joy everywhere I go and hold onto it even when it’s not easy or when I feel far from home—a sort of joy that transcends my circumstances and materializes as the peace and assurance that is only found in Jesus.

I make no promises regarding the grammatical correctness of these words, the levelof interest, or the presence of a beautiful descriptive Chris-Cole-esque story. I merely intend to keep the people I love informed and will ask for your prayers as I embark on this crazy journey of ministry, adventure, and studying in Europe.

In case you're wondering or forgot why I’m here, to re-cap: For the month of July I am working with the Mission to the World team in Marseille, France building relationships with French youth, young adults, and my host family as well as assisting in various activities—helping run a weeklong day camp to teach English to Middle Schoolers, carrying out a 15-hour French urban ethnological study, participating in a physical work project alongside French youth and adults, and working in the church to help the congregation in whatever ways I can. After the month of July, I’ll be traveling around with some friends before settling back in Aix-en-Provence to study abroad for the fall semester. Making for a total of six months I’ll be here.

So here I am. After arriving in Europe with close to 200 pounds of checked and carry-on luggage :( , (thank you gracious airport people for not charging me extra!) the first few days were a whirlwind of activity. I'll try to be brief, but a lot has happened in the last 7 days! Pretty much immediately after arriving I was taken to Stephanie's house to join the preparation for the weeklong "Club Anglais". I’ve been working with Stephanie (permanent missionary), Benjamin (“BJ”, a year-long student intern), and Matt (intern who has been traveling to the MTW sites all over Europe) to plan and carry out the camp that’s going on this week (Friday is the last day). The “Club Anglais” is a way to make connections with the community and the kids here, the majority of whom are not involved with the Church at all. It’s an opportunity to show Christ’s love to these kids through teaching and speaking English, playing games, doing art, and building friendships with them.

The week so far has been full of joy, long days, laughter, and really, some hard work. I have been grateful for Stephanie’s leadership, Matt and Benjamin’s eagerness to help, and the twenty 11-14 year old kids’ enthusiastic spirits. I have truly fallen in love with these children. They are 99% well behaved, generous, loving, and just plain fun. They love helping me with my French and teaching me the “langue familiar”, the slang words that I don’t know at all. Although I’ll be relieved when it’s all said and done and ready for some time to catch my breath, I will miss their smiles and our bilingual conversations where with tedious joy we all concentrate on every word in order to reach some sort of mutual comprehension.

Fanny

Playing Spoons in the room where we had camp all week

Tie-Dying for the first time ever--brought all the way from Wal-Mart

Nayel making his "Sandwich of Me"

I’m beginning to realize that there’s really no easy way to sum up a week of new cultural experiences, meaningful relationships, and thoughts in a manner that is somewhat concise. If I keep writing as I am, I will never go to sleep, and no one will ever want to read something so lengthy. So here are some recent noteworthy highlights, bullet-style.

Me, Kilpéric, and Balthazar

1. My host family, the Nouvellets: I could not have been blessed with a better French family. I’ve only met 3 of the 5 family members (the dad works in Paris and the oldest daughter is in the States for the summer), but it has been an answered prayer and a dream come true to be with this family. (More later, I’m sure).

2. My mom’s brief stop in Marseille: She had a flight out of Marseille on Sunday after a couple weeks painting in Provence with artist friends. It was unreal for her to be here with me Saturday night—to see where I am, meet my “co-workers”, and especially my French family. It was a blessing, an interesting start to 6 months on my own, and a memorable evening for sure.

3. Trip to Toulon: My “family” invited me to Toulon Sunday night to have dinner with their grandparents, and drop off the youngest son Balthazar for a week of sailing camp. The whole night felt like a dream. The grandparents have a top floor apartment with a beautiful flower-covered terrace overlooking the ocean. We had a traditional French meal, shared family pictures, and the grandparents were incredibly hospitable welcoming me as if I really were part of the family.

Matt, Me, Benjamin

4. Dinner out with BJ, Matt, and Stephanie: We went to a restaurant right on the water in front of a bridge with an incredible view. Ate pizza, told stories, and relaxed.

5. Teaching DeSoto line dances: My “workshop” activity for the week has been teaching the kids the line dances I did every summer (this one too) at Camp DeSoto. They absolutely LOVE them, and are always asking to learn another. It is cool to share something as simple as that but to see the same happiness it brings to these kids as it does to little girls in Mentone, Alabama.

6. I love you: The words that shy, 13-year-old, English-weary, Fanny told me today. I’m grateful for our friendship that has developed over discussing her fervent love for Michael Jackson and the Twilight series—conversations that are deeper and more meaningful than they might seem on the surface because of the trust and love that they have fostered.

I guess I’ll leave it at that for now. It’s time to make a slideshow for the last day of camp! I’d love to hear from you anytime. I’ll try to keep this updated a couple times a week, hopefully so the posts won’t be quite as long as this one.

Prayer Requests: 1. Please pray for our team as we finish up a long week of exhausting work. For flexibility, patience, and strength. 2. Pray for the kids at camp. Pray that they were loved well this week and saw Jesus in that love. 3. And for me, pray for my struggle with the French language right now. It is not coming easily, which is what I expected—but it’s seeming like it’s not coming much at all. It is discouraging and frustrating at times, I feel like a burden to the French speakers who have to listen to me. 4. Pray that I would find time to stop, catch my breath, and rest.

If anyone read all of this, I’m impressed. But thanks for your interest. Right now I’m feeling blessed beyond all measure to be here. Missing friends and family, but gratefully not homesick or discontent at all. Coming back to “Chez-Nouvellet” already feels like home, and what more could I ask for? Rien. Praise the Lord!

**bisous**

catherine