Camp Adventures and Miscellaneous Musings

Alright, so for my last two weeks in France I am at French church camp. Now, you probably just got a mental picture of what camp must be like because you're comparing it to what camp is like in the states, but you would be wrong like I was. Just as an example, today our meal, instead of hot dogs and Kool-Aid, was seafood paella and pumpkin bisque soup; haha we'd never get that back home. 

Seafood paella

The diswashing team

So to tell you a little bit more about what I do here, I'm a part of what is called "equipe technique", and what that means is that I spend half of my day doing manual labor things and half of my day with the kids. My specific job is vaisselle (AKA dishwashing). After every meal, my friend Pierrick and I wash between 400 and 700 dishes, which sounds significantly more boring that it actually is. Since we're together 7 hours every day doing dishes, Pierrick and I have had lots of time to get to know each other, but I don't mind because he happens to be totally interesting. He's going to school for theatre, composes music, plays multiple instruments, is a great singer, dances with a dance crew in Lyon, and lots of other things. I got so lucky to work with someone as pleasant as he is because washing dishes for 7 hours a day would be miserable if I was stuck with someone cranky and boring. So that's half of my day.....

....And the other half of my day is spent with the kiddos! There are about 130 kids here (ranging from 7-17 years old), and they're from all over Europe (mostly France, but not exclusively). Every morning after breakfast, there's a devotional with singing, prayer, and a short lesson; then after the devo, they all break out into small groups and have a Bible class for an hour. I sometimes get to sit in on various classes, but I always participate in the activities during the day. Their activities vary from things like crafts to salas dancing lessons to learning Hebrew to launching water balloons from sling shots--huge variety. On one specific day, I made a Cleopatra costume (Catherine was the Pharaoh) and we had races with different teams of kids to see who could make the fastest human pyramid. Later that same day, Catherine and I dressed up like Spartan warriors and we did a workout for the kids "to get them in shape for the upcoming battle." We do really cool and fun stuff like that every day, so it really is a blast getting to be here. In the evenings, we have another devotional time with the older kids and sometimes a special event like eating "American pancakes", watching a movie together, or playing games. 

With some of our kiddos (they were the ninja team)

Also, since I've been here, I've used some of my free time to go running. I'm training right now to run my first marathon on December 8, so there is a lot of running I need to do before that time comes. Conveniently, this summer I've been blessed to live in an incredibly beautiful country with lots of mountains and high altitude to train in. In both Marseille as well as here at camp, I've been running a couple of times a week up and down the mountain ranges. And I almost feel gluttonous when I'm running because my eyes are just feasting the whole time on the beautiful landscapes. This week, on one of my morning runs, I actually got chills when the sunrise came over the horizon and just covered the whole field of wildflowers I was in with this shimmery, golden light. It's hard to describe, but I think you get the idea; it's really lovely here. 

My favorite mountain/volcano to hike up

Man, I'm going to miss this place--the literal country of France, but mostly the people I've met. With really short mission trips (1-2 weeks) it seems to be harder to form those really long-lasting relationships, but I've now been here for three months, which really is quite a long time when you're spending 24/7 with the same people. Now, I have some fantastic relationships with the girls in the youth group here (they always run up and hug and kiss me every time they see me), and I've also become great friends with the other cemistes, interns, and my wonderful Marseille church family. This really has been an incredible internship and experience. However, that being said, it hasn't always been rainbows and butterflies. Thus begins my lists of what I've learned and so on. 

What I've learned about French meals:

1. It is ABSOLUTELY necessary to have bread at every meal. 

2. No meal can have fewer than 3 courses--even a simple lunch. 

3. Between the main dish and dessert, you must serve bread and cheese. 

4. When you take a piece of bread, you always put it on the table and not on your plate (by putting it on your plate you're saying "I think your table is dirty.")

5. The meal should last no shorter than three hours. 

What I've learned about French people: 

1. They are rarely ever barefoot--even inside their own homes they wear shoes. 

2. They don't smile, wave, or talk to random people on the street. This was a culture shock for me coming from friendly Texas. 

3. They are incredible hosts--incredible hospitality here. 

What I've learned about missionaries:

1. They work REALLY hard. 

2. They are incredibly passionate about the work they're doing. 

3. In France, they're all men. There is no female leadership as of yet. 

4. They have to be incredibly patient people because there is a pretty low success rate when it comes to various conversion efforts. I think I would have a hard time not getting discouraged and giving up. 

5. While some of the roles they take on seem incredibly noble and worthwhile, others feel a little trivial and not quite worth all the expense that a church spends to keep them there. I'm speaking of the difference between helping women get off the streets versus singing to old people. While I think that singing to old people is a nice and pleasant thing to do, it doesn't seem like the most important or pressing matter when looking at the grand scheme of things. That's something I've thought a lot about here.

6. They love God and they love other people with a fervor that is nearly unparalleled. 

What I've learned about the church:

1. I love being a part of one. No kidding, even if I was an atheist  I'm pretty sure I would go to church just for the community there. Really, few other groups have the same kind of community that churches (especially small churches) have. It's just incredible to have a support system of people like that who are praying for and loving on each other all the time. I think that's so awesome. 

2. No matter where you go in the world, when you find a church home, you will feel at home. 

3. While it's far from perfect, and there are people there who annoy you, and the leadership isn't exactly what you want, and, and and, it's a wonderful environment to surround yourself in. I'm 100% certain that I wouldn't be half the person I am today without my awesome Minter family; I've been SO blessed by my spiritual family.

What I've learned about learning a new language:

1. It's REALLY HARD!! I was completely unprepared when I came here for the language avalanche that was about to overcome me. It can be so frustrating to not be able to communicate yourself to other people or understand what others are saying to you. At times, I'll admit that it was very difficult not to be discouraged and give up.

2. You have to just go for it. I had an extremely difficult time at the beginning saying anything to people because I didn't want to speak until I could say what I wanted perfectly, but I had to just realize that it was never going to get better until I practiced with people. That was probably the hardest lesson for me to learn and one I wish I had learned earlier. 

3. You are going to make lots of mistakes, laugh it off. Yes, a good sense of humor will serve you well. 

4. When learning a new language, I think that complete immersion in the language and culture is the best way to learn. I'd taken French for a couple years in school before coming here. but I quickly found out that I didn't really know anything at all--or at least nothing very practical for actual speaking. 

Okay, so these are just a few of my thoughts and a few of the lessons I learned this summer. There's no way I could ever write down everything being here has taught me in the last three months, but I can say for certain that this has been an incredible experience, I'm so thankful for all the support I've had from family and friends to get me to this point. I'm headed home in just a few days (I have a 21 hour layover in Dublin, Ireland first, so I'll do a little Irish exploration in that time), and I'm very excited to see my friends and family again. Being away from home really makes me realize how much I love my people back home, so it'll be a happy reunion. God bless! :)

Enjoying the cool thatch-roof farmhouse