Whew. Just finished the busiest week of the summer. CEM Summer is an event hosted by the church in Marseille every year for Christians all over Europe. It's a big deal here because we have people from all over Europe staying with us at our homes, eating meals together, attending Bible lectures, and doing various missions with them in the afternoons. In our tiny apartment of tiny, we had six girls crammed in here all week (Pauline and Clotilde who spoke French and Semiye who spoke Dutch in addition to us). In fact, one of the coolest things of the week was that I got to be friends with people from all over the world--Alistair from Scotland (yes, he had an awesome accent), Sean from Belgium/The Netherlands, and Andrea from German-speaking Switzerland.
It was awesome to be surrounded by so many young people who are Christians here in Europe because, as I've learned, being a Christian over here is so different than in the Bible Belt. The churches struggle so much, and the young people feel really alone in their faiths. There isn't necessarily persecution, but it definitely isn't easy to tell people that you go to church on Sundays and love Jesus. And that's hard for me to even comprehend because in Abilene it's almost completely expected that you attend church and are a believer because so many people are. But because it's hard to be a person of faith over here, it means that the Christians really are super intense about their relationships with God and their love of the church. It gave me new perspective to be around people my age and hear their stories of faith. Actually, this trip has been incredibly eye-opening for me in terms of how I look at the church and Christianity. At the end of the trip, I'll express to you all of my insights about the church, missions, and Christiany, but for now, just know that I'm thinking about all of these things and trying to formulate some more solid opinions.
So every day, we had Bible lectures in the mornings (great speakers, and they were translated into both French and English), and then after lunch, we did various missions activities. One afternoon I sang to blind people; another afternoon I did a Bible study with a woman named Samira; one morning we served coffee and croissants to homeless people on the streets. It is hotter than creases over here (no one has air conditioning), so I'm feeling pretty roasted and missing Texas for that reason. However, one day this week, we did get to go to the beach together, and the water felt incredible! I miss swimming so much, and especially when it's so hot, that cold water is awesome. One more thing I missed about home this week was celebrating the 4th of July. It was pretty sad to not be with all of my family for the weekend, but I did go get to see the Tour de France that day instead. Very cool. Great week, but I'm completely exhausted. Last four days in Marseille begin tomorrow--this summer is flying by.
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| Summer interns!! |
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| My salad making skills are improving. |
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| Friends from Scotland, Belgium, California, and Indiana |
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| Sweet girls at the church. They call me their big sister and always give me a big hug and kisses. |
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| We sang a concert at the end of the week for people in the neighborhood. |
I've been telling your "you can never be bad" story to everyone (meeting the Belgian in marseille who had swum in our pool with Whitney) EVERYWHERE to everyone! So fun!
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