Vacation Days

For my entire summer internship over here, we get three days off. My three days off were this week from Wednesday to Friday. Now, here's how I made the most of my time for R&R.

Wednesday, I went on a little trip with my friends Catherine, Veronica, her two friends who came to visit her named Katie and Curtis, and Derek. For out little trip out of town, we decided to go to Aix-en-Provence, a provincial, university town about half an hour outside of Marseille. The way it was described to me was "It's the city you thought you were coming to when you came to Marseille." It's much smaller, quainter, and safer than Marseille. So we were excited to take the bus out there and spend the day wandering around. And that's just what we did. When we got there, we walked around and started to look for a place to eat because it was about lunch time. We decided on a cute outdoor cafe by this pretty fountain in one of the town squares. To eat, I got the most delicious crepe I've just about ever had. Now, I'm going to warn you that just by reading this next part, you might actually die of a heart attack, so be prepared. Okay, so it was a crepe, filled with both vanilla and coconut ice cream, Nutella and bananas, pear slices in a homemade dark chocolate sauce, all topped off with copious amounts of powdered sugar and whipped cream. Whew, did you make it? Haha it was absolutely incredible (I did split it with Curtis, so I hopefully only consumed 1500 of the 3000 calories!), and we stayed there at the cafe for nearly 3 hours enjoying some sun, good conversation, and delicious food.

The legendary crepe

After lunch, we walked around a little more, wandering in an out of cute shops. Provence is famous for its lavender fields, so we went around smelling various lavender lotions, sprays, and products. It was just a lovely afternoon. However, by about 4, everyone wanted to go back to Marseille to watch a soccer game. I really want to like watching soccer, but I think it's just about the most boring sport to watch, so I decided to stay in Aix---ALL BY MYSELF! Gasp! Actually, it was totally safe and not a big deal at all. I just got lost in the city and stumbled upon lots of fun things. I found myself at the university at one point, got invited to play basketball with some people, and talked to this guy from Guinea Bissau. T'was lovely. After a couple hours later, I made my way back to the bus station and came back home. Since I'm with people 24/7, I loved having a couple of hours to myself and have a little peace and quiet.

And I loved it so much that the next day, I took a little adventure to the beach by myself again. Lots of people went out of town for the break, so this was a good time for me to catch up on some alone time. I looked up where the best beaches in Marseille were, and then I found a metro and a bus that would take me there. I've always been pretty independent, but one of my favorite things is venturing out on my own in a foreign city. It's kind of thrilling in a way because I know that I have to rely on myself to get where I need to go, not just follow a group. I got to the beach around noon and I didn't leave until after 6. I just listened to music, read a book, watched kids play in the water, listened to the waves, and played in the sand for hours. Blissful.

Such a beautiful coastline

Yes, she is topless. Welcome to France.

Ouch. Regretting my limited use of sunscreen.

Friday, even though it was technically a vacation day, I went up to the church in the morning to help with some preparations that needed to be done for camp and stuff. Did lots of random manual labor tasks, and then I helped a guy named Jaques with lunch. This week, we have about 60 people coming from Colorado, California, and a couple other states to help us up at the camp. Next week, I'll be gone all week to the Alps where the camp is, and I will be doing a bunch of various tasks to fix the place up and get it ready for camp. A small group came in yesterday, so we cooked a nice lunch at the church and welcomed them here. In the evening, Derek, on of the cemistes, decided to be baptized. He was sprinkled as a baby, but he wanted to be officially baptized in the church. He's a really great guy, and we were all so happy!

AHh I ate fancy, moldy French cheese

Two of my favorite girls

Derek coming out of the water

Later that night, the day of the summer solstice, we went to the huge fete de la musique that is held in Marseille every year. It's in honor of the beginning of summer, and all over town, people come out on the streets and play music. There is also a huge stage set up in the middle of Vieux Port that is televised and had big names play at it. Of course my knowledge of French pop is limited, but I actually knew a number of the songs, and it was so much fun being in a huge crowd with lots of cheering fans. I love that environment. Beautiful, relaxing weekend off.

Palaces, Cyclists, and Lots and Lots of Food

Yet another busy week in the great lands of France!

Field trip!!! On Wednesday, instead of having regular Bible class, we went on a field trip to Avignon. And if you remember your history, when the popes had a big split with Rome, they moved their palace to Avignon. So we got to visit a huge, beautiful castle where nine generations of popes lived. We got those great little audio guide things for our tour, and I absolutely love having those on tours. I always learn a lot and end up getting a lot more out of the tour than I would have without it. They always find interesting facts to tell you, and since I'm kind of nerdy with my interest in history, I think it's great.

Also, there was a modern art exhibit that was temporarily set up there, and I really enjoyed it. However, everyone I was with said that it was terrible art, obscene, and stupid. Either the French don't like modern art, or I just like really bad art. Hmm, I hope it's not the latter.

Then, after a lovely picnic lunch in the park, we drove to an old monastery that was build in the Middle Ages. We got another cool tour around and got a cool look at what life was like for people back then. Being there felt like I was living the book Pillars of the Earth. If you haven't read it, read it. You'll fall in love with cathedrals. We even sang for a while in the cathedral (we had a little crowd gather to listen to our impromptu jam sesh) because the acoustics were just spectacular. Super, super fun day. Field trips never disappoint.

The palace at Avignon

This week, we also had the last LST party. Sob. It was a talent show, and all of our friends from countries all over the world performed their various tricks and talents. We had singing, dancing, poetry readings (in English and Persian), and magic tricks. My friend, Hilal, split an apple in half with his hands for his trick. He may, in fact, be the strongest person I know. So cool. It was hard to say goodbye to some of our friends, but this has just been the best experience ever, and I'm so blessed to have met them all.

All of our LST group

After the party, we left for the weekend to a city named Ardeche. Lots of us from the church went because there was a big event this weekend called the Ardeschoise. Now, I'm sure you've heard of the Tour de France, well, the Ardeschoise is basically a lesser known version of that. It's a huge 2,000 km bike race through the Alps with over 18,000 participants every year. It's a huge deal, and cities all around Ardeche decorate and have festivals all weekend in honor of the race. And we also got to be a part of the race. In the 90's, the church here bought an old ski resort in the mountains and converted it into a retreat center where we have camp every summer. And this center is located on the route for the Ardechoise bike race, so this weekend we housed and cooked for nearly 200 of the cyclists. It was such a fun experience getting to see these men and women from all over and getting to spend the weekend in the mountains. I was on kitchen duty this weekend, so I cooked and cooked and cleaned and cooked like a mad woman. We served a huge feast for them (apparently biking a couple hundred miles every day helps you work up an appetite), and it was such a good experience for me. I work in the kitchen with a lady named Patricia and her husband Fred, and although both speak a small amount of English, basically, I was forced to speak French the whole weekend. Because speaking is so difficult, it's hard to force myself to speak it when I know that I can get away with speaking English to my friends, but this weekend, I had no choice, and it was great! I'm also going to be woking in the kitchens during camps, so I know that I'll learn a lot those two weeks too. Also, working in the kitchen means I get lots of tasty treats--a nice reward for all our hard work and for being forced to wear hair nets, which are just not cute! ;)

Rockin' our kitchen accessories

Sooooo many baguettes!!! The French really love their bread. 

Then, when we got back after the weekend, I went with a couple friends to the beach where I FINALLY learned how to skip stones. Okay, I realize that this isn't a big deal, but I've been trying to learn for probably 10 years now, and I've never been able to do it. But I was taught the correct technique, and I did it! Multiple times!! Simple pleasures.

Sunday, we had a family from church over for lunch and I made creme brulee for dessert. Actually, it was basically just creme because it didn't brulee very well since I didn't have a fancy fire torch thing. But it was still yummy! And then that evening, I invited over a couple of my friends to eat a (mostly) authentic Tex-Mex meal. I spent all afternoon making homemade tortillas, guacamole, pico de gallo, beans, rice, and other assorted goodies. We had sooo much food, and it all turned out great! Tacos are a total comfort food for me, so it felt like home to get some spicy Mexican flavor.

The family we had over to our apartment for lunch

And this whole week is a week of tests. For the cemistes, they are taking their exams for the CEM program, and all the French students are taking their Baccalaureate exams for graduating school. It's a huge deal here, so they have been busy studying in preparation. I had my last day of French class today, and tomorrow begins our first day of vacation. We have three days off all summer and they are this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Tomorrow, we are going to Aix-en-Provence, and then we'll see what the rest of the week holds for us. And this is going to be a great rest from the hustle and bustle of life we've been overwhelmed with lately.

I've almost been here a month!! What?!

Aye aye aye!! It has been way too long since I've posted, but I was sort of sick this week. I haven't been feeling 100%, but I'm finally better now, so here's my update from the last week. 

Yet another busy, fun, exhausting, challenging, lovely week. Like always, I went to Bible classes, devos, and French classes every day, but we had a couple extra events this week that were very cool.

On Thursday, we had another LST party, and this one was 80's themed. We taught everyone how to do a variety of "American" dances like the "Cupid Shuffle," "Cha Cha Slide," "Macarena," "The Harlem Shake," and Michael Jackson's "Thriller." I think everyone had a really great time, and it's cool that something like dancing completely breaks the language barrier. When everyone is dancing together, it doesn't matter that we all come from different backgrounds and speak different languages--in that moment, we are united. Dancing is such a cool thing we've found to do because it really allows everyone to participate in something together.

LST friends!

Cooking crepes

Dancing to Thriller!!

This week, we also went back to the nursing home. I spent time with a woman named Madame Ransbotyn who could only say "Oui." I kid you not, in the multiple hours that I was there, she only said that one word over and over, but she was sweet and loved petting my skin. I know it's a small thing for us, but for people who don't have any visitors and much human contact, just getting to talk to and touch someone is actually a huge deal. And the language barrier isn't a problem at all with them. I can talk and talk away while I push them around outside in their wheelchair, and they're having a great time even if I'm saying complete nonsense. Good times at the nursing home.

My lovely friend

Another person we go visit every week is a woman named Odette. She has lived at the hospital here in town for two years now, and CEM students take turns visiting her nearly every day. We go and sing songs, talk, or read the Bible with her, and it's great to keep her in good spirits. She's probably in her 90's, and I just can't even imagine what it would be like to live in a hospital, so I'm happy for her that she's plugged in with our group and gets consistent visitors.

Praying with Odette

And now this part is for my dad specifically because he loves track and field, but last night, I went to watch my friend Benjamin run in a track meet. He is part of a club here in Marseille that competes with people from nearby provinces, and he's quite fast. He runs the 100M dash, so we got to watch him compete against people from all over. I love being at track meets and in that environment, so I was more than happy to go and cheer him on yesterday. After the race, I met his team mates, and we all got dinner together afterwards. And by dinner, I mean that we drove out to the Marseille airport to go eat at the Burger King there. I wish I was kidding, but here, Burger King is a huge treat and treated like a delicacy. They told me that there is only one Burger King in all of France (lots of McDonalds, however), and it just so happens to be in the Marseille airport. We all got our American fix.
(In the video, Benjamin is the one in blue)

This week our neighbors from Algeria invited us over for a huge feast. They are probably the most generous and hospitable people I have ever met, and they are always inviting us over and cooking us incredible food. They live in the church compound and are very involved in the church. Khaled and Djigika had so much food prepared: grilled fish, shrimp, paella, chicken, homemade bread, soup, olives, grilled veggies, wine, mousse, and fresh cherries. They are such a sweet family (they have three kids aged 11, 9, and 6, and Djigika is pregnant with their 4th), and we have been so blessed by their hospitality. Even though I wasn't feeling great this week, my great support system here has taken care of me and made sure that I was doing okay.

Even though I'm not eating meat these days, I had to admit that this looked pretty delicious. 

Weekend Update with Katie Cukrowski

Here's my update from the weekend:

Since I'm still not very confident speaking to people in French yet, I have a hard time talking to new people. However, Friday afternoon I learned how to get around that. We went back to the nursing home, but this time we went to the Alzheimer's unit, and this was perfect. I decided that even if I made a huge fool of myself speaking, it was totally okay because they weren't going to remember it anyway. This was my time to just go for it, and I did. I talked to a woman named Michelle for over an hour, and it was so great. She was so happy just to have someone sit with her, hold her hand, and ask her questions. Even though she could hardly remember anything (even her age and where she was sometimes), I still loved getting to ask her about her life and her day. I'm definitely going back there again.

Later that night, we had the dress rehearsal for the church musical. I mostly just helped with costumes and did backstage assistance with costume changes and stuff. After the practice, we went to what was called an FOI meeting, and it's where churches of all dominations from all over town get together and pray for unity amongst the churches both in Marseille and the larger world. The ABSOLUTE coolest part of the night was when a man read the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic (he's one of the only few who still speaks the language). I just closed my eyes while he read (and sang parts) and pretended like it was Jesus reading to me because that's the language he would have spoken. His words were really impactful for me.

That night, I went with a couple of my friends for a drive, and we drove to Notre-Dame de la Garde, which is a huge basilica on the top of a mountain in the middle of the city. It's a really cool building, and the view from up there is just spectacular. We looked at the city lights and talked for hours. I'm so blessed to have such amazing friends here!

Saturday morning, I spent hours and hours doing preparation work for the musical that night. We worked long and hard cooking, setting up, and getting all the last minute details in order. For lunch, Florian and Benjamin cooked for me at their apartment, and we hung out with the other cemistes and listened to music. I love having French friends because they cook SO well. Florian's aunt owns a boulongerie, so he grew up making pastries and French breads his whole life. He's going to teach me how to cook later this week, and I'll let you know how it turns out.

At 8:30, the musical began. The kids in the play were absolutely adorable in their costumes, singing and dancing. I think people really enjoyed it, and I was surprised by the turn out (we had over 100 people come!).

Kids singing in the musical

And back to great French food, after the play, there was a reception in the church. Man, back home, a reception means a couple of plates of cookies or something, but we had a feast! Homemade tarts, quiches, pastries, chocolates, and breads. The abundance of beautiful foods was overwhelming, and we were stuffed by the end of the night. It's hard to say no when people keep offering you yummy desserts. Offering tasty treats is also a good way to get people from the neighborhood to come to the play. Since any organized religion is looked down on in France, the best thing that the church can do here is just show that they're normal, nice people and help their image in that way.

AMAZING apple tart

Tarts with the new intern, Catherine

Sunday, we had the preacher's family (wife and three kids) to our house for lunch. Man, those kids were really crazy, but we ate a good meal. Bethany, Joelle, and I made salad, Irish soda bread, shepherd's pie, and crepes for dessert. We ate very, very well. And immediately after the family let, we went to have another picnic. We played soccer and frisbee again with our group of interns.

Joelle's amazing crepes

In the evening, the cemistes sometimes have meals together. For this meal, we went out on the balcony at Esther's apartment, and had a good meal surrounded by good friends. And afterward, we had out own version of French-American idol/Karaoke. It was absolutely hilarious, and I wish I had the video of me singing, so I could post it on here. I'll see if I can't get it from someone. Anyway, it was a fun evening with my intern friends.

Se coucher and Coucher and Accoucher, oh my!

Okay, I know I said I would be better about updating, and here I am missing another day. Oops. This just isn't one of those 9-5 internships at all. I mean, yesterday began at 6 a.m. and tonight I'm just getting home around 11 p.m. We really have such full, wonderful days.

Yesterday, I went with Florian and Benjamin (they're early birds) to a mountain around Marseille. They picked me up at 6 in the morning, and just a few minutes later, we were standing on top of one of the highest points in Marseille. We hiked up the mountain and watched the sunrise from up there. A little physical activity, talking with friends, and drinking good French espresso is a great way to start a morning. And this was where I made one of my biggest language faux pas to date. I tried to tell Benjamin what time I went to bed the night before, but I accidentally mistranslated the verb, and I ended up telling him what time I had sex. In my defense, the words look nearly the exact same, but when he started laughing at me, I knew that I had done something wrong. Haha oh well. Learning a language is all about putting yourself out there, making those embarrassing mistakes, and doing better the next time. And I'm really blessed to have good friends over here who can laugh at me in the nicest way possible and help me keep improving.

Mountainside view

After we climbed back down the mountain, we headed to the devo at church. Every day (Monday to Friday), we all get together to sing, read the Bible, and pray together at 8:30 before class starts. Again, such a nice, relaxing, thoughtful way to start the mornings. I had French class after that, and then in the afternoons we do homework help for kids in the neighborhood.

And one of the coolest, most culturally aware programs that the church has is its soccer ministry. Basically, churches from all around town sponsor teams in a league that plays in various tournaments around town. Since soccer is such a huge deal around here, lots of people want to be on these teams, and it's a good way to do outreach with people in a "Hey, we're not all crazy, religious fanatics; we're normal people who like soccer too. And we also happen to like Jesus" kind of way. All kinds of organized religion are really looked down upon here in France (especially Marseille), so this is a really effective way for the church to be involved in the community and remain approachable for people. I'm significantly worse than most players on these teams because they've been playing since they were about 3, so I didn't play much, but it was still fun to watch some serious soccer being played. Man, there is some solid talent out there.

The soccer (called foot here) match

And then today. Today began with the devo, and then since I didn't have French class today, I stayed at the church for CEM class. I still have a hard time following at points because the whole class is in French, but I'm already catching more of the lesson now than I was a week ago. One of the hardest parts is learning all of the obscure church vocabulary. I know it's probably hard to believe, but they never taught us how to say resurrection, apostles, or sacraments in French classes in high school, so I'm having to to quickly learn a lot of biblical jargon. The classes are good, and it's really great for me to be exposed to a lot of language because it forces me to keep training my ears.

This afternoon, a group of us went to this cute little old lady's house for a Bible study. She doesn't get out much, so she really enjoys having people over (and we got spoiled with homemade goodies, coffee, and chocolates). Mmm! Another older woman came with us, and we all sang together for a little while and then talked about Acts 6. They were a little harder to understand when they spoke, but I could tell that they really loved having us there with them.

Then tonight was the LST party where we invite all the people they read with to come visit and hang out. I did a lot of the cooking and preparation for this party because they were pretty busy all day, and we had a great turn out. There was lots of food and good conversation, and after we ate, we had a big dance party where we taught all our French friends how to line dance and do a couple other American dances. Such a fun time, and we're really becoming close with a few of the people who have started coming regularly to everything. And now, with a full belly and full heart, I bid you all goodnight.

These people bring me so much joy

Playing Catch Up

Ahhh, I'm way behind on updating. Man, now that we've really gotten into the schedule here, we are SO busy. I'm out of the house by 6 a.m. lots of mornings, and I'm not home until around midnight. I love that we have plenty to do here, but by the time I get home, it's late and I go straight to sleep. So, I'm sorry for getting behind on my posts, and I will try to be more consistent from now on.

Now, I'll give a recap of the last few days.

One major new event is that I've started taking an intensive French course at the language school in town. The way this class is set up is that it's one-on-one, and I go in and speak with a French woman named Pascal for 6 hours a week. She refuses to speak to me in anything but French, so it's a huge challenge for me every time I go in. My biggest struggle with French is with speaking (reading and listening are easier), so in this setting, I'm really pushed to get out of my comfort zone and hold entire conversations in French. And for every hour I'm in class, she gives me that many hours of homework to do for the next time I see her. It really is an intensive class, but I'm since I'm trying to learn so much in such a little amount of time, I'm really glad that I have this opportunity.

This class takes place in the mornings, and then I'm spending the afternoons every day with the other interns doing work with the church. Every day we do something different. This week, we went to a nursing home where we visit with some of the patients who never get visitors. I met with a woman named Madame Touzeau (I think it sounds like the name of a psychic or something), and we just let her talk and talk to us and we listened. I always feel so bad for people who have no one to talk to because when someone finally listens to them, they go on and on since this is their only chance to be heard. Actually, I have a bit of a hard time going to nursing homes sometimes because it reminds me of how much I don't ever want to get old and be alone--even though that's an inevitable fate for many of us. When we went downstairs after talking to Madame Touzeau, we helped the staff serve crepes to the other patients for an afternoon snack. While everyone was eating, all of us interns sang to karaoke and danced to songs in front of everyone. This is something I would never do back home, but being here, I'm so much more bold for some reason. Maybe I've just decided that I don't have anything to lose, and I might as well come out of my shell. Either way, I've enjoyed not being shy and becoming a little more outgoing in public settings.

Madame Touzeau

Another thing we do in the afternoons is go visit people in the hospital. This week we went to see a woman named Rania, who had been in the hospital for a few days (for some injury I didn't understand), and we visited with her for over an hour probably. She is probably about 40, and it was her birthday when we went, so we sang to her and talked about French weddings. When you're young and healthy like I still am, it's easy to forget how blessed I am, but going to nursing homes and hospitals really reminds me how seriously good I have it.

I'm also teaching an English learning class for 3-6 year olds at an elementary school in town. We sing songs to learn colors, numbers, shapes, body parts, and all kinds of stuff. They are WAY cute, and I'm really having a blast with that class. It turns out that, their English level is about the same as my French (unfortunately I'm 21, not 5). I teach this same age group at Minter on Wednesday nights, and I've missed doing that back home, so this is working out as a good kid fix.

And now I'll tell you about the fun thing we got to do this week. On Saturday, the one day a week that we have off, we went on a little trip. This trip cost less that three euros and took me to the most beautiful water I've ever seen in my life. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that this place was so stunning that I actually got a little choked up at one point just looking around me, which is saying a lot for someone who rarely cries. We were in the town of Cassis, which is just a few minutes outside of Marseille. I have never been anywhere in my life that looked so perfect, that looked so much like a computer screen stock background image. We took some really incredible pictures, explored the cliffs, ate lunch, and walked along the beach. It's hard to put into words and accurately describe how content I felt that day. I'm about to have a hippie moment here, but while I was in Cassis, it just felt like everything was right with the world, like harmony existed for all creation, like this is the way the Earth should be, and that there was so much love in the universe. I don't know, but I just had a strong sense of peace and joy being there. It's in those moments that I feel the most spiritual, connected to something bigger than me, and alive.

This picture accurately portrays how I felt being there

This water is SOOO BLUE!

Lovin' that ocean breeze

My wonderful friends

Cemistes, Coffee, and Cats

Before I get too much further in the blog, I should explain that they have a program at the church called Christians in Mission (CEM) for college age students to live in Marseille for a year. This program is service-oriented and encourages the students to be active in the community here and take Bible classes at the church. The CEM students host a variety of programs in the neighborhood for kids, adults, teens, and the elderly, which include soccer, singing, homework help, devotionals, and English lessons. The cemistes, as they're called, are really great people, and you can tell that they truly care about the people they're working with.

So today began at 8:30 at the church where CEM has a devo every morning. I am not fully a part of the CEM program, but while I'm here, I'm participating in all of the various activities they do. One of those activities includes the Bible class in the mornings. Monday through Friday they have classes from 9-12 taught by various people in the church (mostly the three missionary men). This morning we looked at the early church as described in Acts, and then we talked about boldness and not being afraid to use our gifts even if we think we might fail. Esther translated again for me, but I hope that I will soon be conversational enough with French to be more active in the class discussions.

Later this afternoon, I went to the mailbox to mail a birthday card for a certain sister of mine who will be turning 20 soon (I hope it gets there in time!). And it turns out that the mailbox is right next to my boulongerie, so I went in and bought another baguette as well as a pain au chocolat (delicious!!). Although I'm able to go with people sometimes, I now feel comfortable running errands in the afternoon by myself if everyone is out. However, our neighborhood is not the safest, and we aren't allowed to go out anywhere by ourselves at night, but if you know me at all, I'm not brave enough to go anywhere alone at night anyway, so this isn't a burdensome rule for me to follow. If we are ever out late, we always have a guy walk or drive us home to be safe. But in the daytime, it's very much okay to go out alone because the streets are always bustling with people.

Quite soon after arriving back to the apartment, Florian, one of the CEM students, came by to see if I wanted to get a coffee. He is trying to learn English, and I am obviously trying to learn English, so it works out well for us to practice with each other. He is from the border of France and Switzerland near the city of Geneva, and he is great to learn with because he speaks slowly and clearly enough for me to keep up with. We drove to a nice outdoor cafe and talked for nearly two hours over our coffee. I'm starting to feel more confident with speaking because he pretends not to understand me sometimes when I talk in English, which forces me to speak in French so much more.

My great teacher

The beautiful spot where we talked

After coffee, he dropped me off at the missionaries house for the youth devo. But I soon learned that a youth devo here is not like it is back home. I was surprised by the heaviness and less applicable-ness of the topic that we talked about. Craig, the teacher, started talking about marriage and why people commit adultery. He was saying that when a couple gets married, neither has the intention of being unfaithful with another person, but at some point, one of the parties starts to believe the lies of this world and accepts sin. I don't think I've ever talked about that topic in detail in a youth group setting, so it was interesting to hear. He also connected being faithful to a spouse with being faithful to Christ, and that is something even the unmarried people in the room could relate to.

Best part of the night though, the missionaries have cats! And since I'm such a cat person, it was awesome to get a kitty fix and pet a cat during the devo.