African Journeys

Have you ever read a book and the author decided to insert random French words in his sentences. Well I have. And before I came to France and started learning the language, I was left to wonder what they meant and then think about how uncultured I was for not knowing random French vocabulary. But now that I am in the club, let me illuminate you to the reason. There is none. Or at least not a good one. To give you an example, I would always read the word ’sans’. All it means is ‘without’. How lame is that? So next time you read a book that randomly inserts French words into sentences, don’t let it bother you. They are most likely just for show. Unless it is a book about learning French, then you should pay very close attention.

So I was reading my Bible the other day and just decided to skip to the end. I don’t normally do that with books, but I had a good idea where this one was headed. As I read Revelation 22, I was overwhelmed with what I read and was especially blessed with some powerful verses near end.

17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

At the end, after talking about Jesus winning and God’s judgement and righteousness coming and all that good stuff, the reaction is, “Come!” Jesus, come on. Everyone who wants some of the water, come on, it is free. And Jesus says, “Surely I am coming” He’s coming, people, and that is a great thing. The lover of our souls is coming and we get to enjoy him. The end of the story is good. It is so good in fact that the only thing that John can write in response to Jesus saying that he is coming is, ‘Amen’ (= May it be so) and ’Come, Lord Jesus!’ And even though there are many things running through my head after reading such a powerful ending to God’s Word, all I can say is…Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

You Americans don’t know how good you have it. You can waltz down to Cracker Barrel, Denny’s, IHOP, etc, sit down and order a cup of coffee. But not just any cup of coffee…a bottomless cup of coffee. I don’t know who came up with the idea first (they are probably a genius), but it has spoiled me the last few years. Now that I am in France, I don’t know what to do with myself.

Jo and I went to a cafe the other day. She had a chocolate little something and I, not being hungry at the time, simply wanted some coffee. But what do you think was brought to me? A nice large steaming cup of steaming goodness? NO! It was a thimble of extra strong, quickly cooling dark liquid! And the waitress didn’t even walk around with a carafe and a nice southern accent and ask, “You wanna refill, honey?” I tell you, some civilizations just aren’t as advanced as others.

It is hard being away from family during the holidays. When we arrived in France, we knew things would be hard and we would miss everyone. But it is during the holidays, that quintessential time of family, that we really feel it the most.

A week or so ago, I was feeling especially lonely and left out because my family was all together in IL. When I thought about it and spoke to God about it, I realized how ridiculous I was being. Hadn’t God called me here? And shouldn’t I be savoring him and his will more than this life?

Then God brought to mind Phillipians 3:8, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” Now listen, I want to preface this next part by saying, “I LOVE MY FAMILY!!” They are great and I cherish the time I am around them…but, Christ is eternally worthy of all praise. And if it were not for him, I would be sunk. And though time away from them is hard, it is Christ who sustains all life and holds me together. So that is how I can say, “Jesus is more worthy than my family, but I still love them.”

The Elephant fountain decorated for Christmas

I am a gift person. A few people know that, one of whom being my husband. As it is finally December, it is officially the Christmas season, though we’ve had our Christmas tree up for over a week now. Nate told me a few days ago that he was going to do something different this year for my Christmas gift. Since he knows how much I love receiving a gift, he figured multiple surprise gifts from now until Christmas would be even better.

He was right.

A few days ago, he gave me my favorite Christmas movie, which we promptly watched that night. And today came the second gift. As I was going over some recipes for the week, he came up and said, “I want to give you an afternoon to do whatever you want with. I’ll watch Ayla, and you can go do whatever you want. How does that sound?”

At first, I admit, I was thinking small. “Maybe I could take a nap, or read a little bit, or run to the store for some bread.” But then he added, “Maybe you could go downtown, walk around and look at the stores, find a nice cafe and sit and have some hot choolate and write.”

“Whoa! That sounds AMAZING!” I thought to myself. “Why didn’t I think of that?” 

So I left. Well, showered, THEN left. And it was great. It was the first time I had gone out in this wonderful little city we live in by my lonesome, with no real purpose at all except to just enjoy myself. I found a great bookstore, some purple boots I want, the rest of Andrea’s Christmas present, and some black leggings I almost convinced myself to buy to fit in here.

But I found something more, something unexpected. I came home with more perspective and appreciation for my husband, my daughter, and our purpose in being here. This is a very unique time in our lives, our marriage, and our ministry. God has us here for a reason, here in this little town in France. And sometimes it takes a brisk walk and a few seconds outside of our normal schedule  to clear our head and allow God to realign us with Him, simply put.

The picture above is a scene from my walk, my gift from my husband. The picture below is my second favorite person in the world.

AJM