11 weeks and counting

Things are starting to come to a close here. The reality that I am leaving Québec soon is starting to hit me. I looked at the calendar this week and realized that I will be leaving in exactly 11 weeks. In just a little over two months to the day, I will be in a car driving back to California. My heart breaks thinking about it.

Things are really coming to a close. I had my last Kids' Day event last Saturday, and I had my last English Conversation group last night. We had small gatherings for both events, but there were some encouraging things. Even though we only had 7-8 kids on Saturday, each of those kids is signed up for the camps this summer. I was thankful knowing I would see these kids again, but thankful that they are looking forward to the camps. They want to learn English! An though some of them will most likely have already heard the stories, they want to come anyway! The smiles on these kids faces from just one short three hour event, makes me feel encouraged about the weeks of camp to come. I pray that the Lord will touch each child and family that will be coming this summer.

We had a small group of four people come to the last English Conversation last night. But I was very glad to see that these people were regulars, or had been regulars a few months ago and came back for this last event. I will miss this group a lot. I made several friendships with the people in the groups and it has been a blessing to encourage them along in their English. Someone told me last night that I will be missed, but I know I will be missing them as well. I pray that the Lord will use the work I have done, and the testimonies I have given, to turn their hearts towards Him.

Even though some of my work here is done, I know that I still have a lot left to continue. I keep reminding myself that I still have two more months full of opportunities to serve Him here in Québec, and after that, my whole life to serve Him elsewhere. I do not know where the Lord will take me next, but until then, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:14) For I know that Christ is my end goal (Romans 10:4) and that by serving Him and others, I will reach that goal.

Fear and Faith and Love

I just recently finished a book called "Fear and Faith: Finding the peace your heart craves." by Trillia J. Newbell. A friend recommended it to me after I had shared with her my fears and worries about the future. It is a very good book, and I would recommend it to anyone struggling with daily fears.

The book is written for women and concentrates on many different types of fears we have. It talks about different fears such as fear  of man, the future, tragedy, not measuring up, etc, and with each topic the author brings stories from her experiences or other women's experiences. She points out several times that these stories are shared so that we know we are not alone in these struggles and that as we can see how God worked in their lives, we can be encouraged that God will work in our lives as well. The author brings each fear back to God and at the end of the book, she concentrates on the fear of the Lord. God wants us to fear Him, but not entirely in a terrifying fear, but a fear of respect and love. God wants us to bring to Him all our fears, to lay them at His feet. (Psalm 55:22, Matthew 11:28)

A recurring theme that keeps coming back to me is God's love. God's love is astounding (Romans 5:6-9) and He waits for us ever so patiently. We may have fears that come and go, or fears that stay for a long long time, but God is faithful to not leave us. We can be strong in facing our fears knowing that God has not forsaken us.

"But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end; 

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul,

'therefore I will hope in him.'"

Lamentations 3:21-24

I started re-reading a series a few weeks ago. It is a historical fiction series written by Francine Rivers call "The Mark of the Lion."(I highly recommend this series as well) It is set in the Roman Empire after the fall of Jerusalem. The story mostly follows a young woman who is a Christian Jew. She goes through many struggles and trials  physically and spiritually. At the beginning of the first book, she is weak in her faith and afraid of everything. But the only thing she really has to hold onto is her faith. And so we see her grow in her faith and by the end of the book, she overcomes her fears. The author points out that her fears are still there, that the temptation and memories of that fear are still there, but she no longer gives into them because she knows that God is with her. God has given her the strength to remain strong and fearless.  She sees where God has taken her and sees the steadfast love of the Lord. 

"What then shall we say to these things? if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died- more than that, who was raised- who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

As it is written,

'For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.'

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:31-39

How amazing is that!?!!! God promises to give us all we need. God promises to love us. God promises to be with us. We have been told again and again that nothing can come between God and the love He has for his bride, us the church. How truly wonderful and amazing is that!!!

So I just wanted to share with you this joy that I have been reminded of. I hope you have this same joy in your hearts. May you know that God is always with us and we have nothing to fear when God is on our side!

My Month of New Experiences

My month has been extremely busy. I have had something happening every weekend along with lots of work in between for the camps. Not only has this month been successful with work, but I have been seeing so many new things. The Lord has blessed me with new experiences almost every week this past month. 

At the beginning of this month, I got to go to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. I got to see Philadelphia, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and the beautiful countryside of PA and NJ. I got to go to New York City where I saw the Statue of Liberty, 9/11 Memorial, Times Square, The Met Museum, Carnegie Hall, Rockefeller Center, and Central Park. That week was indeed full of wonderful new sights for me to see, and I am sure I barely saw enough. But what made that week special wasn't all the sights, but the people I got to spend that time with.

The time I spent in PA and NJ was with some friends I had met last summer. I had only spent one week with these people, but had been able to connect with them last summer and connected again this month. I was truly blessed by their hospitality and how they encouraged me by showing how they lived their faith in their lives. I had a wonderful time with those dear people, I pray that the Lord will allow me to see them again soon. 

The rest of that week was spent in New York City with my family. My younger cousin was performing with her school choir at Carnegie Hall with other schools from around the country. So when she and my aunt where coming out with my grandparents for the performance, it was arranged so that I could meet them and spend the weekend with them. I had a wonderful time with them. It was great for me to see my extended family again. I was able to laugh freely again at old jokes my grandpa makes, to laugh and joke with my aunt about getting lost in the big city, to spend time with my cousin who is becoming a teenager and growing into a young woman. The whole week was a nice breather from the French language and it was great catching up with my family and a friend that I met up with there. 

The following weekend, I went to a Cabane à Sucre, or a Sugar Cabin where they make maple syrup. I went with my friend Edîth from my English Conversation group who had me over for Christmas this year. (I wrote about her here.) She invited me to go with her and her family and a few friends to this classic sugar cabin. It was truly a Québecois experience with a lunch of potatoes, baked beans, meat pie, sausage, ham, eggs, and crêpes with lots of syrup throughout it all! It was a nice warm day for it too. We watched a video on how the syrup was made, petted the animals at the farm, and had Tire d'Érable (It is a lot like a lollipop made of maple syrup). It was such a fun time and a blessing to spend with my dear friend and her family.

The following week, I went with some friends from Québec to Boston for a Christian conference. Technically we stayed in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, we didn't get to see much of Boston, though we did drive through it, twice. What struck me about this trip, was again the people. I met so many new and different people in less than 24 hours but I felt so welcomed. These people hosted us, fed us, and showed us their beach, which they have most likely seen enough of. Their Christian love was so warming, we laughed the night away with them and by the time we left, we had so offers for a place to stay the next time we come back. The Californian in me enjoyed watching the sunset over the water (don't ask me how that happened!) and I got my "beach fix" that will hold me over the next few months. I was greatly encouraged by the faith of these people and their promises to keep in touch and pray for me. I hope to make it back to Massachusetts, and not just so I can really see the city of Boston, but so that I can see these people again. 

The Lord has indeed blessed me with old friends and new friends here in Québec and now on the East Coast. Life is different for each person, especially when you live in big or small cities or in the mountains, but I have seen wonderful connections made because of our mutual connection in Christ. I am so thankful for His love for me and these people. I am so thankful for the people He has put into my life, to be with me at this moment in my life. I hope to never take friendships and relationships, old or new, for granted and that I will be always thanking Him for each one of them.

"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some,

 but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

Hebrews 10:24-25

Trust and Patience

Trust and patience have been a huge factor in my life recently. The questions of what I will do when I go back to California have already begun to come up. I still don't know what I will do, or even what I want to do. Trusting that God has a plan for me is a given. Albeit, that has been a theme in my life for several years and it has taken me several years of personal struggles to realize that and to truly believe it. But waiting for that plan to happen has never been a strong suit for me. I still struggle with patience and not knowing what will happen in the next year, or even next few months. But God showed me this weekend, through the testimony of a new friend, that God will take His time and our job is to rest confidently in Him and to be patient. God is faithful to us and will keep His promises to us.  I found a quote online that I will share, I don't know where it comes from though : "God has perfect timing; never early, never late. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of faith. But it's always worth it in the end." The testimony I heard confirmed that. She went through the last 10+ years trying to find the perfect job that she believed was God's will and plan for her: translation missionary ministries. She found a good translation job with the government, but never found the perfect job to serve in the mission field, until recently. But until she found that job, she was faithful to God and trusted Him and His will for her. Her testimony encouraged me to continue trusting God and trust His timing.

"A man's steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?" Proverbs 20:24

Again this weekend, God reminded me to trust Him in everything, especially when I am feeling overwhelmed. These last few weeks I have been feeling a little overwhelmed dealing with the problems that arise in organizing a huge camp this summer. My thoughts have been concentrated on finding a house or houses to accommodate our teams, finding a team for our teens camping trip, and also on my Kid's Day event. Yes, I had another Kid's Day last Saturday. I went in expecting to have around 15 kids total for the day, but ended up with 29! I had my moments of panic when I realized I didn't have enough papers for all the kids, when I didn't think our snack would be enough, and when the kids wouldn't sit still during the lesson or even during the craft time. I had to chase kids down from tables and bookshelves several times throughout the day. I had 17 kids in my younger class with only one other helper. There were times I didn't think we would make it. I just prayed so hard that God would get me through it and that no one would get hurt. Other than an incident where one kid was throwing crayons at another kid, no one got hurt. And guess what? God got me through the day!

Since then, I have heard more news about the housing situation for our teams. We still don't have a real confirmation yet, but it is looking hopeful with possibly another backup house in case the first one doesn't work. And even though looking for team members for the teenagers is still up and down, we have finally found a week that works for most of our teens. We still have several possibilities for team members, so things are hopeful and looking up. When I was sharing some of this with a friend today, I was reminded of a song from my childhood that seems to fit perfectly with this theme I keep struggling with. It goes something like this:

"God is bigger than the Boogie Man, He's bigger than Godzilla or the monsters on TV. Oh God is bigger than the Boogie Man and He's watching out for you and me!" Veggie Tales

Why yes, I did just quote a song sung by a cute little asparagus! But there is truth to this song! God is bigger than anything we can imagine. He is bigger than the monsters that are out in this world, but He is also bigger than the monsters in our hearts. He helps us overcome our fears of the future, our stresses over the little things in life, and He gives us strength to do it. Why does He do that? Because He loves us with an unimaginable love.

"For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

I will never be able to truly grasp the entirety of God's love for us, but I know that because of this love we have been saved through His Son Jesus. And through Jesus we can have a personal relationship with God, one where we learn to trust Him in everything. And we trust Him because we know He has a plan for us. We just need to wait patiently and trust in His faithfulness towards us.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you  a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord." Jeremiah 29:11-14a.

Languages

Last Sunday evening, my roommate invited me to her church's evening service. They were having a special speaker from Wycliffe Associates come and talk to them about his work in China and about the work to translate the Bible. I had the privilege of being invited to have dinner with him and another family from that church the following evening. It struck me how many languages there are out in the world that don't have a Bible or even a way of writing down their language. We take our language for granted, whereas this man is helping a people create their own alphabet/language and translate the Bible at the same time. I can understand how difficult that can be, but this man and his organization continue diligently to spread the Word. They know how important it  is to spread the gospel to all nations and all corners of the world and I can appreciate that.

The province of Quebec is considered one of the least reached areas of North America. The gospel has not been spread very successfully here and only 1% of the population here is considered to be Evangelical Christians. It can feel like a hostile place for Christians, but I know it is not as hostile as other places around the world. Some might consider it difficult to come here because of the language difference, but even our natural language (or mine at least) of English can help in some ways. It has helped me immensely that I have been able to learn the French language since coming here. But the fact that I speak English can sometimes draw people because they want to learn or practice the language. Sometimes one can share the gospel in English, but if you want to make a real connection with a person, speaking their native language can be such a blessing to you. I try to thank God every time someone gives me a compliment or comment about my French because I know I would not be here without Him. I am very thankful for how far He has brought me in this language and I hope and pray that I will not lose it. I am thankful for the lessons I am learning about language.

I will leave you with one prayer request, for my friend Edith Côté (pronounce like: coatay) and her family. I met her when I was just starting to learn French and we bonded over learning English and French. She helped me with my French and I helped her with her English, and she would come to my English Conversation events. We used to take the bus together before I moved to a different part of town. She has invited me to her house for dinner several times. I spent Christmas Dinner with her and her family, and just recently celebrated her son's 16th birthday with her and her family. I have tried talking with her about the gospel and a need for a savior. She seems open to hearing what I have to say and often agrees or says she likes those ideas, but something is still missing for her to fully commit. Please pray for me as I continue to try and minister to her and her family. Sometimes I lack the words or the courage to say something outright and I pray that God will equip me for it. I am very thankful for this friendship and this opportunity to minister to her.

Only God could have made two people from two different languages come together. God can make it become a ministry. Only God can change a person's heart. I pray that this relationship brings God the glory.

Thank you for your prayers.

A Visit From My Mother

My mother came for a visit last week. She came just at the right time, when we were having abnormally warm weather. With temperatures in the high 20's and 30's we had a great time taking advantage of the sights and warmer weather. My Mom was here for a brief week, but it was a full as well. We spent a whole day outside walking around the old city of Québec, we made a two day trip to Montreal, saw a hockey game, went snow-shoeing, saw a concert, went to the ice hotel, and went to the Winter Carnaval. We did and saw a lot. It was go go go for almost the entire week. But I enjoyed it.

Now that I look back on our time together, I am very thankful for the mother I have, for the mother God gave me. We have had our moments where we are either best friends or enemies, but throughout it all, she still loved me. She has been there to support me and to give me advice and correct me when I need it. I have missed her, even though I sometimes won't admit it.  Thank you Mom for coming to see me in Québec, I hope you enjoyed it. God has been very good to me here, and I hope you were able to see that as well. 

The Un-Glamorous Life

I have been having lots of people tell me how lucky I am to be living here in Québec, how they feel like I am seeing so many wonderful things, and how interesting it is to live in a different culture and language. There are a few perks about living in a different place and being able to see new things, but it's not all it's built up to be. When people tell me how exciting my life seems, they make it sound glamorous and thrilling. I'm here to tell you that it's really not that glamorous.

The cold weather has indeed officially begun. The days are at hand when you dread going outside and putting on four or more layers just to stay warm. Some days you want to just stay home and inside all day, but when that happens then you wish you went outside or somewhere because you missed being able to have any social aspect during the day. If I am already experiencing these days of dreading to go outside but feeling guilty for staying in, I am in trouble because it's only January and we are sure to have at least three more months of this! (That is if  this year will be anything like last year.) And that is just the weather.

Sometimes the work isn't that fun either. I am sure many of you know what I am talking about, that tedious work that one has to experience at least once in their life: paperwork and filing. My work in preparing for the English Camps this summer has already started and this year my work load is going to be higher. Last year I had to deal mostly with the teams that were coming. This year I am doing that again as well as organizing all the children's applications and registrations. So far I am just getting ready to receive registration forms which includes updating forms and our website. That isn't too bad, for the moment.

What's kind of fun and exciting is dealing with teams and team members right now. I am already juggling teams and trying to fill holes. This is kind of what the process has looked like so far: Send invitations to old teams to see who will come again. Wait. Three teams have said yes! Yes! Wait, only one team will be full. Wait. I have an interest from this church and that church and that group. One church changed their mind, one group wants to commit. I have three vague emails asking for more information. I have one small team, I put them with team 1. I have a larger group of two families, I put them with team 2. Wait. I think the smaller team would go better with the bigger team and the bigger group with the smaller team. Suggest a switch. Wait. No, won't work. Larger group of families might need to split up. Smaller team is staying with team 1 and teams 1 & 2 still need around 5 more people. Wait to hear from the two families. Still waiting. Haven't heard from other churches who showed interest. Still waiting. I sure hope team 3 has enough people.
Juggling. That's what this part of the job is.

Filing and paperwork has been added to my list of jobs to do. I recently received a gift from my pastor of two huge boxes full of "who knows what" from the MA's files of five years ago. So I got to work right away of first finding out what was inside. I found  lots of old lesson plans, extra song books, lots of loose-leaf notes, stickers, cards, information and lessons from older English Conversation activities (which will come in handy), and five years worth of old registration forms. First, I organize: English for Kids, Francofun, English Café/English Conversations, registrations, extra materials. Second, I sort: use again, keep for files, trash. Now I have the contents of those boxes in nice piles on the floor of my room which thankfully only takes up a corner, for now. Now the really fun part begins, which I am already dreading.

We used to have a document of all the contact information we had for all of the families that have come to English for Kids camps over the years. Sadly that information got lost when a computer was stolen last fall. Since we don't have a backup, that I am aware of, all that information has had to be put into a computer again. This time we do have backups. My dear friend Suzy, who was in charge of the kids registrations last year, was able to input all the information she had from registration forms over the last three years. She gave me that document and now I need to update and add to it with all the old forms I found. Thus begins my tiresome job of inputting information onto a computer document on Excel. And I barely even know how to work Excel, so this will be fun. Maybe one day I will let you know of the horror stories of sitting in front of a computer for hours while trying to make illegible writing legible and trying to understand it myself.

But I'm already getting tire from writing this post. So that will be all for now.I hope you enjoyed a small glimpse into the mundane work or a missionaries associate. I am praying that I don't burnout in front of the computer over the next few months and that I will get it done. Diligence is a difficult thing, but if you don't get it done now, it won't get done.

So I hope you have a good end to the month of January. And here's to all the office workers and secretaries I know, with God's help we can get it done!