Wait. Patience, Courtney. In MY Time!

Greetings from Marseille! (Pronounced Mar-say-yuh if you are from here!)

Katie, Del, and I are all settled in our apartments. All the furniture is built and it can start to feel like home! We’ve been filling our time with getting to know the area (and in my case, the good places to get coffee! You know it!), getting to know our team, and now, learning the language!

This past week the 3 of us started language school which made for an interesting experience. Our teacher is a wonderful woman and very helpful. She conducts most of our class in French, so after she asks us a question, often the three of us look at her with blank stares, then she repeats it a little slower, and we still look at her I’m sure with a big question mark over our heads, and then she has to explain it in English! This is a very funny order of things, but let me tell you, after following her questions for 4 hours of class, I leave with my head spinning!! Actually, today was probably the first day when I didn’t leave class a little frustrated. Praise the Lord!

Last week I was able to spend a little alone time in a park near by, Parc Borely, and then a little time down by the Beach! I’m telling you, there is something awe inspiring about coming over a bank of rocks to find a BLUE horizon, only broken by the occasional island composed of white limestone cliffs! The ocean is so clear and majestic here! I sat on this stone wall, writing in my journal as the waves crashed below me! Thank you Jesus for your majestic creation!!!

Here are a few things to lift up to our Father!

• Pray that we are able to pick up the language quickly and with out too much frustration…there is always a little when you are learning a new language in a new culture.
  
• That during language school, we would find some people around us who would be willing to help us practice, and that we would be able to build relationships with these people.
  
• That our Father would continue to help me depend on His ultimate timing. That I would remember that he has brought me here for a purpose and that in time, maybe not right away, he will reveal his path for me here in Marseille.

To thank the Father for!

• We survived our first week of language school! It was a lot of information in one week, but even now I feel that I can understand more than I did when I came! Hallelujah!
  
• Our team is getting along really well! Some teams need quite awhile to adjust to each other, and although we don’t know each other completely,
  
• The other night I was able to have a short, but understandable conversation with a man in a small sandwich shop near our house! Praise the Lord! He understood me! Those small victories are the ones that make me smile!
  
• Our team leaders just returned safely from a trip to Barcelona, Spain.

May God keep you and bless you as you continue in your walk with the Lord!