Almost Forgot...

So officially I have missed my deadline for the blog considering it is 1:28 here in France, however, I figure that most of you who read this blog are in America, so is still Monday for you! :-) So here goes...

I did promise to tell you about the childrens english class. Myself and 2 other ladies on our team get the great opportunity to go to an elementary school in the area every tuesday night to teach an English class for 3-5 year old kids!! The class is an hour long after school from 4:30-5:30.

A little background info...School in France starts at the age of 3 for kids! And school doesn't end until approximately 4! I'm not sure what time it starts!

So we get these kids after a full day of school and right at snack time (French: goute).

During our class we do several activities, read books, color pictures, watch short films, play games, and sing songs...all in English. The kids are very quick and understand several things we say....now wether or not they choose to follow what they hear is another story :-D! One of their favorite songs is Head and Shoulders, Knees, and Toes! They really are very cute, however, think about these things we are up against...end of the day...energy to burn....listening to some lady speak English when they don't understand...that makes for a lot of reasons these kids should get distracted! Some days are very hard, while other days are relatively calm....Relatively! :-) Last week in our class we had Spiderman, a Three Muskateer, 5 princesses, a fairy, and few other unknowns!, they came to us after a festival at school where they all wore costumes! They were pretty cute!!

Pray that God would give my teammembers who are doing this with
me a chance to talk to some of the other moms. They are moms themselves and
this is a GREAT way to build relationships with some of the other moms.
For me, it just gives me a chance to hang with some kids for an hour and love them in jesus name! :-P

Pray that God would help us to be patient with these children, and that
even at such a young age, they would see the difference in us and then ask their
parents or us what that is!

Well times up! Next time I think try a little more of a spiritual update as far as our team and myself are concerned! Thanks for your faithfulness to pray.

And now for ... the Rest of the story!

...So I did this blog once...and then my computer erased it...so here I go again,

....and we talked about American TV shows and movies we have all seen. They told me that they wanted to come to America for a few months just so they could live in the life that they see in these shows. I had to explain to them that life isn't EXACTLY as Hollywood portrays it! Anyway, it is great talking with them. Our conversations are often slow as they have to correct me quite a bit. They definatly correct me A LOT more than I correct them. They are so patient with me and help form correct phrases or questions and then sit patiently while I repeat them 4 or 5 times! :-P

Language, man...its tough! We are still having class 4 days a week for 4 hours a day. 9-12:45....so its nice to get it over in the mornings and have the afternoons to get out in the community. There has not been a lack of confusion, frustration, or challenge in the learning of French. Its very difficult to learn a new language and a very humbling experience. However, we have fought through the rough days, and God has given us the ability to continue with the course. Monique is our wonderful tutor and has been very patient with us as we go through our rough days and laughed with us on the good days! She has been very nice to reapeat instructions or even single words 3-4 times to help us understand. We have 2 months of class left and then we will be finishing the language school part of our time with a 3 week intensive immerrsion program in Paris where we will be expected to speak ONLY French for those 3 weeks!

Please pray that God would give as a renewed vision for why we are here in
France. It is alot easier to stay positive about learning the language when you
remember the all important reason we are here...to tell people about his love
and salvation.

Please pray that God will give us patience as we fight
off the temptation to give up in times of frustration. Pray that God will give
us a drive to work and a good recollection of what we learn in our classtimes!

To come in 2 days: Spring time in Paris, the kids English class...and much much more!

The First of Several Posts!

First of all I want to thank you all for your encouraging comments and for your faithfulness to read and respond to my blog. Second, I want to apologize for allowing a month to pass before writing again!! I really don't have much of an excuse! I was talking to my mom the other day and I told her that now I just feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of information I would like to share with you guys...so she had GREAT suggestion. So make up for the last month of slacking...I am going to write every other day for 2 weeks. I'm gonna set the timer for 10 minutes and write about something...as soon as that time is up, I will stop and then continue two days later. So I encourage you to be checking my blog over the next 2 weeks as there will be many new posts!

So...here we go! Starting the timer....and GO!

Let me tell you, the past month has been very well..interesting here in marseille. As most of you know, our team in Marseille is a new one and so everything we do is an experiment of sorts. Sometimes we do things and they succeed, and other times we do things and find that there is no response. Two weeks ago we met to organize our information to start English clubs with the students in the area. Right now is a great time to start these conversational English classes as students are preparing for their oral english exams at the end of the term. We set up times for the meetings, someone made flyers, and set a date to go to the university. We went last wednesday to the campus and stood right outside the front gate near a bus stop with fliers and an information table. During our 4 hours of standing behind this table..we had one person stop by and take a flyer...the only person that signed up was this girl named Courtney Hail who had a peculiarly familiar email address! :-) Anyway, we ended up ending the day by placing some of our fliers around campus so that people might see them and sign up on our website.. I believe since that time we have had 1 or 2 people sign up for classes! Praise Jesus!!

Prayer: Please pray that we would be sensitive to Gods guidance as we try to
figure out how to use English clubs to reach out to the students here in
Marseille.

I have had the awesome opportunity to meet for the last few weeks with a girl "N" who has agreed to be my language partner! It is great to have conversation with someone who knows the culture some much better. Her family is not originally from France, but she has lived most of her life here. We usually meet for coffee or a coke at a cafe around the corner and just talk. We are only really supposed to meet for about an hour, but our last 2 talks have been 3 and 4 hours! Praise God! She speaks in English and I correct any mistakes I hear and I speak in French with her correcting my french. Last week her sister actually joined us and....


TIMES UP!!! more to come in 2 days! Love you all!

Note to Self!

Self, there are a few things that you should remember as you continue your time in France. They are as follows....


-Note: Only take one carry-on when boarding a European airplane.

-2nd note: People don't really like being hit up side the head with your guitar case

-Note: Notre dame de la Garde is only kind of cool the first time you go.

-2nd note: It is not any cooler the second time you go.

-Note: Don't make a lot of noise in our apartment cause then man below us....who has lived here for 60 years...said he would kill us!


-2nd note: I think he was joking!


-Note: Getting a bank account requires a minimum of 5 visits to the bank.

-Note: You will feel like an idiot sometimes as you are trying to speak your own language...a cross between French and English!

-Note: European cars....much like American cars....will continually die when starting in 3rd gear.

-2nd note: If you smell burning....let someone else try!

-Note: Young french girls WILL scream when a vehicle lurches in their direction.

-Note: The sticker found on the drip pan in your oven should be removed before turning on the oven because it will burn and release toxic fumes.

-2nd note: You should also remove the clear blue plastic film covering the pan.

-Note: That cat that you see running across the road in front of your door is not actually a cat, it is in fact a Rat!

-2nd note: Del does not think that Benny is a very good rat name.

-Note: Simply introduce yourself as "Courtney....like Courtney Cox!" And everyone will know how to say your name

-Note: Learn how to say "Leave me alone." in French, that way, if a drunk, homeless man ever picks you out of your whole group and grabs you around the shoulders from behind again...you know what to say!

-2nd note: I hear a punch is the international symbol for "Leave me alone"!

Pictures you say?

So, many of you have requested pictures...well, here they are. I had some complications with my computer, but everything is okay now and I can post them! Some are from my layover in frankfurt when I decided to take a walk around the city and the rest are from my adventures around Marseille! I'm posting quite a few so....Enjoy!

The city of Frankfurt

Modern Art (it was right next to some really old statues!)

The Frankfurt Opera house

An Organ Grinder (they exist)

A Bratwurst! (I mean, can you go to Germany and not eat one?)

My first night in Marseille, this is what my room looked like! A few days later this matress went into a bed.

Marseille Streets (During the mornings where will be an open air market on this stretch of sidewalk)

Castellane, This is the round point right by our house

Veiux Port (Old Port)

Look at the blue

Katie looking contemplative

Castellane

Parc Borley (People spend time with their families here in the evenings and weekends)

Kids playing in Parc Borley

Ladies and Gentleman....The Meditteranian!

Well its Katie Again!

La Prefecture at night

This was one night when we decided to go out and get some food...And ended up going to Buffalo Grille (sound America? it was!)

I'll post some more of our apartment at a later date so you can see actually where we live! I love you all and thankyou so much for your prayers!

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!

1st Report from Marseille

Hey ya'll!!!

See I'm living in France with a whole bunch of people from the SOUTH!!!! And they say ya'll when they're not speaking in French!:-P

So we're all here now! I've been in Marseille about a week now and I'm loving it! Its interesting walking around in a place where everyone is speaking a different language. But it is not so terribly different that I have experience any extreme culture shock, and I thank God for this. Katie and I have settled into our 5th floor, 2 room apartment. Most of our furniture was from Ikea and so all of it is now built. We have our clothes stored in the huge closet we both share, and we have spent several nights in our hoodies and sweats watching tv shows on DVD sitting on our almost comfy couch, that others might affectionatly call a fouton.

We both feel very blessed to have such a wonderful, clean place to live. It tends to be a little cold, but thats what happens when you try to save money by not turning on your heaters! haha

So far most of our time has been spent settling in. Starting tomorrow we will have language school at an American university in town from 8:00-12:45 in the morning. Then at night for the next week we will be having some language orientation and administrative training from some visiting directors.

Yesterday, Del, Katie, and I walked down through a commercial part of town where they have lots of stores, and then down to the old port. I have pictures that I would love to show you, however my computer is refusing to add any more pictures right now, so I'll have to add them later on this week. Basically there are hundreds of sailboats and old buildings that surround the port. Its cool to just walk around and explore our new home. Marseille is a big but old city. If I step out side my front door (which is right by the resteraunt that we live above) all I can see is buildings, but about a 40 minute walk away is the ocean and some very beautiful beaches! We haven't been to the crystal blue beaches yet, but hopefully soon.

Well I feel this post is a little scattered, but I hope it gives you a little glimps into what my life has been like this last week. When my computer is deciding to cooperate, I will post pictures to give you a better idea! I'll leave you with a few prayer requests.

• As we start school this next week, pray that we will pick up the language quickly and be able to effectively put it into practice soon.
• Pray that we all will be able to wait patiently on God's timing. As a group we have discussed that we all are having a hard time with the fact that our ministries as we see them cannot start immediatly because of language barriers. Pray that we will desire His perfect and holy will and surrender to Him our own desires, as Jesus prayed in Matthew 26:39 "Yet I want your will, not mine."
• Pray that even now, when we can't communicate very well with those around us, that God will be tearing down barriers. Pray that the strongholds of the "strongman" will be broken. (Matthew 12:29)

I hope you all are doing well this weekend! And i hope all of you will enjoy the Superbowl!haha We're not sure if we will be able to watch it, but don't email me with the winner, because we won't get to see it until monday, after you all have seen the game. I love you all! Enjoy your Sunday!

Courtney