April in France

April is a beautiful time of year in France. My French friends tell me it is unseasonably warm and I am loving it! The flowers and trees are all blooming.  It is glorious to see once 'dead' landscape alive with growth and color.  It reminds me again and again what God has done for me, for us.  Taken a dead soul and given it life.  It is good to celebrate Easter now too!

I am determined to rest - rest in the Lord and have physical rest.  This is hard to do and I still find myself tired many days.  I have been allowed to continue on in my course and not repeat.  Repeating is not bad and is often necessary, but I just don't see it as all that helpful for where I am right now.  God has been gracious and I am starting to be able to use the things I have learned.  I am not quick. But that's okay.

Our last day of class with Catherine

Catherine

More change is here.  My class merged with the other B1 class because the school needed the place and the teachers to take a new class for those who needed to repeat the very first level here.  My class has about 15 in it now.  It makes it tough to speak very much in class.  But we have only had 2 days in the new class, so I will withhold judgement for now.  The plus is I have the teacher from the summer whom I really enjoyed.  I will miss Catherine.  She was an excellent teacher.

Our family has been sick every week since Christmas until this one.  Sickness has been rampant around the Center where we study. Several parents of students have died, 2 student's toddlers hospitalized, one student had gallstones and because she is pregnant was complicated, a classmate fell and broke both her arms, and right now a newborn of a week old is in the hospital awaiting a biopsy to confirm what is wrong with his colon.  Our school has only about 50 students and most of those are married couples.  If you know a missionary, pray for them!  They need it!  The health issues are just one of many for everyone who has left the familiar to go.  We are very thankful that our illnesses have been mild.

Not much new here but school.   Chris made this video for our home church Redeemer Presbyterian's talent show.  Click the link and enjoy.  I need to get back to studying!  Happy Easter.


Carnival- basically a dress-up day at school and a parade

Peintre and porc-épic 

 A fellow MK as papillion

Ben's teacher was a plonger (diver)

A view of the parade from Carnival at school

A view of the parade as the students marched through town

Kristin's teacher is on the left in Black with a red stripe.  She was a pompier for the festival.  She and another teacher are leading the some of the kids in singing.

Skyping with the Grants

Spring Braderie

This man uses a metal detector to find old coins in the area