Chloe asked:
“What's an average day look like for your family right now? Have you guys discovered any great French food? Are you going to a French church or is there an English service you attend? What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? (Kidding, but really, I'm super curious about life-in-general for everyone. We miss y'all!)”
Let me answer the most important and pressing question
first. The air speed velocity of an
unladen European swallow is 11 meters per second (or 25 MPH). At least
according to this website. Couldn’t tell you about an African
swallow. And, I still cannot figure out
where they are getting all of these coconuts, but that is life.
Now to answer the rest of your questions.
Our Day
The nice thing about being in language school is that we
have a very predictable schedule. It is
a lot like being in high school again.
Except in high school I did not have a wife and 3 kids to care for. But our typical day looks like this:
0430: My alarm clock goes off.
0439: Reset my alarm clock for 5.
0500: Jen and I wake up and study/do homework (actually Jen
got up at 430).
0700: Kids wake up and the rush to school begins.
0710: I drag any remaining children from their bed.
0750: Try to walk out the door for school.
0805: Actually walk out the door.
0845: Kids have been dropped off and our French classes
commence.
0900-1615: Learn French in class (we have a nice lunch break
with the kids)
1630 to end of day: Get kids home, make dinner, eat, put
kids to bed, Jen and I have enough time to say hi and reset for the next day
and go to bed.
Lather-rinse-repeat.
We both really enjoy language school. Learning a new language is a hard, but a good,
challenge, and we are beginning to grasp French. For Hannah school is significantly harder. She is 100% immersed in French in class,
every day. She is in a local school and
they speak only French. This is hard for her but she is coping well.
We talk a lot about the resilience of kids, but I don’t know
if what we say is always true. People
like to say things like, “they’ll be fine kids bounce.” Yes, kids bounce, but
that is just because they are closer to the ground, and don’t have much of a
choice. When children go through
difficult things they hurt just as much (and sometimes worse because they do
not have the context and wisdom of age) as we adults do. To write off their pain as “Oh, kids are
resilient, kids bounce,” minimizes the reality of their difficulties and pains.
However, I do not believe my job as a parent is to keep
Hannah from the difficulty and pain of life.
It is my job to lovingly expose her to the pain of life, and walk with her in it. In this way my resiliency
will inform hers and teach her how to struggle well in pain. With rich humbling
pride I boast in the faithfulness of God to see Hannah struggle well and grow
in the midst of this time. She is not
the little baby we had in the States. She
is now a little girl. Funny how they
grow up like that. (Jen wouldn’t let me
keep her in the cryostasis chamber I got for her.)
The Food
I love the food here.
But, to be honest, we have yet to eat in a bonafide French
restaurant. This is partially because real
restaurants are not designed for three 0-5 year-old girls. Secondly, we have made the conscious decision
to do as much as a family as possible.
So nights off, and weekends off, we do things together.
That is not to say we have not had opportunity to see and
appreciation the French food. The
bakeries are amazing. We get fresh made
bread like every day; because that is what you do in France. The food here is treated with a high degree of
care and respect. There are
significantly less preservatives and food conditioners interfering with the
taste. As a result, we frequently have
to go to the butcher twice a week, the vegetable vender weekly and the baker
every other day. (I have lost 20 pounds
because of the freshness of the food (and the walking).)
The French love their food.
Food is not so much the infusion of carbs and proteins, to get you
through the day (like we have in the States), but an expression of life. We have had some opportunities to eat at
peoples’ houses. A good meal will take 5
hours or more. There are usually five
courses: aperitif, entrée (our appetizer or salad), main dish, cheese course,
and dessert. There is talking
throughout. This is a time to catch up,
philosophize, and express hospitality and friendship. This is all done through the care taken to
prepare, present, and partake in the meal (three point alliteration can you
tell I use to be a pastor?).
Our Church
We attend a local French speaking church. And by local, I literally mean 3 doors from
our front door. They are a lively
congregation. They understand that there are many missionaries in attendance,
who are at varying stages of French language learning. So about once every month or so they will
play one or two songs in English. Every
time I am blown away with how important the expressions of worship, through
music, is to my soul.
Nearly every time (English songs are played), I am trying to
sing and hold back an overwhelming flood of tears. I cannot tell you why I want to cry. However,
I can tell you what it feels like.
It feels like I have been lost in a really big crowd and I
am alone. I don’t know I am even lost or
even how scared I am. That is, until the
hand of my Father reaches down, with a firm security, and finds me. I feel His hand on my shoulder first. Instantly I know it is Him, because I
recognize His warm strong grasp. Then I
can look up into His eyes and feel free from the fear for the first time.
I experienced this feeling with greater intensity the first
time I sang a French song and understood the words. The song had meaning and depth and I again
felt His familiar hand. There was a big
difference between the French song and the English songs. The English songs were comforting as I looked
back. To experience the heart of worship,
in a French song, meant that I am not lost as I move forward. He is leading us well. I didn’t just foolishly move my family across
the world, to face the difficulties of multi-cultural life, because I was a fool-hearty
escapist. We did it because our heavenly
Father is lovingly leading us forward. In
that moment, as I sang in French, I felt Him lead me forward.
Forward is the spiritual lesson I am learning right
now. This year I am reading through the
Bible. I just finished the Torah (the
first five books of the Bible). I was
angry at the Israelites. At the first
sign of difficulty they looked back at the land of their abuse and imprisonment
and longed to return. God literally
brought the greatest nation to its knees, and moved heaven and earth to free
his people, and just 3 days after the awesome crossing of the Red Sea they are
complaining, doubting and questioning whether they will survive the
journey (Exodus 15:22-25). They beg pitifully to return to
the land of their slavery.
I get angry at the Israelites because they cry out with my
words. They say, “Wasn’t the slavery we
had before, better than what you have for us now?!” I was looking back. Over the past year, I was looking back to
what I left. I struggled to look to
where I was being led. God was faithful
and patient to me as I looked back over the Sea. He healed my heart and now a new joy is
germinating as we begin to look forward.
I am excited to see what will happen next as we learn French,
and prepare for Africa. I know great
things will happen as we enter the land God called us to. We go eagerly for His glory.
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