Week Three

Last night, Maridith and I were talking about how our language learning is progressing -- how there are areas that we need to work harder on but also how quickly we are learning. Then she said, “we have only been studying for THREE weeks!” and I couldn’t believe it. We came here with such little French, and God has surely done a great work (une œure) in our lives. We are enjoying the learning posses and we are gaining speed as we push on further in the French language. Please pray that God will increase our language learning capacity more and more each day, and that we will work harder as we pursue Christ in the task that he has put before us. 

What does a day look like for us? We get up about 7am… we spend time with the Lord and have an American breakfast of eggs, toast, and some ham or beef (we can’t find bacon here). Then, we are off to class. We have our first session at 8:30am. This is a general French class 

with grammar, verb conjugation, sentence structure, and vocabulary study. In my class we are studying basic verb usage (past, present, and future tenses) along with the French pronouns. It is quite exciting. Then from 11:20am until1:30pm, we have our two-hour French lunch-break. I go for a run as Maridith prepares a wonderful lunch. We have lunch together then do a bit of schoolwork before it is on to chapel. Chapel is everyday and is student-led. I gave a devotion last week and this week I will be playing my banjo during the music portion of chapel. All this is done in French and helps us to learn Biblical vocabulary. We then start our afternoon classes, which are oral and written expression as well as Biblical French. We are in our afternoon classes until 4 o’clock. We then take some time to process what we have learned and take care of any errands we may have. For supper, we often have friends over as we are getting to know the others that live here at the school. After supper, we do our assigned homework and then study what we have been learning. During this time we also practice our conversational French in the lab or with one of our French-speakin

g friends. It all makes for a really busy day, but we find time to relax on our free days.

We are getting to know the people that live here at the school. Last night there was a big cookout for all of the students who live on campus. I manned the grill and Maridith made some amazing mashed potatoes. We have many people from many different countries that live here in the dorms. It is a blessing to know so many wonderful people from all around the world. Most of the students here are in preparation for the mission field, mainly for Africa.  

         Maridith and I would like to thank all of you for your continued support during our time in France. It is with much humility that we receive so many blessings from the Father.