Time flies!

Is it already almost March!?
WHAT? Where the heck did time go?!
Bon soir, mes amis!
Well, where do i start?
...Man, blogs are hard. I think i've been blankly staring at the computer screen for about 15 minutes trying to shuffle through my mind all that I've been doing this past month. I don't know where to start!


So i guess i'll just start talking about whatever comes most prominent to my mind...Bear with me!

Well, February 11th I went to an amazing Worship Concert at a beautiful Catholic Cathedral in Paris. (See pictures on the side). Tim Hughes was one of the main worship leaders along with a few other French and British artists. The whole youth group went along, so a team of about 9 youth (including me) and Francis and Tim got into 2 cars and drove two and half hours to Paris! By the time we arrived at Francis' old church to drop off all our stuff, we had only about 3 hours to spare before we needed to be at the concert waiting in line. So we headed for the nearest attraction to us....SHOPPING! But before you get all excited, we didn't have enough time to buy anything or really browse around :( WE DID, however, walk through this MASSIVE, CROWDED, LOUD and most popular shopping mall in Paris... it also happened to be underground. When you first turn the corner to get into this mall you think that you've reached a dead end. Then you will find yourself on a long escalator down into what feels like journeying towards the center of the Earth!! But instead you've got all these opens shops and a huge cinema! ..oh and for those Americans who like their coffee...Starbucks!!! (but of course there was a line out and AROUND the corner, so none for me!) Dommage! (Bummer!)
By the time we reached the concert it had fallen dark and FREEZING! It wasn't snowing anymore, but i couldn't feel my hands. We stood outside waiting for about an hour eating the picnics we brought and shaking from the cold. Once we got let inside it was still cold, but amazing. They transformed the stage of this church into a light show with a huge screen and musical instruments everywhere. Lives were transformed that night. We forgot about the beckoning cold and began to heat up with an amazing God worthy of praise and glory! We listened to a great message from a French pastor about living a life for the glory of the Lord and what it means to be a worshiper. The conference ended around 11 and a few of us (including myself) took one of the cars with Tim back to Lisieux that night, the others stayed the night at Francis' old church that he was going to be preaching at that next morning. Yeah, i was beat. But it was so worth it!


Since then, it has been two weeks of vacance (vacation), which was pretty self explanatory. Pretty relaxing, not too upbeat. Since the kids are out of school, mothers at Hauteville needed to have a place to go for the kids and didn't want to be bored so we let some of them take over the coffee. They took control! It was awesome! They really took it on as a responsibility and made a whole itinerary for the week of free activities for anyone to do upstairs during the winter vacation! I worked with the kids, helping with activities the 15th and 16th and it was so fun! Kids were everywhere! But they were the usual kids that came for activities every week before then. It was really nice because this time it seemed different than most activity Wednesdays. I really got to connect with some of these kids and teach some important lessons. I was looked up to. It felt really nice to be helpful and be a blessing to these kids that don't have the privilege to get out of their house all the time or don't have the perfect family situation. on the 15th i was in charge of making and decorating boxes that could be used to put money in or jewelry in for the girls and no body really wanted to do that... then i was in charge of making necklaces and bracelets and there came some kids and they helped me with my french. The next day i came back for the last day of activities we were offering and as soon as i walked into the room upstairs all the same kids from the day before shouted, "BONJOUR EDEN!"
To be honest, i wanted to cry. For some reason this warmed my heart so much. I felt like i was a teacher, someone they looked up to. I was helping Chris, a very lovely British woman from the church, create puppets with the kids. At first they were kind of shy to play puppets in the make-shift cardboard theatre, but after a few minutes of thinking up funny stories we spent about an hour listening to different stories about a king and his friend and a bear.
One of the little girls that was there that day really touched my heart. She and her sister were the only new kids in the group (or at least i didn't recognize them from before) but she was the most animated and excited to be there. She was constantly asking questions and showing me all the stuff she made making sure that i was always up to date on the newest thing she created. As i watched several of the kids tell their puppet stories she pulled up a chair next to me and grabbed my hand. Then she asked me to do a story with her and we contemplated a funny story about a golden king whose daughter was about to marry a boy that the king did not like, so the king sent out a bear to devour him. But in the end the bear and the boy become friends and the bear tells the King that the boy loves his daughter with all his heart and that he is worthy of her. Happy ending. Sharing that moment with that little girl melted my heart. She was SO excited to have someone be with her and spend time with her. At the end of the day, as we were packing up, she came to me and gave me a picture she created then she reached up and kissed me on the cheek and wrapped her arms around my waist and squeezed me saying, "thank you for playing with me!" Her picture is still on my fridge.


At that moment i began to think about my brother and sister, Camdyn (7) and Kincade (5), how i wished they were there with me. They would have loved to play with all these new kids and do these activities. I missed them terribly. Who knew that spending a few hours playing with a kid could make them so happy? That's all they want. The don't want to be preached at, they just want relationship and someone that will give them a few minutes of their attention to look at the drawings they made or play puppets with them or read them a story. I will never take a moment like this for granted again.


For vacance my host family went to England and i stayed in France and had a nice week to do just about whatever. I spent most of my time going to the park, reading, studying french. I used the lavomatique (laundromat) for the first time... i loved it!! It was a great excuse to get out of the house and i got to enjoy the company of a few older folks and talk about the sunny and beautiful day. Then a few days later i went to stay a night at another family's house and she took me with her daughters to visit Caen to do some shopping and to get out of the house. Not only did i buy 2 shirts from H&M for 20 euros (an amazing deal by the way!!), but we visited the castle of William the Conqueror. Of course i forgot my camera, but her daughter took plenty of pics, she'll email them to me soon hopefully :) We also went to a British inspired and owned tea shop/diner. I had amazing fish and chips and a few bites of cheesecake that was to die for! Oh how i do love France.


It's only almost been a month and i am learning so much about my life and my relationship with people and the Lord. I wouldn't trade this time in for anything in the world. I am truly blessed to be here, it has it's hard times, for sure, but when does life ever not have hard times? It's what you do in those hard times that really matter.
Alot has happened back at home too! Daddy with a job, family has got a new car, mom and her best friend, Angela, are coming to France for 2 weeks at the end of April to see me (!!!), my cousin is engaged to the love of her life, my amazing boyfriend is becoming youth pastor at his church today...couldn't be more blessed that not only am i being taken care of here in France, but my family and loved ones are being taken care of as well. :) God is good! Amennnn!!!


So today i write to you on the last day of vacance and i am about to make amazing spaghetti for dinner. I definitely need to go grocery shopping tomorrow though. Church was really great today, Francis talked about the first chapter of Jonah, i had the privilege to pick out the songs for worship as well! Tim, Robert and I played this afternoon and i am excited to get more acquainted with them musically because we seem to all work together very well! Trying some new dynamics to make glorifying God sound even better :)

In a quick sum up, things are going great! It's beginning to warm up a bit as well! Thank God! Not quite California weather, but i'll take whatever warmth i can get!




Have an amazing day! Thank you for keeping up with me everyone! Be blessed!
Love,
Eden Christine

New seasons cause for new rain!

Bonjour tout le monde! 
After my 2 month sabbatical back to the States, enjoying my family, the sunshine, old friends and new ones, retrieving my long awaited visa; i am now back in France! It's about minus 9 degrees celcius here and the first few little flakes of snow has fallen on my fourth day being here. This is the first sign of snow Normandy has had all winter! Last year it began pouring down snow in the beginning of November! It has been quite freezing here though, as you can tell! Anyways, the journey here was again peaceful and favored. Got onto all of my flights without a single thing going wrong, Thank you Jesus for your favor and provision! Was blessed with Business class for the flight to France, only 9 people were in there! 6 of which were flying for their first time across seas, 3 older couples, laughing and drinking and taking many pictures of themselves with their disposable cameras. Who says you can't have fun on flights?! I only wish to be like them when i grow older: travelling and enjoying it with good friends with lots of money ;)! But then again, who doesn't want that?


WELP! It's my fourth day in, mes amis (my friends), it's bitterly cold, but beautiful as ever! Did my first bits of work in the coffee shop on Friday afternoon and enjoyed the company of a few of the mothers from Hauteville (if you don't remember that's sort of the "projects" the cafe assocatif is planted) who were explaining to me how to make beaded rings. They were very patient with me and i made 2 rings, one with white and yellow and the other with black and green! :) 


I'm really buckling down this second time being here. Not saying that i didn't take anything seriously before, but it was an amazing time where I discovered a lot about myself and getting acquainted with how things work  around the church, getting acquainted with the families... Now i'm back and it honestly feels like i never left. It is a great feeling that i don't have to go through all those awkward stages of meeting everyone and can hit the ground running into the destiny i am heading towards! 

FYI: It gets a bit more deep from here on out. :) Just warning you so you're not like, "Woah, where'd that come from!?" 

But destinies come with their hard times... mostly due to jet lag and an over-pacing mind set (that i so despise!) i have been waking up every night (well, morning, if you would like to get technical), since arriving on the Feb. 1st, at 3 am with anxiety and a heavy heart. Fairly, everyone has come across these feelings in their lifetime and everyone has battles, but man would i just get panicked and think that my life is about to fall apart! 
cause i mean, following God doesn't come with any attacks or hard times right!?
AU CONTRAIRE!

As i was studying through the book, "Mirror Ball" by Matt Redman (for those who have a heart of worship, and even for those who don't, i encourage you to look into investing in this book, definitely wonderful words of wisdom for the deep places of worship), He quoted a passage by a man named Graham Tomlin saying, "...yes, Jesus promises [us] His rest, His provision, and many a blessing for those who seek first the Kingdom and righteousness... The more intensely we follow Jesus the more joy and laughter there will be, but likely the more tears and struggles also. Carrying  His name in this world is an awesome and enjoyable adventure, but one that will require much endurance and courage." 

There's the truth for you. For me. For the world.

Usually we say, "if you love something, fight for it." I love walking in complete surrender and my every action and move glorifying the God who created the universe, Alpha Centuari, the farthest galaxy that we've just recently discovered, and all of creation itself. And through that act of surrender we get blessed and get to give blessing to those around us, but the Devil doesn't want that of course. So he'll hit you right where it hurts, bring up past insecurities, try to tear you down from your foundation... but how can he do that when one is standing on the firmest rock that is known in heaven and Earth? He can't! It's simply just that! So instead of me sulking in my fear of being in a new place again, fearful of what the future may hold, fearful of the unknown... i counteract fear with declaration with the very thing God is... truth. As a very lovely woman in my life (my mother, if you didn't catch that right away) said, "Fear is just a lie, right? And your mind is convincing itself that it is truth, when you know in your heart it is, in fact, not. So how do you counteract this? Begin to declare and know the truth. Speak the exact opposite thoughts that are weighing heavy on your heart!" 

Speaking truth until your mind finally gets it, speaking truth so that your spirit is nourished and the mind succumbs to the spirit filled with the truth, by the time that happens you have no choice but to believe that fear is a lie and was a thief in your home. It will be a fight and will most likely get harder and more tiring, but once i fully grasp that God has given me the power to conquer the most tiniest form of fear, oppression, sickness, anything not from heaven...i can begin to walk it out in confidence. 

Wow, double reading this passage over, i quite realize that it's a bit of a heavy subject for having just arrived in France. But i hope this is also not just me externally processing (and perhaps being more vulnerable than i should be), but yet, touching the heart of someone who needs encouragement in the fact that just because you are following the Lord and are experiencing the very opposite (so it seems) that the Word declares... combat it with what the Word actually says... Nourish yourself in truth until you receive that breakthrough. And even then continue to declare and praise God, cause he has won all battles, has never set you up for failure, only for victory! 

Other than that, im enjoying being back in this country and i am really going to try to keep these blogs updated once a week. I am going to mark it down on my calendar, cause i forgot how much pleasure it gives me to share with the few lot of you that want to know what's going on 4,000 miles away. :) I appreciate you all so very much! Thank you for those who have been standing by me every step of the way, you know exactly who you are, and i cannot express how deep my heart and appreciation goes out to you! 

I'll be writing next Sunday, but until then!

Bon soir, mes amis!