Posted in conversation, friendship, happiness is, memories on Wednesday, 22 September, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Settled in for the evening I start to hang up my washing. Suddenly the phone rings and next thing I know, my friend and I are sitting chatting over cosmos in front of the fire!
These are the evenings I’ll miss, the stories I’m glad to live and enjoy and want to savour.
Posted in conversation, family, France/French, freedom, friendship, home, people on Sunday, 20 April, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Hmmm… Oh – I know! I loved this morning’s bowl of chocolat chaud with breakfast… yum!
This afternoon, I travelled away from Loches where the conference was to Tours to stay with Marc (Dutch) and Jody (American) the missionary couple I did my Bible College Placement with. it was sooooo good to walk into their home and feel immediately at home. I’ve been so excited at the prospect of being able to ask all my questions rather than being the one being asked and tonight was soooo good for that. We had such a great chat that made me feel freer and lighter than I had in weeks. The funny thing was, we talked about one of the very biggest things on my mind, without me even bringing it up!
Posted in church, conversation, France/French, music, people, travel, work on Friday, 18 April, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The French IFES’ movement (and my excuse to come to France) started this afternoon and I was launched into French conversation and singing French praise which was cool.
However, the best conversation of the day started in French and ended up in English…
I did a Bible College placement in Tours in 2005 and met Raphael and his wife at the church I was working with. Back then, he was doing a little volunteer work with the GBU (French IFES/CUs) and I got to hang out a little with him at a CU meeting he was at. So, because of his links, he was at the conference. The moment of recognition and welcome was really cool – he’s so fun and generally one of the nicest people I’ve encountered. But, anyway… we had a great conversation about life, discipleship, evangelism, France, God, faith… And he invited me to come lead worship at a conference in France in November! It was just SUCH an encouraging and inspiring conversation. Awesome.
Posted in conversation, work on Tuesday, 1 April, 2008| Leave a Comment »
I am grateful for a couple of hours this afternoon – first one in good conversation with a friend from my home church who’s a student in Magee and then secondly a chance to read and think. I find myself re-inspired and more ready for the last 5 weeks of term than I ever expected.
Posted in conversation, gospel, grace, Jesus, work on Thursday, 13 March, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Being someone who often needs a sounding board when trying to think things out, I had the pleasure of being a sounding board this avo! This particular verbal processor is great to hear from – she’s come a long way and is excited about going even further along the ‘journey’! I’ve loved seeing her confidence and enjoyment of the gospel grow and look forward to seeing more!
Posted in conversation, food, friendship, housemates, laughter on Monday, 10 March, 2008| Leave a Comment »
So, I scived my cardio kick exercise class. I have no good excuse except the girl I usually go with has asthma and wasn’t feeling great. So I scived! BUT… my housemate and I slobbed on the sofa (after some very tasty salmon, butternut squash and cous cous – surprisingly yummy!) and watched some Gilmore Girls. At 9.40 I announced we should go for a wee walk. And we DID! Except it ended up being a big walk, but it was sooo good and we chatted about lots of stuff and prayed and joked and laughed and it was great.
Hurray for long walks in the rain!
(and a great housemate)
Posted in church, conversation, people, random on Sunday, 9 March, 2008| Leave a Comment »
I really enjoyed church this morning. My church isn’t big or flashy, but its a managable wee community that I feel I can actually get to know. A no-nonsense chat with a lady I’d more or less just met about prayer and her son’s faith; some inspiring teaching from Acts; a chance to speak French with a real-life Marseillais; banter in the Martin Family Tour Bus…
A relaxed game of pool and impromptu fresh pancakes with some students, not to mention a random rant or two about life and love in general!
Posted in coffee, conversation, family on Thursday, 6 March, 2008| Leave a Comment »
A day full of coffee! I had lots of great conversation with several great people. But the biggest highlight was a proper chat with my dad. He listened to me and responded like I’m a grown-up and not just a little girl.
Posted in church, conversation, friendship, gospel, grace, people, The Unexpected, travel, work on Wednesday, 27 February, 2008| Leave a Comment »
A satisfyingly productive morning when a talk came together despite me thinking I had NOTHING to say!
SLOBS looked to be a difficult one, but again I was overwhelmed by the real sense that the Small Group Leaders are growing so much. I loved their engagement with Scripture, with each other and with me – what a blessing. I am reminded that its often in the struggle that we grow stronger.
A wee jaunt over to Derry to do an address at a ‘Lent’ service in a church – a chance to see some of the students there again and chat a little. One man’s comment about being glad to hear that ‘students aren’t all bad’ made the CU movement all the more fresh and exciting to me too.
I called a friend I haven’t spoken to in almost a year. It was easy – I just picked up the phone and did it! As the phone rang I was thinking that I feel like a different person since we last spoke. That made me nervous, but I discovered she’s been on a similar journey and that our friendship is still strong, still fresh and still organic! Praise God for friends like that. Praise God for growth in difficult times.
