Last Week in Lux!

Wow, it's hard to believe that 3 days from now I will leave my home for the past 3 months.  The last couple of weeks have been incredibly full with many meetings, projects, and planning, including the  XEE development.

Maryse gave me the materials back at church on Sunday, and we agreed to meet Tuesday afternoon before the meeting I had with EEI.  I used much of Monday evening to skim over her corrections in the 76-page handbook and read through the 29-page DVD script.  I'm so incredibly thankful for Maryse's help who volunteered her time completely to do this time-consuming work.  I thanked her with some European chocolates and a "Thank You" card.  When she followed suit and thanked me, I was wondering why; but I realised that she is truly appreciative to have someone who is working on bringing this evangelistic tool to France and the French people.  Moments that touch like that on a heart level make what I do worth all of the challenges that come along with it.

That afternoon's meeting I was able to ask for the English script as I wanted to compare the two.  As I began comparing the next day, I learned the hard truth: the French translation I received is missing 29 pages (half of its content)! What a setback! 😢  Yet, God is still on the throne and saw this as no surprise.  That said, this poses several dilemmas.  I'll spare you the details, but would you please pray for wisdom and strategy as how to best proceed?  

The more I compared the two translations, the more I realised there is more work to do in the revision process.  What started as me asking a few questions turned into over two hours with French friends Sara and Clara hashing out the nit-picky nuances and cliches to improve some of the translation.  I'm well-acquainted with the tedious, even taxing mental exercises translating requires and am super blessed that these two would give their time at the end of a long day to help the dialogue sound more suitable for French youth who will be using the materials.  

I was tempted to be discouraged that it gives even more work ahead since we only covered a portion of it, but I'm mostly thankful to have had a couple of hours with the closest thing to a team on the XEE project I've had so far.  

Please thank the Lord with me for all of these French women who have helped advance the XEE project.  Please continue to pray for guidance, provision, and protection over the process.  It might be a while before you hear from me again via the blog. :)

Another Step Forward!

printed XEE materials

I've been waiting to get these for a month now.  There were a few reasons for the holdup, including some miscommunication, but today was the day!  

A big thank you to all who have been praying for the French XEE materials.  It is a large project with many decisions and pieces.  It's quite challenging since I've never done this before and don't have a team to work with.  I've learned the value of teamwork through the ELT and am thankful to serve together in that role, but when it comes to the French XEE ministry, I'm a Lone Ranger and not by choice!  I'm encouraged, though, to have possibilities of others to help with the planning and incredibly grateful for the provision of Maryse, who will be revising the materials.  I'll hand them off to her Wednesday evening.  Would you please pray for her?  For protection, wisdom, accuracy and insight?  It would be wonderful to have these completed by the time I depart two weeks from today.

In the meantime, I'm corresponding with the Swiss team as well as EE International about the film portion and printing.  In particular, I have an important meeting next Tuesday with someone at EEI.  These are major decisions, and I ask for your prayers for each one.

I am sincerely thankful for the partnership of those who pray with and for me and the ministry here as well as those who have given financially or encouraging words along the way.  These really do make the difference.   Thank you!  Each step forward is worth celebrating: yay!  Thanks for rejoicing with me.

It's a Small World

We had a full table at the 8:15 prayer meeting this morning.  There are normally 5 of us, but this morning there were 12!  This is a blessing in itself because the additional people are volunteers, which is a huge answer to prayer.  (Thank you for praying and please keep them coming!)

It was on my heart to pray for the couple I've mentioned in previous blogs who run the ministry called Espoir et Vie in Alsace, so I prayed for them by name.  It was my only prayer this morning.  One of the visiting men sitting all the way across the table asked the name of the young woman in the red coat (me).  He asked about the couple I had prayed for and told me he is Jérémie's father!  We were all silent with surprise.  

"How do you know them?"  I explained how I'd met them in November the week after I'd left here.  He was visibly touched and encouraged to hear us praying for them, and I was full of thanks to the Holy Spirit for having prompted me to the same morning that his father was present without me even knowing it.  We all agreed what a small world it is!