Adios to France from le Griffiths

Gentry and I just came off a busy week of trips. First came a two day visit to Lyon to see Pam and Arlin Hendrix. Pam and Arlin have been missionaries in France for over 30 years I think and are old friends of my parents. Their house is practically a B&B. I took home a lot of ideas on how to be a good host. We ate really well while in Lyon. Pam and Arlin took us to this hospitality school that has a cooking school. Oo la la.

The picture below shows about 1/4 of the desserts that we were able to choose from. Did I mention it was all you can eat? They had about the same size cart for all you can eat cheese just before the dessert. Lyon is actually considered the food capital of France (maybe Europe, probably the world). 

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Another fun fact, Lyon is the silk capital of Europe, and we happened to be there during a silk festival. Below, Gentry is getting a lesson in the life of a silk worm.

We visited a couple Roman theaters in Lyon that were built in 15 BC. The bigger one could handle 10,000 people. They were pretty impressive.

Pamela and Arlin really were amazing hosts. Arlin made us a pancake breakfast that included a spread of 4 homemade jams. Pamela made us awesome lunch and dinner with desserts for each meal. They are great examples for us on how to love well on people. Very thankful for our time there.

From Lyon we got picked up by the Marseille team on their way to Germany for the Euro-American Family retreat in Rothenburg, Germany. It was about 9 hours in the van to the retreat.  

The retreat has been going on every year for 50 years. Its a time for missionaries in Europe to get together and encourage each other in their work. Right away we saw the 60-80 missionaries there really love getting together as a euro-american family living out Gods mission. It was really encouraging to be around and because everything was in English, I know Gentry was thankful to not need a translator for once. 

A lot of the conversations we had with people inevitably came to realizing some person we knew in common. The church bubble can be pretty small sometimes even when people are coming together from 28 different countries. We ran into Marie-Claire who used to work with my Parents in Toulouse and knew me when I was little. The guy leading worship is the father of a friend of mine which I didn't find out until day 3 of the conference. 

Rothenburg is preserved as a "most German of German towns" so I guess I have pretty much seen all that Germany has to offer with this one visit. 

We were invited (actually I think we invited ourselves) to sing at a local church in town. Built in the 1300s, it was huge and freezing. The mini concert was publicized a little in town in the weeks leading up to the conference so some locals came and heard some old school and new COC songs. 

After the big group (below) sang, 5 different small groups sang in 5 different languages. Dutch, German, Spanish, French, and Russian.

This is the group that came from Marseille. 

Waine is a veteran from the conference and I guess the designated walking tour guide leader. He lead us around the city walking in the fortifying wall and some areas around. 

Rothenburg is all about the tourists and so every little bakery that could, flaunted displays of Schneeballs (dessert pastry).

We left the conference, rode in the van for 12 hours, and as soon as we got to Marseille, Justin, Craig, and myself jumped in the car to head to our soccer game.  Before we got to Marseille, Gentry asked if we were still going to play. She asked because it was pouring rain and had been for a while.  The field is turf so the game was on.  We got there and played in the rain in late November. It was great! Our team actually won the game (first regular season win in my 6 months her).

The league the church is in is called "sport and faith", and I have really enjoyed it. It's pretty simple. Before the game, the two teams come together while one guy shares a quick story related to faith, we pray, and game on. The teams are usually made up of both church and non-church people and it has been a great tool for the churches mission. I'll be looking for an opportunity to join or start something like this wherever we end up. Maybe I can somehow include eating in there to get the trifecta. 

We are back in Marseille for two more weeks. Tonight is the young adults gathering at the Youngs. Tomorrow we are going back to the Youngs for a late Thanksgiving meal. Gentry is working hard with the kids to prepare them for the Comede Musical performance (Christmas play) that is Saturday the 13th.  Somewhere in there I'll keep closing tickets for Homecare Homebase and pack up our stuff. Hopefully it will fit in the luggages we came here with. Doubt it.

With celebrating Thanksgiving, seems fitting to mention what I have been most thankful for during our time here. Thinking back to my mindset coming in, its funny how little room I was leaving God to do anything. I knew we had an opportunity to be in France, encourage the church, and experience some new fun stuff together. That all sounds fine but I wasn't expecting some of the other things we were blessed to experience while here even though they really should have been at the top of my list. 

Gentry and I have gotten a lot closer and I've found out a new level of fun we can have together. That didn't come as much in our travels around Europe but was more from spending a LOT of time together in our apartment. In the end, she and I share the same humor (goofy) and in my opinion, its hilarious and great. 

***warning, deep religious life talk below***

I didn't expect to be so encouraged and pushed towards really looking at what it means to live life for God. Its been a prayer of mine for a long time that I can somehow get rid of all the noise of what different churches, people, media say a Christian should be like and that God really show me what he wants from me.  Its simple but its tough to apply. God is perfect, always loving, and created everything. He loved us first and offers a gift of a truly fulfilled life (not necessarily easy) on our way to being his child in Heaven. A gift I can't earn and do not deserve. Since he IS love, everything He asks of us is out of that love and for our good. If I believe He is there, and believe He is who He says He is, then I have to believe that He is worth living life for completely. Completely meaning I have to try and see the world like he does. That doesn't include working hard for a bigger house, more money for my family, or making sure I can live life with my friends. All it includes is loving on others and showing them God is worth our lives. Our time here has brought one, of hopefully many, steps towards better understanding that and making it for real in my day to day actions.  Still got a long ways to go.

Gentry and I have talked about the simplicity and blessing that comes with life here. So much of our time is spent doing things with the church and everything the church does is in line with what we've been asked by God to do as Christians. What will happen to our mindset when we go back to the states? Will we start to let things distract us from our purpose. We are praying hard for that to not happen and are making sure we are asking the right questions as we make decisions on jobs and where we are moving to. We'll take prayers from you on this if you don't mind :)

Well that was a little more then I intended to say but I will like to be able to look back on this in the future. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mike