Month: July 2022

Posted on

A Neat Encounter

Last week, amidst the busyness of preparing for exams I took a trip to go grocery shopping at a nearby store. I also planned to stop into a store near it called Action to pick up some home good stuff and little gifts for friends who are moving away. What felt like a typical, if not slightly inconvenient, trip ended with a really unique and neat encounter.

Typically I go grocery shopping on Monday nights with a friend who has a car, but this week she still had enough stuff from our trip the previous Monday and decided not to go. Feeling that it would be better to be well stocked going into exams I decided to bike with a trailer to go grocery shopping. This is not an uncommon option as we live pretty close to a couple different grocery stores, but still, the time and energy it takes to bike and then lug everything back is obviously more than simply going by car.

I went into the grocery store first and got my groceries. As I went to check out, I realized that the lines were abnormally busy for Monday evening. This was a mild annoyance, but I made it through fairly quickly. Once outside I went to the bike rack where my bike was locked up and unloaded all my groceries in the trailer. As I did so a young man rode up and hovered nearby next to his bike. Eventually I engaged in conversation with him to see why he was waiting to park his bike and discovered that he wanted me to move over a space so he could get his bike in more easily. I apologized for taking up too much space, unlocked my bike, moved it, then relocked it. As I did this and he locked his bike he began asking me different questions like where I was from and if I enjoyed the mountains. The interaction was friendly enough, but something about it made me a little uneasy. His final questions before he left were if the United States was big and then if it was dangerous. Again, nothing was particularly wrong, but I was left feeling just uneasy enough that after walking to put my cart away I decided to double back and move my bike to Action with me. This was definitely out of the norm and inconvenient as there is no bike rack there, but it made me feel better.

I locked my bike up in front of Action and went in to shop, leisurely traversing each isle (it’s my favorite store to walk around and has been a go to for finding cute little homey things for our apartment that are inexpensive). I ended up not finding everything I was looking for including some luggage straps and a suitcase that one of my friends had asked me to look for. In the final isle I called my friend to let her know that I couldn’t find the things she wanted. After checking out I walked out to my bike, unlocked it and began trying to figure out how to arrange everything in my bike trailer. Suddenly I noticed someone standing nearby me. When I looked up it was a young girl sheepishly grinning and looking antsy to say something to me. I greeted her and she quickly blurted out something in French. I asked her to repeat it more slowly and she told me that she was going to speak to me in English, but that there would be faults.

She then proceeded to explain to me that she had been trying to learn English over the last year or so because she loves the language. So when she heard me speaking on the phone to my friend in English she got very excited and wanted to introduce herself. As she spoke her mother came up next to us, also grinning. It turns out that they are from an Algerian family who now live in Albertville. The girl is 11 years old and is the youngest of three siblings, all of which have desired to know English and can speak it pretty well. Both the mother and the daughter were incredibly friendly, patient with my French and seemed very excited to meet me. As I talked to them I felt the Spirit prompting me to ask if they would have any interest in getting together sometime to help the girl with English and me with French. They were very excited by this idea and the mom quickly pulled out her phone so we could exchange numbers while telling me that they would love to get to know us and cook Algerian food for us sometime. We exchanged a couple of texts later that evening to ensure we had each other’s contact information. The mom relayed to me then that they had told their whole family about meeting me and were so excited to get together.

It was one of the coolest, most random interactions I’ve ever had. As I biked home that night I praised God for the connection. I then thought through all the events that led up to meeting this mom and daughter. So many things that were inconvenient, uncomfortable and out of the ordinary. If I had gone shopping with my friend by car we wouldn’t have even been at those stores. If the lines hadn’t been long at the grocery store or I had been able to find everything I needed quickly I might not have crossed paths with them or called my friend and spoken in English. If that young man hadn’t parked his bike next to me and asked me slightly strange questions or if I hadn’t moved my bike away from that spot as a result, I would not have been parked outside Action where they found me to introduce themselves.

So many little moments and decisions on a night where my mind was occupied by so many things, but certainly not by seeking out someone new to meet. It was a great reminder to me to be more aware of who’s around me and to pray for more interactions like this, while also recognizing that it’s God who provides for and ordains each moment of each day.

Please join me in praying for this family. May God allow us to connect and build a sweet relationship that is filled with gospel conversations about Jesus! I am so excited to see what He has in store!

– Selina

Posted on

Learning to Trust (Grammar Exam Mishap)

Throughout this second semester of language school I felt like the Lord impressed upon me that I needed to take a step back from language learning. Not to step out of school or halt learning by any means, but to step back mentally, emotionally and spiritually to evaluate if I was balancing things well.

During our first round of exams I really struggled with some identity issues and feelings that I was going to fail because that’s what I do and who I am: “I am not good enough and as such I should expect to fail”. As I write this now it feels so obvious that these were lies, but at the time they felt very real. Thankfully Adam is very perceptive and has grown very good at asking me questions to try and draw out my thoughts. When I voiced these things he was able to point me to the truth of who God is, who I am in Jesus and the fact that I was believing lies. I am so thankful for his patience and tender love towards me as I wrestled through these deep-seated identity issues.

Part of this wrestling involved going to the Lord with all of these thoughts and emotions. It was during times like these throughout this semester that I felt Him prompting me to turn some of my focus away from French and onto things like physical, mental and emotional health, as well as our kids. This was hard for me at first because it feels like we should just be fully invested in language learning since that’s why we’re living here. However, at any given time in our lives we are going to have things that are seemingly our top priority, but the reality is that there are other things that must take higher priority.

My walk with the Lord cannot be put to the side for the sake of studying longer. My marriage cannot be neglected so that I can achieve one more thing in French. Our kids, and the great gift and responsibility of parenting them, cannot be put on hold until we “make it” through language school. My mental and physical health cannot be forgotten because “there’s just no time”.

Obviously our lives ebb and flow, during certain seasons there are aspects of life that need special time and attention over others, but at all times I want to be checking in with the Lord about what HE intends for that season, not what I necessarily think is best. What He has shown me is that this semester some of my priorities needed to shift, and I needed to trust HIM for the outcome of my French studies.

I have been so thankful for this change of perspective, although I know I still have lots of room for growth in prioritizing well. Regardless, God has already allowed fruit in my French learning, my health, our marriage and our parenting as a result of this perspective shift. I have not felt as stressed about class, speaking French to people or even our most recent exams. God provided a workout program and a friend to help make physical health a higher priority. Adam and I have had regular, intentional times to connect about our marriage and go on dates. We also began working through a parenting study and more intentionally pouring into the kids, even if it seems “inconvenient” for our French studies. The list could go on, but a huge testament to this was when I was taking my big grammar exam this past Thursday.

The grammar exam is a thick packet of papers with tons of questions which must be completed in two and a half hours. Leading up to the exam I felt determined that I would study hard, but not at the expense of my health or parenting (for reference, after our first exams I got sick, felt terrible for nearly two weeks and had lingering effects for over a month). I am historically a procrastinator so late nights of cramming before a test is my typical method of studying. Last week I created a plan for how to study and prayed about it, feeling peace that this was the amount of effort and focus God wanted me to have. I studied according to my plan, but still spent intentional time with the kids between studying and made sure to get good sleep. When I sat down for the grammar exam I was well rested and felt prepared. As I began I was so excited at how well I felt it was going. Even as I encountered content that was harder or unfamiliar I did not feel stressed, but would pray and do my best to remember how to answer things.

Partway through I looked up and realized I only had half an hour left in the test. At that point I flipped ahead and also realized that I was not going nearly fast enough to finish the test. I raced through as much as I could, but ended up having to leave three or four sections completely blank. My heart sunk and I felt so discouraged. I went home and cried for awhile and told Adam all about what had happened. Familiar thoughts of what a failure I am crept in. “How could I lose track of time? I’ve been taking tests for years. This is so typical me. I’m going to fail. I should have expected this”. Again, Adam helped me voice those things early and walk through sorting out truth from lies. I brought it to the Lord and, though it goes against what I think I should be feeling, I have reached a point of peace. Not because I think it will be fine, I really don’t know that for sure, but because the Lord has been telling me this whole semester to trust HIM with French.

My verses this year are 2 Cornthians 12:9-10,

“Each time He said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

I wanted to wait to write about this until I had the results of our exams, to wait until I knew I had passed despite my mistake. But the Lord reminded me that the beauty in this is not that He allowed me to pass even though things didn’t go well, the beauty is that He is powerful when I am weak. His grace is sufficient at all times and in all things. I wanted the result of my trust in Him over this semester to be that I was able to easily pass the exams and speak French fluently after just six months (haha – that’s a joke), but His intentions were for me to continue to see my weaknesses and to revel all the more in His strength.

I pray that whatever season of life you are in, you know Jesus and the sweetness of depending on Him. The sweetness of facing weakness and hardship and seeing the immense power of Christ and His deep love for us, even when we don’t feel like we are “enough”. This week I will find out if I passed or not, but regardless, I give Him the glory and pray that I can take the next step of obedience for what He has in each season of my life.

– Selina

Thankfully Adam captured proof that I’ve been prioritizing proper sleep over too much studying 😀
Posted on

Bike Trip!

France is well known for its bike culture, especially for its world-renowned race, Le Tour de France. Unlike many French stereotypes which we’ve found don’t actually check out (think berets and black and white striped shirts), the French really do love biking! And about a month ago I had the opportunity to benefit from this love of biking!

About 30 miles from Albertville, there is a beautiful city called Annecy which is situated on the northern end of Lake Annecy. There is a nice bike bath that runs almost the entire way between Albertville and Annecy so two friends and I decided we would try and make the trip there and back.

We left on a Saturday morning around 8am and we had an absolutely gorgeous day for biking. There were hardly any clouds in the sky and the temperature was in the low 80s. The first twentyish miles went by rather smoothly so when we hit the southern tip of the lake, we decided to take a turn to the east so that we could do a lap around the lake which we knew would include some hills. The hills were quite tough, but the view on the top of the lake was gorgeous! Also, the next couple of miles coasting down the slope was amazing! We stopped in Annecy for lunch and ice cream (they are known for their ice cream) before heading back.

We ended up doing the ride in about 4.5 hours and it was a really fun experience, especially since it isn’t one that I expected to have before coming to France. While on the trail, we must have seen a couple hundred other bikers, most of which travelled in groups of 10 – 20. I will say that we definitely stood out as foreigners as we rode our mountain bikes and wore normal athletic clothes while pretty much everyone else was on road bikes and wearing full racing uniforms.

To add to this, in a just a few days, Le Tour de France will actually come through Albertville. The 11th stage of the race starts in Albertville and we plan to go down with the kids to check it out. Stay tuned for another blog post on this experience!

– Adam

See below for some pictures and videos of this trip.