We recently finished language school, woo hoo! We have been working on learning French for the past 18 months, and it has certainly involved an investment of lots of time and hard work. It has been a different season of our life, and we have learned quite a lot in addition to French. We are so thankful for God's grace in our lives during this time and every step of the way. Paul gives a good reminder of how we are able to succeed in these challenges of life in 1 Corinthians 15:10
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
The Lord has so clearly been working in each and every part of our journey with Him, and we are so thankful for His work in our lives.
June 30th was our graduation from language school. As part of the ceremony, we were asked to give a speech, in French of course. Here is a picture of Natasha and I during our speech, as well as us with our two professeurs during our time here, Verena and Ambroise. They were excellent instructors, and we are so thankful for their handwork and patience with us during the process.
Graduation typically marks the end of a phase in our lives and the beginning of another. That is certainly true for us. We will soon be moving from France to Togo. We have been working for a long time to prepare for working in Togo, and we will be there soon, in just two weeks! It's been harder than we thought to leave France. We have made a lot of friends here. There are other language students who have become close friends. Many of them will also be leaving soon to work in French speaking countries. We will also miss the faculty and staff at our school and our friends that we have made outside of school here.
In our current line of work there are frequent changes of scenery, opportunities to meet new people and lots of goodbyes. Goodbye's are often difficult, but we are thankful for the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people at each point along the way.
We recently had a couple of visitors. This is always such an encouragement to us. Our close friends Curtis and Carolyn flew in for our graduation. We were able to enjoy a few of the local sites with them, like a nearby city, Annecy and a hike in the mountains. The following week, we were able to take a little vacation in the south of France with Bryce's brother Derek and his family. We had a wonderful time with our friends/family and it was really hard to say goodbye!
We are currently working on one of our least favorite tasks, packing! We probably need to learn to embrace this task, because it's a regular part of our life. We will soon be sending our van from France to Togo, and then we will leave the 30th of July. We will arrive in Mango a few days later, the day before our 14th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe we have been preparing that long for this day. It also means our next news will be coming from Togo!
Praise/Prayer requests:
We were thankful to learn that our container arrived in Mango last week. This means we will have beds and household furnishings to outfit our house! We will spend the first few weeks getting everything situated before starting to work in the hospital.
Please pray for our family as we make the transition from France to Togo. There are still many unknowns, and this can be stressful. We also know that it's all in God's control, and He will continue to guide us each step of the way.
Our team:
There are currently several other surgeons and their families who are in the process of preparing to come to work in Mango. One of them, the Hubers, will be joining us for almost 1 year starting in October. Please pray for them as they prepare to make this trip with a newborn. Please also pray for the Paulicks and Chmils who are both finishing raising support and who hope to start language school in the next year.
