Easter weekend
Monday, April 17, 2006 Easter weekend
After the retreat, I traveled on to Albertville, only 1 ½ hours from our retreat site. I figured it would a great time to visit my old church there and my friends from language school, over the long Easter weekend.
The weather on Friday was absolutely beautiful, 80˚ and not a cloud in site. The snow stays on the Alps until early June, so in April and May the contrast of snowy mountains and spring-green fields against an electric blue sky is breathtaking. I hope that heaven has snow-capped mountains. All the students at the school were doing their semester exams, so I drove up into the mountains by myself on Friday to read and journal about the retreat. The streams were overflowing as the snow melted from the warmth of the day, and there were waterfalls everywhere along the side of the road. I found a picnic table along the side of one rushing stream where I ate my lunch and worked on journaling for a while. It was so peaceful and relaxing. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures, because, honestly I would never have stopped. (And I have about 200 pictures of the Alps already.)
That reminds me of a French joke: When God was creating the world, He spent the majority of His time creating France. He wanted France to reflect the best of His creation, so He placed the vast mountains, rolling hills and lush river valleys just so. He added vines and orchards for fruit and then painted the countryside with flowers. He stood back and saw His handiwork and said, “Yes, France is the most beautiful of all my creation. But, everyone will want to live here, and how can this one small area support that? How can I discourage the whole world from moving to France and overcrowding my beautiful handiwork?” Then he created the Frenchmen. J
Back to Easter weekend. I had tried to contact a couple in the church to let them know I would be visiting, but they didn’t get the message for some reason. Therefore, when I walked in on Sunday morning, it was a surprise to the congregation. It was also a surprise to me, because two of my very good friends were visibly pregnant and no one had told me! I think they all thought someone else had. For some unknown reason, the church in Albertville doesn’t celebrate Easter and Christmas like we do in America. In fact, they hardly mention it. Last year, a visiting minister spoke on the death of Elijah (!?!) and this year, the ‘Easter’ message was about David’s fighting soldiers that supported the king. Like any number of things here in France, I think its weird! No one dresses up. There are no lilies or flowers of any kind up front. It kind of depresses me. I fight against this oddity by dressing up anyway and both last year and this one, I was invited to the home of another AG missionary couple studying at the language school. They had also invited two other AG couples that are new students at the school, so it was fun. We hid chocolate eggs around the house for all the kids, and the adults enjoyed a delicious feast, including good-old, American green bean casserole (my favorite!).
After the retreat, I traveled on to Albertville, only 1 ½ hours from our retreat site. I figured it would a great time to visit my old church there and my friends from language school, over the long Easter weekend.
The weather on Friday was absolutely beautiful, 80˚ and not a cloud in site. The snow stays on the Alps until early June, so in April and May the contrast of snowy mountains and spring-green fields against an electric blue sky is breathtaking. I hope that heaven has snow-capped mountains. All the students at the school were doing their semester exams, so I drove up into the mountains by myself on Friday to read and journal about the retreat. The streams were overflowing as the snow melted from the warmth of the day, and there were waterfalls everywhere along the side of the road. I found a picnic table along the side of one rushing stream where I ate my lunch and worked on journaling for a while. It was so peaceful and relaxing. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures, because, honestly I would never have stopped. (And I have about 200 pictures of the Alps already.)
That reminds me of a French joke: When God was creating the world, He spent the majority of His time creating France. He wanted France to reflect the best of His creation, so He placed the vast mountains, rolling hills and lush river valleys just so. He added vines and orchards for fruit and then painted the countryside with flowers. He stood back and saw His handiwork and said, “Yes, France is the most beautiful of all my creation. But, everyone will want to live here, and how can this one small area support that? How can I discourage the whole world from moving to France and overcrowding my beautiful handiwork?” Then he created the Frenchmen. J
Back to Easter weekend. I had tried to contact a couple in the church to let them know I would be visiting, but they didn’t get the message for some reason. Therefore, when I walked in on Sunday morning, it was a surprise to the congregation. It was also a surprise to me, because two of my very good friends were visibly pregnant and no one had told me! I think they all thought someone else had. For some unknown reason, the church in Albertville doesn’t celebrate Easter and Christmas like we do in America. In fact, they hardly mention it. Last year, a visiting minister spoke on the death of Elijah (!?!) and this year, the ‘Easter’ message was about David’s fighting soldiers that supported the king. Like any number of things here in France, I think its weird! No one dresses up. There are no lilies or flowers of any kind up front. It kind of depresses me. I fight against this oddity by dressing up anyway and both last year and this one, I was invited to the home of another AG missionary couple studying at the language school. They had also invited two other AG couples that are new students at the school, so it was fun. We hid chocolate eggs around the house for all the kids, and the adults enjoyed a delicious feast, including good-old, American green bean casserole (my favorite!).