One Month Here

(by Heather)

Somewhere in missionary training, we heard that it is common to experience a “honeymoon” phase of adjustment after moving to a new country.  Newness and excitement of discovery can be found around every corner… new friends to meet, new foods to try, new places to explore.  Even as a not-very-adventurous person, I’m right there in the honeymoon phase.   

We McCropders find much joy in many aspects of our new lives here at language school in France.  I could write on and on about these things, but I have beaucoup French vocabulary to study yet tonight, so I’ll just briefly mention three of the highlights of our first month in France.

Of course, togetherness with the team is a definite highlight.  The whole McCropder team together at last has made for great times here already.  We also really appreciate the greater language school community.  Our school teaches approximately 35 adults from several countries, and most of these students are headed towards French-speaking countries in Africa.  The camaraderie is a blessing. 

Another highlight:  The French classes themselves.  I absolutely love my class, my teachers, and even the French grammar lessons.  (Yes, I confess that it’s true that I do secretly love verb conjugations… and that my former career as a Spanish teacher has been a huge head-start with learning and enjoying French vocabulary and grammar.)  All of us, including team members who are not as enthusiastic about prepositional phrases and the like, are soaking up French and understanding a whole lot more each week.

And all of that while living in this beautiful place.  This afternoon while out for a run, I turned toward home and caught sight of a dazzling rainbow stretching over the Alps.  In this picture, our apartments/school are a few blocks ahead on the left.  Any of you who have attempted to photograph a rainbow with a cell phone camera will commiserate with the fact that no such photo can capture such beauty.

In the same way, my brief report here has not adequately described the goodness of God in answering many prayers for our team’s transitions to language school.  We feel tremendously blessed as we continue to settle in here, thankful for this phase of the journey towards Burundi.