Chi Alpha | macarons & paperbacks

Matt and I are blessed to be apart of a student ministry here in Grenoble called Remix. It’s similar to Chi Alpha (the student group we were apart of in the U.S.), but quite different at the same time because it’s in France. This past weekend we went on a leadership retreat about an hour away in Bourg d’Oisans where we began planning and discussing upcoming events. The most significant thing for me, however, was the time we took at the end of the retreat to encourage and pray for each other. It was moving and interesting because not everyone knows one another very well, but that didn’t keep us from lifting each other up.

During one of the women’s retreats I went to while I was in Chi Alpha we had a night of encouragement too, but there were around 25 of us total, so you can imagine the tear-fest we had!

While we were in Bourg d’Oisans we also got to PLAY IN THE SNOW! And there was tons of it. I’ve been skiing before but I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much snow in my life. We’ve been so excited for Solo to be able to play in the snow, because we were absolutely certain that he would love it. And we were right! He played for hours and hours outside by himself, and the best part was that since he couldn’t dig or play in the bushes, he didn’t get dirty. The snow would stick to him in little balls, though, but he would lick them off of himself!

I was all excited about taking pictures but after the first 60 or so I realized that I had somehow set my picture size to SMALL. Like 640×360 pixels small. I was really upset because I had taken some nice photos, but I took a lot more later to make up for it :)

Here are some of the best pictures from this weekend, both small and large (I only took pictures outside):

This is what it looked like before we played in the snow.

His bright blue eyes make this picture perfect!

Solo leading, like always. He actually wasn’t too fond of people riding the sled. When Matt and I went together he ran behind us and barked the whole way.

Me!

Matt after he made a bunch of snow fall of a tree--onto himself ;)

Matt after he made a bunch of snow fall off a tree–onto himself ;)

Herbal Essences Commercial?

Snow puppy!

This was Solo’s stash of firewood…

I love that you can see the curves of the mountains so perfectly!

Beautiful drive home :)

On Saturday night we went to Lyon to see Hillsong Paris in concert. It was an incredible experience and a much-needed worship night. We had originally planned on going to the city in the early afternoon since I have never visited Lyon before, but for various reasons we didn’t get there until about an hour and a half before the concert started. But we did visit La Part-Dieu, one of the biggest malls in France (and it was pretty big even by American standards). Lyon is the second biggest city in France, and on a rainy Saturday night EVERYONE was in that mall. We had just enough time to grab some “early” dinner (6pm is early here) and check out a few stores like the Apple and Disney stores.

The concert was in a smallish building but the Hillsong Lyon/Paris crew/members/team were all so welcoming! They had greeters at the entry and they offered free water, coffee, and tea.

Everyone entering into the worship area.

The church that was hosting the concert underestimated the amount of people who would come (by over 150!), so it was pretty crowded in the room, but I should say refreshingly crowded. I haven’t been to a concert in nearly two years, and it was an incredible experience to worship with a bunch of strangers all packed together in one room.

“Welcome home” We were RIGHT at the front!

During the concert they had the lyrics on screens (like they do at nearly every Worship concert), but they had the lyrics in both French and English and also had a translator there for when a couple of different pastors came up to speak (which was nice).

Pastor Brandon White (he from Australia or New Zealand…couldn’t figure out which).

But the BEST part of the night was probably the last three songs where I just let it all go. Everyone in the room was all sweaty–because you know…no AC in France–but we didn’t care! We were all jumping and I know I stepped on the toes of the person behind me at least 10 times because I have no balance. I kept thinking about the last SALT conference I went to (SALT is an annual conference for college students organized by Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship) when Kurt Harlow encouraged us to let it all go while we were worshiping. I don’t remember the exact words he said, but he told us you know when you’re really worshiping when you don’t care how bad you sound; that was definitely me Saturday night.

But in all sincerity, it was a very moving experience. This year has been a hard one for me, especially with worship because most of the time it’s in French, and even if I understand what is being sung, it doesn’t have the same meaning to me because it’s not in my native language. The Hillsong concert was in French, but I knew most of the songs and felt free to worship in English without disturbing others.

Overall I was very blessed to be able to go to the concert. They said they would most likely be back sometime in the beginning of next year and I really hope so! And next time I go to Lyon I will most definitely be stopping by the Starbucks!