Back at Le Gault la Foret! Right now Im sitting with my window open listening to some distant accordion music and the chickens clucking and crowing next door. Nice. was. amazing. Kathleen and I drove down to the St. Paul base with Sabille on Wednesday then the two of us took the train to Nice the next day. Its very Italian-esque and warm and wonderful. The Mediterranean was sooo blue and the buildings were all red orange or yellow with green shutters. Very vibrant-It made me want to come home and paint everything. We stayed with our friend David and his family. His mom made this amazing meal- we are all sitting in their living room and she brings in this plate of this delicious something that looks like pizza but is more like a pastry with caramelized onions and other yummyness on top and little crackers with pepperoni. We sat there for a very long time and ate the food... after a while Kathleen asks me if I wanted another piece and I told her no because I was super full. She kind laughed and asked me what I was going to do about supper.

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So apparently I didnt realize that that was just the appetizer and the first of 3 courses + dessert. I was stuffed by the end but it was sooooooo soo good. We got to go put our feet in the water, visit the little chateaus, walk around the old city with icecream and socca, check out the little shops, go up mountains to see the most amazing views....mmm.... Nice is very nice indeed. We spent two nights there then I took a train back to Le Gault la Foret and Kathleen went to visit her friend in Switzerland. So I'm back here again and things are very quiet and peaceful. My friend Yuan from Summer of Service was here when I arrived so we ate lunch together today and had a really awesome talk over pizza and carrots. We tried to go to church this morning but the pastor is on holiday so there was no church in that building and we didn't know of any other places. I did some laundry, read my Bible, took a walk to just hang with Jesus for a while. It was really nice. This evening I rode along to the train station to pick up a staff member and another girl from Summer of Service thats volunteering at the camp next week then went to the base leaders' house for diner. A good day. I'm really enjoying the time to just think and pray about the past couple weeks and the weeks to come-but I'm definitely ready to come home. I was telling Yuan about my family and the Culture House and I realized once again how blessed I am... I wouldn't want to live anywhere else than where I live right now. My life is just really really amazing and beautiful and so orchestrated by God its crazy. Yes.

So I guess I will see you soon!!! LOVE WAVES VIA COMPUTER TO YOU!

Monday 4:21 PM

Summer of Service is over!!!! I wish I could have updated this earlier but we didn't have time to go into Antony. But now we have made it to the Gault de Foret and there's wireless here! Woohoo!!! The last week of camp went really well - my friend John from Uganda came back on Tuesday and we got to talk for a while again. It was really good. We danced quite a bit which was nice. One night it started raining pretty hard but we covered the speakers and kept going. Kathleen told her testimony and then we danced our duet and in the middle of the dance the rain stopped and there was a double rainbow right across the Eiffel Tower. THAT was amazing. I talked to some other people but mostly got smile nod smile "ok thanks" walk away. Oh well. But overall it was an amazing experience. It was very different from anything I've done before which was good I think. I've been learning a ton about myself and God and I'm glad I have this next week to sort through my thoughts. The Gault de Foret is beautiful. Its this little village with old stone houses surrounded by farms and forests. It's really really peaceful and lovely. I feel like there's more to say but I'm not sure what so ask questions! I can't wait to see you all soon!

Love from Hannah

Monday Morning

Friday Afternoon

Still alive and happy! Wednesday was Bastille Day. Alot of people went into Paris to see the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower but apparently its extremely crazy and hard to get back on the subways so I went with a group to this amazing park right across the street (there's a small castle there) and we sat and sang worship songs for a while on the grass. All the worship is really cool because some songs are in french, some are in english and a couple are english translated into french so there are people singing in each language at the same time. We got to see the beautiful fireworks in Antony up close and still were able to get a decent amount of sleep. It was great.

Thursday was the first day the teams went out. We went out to Trocadaro in the afternoon and stayed until 11 or so I believe. Its a building with an amazing view right across from the Eiffel Tower on a hill. So yea we get to dance etc. there. Pretty amazing I must say.

Still missing everyone. Alot. And wishing Christianne was here-we are praying!!! !!! !! ! But I am learning so much. Mainly about myself and God and how I see Him and what is really valuable to me. Some of it is rather tough - but its all good. Its very peaceful and laid back so one of the best parts is that I have time to process everything and figure out what's happening inside me.

Monday

Sitting in Macdonalds again! Awesome week. So I'm on the evangelism team- we are the ones that set up our spot in Trocadero and puts on a little show thats repeated thru the night. We are also supposed to talk to the people in the crowd- Its rather hard for me to just go up to random people and start talking to them (french doesn't make things any easier). We are also supposed to be praying the entire time for whats going on so most of the time thats what I do. Friday night I finally plucked up my courage and went to go talk to a lady that had been watching for a long time. I said hello in french and she said hello, I dont understand french. I was momentarily relieved and asked- "English?????" She told me no. Of course. I asked her where she was from and she said Morocco. I gave her a new testament in Arabic and she seemed happy to have it but we could hardly communicate so I really have no idea... Later that night I was waiting to go dance and there was this huge black guy standing next to me and of course I feel like Im supposed to talk to him. Really God? So i stood there awkwardly for several minutes and finally said, "Ca va.....?" He didn't understand. But he spoke english!!!!!! Yay!!!!! I cannot tell you how relieved I was that I didn't have to try to talk to him in french. I can understand I good amount when the person speaking is from the states or britain but when French is their native language it goes way over my head. Anyway I just started talking having a normal conversation with him and found out He was basically a refugee from Uganda. He was on his way to visit a friend in Rome. He asked me where I was from and why I was in Paris and so on and I just told Him I was here with this group to tell people about Jesus. He pulled out a Gospel of John that someone had given him the previous night and said, "Yea Jesus, I read this whole thing last night but I dont get why the Romans killed him." So we got into a conversation about that and actually talked for almost the whole evening after that. He hadn't read any of the Bible besides the book of John that He had read the previous night so I got to walk Him thru bits of the Old Testiment Law and the whole thing with the animal sacrifices and how Christ is the final sacrifice. It was really great because I didn't have to be fake about it like I had expected. We talked about alot of different things and then Kathleen and I prayed for him and he asked if there was a church he could go to. We brought him to some of the people in charge and she said she would pick him up and bring him with her on sunday. So I dont really know what happened but it was awesome.

Saturday was rather funny. There were 3 ladies taking picures of each other in front of the eiffel tower so I offered to take one of all of them. One spoke some english, they asked me what I was doing here so I told them I was here telling people about Jesus. They were visiting from Iran. One lady asked me how old I was - when I told her she asked if I had a boyfriend because I was very nice and would be good for her son. I told her I wasn't planning on dating for a few more years. They were like, "ok, ok you are very nice thank you." And went on their way. They stopped by later however to make sure I didn't want to be introduced to her son. It was very flattering... and hilarious. (I did say no, just incase you were unsure)

Sunday we went to Hillsong church- It was amazing. It was french/english so I totally understood everything. yes! Then we went to Versailles. I dont even know what to say about that. I will have to post my 300+ pictures and videos and let them speak for me.

After the event is over we will maybe go and stay at some other YWAM bases and do more sightseeing. We also have a friend in Paris we might stay with for a couple days and see more of the city.

So things are going well! Love you lots and lots and lots!!!!

Paris!!! (well technically Antony but thats just as exciting right now!)

Paris Tuesday 1:30

I dont have any wireless here so I will type this up and post it later. Safe in France! Flights all went well-descending into Paris was amazing- it was super cloudy so the plane would fly thru a giant cloud and then burst out into the sunrise. there were literally canyons made out of clouds. It felt like being deep under water and out in space among the nebulas. It was totally like in fantasia 2000 with the whales... yea.

I had a hard time figuring out how to take the RER tho - they have these little machines that you have to buy the tickets at but I didn't have any euro change just bills and they dont take bills. But eventually I got on and got to see all the happy little stops- it seems like most of the buildings have one wall totally graffitied but they still look like they came strait out of a story book. Kathleen was waiting for me when I arrived and we went to the teaching on evangelism. But you know whats really cool is EVERYONE HERE SPEAKS FRENCH!!!! crazy right? It is actually really exciting to hear it all the time. Sadly I can only make out a couple words when they talk so fast so I still have to rely completely on the translator during the teaching. After the teaching we went to eat lunch. YWAM isn't the only group here so there were a ton of people. They gave us alot of food-some was a little interesting but the desert was amazing. Then I went and got checked in and now we have some time to chill before the teaching this afternoon. It definately feels later than 1:30. Im going to try to not take a nap and just go to sleep early and get on track with paris time.

Wednesday afternoon

Found out last night that I am on the evangelism team with Kathleen. We will be at the Eiffel Tower starting tomorrow. All the teams meet there for the Open Airs in the evening but we go early to set up and we perform dances and mimes and such and then talk to all the people there. Im excited to go into the city. Kathleen and I will be doing a duet for sure, I might do a solo and Kathleen might choreograph a group dance for next week. We are talking about going to Versailles on Monday :D

Today I am quite homesick for my family and friends and I'm missing Children of Eden too :( But it is amazing here

Theres people from all over France, the States, Europe- its very cool.

Now Im sitting in Antony at the Macdonalds with Kathleen. It looks more like a super trendy Starbucks than a fast food joint. I wish I could email every day but thats definitely not going to happen since we have to walk into town.

I realize that this is completely unorganized and probably hard to follow but hopefully that gives you an idea of whats going on. hopefully I can get some pictures up soon! Thank you for your support and prayers!!!!!

Love Love Love Hannah

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