{Re-blog: Line 13 Domination}

Last week my roommate Brittany and I decided to embark on an adventure which we have been planning for a while.

For some reason, we've always wanted to talk along our metro line.

We live on the very north end and have thought it would be great to walk along the streets above the underground metro all the way to the very end of the line- which is on the south side of Paris.

We set out on what turned out to be over 4 hours and 10 miles long but in the end we were triumphant!

Brittany documented the entire trip via photos and posted them on her blog which you can check out here.

Currently thankful for: adventurous roomies, sunshiney days and strong legs.

mgw

{Tours, FR}

After meeting in Bruxelles and returning to Paris afterwards, Jon and I decided to take another day excursion somewhere else. We've spent a lot of time in Paris, and it is always FANTASTIC, but we both wanted to try something new and go somewhere that neither of us has been. (Insert winy "I live in Paris and get tired of it sometimes" comment) We woke up before the crack of dawn and ventured down to Paris Montparnasse train station and took a train to Tours, France.

I've always wanted to travel to Tours. UA has a summer study-abroad program there and many of my French major friends participated in it so I've always had a little envy about the French country-side lifestyle.

We arrived at 8:30 in the morning (a little over an hour for a direct train ride from Paris) and set out to walking around the city. We ate breakfast in a park, explored the gardens of the Musée des Beaux Arts, visited the large cathedral in the center of the city and found a large stuffed elephant.

#typical #RTR

Flags along the Pont Wilson crossing the Loire River

Hotel de Ville (Town Hall)

I've heard through various avenues that you can rent bikes and go about the city for the day but when I started doing research I found this company that allows you to rent bikes for anywhere from a 1/2 day to lots of days to choose the length of your own excursion. They have bike locations in cities all along the Loire River valley and you can turn you bike back in at any of these locations. 

The Loire River stretches from the Atlantic Ocean through the central region of France. 

It's banks are dotted with chateaus and villages and little swimming holes. 

The trail we biked was mostly right along the river. It was an absolutely PERFECT day weather wise. 

We stopped and ate our lunch on a rocky beach next to the water's edge. It was like being in a dream!

Jon + bicycle on a plaza overlooking the river.

We decided we wanted to do a half-day (4 hours for 10Euros/bike) and bike to Amboise. Amboise is a town about 30km away from Tours and it's home to the chateau where Leonardo Da Vinci is buried.

This is a view of Amboise from a bridge crossing the river. We didn't actually go into the chateau because it was crazy expensive! We did, however, eat gelato and visited a museum in their town hall. 

We were super thankful for a sunny and warm day together... even if it meant sore muscles and extreme sunburn the next day.

Grâce à Dieu!

{Bruxelles}

I don't know anything about Belgium besides that they invented waffles, they brew beer, and that they love to eat fries. I feel like AP Euro taught me something about William of Orange but I'm not sure if that's Belgian or not...

Anyways, last week Jon and I decided to meet up in Brussels for the day. It was a 2 hour train ride from London for him and just over an hour on the train from Paris for me! We stored his luggage in the train station and set off on foot to explore the city for the day. We walked around the center of the city and then headed to the neighborhood of Saint Gilles to visit the Horta House. It's the former home of the famous architect and they open the home for 2 hours a day as a museum. It  was beautiful and old and elegant, but we weren't allowed to take any pictures. After visiting the Horta we walked around the city taking in all the Art Nouveau-style buildings and ended the day with moules frites!

Enjoying Belgian architecture in the center of the city

Le Musée de Bruxelles

Sitting on the ground in the Grand Place to try and fit all of the Hotel de Ville in one shot.

Loved this building! 

You can't see from my iPhone shot but all of the iron work around the windows is extremely detailed and really cool. This was an old tailor shop or department store that's been restored and now olds the Museum of Musical Instruments. Awesome.

Moules frites- Mussels and fries. Jon LOVED them.

 We ordered our mussels with escargot sauce (garlic butter) and cheese melted on top. 

I enjoyed eating a handful of the mussels but left the rest to Jon!

{Meredith in France in February, March, April and May}

Thank you for partnering with me in my ministry here in Paris! The last four months have been so so full and so so good! Some highlights:

I've attended an NGO-run knitting class with several women from our literacy class a couple of times. It's been fun to get out and participate in a class alongside them rather than as a teacher to them! They are always so proud to see us and show us off to the other ladies in the class!

I've continued meeting with L once a week to work on French. I've started having her read through simplified versions of bible stories in French in order to have her work on reading comprehension. Please prA that she would understand, would ask questions about what she is reading and that I would be able to speak in words that she understands in order to tell her about who JC really is!

The first term of classes ended in February with a crêpe day in class. All of the teachers prepared French crêpes and American crêpes (aka PANCAKES with maple syrup) and the women in the class brought varieties of North African crêpes. Of course we garnished them with jams, laughing cow cheese, nutella and whipped cream (the maple syrup surprisingly not popular). They were all eager to try our pancakes and it was fun to imagine what they would do in an IHOP...

March was by far the most hectic month of my time here as we had a constant string of visitors coming through. In addition to friends from the States and friends from around the world coming to visit us, we also had a team of 5 girls from my home fellowship in Birmingham come through to help us and see our life here. It was a busy and fun week as I was able to show them around the city and show them glimpses of the work we do here. All of the girls had the chance to sit in during literacy classes and the ladies in my class absolutely LOVED getting to meet my oldest and sweetest friend, Rachael. 

Writing the date out on my whiteboard for me. She has always had the best handwriting!

In April, my co-teacher and I decided to host several of our women at her house and to cook couscous for them. It was a pretty hilarious endeavor as couscous is difficult to make (the Moroccan way, that is!) Lamb meat boiled for hours, vegetables simmered and our heaping mound of couscous was steamed 3 different times! (that's right!) It ended up tasting pretty good if I do say so myself and the women we invited enjoyed sitting around for several hours talking. My co-teacher invited a Moroccan friend of hers who is like-minded to come share in lunch and to share with the women we had invited in Moroccan dialect-Arabic. It was sweet to watch her share her testimony of coming to know the Father with the ladies in their heart-language and touching to watch them respond. I am thankful that He is moving among this people group and that He has brought like-minded individuals into our lives here that we can connect them with the women that we are lifting up. 

 

Carrots and onions about to be throw in the pot to cook.

This plate is HUGE and it's for mixing up all the couscous and making sure it isn't stuck together between steaming times. 

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take many pictures of the women we had invited over, but I did snatch this shot of my co-teacher along with one of the women, H, while they were looking at pictures of my friend's children.

I also turned 23 at the beginning of April! I got to spend the day with Brittany, Ruth Ann and a few friends who were in town. We visited the Chateau at Versailles, ate Kit-Kats and danced through the gardens. It was a pretty magical day, but then again 23 is a magical number! (Think: Michael Jordan, Dr. Pepper flavors, House 23...)

This is me, newly 23, holding two free cups of Starbucks Vanilla Latte. That's a whopping total of 5 shots of espresso that I downed by myself within one hour. Maybe that's why my birthday was so magical...

Cultural note: there are two possible jobs for NA women who either do not have the correct immigration papers to legally live here or do not know enough French language to work. If they have the time to work, they usually either clean homes or nanny children throughout the day. 

This little guy has been coming to class for the past three weeks with one of the women in my class. She keeps him during the day while his family works, but she doesn't know his name! Or at least she tells us she doesn't... We've jokingly tried calling him every Arab boy name imaginable but have settled on calling him Charles de Gaulle. He is very young, very cute, and can be very disruptive in class! 

Fortunately, our classes meet in the building of a local fellowship and my class room is actually a children's SS room so there are MANY toys to keep him occupied!

Lots of other fun things have been going on as well! I went on a visit and ate couscous with a woman from my class and she made this dish at the end! It's called millawee and it's essentially fried layers of thin pastry bread. I ate it ALL the time when I studying abroad in Morocco and it's delicious covered in cheese or jam!

At the end of April, we hosted a "beauty day" for the ladies in our classes. We had been telling the story of Esther leading up to this day and thought it would be fun to actually do manicures and "pamper" them just like the Esther and the potential future Queens of Persia were pampered. I was in charge of assembling the ingredients for a manicure day and Brittany, Ruth Ann and I lead the ladies as they washed eachothers hands with scrubs and oils and trimmed their nails. We actually couldn't paint any nails because Mslm women are not supposed to have their nails painted when they do their prayers!

Here's my cheat sheet of French words for manicure-day! 

I found some great ideas for hand scrubs and essential oil treatments on Pintrest :)

One of the women I meet with weekly brought me a taqsheeta from her home in Mor. when she visited in March! This is what you wear when you go to a Moroccan wedding! It's really beautiful, but much too long for my short Wildes legs. I hope to have it altered so that I can bust it out for an actual wedding! Also, please ignore my awkward balcony posing!

I snapped a picture of this walking in a neighboring town a few days ago. It's an ad for a parent's meeting at a local school. The little bubbles around it have different questions that they will be addressing but what caught my attention is the top left hand corner question.

It reads "I don't know how to read, so how can I help my children with their homework." This is a question that many of us would never think about but is a pressing reality for many North Africans in my city! My heart hurts when I think about the deep isolation that many of my women and their neighbors face because they do not speak the language here. Please prA that the HS would break that isolation and that they would find the acceptance and communion that only the Father can give.

During the 2 week break at the end of April and beginning of May, Brittany, Ruth Ann and I took a 13 day trip through Morocco. We started in the North and travelled through many many cities all the way towards the South. It was an incredible and challenging o go back and visit the place I once called home. The Father was faithful to deliver us safely through and I learned so much about His sovereignty and provision. Stay tuned for another update on our trip!

Me, RA and B posing with two friends we made along the way!

Blessings!
ميريديث

{the good shepherd}

I don't do creative things.

In fact, one things I've resolved to do this year is to start making more things with my hands. To make food or crafts or forts, whatever as long as they're trying something knew and learning how to not depend on a recipe or step-by-step instructions for it. 

The longer I live overseas, the more I've come to learn that as spontaneous and adventure-loving as I am, I like having a plan. I always use a recipe when I cook, I always follow step-by-step instructions and I like efficiency. 

These are all things I've learned I have to sacrifice living overseas. Yes. Even in France. Things are not efficient here in any strict definition of the word. Sometimes you get cut in line by everybody at the metro ticket desk. Sometimes the bus doesn't show up or the bank is randomly closed with no explanation. Seriously, I'm surprised this country is still running. There is no clear-cut process or any idea of "efficiency" here. I'd expect that if I was living in Sub-saharan Africa. Not in France. Not in the country of the Tour-de-France and the Cannes Film Festival. 

So my need for instruction, for a plan, that's part of my identity. I could tell you the hundreds of little pieces of life that have formed me to be this way. I could tell you about forgetting to add an egg to a batch of brownies I made as a little girl and crying afterwards because they were ruined (my mother still hugged me and said they were delicious), about planning my own birthday party in 5th grade (and meticulously decorating my backyard and karaoke machine) and how I am a terrible wanderer when walking (I walk fast, always). There are loads of details and things that have made me come to realize that I like a plan. I like a recipe and clear direction and with those in mind I can experiment and have an adventure and build forts. 

I like a plan so much that I focus on the plan. My life and identity are built around the process and the plan and not the destination or yet, on the one who guides me through the plan. 

Listening to a talk that a friend of mine gave on John 10, she described how Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Instead of walking behind the flock of sheep, shepherds in this part of the world would walk ahead of the flock so that the sheep would follow behind. Each sheep knew his shepherd, and the shepherd would know his sheep. He would walk out in front to prepare the path for the flock following him. 

This is how Jesus is with us. 

He will never push you into a place where he has not gone before you and prepared a way through for you. He will not call you to a foreign land or to a new job and leave you deserted.

The fact that He has called me to do something does not make it easy, but it does make it significant. He loves us more than to give us an easy life. He wants us to have a full and abundant life. 

Moving overseas was not the end of obedience, it was the beginning for me. Accepting this job, moving overseas and buying a metro card was not the grand, final, super spiritual act of my life, but a step of obedience towards my leader. 

As believers, Jesus shows us that He is the Good Shepherd in how he stewards us and teaches us in our time with Him. It is as we learn who Jesus is, who our shepherd is, that we respond. We recognize the call of our leader and are compelled to respond. 

This is a beautiful image to think about. Christ knows us deeply and intimately. Nothing in his flock is hidden from him. He knows them and loves them the same. He knows that we are silly sheep and that we will wander away at times, but He loves from the front of time. He loved first and loves us still. 

We are Known. Understood and Delighted in by our Shepherd. It is after we grasp this identity that we have direction and are fulfilled in what we do. He has handed me an identity and in return He asks me to step forward.

Everyday.

In a land that is vastly inefficient.

And in a ministry that seems impossible most days.

This is the only plan we need. This is the direction that has been given to us for our good and for His glory.

So in a commemoration of this lesson and the hours of soul-searching this provoked, I made something with my hands.