Its Like Finishing a Book in a Series

Well this is the last post that will be up on this blog and I am super bummed about it. It is the morning of Tuesday which is about five days after I have returned to Montana. So I will be looking back a little over a week to tell you about my last days in France.

Monday last week my mom and I started off our morning with some amazing pastries (baignet chocolat) and the typical French coffee, Espressos. It was crazy because the night before I had found my favorite bakery that was in Chambéry in Tours. So naturally I told my mom that's where we were going to eat breakfast and get our sandwiches for lunch! Then we waited at the Tourism Office for our castle tour which left at 9 in the morning. The first castle we went to was Villandry which is a castle known for its gardens, seven different kinds. Only having an hour there, I suggested that we should just walk around outside in the gardens. My mom absolutely LOVED this castle. She kept on getting ideas to maybe put in a garden of her own someday. It was such a relaxing hour to just enjoy the beauty of the flowers, fountains, and vegetation. Next, we headed to a castle called Azay-le-Rideau which was a smaller one but surrounded by moats and a forrest to walk around. We went inside and my mom finally got to see what a castle looks like on the inside. A good thing was this castle was very unique so I didn't get bored walking around myself. Then we walked around outside for a little bit enjoying the perfect weather in the shade of the trees. This was my favorite thing was to just sit outside and look at the castle at all angles. After this we headed back to Tours and ate our AMAZING food. After lunch we headed to the next two castles called Chambord and Chenencou which was quite far away so we had to drive an hour to get there. But the cool thing is that we drove through Blois which was the city that I had stayed in four years ago with my French family. This was a great opportunity to just reminisce about the past and tell stories. At Chambord there were A TON of people, so fighting the crowds we walked around inside. Chambord is most famous for its double helix staircases which two people can walk on the staircase but never run into each other but still can see each other. My favorite part was being on the roof and looking out at the grounds. Mom really enjoyed learning some of the history of this "hunting get away" for the King. After this we had another hour drive to get to Chenencou which was probably my favorite castle of the day. It is the one that has the Cher River flowing through/underneath it, a lot more simple on the inside but has some beautiful subtleties. My favorite part was the staircase because the windows were open to the river and the sun hitting the river caused the staircase to shimmer and have a feeling of water. Here are a few photos of the day and the castles.

On Tuesday we headed to Paris early morning and arrived to our hostel at about 11. After dropping off our bags we walked to the Sacre Coeur which is a big white church on top of a hill in Paris. After a few photos and eating our Croque Monsieurs, we made our way to the artists area nearby. This is one of my favorite parts of Paris. I could spend hours looking at all the art and the artists sketching people's faces. After a few hours of looking and shopping we made our way back down the hill and to the metro.  We decided to go to the Louvre and the Notre Dame. My mom was amazed of how HUGE the Louvre was and once again I had the surreal feeling that I had four years ago. We walked along the Seine to the Notre Dame and made our way into the church. We sat down in silence and just had time to relax our feet and minds. We also decided that once you see a typical French church, you had seen them all! Which I agree for the most part (but thankfully I had the chance to see more than just French churches this summer). After all of this walking and touring around we decided it was time to make our way back to our hostel and just hang out sitting at the table along the sidewalk. My mom was tired and I was just ready to leave. This time Paris hadn't amazed me as much and more annoyed me than anything because I was comparing it to my time outside of the city. I had decided that this would be my last time to Paris unless I was with someone who had never gone before. Here are some photos.

So Wednesday, we left really early in the morning because I was anxious about leaving. I hadn't wanted to leave for the last week but now that it was the day that I HAD to go, I couldn't get out of there quick enough. Not because I missed the US but because I wanted to get on to my next adventure of this semester. I have been having a hard time putting this summer adventure to an end. This is why it has taken me so long to write this last post of the blog. I have been trying to figure out a way to sum up this summer but I can't get a clear idea. So I will just spill some thoughts out. First of all, I truly believe that this summer was supposed to happen the way it happened; that God had wrote this chapter of my life before I was even born. I am so thankful and just super joyful that I got this opportunity and it makes me so sure about my belief in my Lord because if God gives me such an amazing present as this summer, why wouldn't I want to be with Him and never leave His side. Another thing is that this summer I have grown and became more of the person that the Lord needs me to be in a spiritual, mental, personal, and intellectual sense. I have doubted my reasons of learning French in the past, but this summer I realized that if the only reason why God had me learn French is to just worship Him in French, then it was all worth it. I have learned that it doesn't matter where you live but the people who you LET to be involved in your life. It was confirmed that I am meant to live and travel abroad, a lot. I have learned that I have a hard time letting people (family and friends) take care of me. This is just a small (very small) hand full of things that I have learned this summer.

I just wanted to say thank you very much in following me this summer and encouraging me in all that I have done. I have enjoyed sharing my adventures and thoughts with you. I want to give a special thank you to my dad who has been very encouraging with writing this blog and has been faithful to reading it every time I post. I also just wanted to officially tell you all that my adventures will NEVER end and my next big one is coming up in January. It is official that I will be spending my last semester of college in Kodaikanal, India to student teach at the International Baccalaureate school there. So a new blog will be set up for when I am about to head off for that adventure. But I won't get ahead of myself because I have one more semester at the University of Montana which will be mostly focused on my campus ministries that I am involved with called Chi Alpha. If you ever want to just chat about my summer or my next adventure just let me know. I am officially back on the grid in the United States of America! I hope you all had a great summer and I wish that you all have a great Fall ahead. Thank you once again.

Mariah

One Last Hoorah!

Well once again it has been a full week since I last wrote my blog but it sure has been a crazy week! The beginning of the week I finished off my time at Le Rucher. Tuesday night there was a big, huge storm that came through. It did quite a bit of damage around the place such as break my window in my kitchen, tear off the roof of a storage shed, blew down the tops of trees and branches, and other things. So all day Wednesday was spent picking up after a storm of which my friend and I nicknamed Irene. We ended up taking 8 loads of branches/trees to the dump so you could imagine all the work that was put into that. But as a little reward and as a goodbye, Jeltje prepared a lovely French dinner called Raclette. It is with cheese (of course) and you melt the cheese on a special machine and then pour it over potatoes! Ah it was very delicious and the method of eating this meal was perfect to have great conversation. Then on Thursday around 6 pm I had to say to goodbye to all my lovely friends and now family at Le Rucher. This was very hard considering I enjoyed myself so much there and the team didn’t want me to go! Well they said that I must come back to them and I am praying that I will soon! I have been trying to put down in words what my experience has been at Le Rucher but I just haven’t been able to do it at this moment because I haven’t quite been able to fully comprehend what the last two and half weeks have been to me. All I know is that a lot of things were stirred up and it might be a while till it all settles again. Anyways here are a few photos of Le Rucher and storm “Irene”.

So on Thursday at 6 pm I started my long journey starting at Geneva Airport to Paris Airport by train not plane! I was very excited to pick up my mom on Friday morning. So I took a train to Chambéry and waited there for about 4 hours for the night train that left at midnight. This train was awesome! I got a bed in a cabin all to myself and slept the whole way (it was like a hotel on a train). I got to Paris by 6 in the morning. But Paris is crazy so I didn’t get to the Airport till 8 am. But I successfully met my mom at the airport with a big hug! Here is a photo of my sleeping quarters!

Now it is Friday and my mom and I caught a train to Caen which is in Normandy (northern-ish France). Getting there around two in the afternoon we discovered the beauty of this city. We went to the Men’s Abbey and the Chateau de Ducal. These buildings and a few others were created by William the Conqueror of which the only bone, the femur bone, is buried at the church in Caen. Also I learned that 80% of Caen was destroyed during World War II during Operation Overload so a lot of the buildings were repaired and somewhat new. Here are a few photos of the city.

Then on Saturday we caught the early train to Bayeux which is a small town close to Caen and this is where we were going to start our guided D-Day Tour. We walked into town because we had an hour to kill and saw a beautiful church and grabbed some breakfast at the local Boulangérie. Next thing I knew, we were in the car to begin the tour. First stop, the German Cemetery. First of all, all of the German soldiers who died in Normandy during the three months of battle after D-Day. The tombstones were very simple plaques in the ground and every ten or so graves there was a group of five crosses. All of the stone was a dark black slate which gave a feeling of seriousness to the whole graveyard. After this stop we headed to a village called Saint Maire Eglise. Here is where paratroopers took over the city to cut off an important road for the Germans. You could clearly see in this town how appreciative they are for the American Soldiers who had died here and the ones who had helped liberate them from the Germans. Next we headed to Utah Beach which was the easiest beach to take over during D-Day. American soldiers had to come in on rough sea waters and make their way through obstacles while Germans shooting at them. Sadly, many soldiers had not died from enemy fire but from the conditions of the grounds such as drowning in the Channel and swamps or crash-landing in gliders. After the visit to Utah beach we had lunch in a little port town eating croque-monsieurs and sharing lots of stories. We next went to the Point d’Hoc which is where rangers were supposed to destroy five BIG guns. They were successful but after they made a few mistakes and these mistakes costs them having to defend themselves against the soldiers on their own for three days. This was a group of 250 men who became 90 at the end of the three days. Then we made our way to the most difficult beach to take over that horrible day, Omaha Beach. Again, American soldiers faced the same obstacles but then had after the beach cliffs to come up against. Their mission was to take over the area by controlling the five roads leading to inland through the swamps. After quite a bit of photos and exploring, we drove to the American cemetery. Fun fact, the cemetery actually belongs to the US so I was in America for a few hours yesterday! The contrast between this cemetery and the German was quite different. About 40 % of the soldiers who died during the Normandy Battle were buried there and the other 60 %’s family decided to bring them back to the US. There were quite a bit of soldiers who are still MIA from this battle and these soldiers are listed on a wall. Most of these soldiers were on a boat that sank because of a German attack. It was quite an experience to see this cemetery and to morn for the soldiers who did not make it back home. This concluded our tour so we made it back to Caen, grabbed some food at the grocery store, went back to our hotel to eat, and then went to bed. Here are lots of photos from this never-forgetting day. (WOW, that was a long one!)

So today, Sunday, my mom and I caught a train to Tours which is a bit south of Normandy and located in the Loire Valley. We arrived here around noon and checked into our hotel. Shortly after we were on our way to discover the city. Our first stop was the big Cathédral of Tours which was, I’m not kidding, BIG but all the more beautiful. It was down in the inside because of how old it was but it definitely had its charm and mostly found in all of the stain glass windows. Then we made our way to the old city which consisted of amazing houses and parts of Charlemagne’s Basilica. The Basilica was destroyed during the renaissance except a tower, clock tower, and entrance. This Basilica was huge, probably a city block long and wide. But after it was destroyed, another church was made, the Church dedicated to Saint Martin because his tomb was found nearby. Then we caught the tour train and learned lots of more stuff about Tours. Around 6 we decided to take it easy the rest of the day by just relaxing at the hotel. Here are a few photos.

Tomorrow we are off to go on a tour to see four different castles! And then Tuesday we will be in Paris. Sorry for such a long post this time. I will probably write next when I get back to Montana because I only have two full days left in France and one day of travel back to Montana. AHHHH! I don’t want to leave France but I am super excited to get back home and start this next semester! I hope you all have a great week and I will be seeing some of you very, very soon.

Renewal of Mind, Body, and Soul

Well everyone, it has been a while. I feel like a lot has happened this last week but when I reflect on it, I realize everything that happened was mostly personal change in the ways that I think and view life. I am not even sure where I should start but like always, I will start from the beginning of this week. Monday morning the rest of the staff came back so Cathy and Kristine made Le Rucher complete. Also Kristine’s nephew, Vince, showed up so I now have someone my age around the complex. My week of work mainly consisted of painting jobs which were done outside in the heat so it was a very hard week when it came to work. With all this said, I had many opportunities to hang out with the people here and laugh really hard about everything! My afternoons were filled eating dinner with friends and having moments of quiet reading a book. A few times, I found myself staying up late playing games with Henk and Jannie. One afternoon I took a long bike ride to a town that is close by to Le Rucher called Divonne-les-Bains. In this town, there is a beautiful lake so I sat around the lake for a while and enjoyed people watching. This week there were a few dinners that were with everyone. At these, there was tons of laughter and joy. Thursday night, we celebrated Renee’s birthday and on Friday we had a goodbye dinner for Henk and Jannie. Here are a few photos from this week.

This weekend I got to hang out with Vince and Kristine a lot. Saturday we went on a hike up in the Jura mountains and got a beautiful view of the valley where Le Rucher and Geneva are with the Alps in the background. It was a very simple hour in and out hike. We ate our lunch French style at the top with the scenery in front of us. When I mean French style, we brought a baguette, cheeses, and fruit. Then we took a huge drive around the Jura mountains and went in and out of Switzerland all day while driving. We finished the day off with a BBQ of sausages, leftovers, and wine. On Sunday, we went to church again at the same English speaking church. Then I did something I had never done before, I went sailing. Kristine and Vince took me out on Le Rucher’s sailboat on the Geneva Lake. Man, it was absolutely gorgeous and I even got to drive the boat for about half the time! Here are a few photos of the weekend.

Now for the part of my week that meant so much but is hard to put into words. God has been speaking to me this week in ways that are old and new. He has done through the people that around me and I would like to share with you parts of what I have learned. The whole time that I have been at Le Rucher volunteering my time, I have felt like that I am not doing enough. With this said, everyone has been thanking me for all that I have done and telling me how much I am a blessing to them. It had quite thrown me off. Everyone here is treating me so well and has been loving on me in a huge way. I felt like I didn’t really deserve all of this because I felt like I hadn’t been doing much around the complex. Then I realized that this is how I felt with God some time. Then I started to understand the idea behind works-based faith a little bit more and how much God loves us no matter what we do. I am a hard worker in all aspects of life (which is a gift that God has given me) but how many times have a tried to earn God’s love and approval through what I do for Him? He just wants to tell me and everyone that we don’t have to earn anything from Him, it is all a present. Man, I have heard this so many times but these week the idea has become more solid and has entered my heart. This is one of the many things that God has revealed to me this week.

Well, I have been in France for 11 weeks and I will be back in Montana in ten days. I leave Le Rucher on Thursday afternoon and head to Paris to meet my mom at the airport Friday morning. Then my mom and I will be having some more adventures together! I am super excited for this as I have said before! I plan to write one more time before I meet up with my mom and then at the very end of my trip, right before I head back for MT. I can’t wait to share more stories about my trip when I get home and anyone is welcome to contact me to hear them if you would like. Love you all! Till the next time.

Le Rucher Mission Work

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is doing okay in the Missoula area. I heard about the fire in Frenchtown and I am praying that God will protect homes and families. I hear that it is really hot in Montana; I just want you to know that I feel your pain. It is so hot here everyday but it is much more humid than what I am used to. I have switched homes in France from the big city of Chambéry to the little village of Tutegny which is located near to the Swiss border by the Lake of Geneva (Lac Léman). I started this week with my missionary/volunteer work with Le Rucher Ministries. Le Rucher is a center for missionaries to come and debrief about their experiences that they had on the mission field. Le Rucher is also branched out all across the world being in Europe and Africa mostly to help other ministries in their community development. Once a month Le Rucher has a group of people who are going through the classes of debriefing and the other part of the month is consisted of traveling and focusing on the branches to other countries. The time that I am here for is set aside for the practical work around the “campus” which consists of a two buildings: one huge building that has 10+ bedrooms and a smaller house of which some of the staff lives in. There is also quite of bit of land that they have with lots of trees, grass, and bushes. Here are some pictures of Le Rucher and surrounding area.

The work that I have been doing for the last week contains of many different variety of jobs found inside and outside. I have pretty much deep cleaned the first floor and second floor of the main building which took a few days. I have been helping outside by tidying up the trees and bushes by sweeping the road, loading truck-fulls of branches, and some spring cleaning of the junk that gets collected after time. Now let me tell you about the people I am working with. Le Rucher has five staff members and this week there was only three out of the five here, a couple from Holland and a lady from Seattle. Then there is another couple from Holland who is volunteering also like me for two weeks. This couple, Hank and Janni, are just amazing! I love to joke around with them and play games at the end of the day with them. On Thursday, they took me out to dinner at a Pizzeria in a nearby town. We took our time with eating and greatly enjoyed our time with each other. Hank speaks English very well and Janni does not but this does not stop her mother like actions towards me. The love between this couple is great to see and I am honored to work beside them. Here is a few photos of them.

The other couple who is on staff are named Eric and Jeljte. They started Le Rucher 20 years ago and have been working as missionaries for 30+ years. On Friday night they cooked me a very beautiful and yummy dinner that lasted as long as a typical French dinner. We laughed and talked for 3 hours about anything and everything. They shared with me their advice towards my life, past, present and future. I have greatly learned from them and I enjoy seeing the missionary heart that God has given them. I don’t have a photo of them at the moment but next week I will. Renee, the other staff member, has been working at Le Rucher for 17 years now. On Saturday, she took me to a small medieval town called Yvoire that is along the other side of the lake. It is very funny because on the way there we crossed in and out of France and Switzerland many times. Renee treated me to a wonderful lunch and we walked around the town looking through the shops for a few hours. It was a great way to spend the day even though it was very hot. Here are a few photos from the town.

Today I got to go to church that has service in English. In this area there are many different nationalities so it was great to go to a church that had Americans, Africans, Europeans, and really from everywhere! I loved the sermon and I was once again amazed of how God is so Omnipresent! Its beautiful to see people of other nations worshipping the same Lord as I do. This week I have had a lot of reflection time and prayer time. The people around has shown me complete acceptance and full love in such a quick period of time. I get the chance to sit and read my Bible for a few hours! How lovely has that been. I am trying to learn what it means to be a true defender of myself and my brothers and sisters of Christ when it comes to Spiritual Attacks. I’ve never really been in war and continually fight so I have been doing so with situations in my own life and the sickness in one of the ladies here. Its quite amazing to learn more about the life of being a Christian. I have been blessed by my home church’s podcast of the sermons. It has given me the opportunity to keep on growing and to feel connected to my church and to a few friends who also go to church or listen to the podcasts also.

My brother’s birthday is on Tuesday so I am sad that I won’t get to be home and celebrate with him. But soon my mom will be flying to France to join me in adventure of traveling around Normandy and the Loire Valley. I can’t believe that I will be back in Montana in less than three weeks. Just thinking about it my heart leaps for joy but my stomach falls in sadness. I can not think about it at the moment and I don’t need to! Until next week! I love you all!!