Sing, Choirs of Angels...

Finally, after being married for 164 days, a little over 5 months, we *finally* finished all of our thank you notes! HURRAH!!!! It’s just so embarrassing that it took this long, but now I feel so good that they’re finally done!! I’m not normally so desperately slow with these things. While it’s true that we were a little busy for a while right before and after the wedding (time in hospitals, time in Italy, painting, packing, moving, unpacking, more time in hospitals – the usual…), that’s still not really a good excuse. People were both kind and generous and that needed to be acknowledged. Now I’m just hoping that we didn’t forget anyone – we did keep a list, but mistakes do happen.

Seriously – such a good feeling.

We had a meeting on Sunday for our mission trip to France that our church asked me to lead, along with my friend Deb. I’m really excited about the opportunity, very cognizant of how much work and responsibility it is, and really praying that it all goes well! Our church helps to support a small church in Poitiers, France, and we’ll be going there to work on community outreach and service projects, as well as helping to support the church. In a country that is 31% atheist, and where the majority of Catholics (51% of French people identify as Catholic) say that they don’t believe in God, you can imagine that encouragement is something that the church doesn’t come by all that often. But it really says a lot about the commitment that these people have for their work and their community that they stay there and minister to the congregation there, when there are so many other places they could go to, where they would have a much easier time of just about everything.

Now, I love France, I think the French people are great, and I do understand the reasons why it’s such a resolutely secular country – and I think it’s important to have some understanding of all of those things, and the intense skepticism with which any kind of organized religion is regarded. So none of this should be taken in a “France sucks” way, because I really, really don’t think it does, I’ve loved every minute that I’ve been fortunate enough to spend there. (Well, except for a 6-hour layover in Charles de Gaulle Airport on my way to Vietnam. That pretty much sucked.)

But the main point here is that I’m really excited about this trip and the opportunity that it will provide for leadership, service, and all those important things – my life is, after all, about more than just me and what I want.