Le ménage

So in the past week, we have cleaned the bathrooms several times, done a lot of dishes, and set the table multiple times. I find myself sometimes questioning God on my purpose here. How am I being useful? How does this help bring His love to the people of France? Is this all I'm suppose to be doing? Then, slowly, I remember that even the small things matter. Being in ministry isn't always about ministering to people in a direct, face-to-face way. It can also be in a behind-the-scenes manner, in which I am ministering to them and serving them in Christ's love. They just might not know that it's me. I think cleaning the bathrooms can help one realize how much pride one still possesses. It's very humbling to clean the bathrooms, wash the dishes, etc. day in and day out as part of your ministry. It's not a bad thing by any means, and in fact I think everyone should experience it at some point. It's just a new lesson to learn.

I was reading in Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest, and found this: "Rise to the occasion; do the thing... May God not find the whine in us any more, but may He find us full of spiritual pluck and athleticism, ready to face anything He brings. We have to exercise ourselves so that the Son of God may be manifested in our mortal flesh. God never has museums. The only aim of life is that the Son of God may be manifested, and all dictation to God vanishes."

The line "God never has museums," can hit home I think with a lot of Christians, including myself. I'm not here in France to become known as a devout Christian who helped lead a revival in France. In fact, I'm not here to become known at all. I'm here to serve in whatever way He has opened for me. So maybe this summer, Amber and I are just here to clean the bathrooms and to improve our French. Maybe by doing these things, He is preparing us for some other ministry later on in our lives. Those are just what my thoughts have been recently. :-) And I just thought I would share.

Besides the cleaning, we did get to go to dance class again, which is always fun and tiring! We always got to go to the D-Day celebration that was held here in Merville-Franceville. There were veterans from the 9th battalion who came to the service. They were men who were paratroopers who parachuted in during the night of June 5, 1944 to take over/stop the German battery here in Merville-Franceville. This battery was defending Sword beach. If I can remember the story correctly, there were around 750 paratroopers who jumped out of the plane that night, but only about 150 survived the jump and were able to assemble together. The German general had flooded the area around the battery, and the paratroopers didn't know. So a lot of them landed in the marshes and drowned. The survivors, however, pulled together and neutralized the battery after a hard fight. (There's a chance that I got some of that information wrong, but that's the gist of the story.)

It was humbling to see these men who had fought in the war, and to be surrounded by the land that they fought on. It's one thing to learn about wars in a history book. It's quite another to see it's remnants, the environment that it destroyed at one point and the people who risked everything during it.

Please pray as this group of students finishes up their class. Please pray for them as they are going to visit D-Day sites and museums over the next few days. It can be a very emotional experience, but also one in which a lot can learned about war and about God's goodness and love in the midst of it.

Also pray for the students that will be arriving next week. Please pray for their safety in traveling, and that God would begin to prepare their hearts for their time here.

Pray that Amber and I don't seek God's reason, but more seek that He would transform and change us through our cleaning and serving here.

We love and miss you all!

Katie