I now have the Toussaint holidays. I am going home to the UK on Thursday, for 10 days.
I can’t wait!
I have lesson planning to do too, but it doesn’t worry me too much thankfully. It always gets done, somehow. Although of course, being with the family, I’ll probably get pretty distracted pretty easily.
Updates on the work front – I am still not sure about it. Teaching. I know that by continuing, I should learn a lot. And by continuing, I will be letting myself in on some kind of emotional roller-coaster; where some days are good, and some days are just really discouraging.
However, I neither want to give up, nor leave France right now. So the decision is, to keep at it until Christmas. Which means only another 7 ish weeks of teaching. And then I might never do it again. So, as my mum said, only a blip in my existence. Also, I can’t give up yet, I need the money! So I need a plan B job to fall into.
I don’t hate it though – this job. It can be good and really satisfying when lessons go well, and there are some of the smaller classes I would be happy to continue teaching until forever. It’s just the other classes which I can’t control – that’s when I just want to curl up in a ball and never teach again! Luckily too, my work colleagues are a great support. Which would make it harder to leave. For now, I’m going to keep at it. As they say, we regret more the things we didn’t do, than the things we did….
So, what have I been doing with my holidays so far?
#Day1
I went to a creperie with two friends in Lille’s Grande Place and ate some Breton crepes. *yum*
#Day 2
I went on a road-trip with 2 work colleagues, from Lille to Arras!
We stopped off at Lens, where we climbed a coal mountain. (Er, not sure what the technical term is there).
We stopped at Vimy, at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial site. If you get the chance to go – you should! The memorial there is pretty impressive.
We picnicked at ancient church ruins.
We also discovered the Wellington Quarry, memorial of the battle of Arras, 20 metres below the ground.
There is a lot of history to be learnt here – unfortunately my knowledge of battles and wars leaves a lot to be desired. Luckily one of my colleagues is Arrasois (?), and very passionate about history. Throughout the day, he was able to fill us in.
#Day3
Was a quite relaxed day. I did some personal Bible study for my Groupe de Croissance meeting. I met my German friend for said meeting, and we discussed the passage (this time a chapter from Ephesians) together. We’ve been reading and talking about the Holy Spirit a lot, and discussing what it means to live by the Spirit, and how to be filled up with the Spirit. The passage we discussed yesterday, was Ephesians 5:15 to 6:9, where we also read about submission. About how submission touches everyone – whether it’s women submitting to their husbands, children to their parents, or employees to their employers
We also talked about how the Spirit works in us. My friend told me about a friend of hers; a man who lives on little, yet when he prays, he gets answers. His hand reaches out for God. Yet whilst his one hand is waiting for God, his other hand is stretched out below Him, ready to transfer whatever it is he receives, to the next recipient.
Ralph Stallis writes that man is not a bottle – we are not made to keep the Holy Spirit for ourselves. But man, is like a pipe, or an electric cable, or a river. We are to be rivers constantly renewing our water: receiving the water which runs down from the mountain, and allowing the water to run ceaselessly down to the pit of the valley. It is by doing that, that we can be full of the Holy Spirit: if at every moment we receive the fullness of God, and then faithfully let God communicate through us to the world around us. We are a river and not a pond. A canal, not a bottle.
I then went to another evening which I go to every week at Le Feu (Foyer Evangelique Universitaire), where we eat together and study together. Recently, we’ve been studying 1 John. In 1 John, we’ve been talking about how God is light. He is light, he is faithful and he is just. We’ve been talking about how we are called also, to walk in the light. How by walking in the light, we can see our sin – the light reveals our sin.
We must not try to hide our sin, but we should be honest with God, and ourselves, admitting the sin and confessing the sin to God. God is light, and we are called to walk in the light.
Do you want to walk in the light? To go where your sin is unhidden, where you can be honest with yourself, and with God?
By walking in the light, you are on a journey of sanctification; of becoming more and more holy as you walk with God; becoming more and more Christ-like, and being in constant war with sin.
So, that’s what we’ve been studying recently – not that I understand it all! It’s just interesting, and it’s got me questioning my own walk. I’ll leave it there then, leave you with
Just another something to think about…
christinasribena 