A week-ish in...

You would think that after a week we would be settled in to our new lives. Fact is, everything in France takes twice as long! After 6 days, Beth, Chelsea and I have officially moved into our apartment, but we have not had time to unpack. Living out of a suite case is annoying, and I am very ready to unpack and finish setting up the apartment!

I have had time to get some groceries, each purchase including some chocolate!

It is my addiction. Dark is best.

We also spent a lot of time spent a lot of time at IKEA - like 7 hours. What the moses? We did get a lot done, but I was wiped outtt....

This past Sunday, we finally made it to Paris! We hit up all the major tourist sites:

As a team, we are currently in Belgium for vision casting, team bonding and strategizing the next year. I am excited for all that we get to be apart of in the operations aspect! We have office orientation next week, which includes meeting national directors, national day of prayer for CCC staff, and job placement [which I am most excited for because I will finally know what I am doing!]

This coming Saturday, we are going back to Paris for a bike auction! Not sure what to expect about this specific event, but I love to negotiate! I am very excited about buying a bike for various reasons: because everyone, EVERYONE, rides bikes, its a great means for transportation, and I personally have not owned a bike since about 10th grade - long story short: it fell off our car on a trip, and I haven't bought another since.

Some prayer request:

- Continued team bonding - they are all great! [and I don't have to say that because they follow this blog :) ]

- Time in the word

- Maintaining an eternal perspective while here on STINT

Love you all!

Hannah

p.s. If you'd like to be added to my email list, just leave a comment with your info!

p.s.s. All photos are taken by me :)

Welcome to France

Phew... it has been a crazy 2 days....

Because I am still very tired and still plagued with jetleg, I will list off the various events that have taken place since arriving to France:

Arrival, luggage, waiting 2 hours to be picked up, lots of driving around, seeing our new apartment!, my first croissant and crepe, sleeping 13 hours and still tired, car accident [other guys fault, we and our car are alright, he was hurt and his car is pry totaled], dealing with the French police - who are very friendly and helpful!

[side story: Beth, Chelsea and I were sitting in our car while Eric and Nalani talked with some of the police [there were about 9 present!] when one of them came up to our car to see if we were okay. He said something in French, to which we replied "Je...uhhh..um... je no....." He understood and responded "No boo-boo?" Fortunately, we were all okay and replied "Non" with thumbs up. Haha!! It was so funny!]

2.5 hours setting up back accounts, hauling a couch through Evry France via Life Agape [CCC] van, and finally painting my nails while watching the season opener of Glee.

Now for sleep. Much needed sleep.

This is my team! From right to left: Chelsea, Me, Beth, Nalani and Eric. They are a great bunch!

A Piece of Peace

Tonight, I sit outside at one of my favorite childhood memories... camp Maranatha. There are a lot of things on my mind...

First, the fact that I leave in 20 some days for France for a year!
Second, how awesome this weather is... 72, light winds, chirping crickets, and to top it off, a beautiful sunset.
Third, how long but full this summer has been with all of life events...
Fourth, that BOTH of my little brothers are no longer "little".
And fifth, the true peace that can only come from One source.

It is all too easy to get your panties in a bunch when something goes wrong, stresses you out, or irritates you. I think having peace is a choice. Choosing to trust, to relax and to make the most of the situation.

Many times, usually when I am lacking sleep, tired of thinking through the situations of life, I actually find my mind wandering. Seemingly an oxymoron, I know. I can't seem to shut my brain off. There are plenty of tasks to accomplish: people to call, emails to send, chores to do - I literally have to write a list down before I go to bed, just to ease my mind.

Recently, I have noticed times where I felt this sense of peace - trust. How to get there? SURRENDER. Surrender the situation, the emotion, the effects, the people. This summer, among other things, my mind has been busy thinking of support raising tasks, wondering how and where the support will come from, who to call, what to say,, and now I only have 24 days to raise the rest of my support (25%)!

Yet, I have this peace knowing my Provider will prevail. Hearts will be moved to the reality of the eternal impact of what I get to be apart of this upcoming year. Lives will be impacted for eternity.

So my friends, I encourage you to make the choice for peace, trusting He will guide, direct, and give of His abundant wisdom.

4th of July

This 4th of July I spend with friends camping! It was nice to get away from the busyness of life and just relax . Since we did not bring fireworks and could not find anyone who was shooting them off, we just played with sparklers. If you can tell in the picture, I actually drew out my name with the sparkler -- the camera was on a long shutter speed so it captured every way I moved my sparkler! So cool!

Needless to say the trip was a ton of fun and truely enjoyable. As we sat around the campfire, roasting marshmellows, we all started talking about the unfathonable greatness and largness of God. [These are 3 of my favorite things to do ever!] He is everywhere at every moment in time! Our minds were going a little crazy because we couldn't fit that into our brians.

It is like trying to put God in a box. You can't.

It is sort of a humbling to remember that our minds can't contain His wholeness. It is also comforting knowing He is EVERYWHERE. Keeping this in mind, I know God will be keeping me safe as I travel this upcoming year. I know cause He's already there with me. Bah! God is bigger, and I can't even try to imagine just how big. Plain and simple.

So why is it so hard for me to trust Him sometimes? He will always pull through for exactly what is best for me. I think it will be a continual lesson of laying my pride aside and being patient for whatever He has instore for my life. That is a prayer request for sure.

Prayer Pit

This past weekend, I drove up to Grand Rapids for various reasons; a bachelorette party, wedding, meeting with people to share my STINT presentation and to be prayed over by my church at school. It was such a cool experience!

They asked me, as they do other missionaries, to come to the stage, share briefly how I was called to this specific ministry then, as a congregation, they prayed over me. They call this the Prayer Pit. So many people spoke truth and encouragement through their prayers, it brought a tear to my eye as I realized how caring and supportive this body of believers truly was toward me and this ministry.

"I pray for France, Lord, it is a dark and dry place. May she not only a light, but a flood light to Your power..."

"Give them intimacy with You as they prepare for this time of ministry..."

"Jesus grant them safety in travels..."

"Supply each of their needs so they may do Your work..."

Man, it was sweet! I am truly thankful for not only the experience and encouragement, but also the support of this group of Christ followers.

This week in Grand Rapids, I have been able to meet with 3 families and God had truly shown up once again in both prayer and financial support! I love the conversations that spring forth from presenting to people -- it seems to be a time of refocus for all on what is truly important in life, the ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE! How cool that all parties involved help in furthering God's Kingdom!!

Prayer Request:
- Diligence in my personal quiet times
- More opportunities to meet and present with people
- Prayer for the staff in the NAMESTAN office in Paris, France

87 days to go...

Today I have decided to begin my official STINT blog. I actually have been meaning to start it for a while now, but since moving home from school, things have been crazy!

God is truly blowing me away with people's generosity. As humbling as asking for financial support is, it is totally worth it to see God's faithfulness in making things happen ~ I recently read in the Bible "It is more blessed to give than to receive"(Acts 20:35)... but I know too that I am being blessed. For me, I think the most challenging part of support raising is the initial asking. I hate to be an annoyance for "another burden", which is easy to believe I am because I'm asking for money! But I was recently encouraged and reminded to be constantly prayerful through out this time of support raising because it draws me to Jesus' feet - where I should be. After all, He is the giver of peace!

Some expectations of this blog for you readers out there:

• Pictures - man, will there be a lot of pictures! I bought myself a Nikon SLR digital camera (you know, the one with multiple lenses) and plan on taking tons of pictures.
• Video - once I get my small regular digital camera fixed (the LCD screen is cracked :(... any one know how to fix that if I bought the part??) many videos will be shared as well! You might feel like you've been to France...Spain...Turkey... Afghanistan... and any of the other countries we will be traveling to.
• Stories - Oh and there will be stories! More so once I am over there come mid-August.
• And finally, Prayer Requests - Part of my communication with you, my supporters is to share with you prayer requests about myself, the ministry, people I meet, and anything else that may come our way. I would love for this ministry to be bathed in prayer!

So, with all that said, here comes the first batch of Prayer Request:

1. Faithfulness in personal quiet times - it is easy to place value in making phone calls, writing thank you letters etc. over being personally filled.
2. Having an attitude and heart of praise as I contact people about support.
3. That God would continue to call others to give to this ministry.
4. For the individuals I will come in contact with over the next year. That God would be softening their hearts, drawing them closer, bringing questions into their hearts and minds.

If any of you have prayer requests, I too would LOVE to pray for you as well! Just email them to me :) hannah.booth@uscm.org

Love,

Hannah