Alive In France

An update is way overdue. Everytime I start a blog post it turns into a sermon or a long testimony and is left unfinished, so to get this out there let me cut to the chase:

Firstly, we want to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for all the prayers. Since my last (pretty depressing) post Ceci n’est pas trés confortable pour moi, we have felt a definitive shift in our spirits. The journey is not any easier, but our hope has risen and we have a new strength. We know that this comes from being lifted up in prayer by our friends and family.

Our time in Montpellier was filled with confusion and unknown as we searched for appartements. But God used this time to grow our faith and trust in Him, to increase our prayer life, and for me, to test my submission to Andrew (that’s another blog yet to be completed).

It felt like we were purposefully taken through a roundabout way and then suddenly the doors opened in Nîmes. It boiled down to an epic choice between an appartement in city-centre Montpellier and one in city-centre Nîmes. After a difficult internal battle, Andrew decided that it was right for us to move to the “big village” of Nîmes.

We move in on June 4th and w.o.w. The apartement is more than we could have ever dreamt of: It’s spacious, has wooden-floors, high ceilings, lots of light, AND a laundry room (which is a total bonus that I didn’t know I needed)! It’s in a beautiful part of town. And affordable.

The only catch is that it’s above a booming nighlife!

LOL

To our credit, we were not aware of a particularly loud nightclub just beneath us because it doesn’t look like one during the week. We always knew it would be a busy area with restaurants and bars, but I definitely didn’t sign up for bad electro-dance music keeping me up three nights a week.

Anyways, two weeks later I was on my kitchen floor pray-crying (or cry-praying, not sure) about whether we should stay there or not and I was given a clear word from Jesus asking me to follow Him into this dark area of the world which needs the gospel. That, and two other words that we have recieved through a prophetic word given at church an a prophetic picture our daughter drew, has influenced our decision to stay. Of course, Andrew knowingly felt all along that we should stay but I was erratically emotional and unconvinced until Jesus Himself spoke.

So we finally settled on staying, our money had finally come through, and I was about to click “purchase” on our pending IKEA order (because we’re still pretty much eating and sleeping on the floor at this point), when Andrew asks:

“Have you heard back about my French Resident Permit?”

“Eu..no..”

It’s been six weeks with no word and Andrew’s running out of days on his short-term Schengen. We’re now panicking.

I won’t bore you with the details, but essentially we made a (miraculous) last minute booking at the French Consulate in Geneva, packed our bags and drove up. Andrew got shredded by some nasty consulate people who told him that he’d done it all wrong, he got onto a flight for Ireland (out of the Schengen area) whilst I saw some family then I drove up to the chalet in the Alpes (so that we don’t overburden our swiss hosts with our noisy kids).

Just when I thought we’d be settling down.

Well… I’m grateful for the chalet in the Alpes. It’s not the worst way to spend ones summer. Andrew has come back from Ireland and we’re now spending a two week holiday together before he (most likely) flies out to South Africa.

We are waiting to hear back from the French Consulate in Cape Town to tell us what the ETA of the resident permit is, and if it’s going to take too long then our family has to be separated for six weeks whilst Andrew applies for a new SA passport and a long-term Schengen Visa.

Andrew is hopeful that the residence permit will be issued in time. I sadly don’t have such faith in the French bureaucratic system (which is extra slow in summer). We would need a miracle.

Prayer Points:

>The miracle prayer: that Andrew’s residency would be issued rapidly.
>The plan B prayer: that his passport and visa would be issued rapidly, and that our family would endure such separation.
>That we would find our “citizenship in heaven” and stability in Christ.
>That God would give us a heart and vision for Nîmes and its night-life which He seems to have called us to engage with some way or another.