Anna's FirstServe Prayer Letter - May 19th-June 2nd

Bonjour!

I can’t believe we only have one month left in France! We’ve certainly been making the most of the warmer weather and nearby beaches a lot more over the last two weeks and have experienced God’s wonderful leading in the opportunities we have had to witness to some of the groups coming through the centre, some of which I will share with you below…

Devotion

Throughout my different placements this year, one of my favourite things to do in the evenings after working during the day is sitting down and calling my mum. She is the first person I go to when I have a problem, need advice or have any news to share. Sometimes we laugh together the entire time, and sometimes we both have tough days and just need to talk everything through. No matter what kind of call it is, she is always at the other end of the phone for whatever the conversation is about that particular day.

We have all been given the invaluable gift of communication with God. God desires to speak directly to us. As a good Father, He longs for us to talk to Him all day every day, about absolutely everything. God wants us to communicate with Him so much that He has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit, which grants us access to His heart. We can know His will, hear His voice, and live with the knowledge of His love.

Isn’t it amazing that God desires to have real, life-transforming conversations with us? Your Creator longs to help you with your decisions, relationships, work and identity. God Himself wants to talk with you about your life—to fully know you and be known by you. Hebrews 11 v 6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” Have faith that God longs to speak to you. Draw near to Him in the assurance that He is already filled with love for you. God speaking to us is so little about our ability to hear His voice and so much more about His desire for us to know Him. His voice in our lives is just another product of grace, God’s unmerited favour for those who believe. Like any conversation, we will only hear Him when we’re listening. And just like any good conversation, God longs to hear from us as well.

Day to day work

The last two weeks has been focused on preparing for the busy summer season to hit at the centre. Apart from our usual jobs - hoovering, mopping, dusting and, you guessed it, washing dishes, we have had a variety of different tasks to do to prepare for the various groups coming in the next few weeks. Our biggest job in the mornings this week has been to clean every window in the centre, which has turned out to be quite a big task! We have been more involved in outdoor work recently doing odd jobs such as cleaning up hedge trimmings and levelling some ground for tents to go up for the summer months.

I also had the opportunity to help Jean Marc in the kitchen this week for a few mornings to prepare picnics for the groups. Between some groovy tunes, our fashionable sous-chef uniforms and racing Jean Marc to see who can butter the most baguettes, the kitchen work has been a nice change!

We have had two different groups at the centre over the last two weeks - UFCV, a camp for young people training as lifeguards and a school group. Although UFCV wasn’t a Christian group, they asked a lot of questions about the difference between Catholics and us and why we chose to volunteer here, which gave us many opportunities to witness to them. The next two weeks will also be busy with a Christian walking camp who arrived yesterday for a week and a new UFCV group arriving next week, which again is not a Christian camp. Please pray for all of these groups, but especially for those who we had opportunities to chat with and for more opportunities to witness with the new UFCV group.

CDJ team on tour!

Last Sunday was Mother’s Day in France, so the CDJ staff decided to take a sneaky day off and do a day trip to Bréhat island. Apart from the very temperamental weather and therefore being absolutely drenched time and time again, it was a lovely change of scenery and a chance to meet some of the families of the staff that we’ve been working with at the centre. Cars aren’t allowed on the island which meant we were able to rent some bikes for the day and get some exercise in!

Both Rachel and I have been very thankful that prayers have been answered and our workload has reduced slightly after a tiring few weeks, allowing us to have some more free time but also get stuck in and give our full efforts when we are working. The biggest task I have taken on with this new free time is trying to teach Rachel some piano. The latest song on repeat has been Ode to Joy, which, I must admit, is not very joyous just yet…

We have also enjoyed the opportunity to get to know Stefanie better over the last week. On Wednesday evening, the CDJ girls decided to have a night out and go bowling (I’m happy to report that I did in fact win!) followed by a cheeky McDonalds. It was lovely to spend time together away from work and have some fun!

We have sadly had to say au revoir to American Anna as she left the centre yesterday. Both Rachel and I had become very close with her and will miss her greatly. However, as God has continued to show me this year, sometimes He brings different people into our lives only for a short time before He leads them on somewhere else, and we must be thankful for the time that God does give us with them.

Prayer points

• Give thanks for the opportunities that we had with the UFCV group.

• Give thanks for answered prayer about our workload and time to rest and have fun with the other staff.

• Pray for the groups coming through the centre and that we would continue to have opportunities to witness to them.

• Pray that we would continue to listen to God’s voice and follow His leading.

As always, your prayers and interest are so appreciated. I am so thankful for each and every one of you who have faithfully prayed for me throughout the year and it is amazing to witness your prayers being answered every day. God is so good!

God bless,

Anna x

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‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.’ John 10 v 27