[LIF] Summertime

I wrote my french exam yesterday. What a relief. I'm sure I bombed the grammer section, and when he asked me to speak about the article I read en francais I choked at first. He said, it's ok so I plowed into it. Badly, but I did it. All in all the article was not too hard to read, knowing scriptures really well helped me immensly though, and I was able to respond fairly well to the questions he asked me about it in french. (I answered in English BTW). He told me my passive comprehension was good. This is the same guy who told me on my first visit that I had very basic french. Having a tutor was the best decision for me, thanks Franck! Plus now I need to continue so that by the time I'm ready to teach I am fluently bi-lingual. I think I'll enroll in some conversational groups though, now that the pressure is gone.

Over the long weekend, instead of cramming, we went camping with our friend Kurt. It was an amazing time. Charleston Lake near Kingston, I highly recommend it. The highlight was Sunday morning, Sharon took all the kids to a park activity and Kurt went back to bed. I had my Sunday lectionary and a french bible. What was funny was I didn't know what Sunday we were on, so I decided to have a personal service with somewhat random readings. I went and stood looking out over the calm, sparkling lake and began the service. It was calming and wonderful. When I got to the readings I sat down at the picnic table and read John 3, Psalm 1 and Ephesians 1. All texts I know fairly well. Then I returned to the lake for my general intercessions. If I had elements handy I would have done a Eucharist, but instead I returned to the picnic table and just listened for the voice of the Spirit. Soon I was led to open up another chapter of John, the french was not hard as I read how God had chosen me be bear fruit that lasts. I was greatly encouraged and thanked God as Sharon pulled up with the kids.

Nature is such the perfect cathedral. I always think that when I get a chance to do a liturgy in the midst of creation, I wish I did that more often.