A bit of fresh air

Bonjour!

So the week after much movement, I didn’t move much.  I spent a week doing a mix of marking, chilling out, sorting out and trying to build up my fitness levels a bit for the cycle trip which I’ll tell you about below.  The Tuesday night was the highlight of my week as we (Manqi and I) invited our girl’s Bible study/prayer group to our house for a meal and short discussion.  We had lots of vegetables to eat from the veg basket which Michèle orders every week so we had to get creative with that (I think we managed to use about 8 different veg in some form or another!) and the meal was enjoyed by all.

At the weekend (13^th-15^th Apr) I went to the campsite I used to work at in Saint Gilles-Croix de Vie (on the coast in the Vendée region of France) to see my friend Jen and her Dad who are part of a small team putting up tents in preparation for the summer season.  We went out for a meal for Jen’s birthday on the Friday, and on the Saturday visited a little island called Noirmoutier where we sat by a nice castle for lunch and wandered round a bit, then headed off in the car to find a good stretch of beach which Jen remembered from previously being there.  Only we couldn’t find it and we spent ages driving round and getting lost which was a shame!




















To exit the island we went along to the ‘passage de Gois’, a special road which allows you to cross from the island to the mainland when the tide goes out.  I enjoyed waiting for the tide to go out and seeing the first cars go across, then going along ourselves (photos above).  The rest of the time was spent chatting, enjoying food, playing games and inspecting tents, it was good to catch up with them.

Last Monday I travelled home on the train, stopping off for coffee in Lille with my friend Nicola, a brilliant way to spend the waiting time between the TGV and the Eurostar!  This past week back in England has been brilliant.  I’ve enjoyed Mum’s cooking (goes without saying?!), a game of badminton with Dad, going to housegroup with my sister and spending a day at Stratford International Station participating in the second training day for the Olympics volunteering programme I’m part of.  This was topped off by the International Café Isle of Wight Cycle Trip 2012, a fantastic weekend which I feel privileged to have been a part of.

It’s the fourth time I’ve been on this cycle trip which has happened in April/May time for the last six years, and it’s just got bigger and bigger every year.  A team of Christian students (although we’re not all students now) takes a group of international students (largely non-Christians) to the Isle of Wight, leaving early Saturday morning from near the university, cycling down to the docks to take a ferry and then we cycle across the island in two groups (with lots of breaks and two different routes), taking in the scenery and trying not to lose people on the way!  Our destination is a guest house on the south of the island, where we enjoy dinner and comfortable beds, then hold a church service on the Sunday morning before setting off back to Southampton via a different route. This year there were around 70 people on the trip (including team).  Despite the weather forecast showing imminent rain for both days the whole week before, God was amazingly good to us and we had sunshine (with some clouds) on the Saturday and on Sunday it only rained on and off from the middle of the afternoon onwards!  He also blessed us enormously with a lack of serious bike problems and accidents.  We were able to share our faith with the students and get alongside them.  The sense of achievement and togetherness is great afterwards and we’re praying they’ll remember it for years to come and come closer to God because of it. I really enjoyed catching up with old friends and making new ones.

I’ve got another 5 or so days here before I head back to Rennes for the final stint.  I would really appreciate your prayers concerning my ‘next step’ as I don’t know what to do next!  (More to come on that soon).

Love,

Fiona x