Delays!

Our last post was Tuesday, but that certainly doesn't mean we haven't been working!  The wifi has been touch and go and blogging was priority #2 while at the church.  The rooms have been completely transformed.  Even our team is surprised by the amount of work completed.  God has blessed our team with supernatural energy.  Despite setbacks, we have managed to accomplish our goals we set for ourselves, which included painting walls, murals, light construction, installing new floors and lots of bonus work which included bathroom makeovers!  We have been busy bees!

Here are several pictures of our progress:

After Dul (elementary-lower middle school):
The room is divided into two sections so that when the kids arrive off the "bus" they stop and then move into the house to talk about God.

Jump is the room next door that is the room for the upper middle-high school:

 

The volunteer room which has a new kitchenette and serves as a place for peace and preparation for those giving their time.

Back at the ranch (or as they call it in France, our Gite), we have been sharing morning devotionals and breakfast together before heading to the church each day. Betsy has been serving us each day by prepping our meals and serving us every morning.

 

 

Every morning, we are blessed with this view on the way to church.  And, if you think it looks beautiful, you should smell it!

 

 

 

Tuesday in Pictures

We need your help!

We are making such progress at Eglise de la Brie!! What we would love more than anything is to blow the socks off of folks here.  In order to do that, we need additional funds (ideally, we'd like to raise an additional $2,400 USD).  If you would like to support this effort, please follow the link below to donate any amount - every little bit helps!  This will allocate the funds to our team even if this is not the person you originally supported.

To donate, follow this link >>>  https://globalx.managedmissions.com/MyTrip/trishhutcherson 

Our whole team thanks you, in advance, for your help!!

XOXO

Voila!

After day one of work, we made incredible progress in our rooms!  Check it out so far:

 

 

 

We are all focused and working hard... we appreciate your support!!

Day 1!

After our beautiful breakfast on Sunday, we went to a gathering at the church for a lunch hosted and attended by many church members and volunteers.   It was a great time of fellowship and getting to know those who we are serving.   We also had the chance to snap some “before” pics of the rooms we’ll be working in over the week:



After the church tour, our new French friends took us to Vaux Le Vicomte - a chateau owned by the financial advisor of Louis XIV!!  This place was massive.  Louis XIV was so jealous upon seeing this place that he had his advisor fired and placed in jail.

 

 

 

 

 

Up next... progress on our first day of work!

Comments!

If you're reading along, we'd love to hear from you... click on the "comments" at the end of each post to leave us a message!

We've Arrived!

After a long 8.5 hour (and thankfully uneventful) flight, we landed in Paris shortly after 6 a.m. though our bodies are still operating on EST (which tell us that we should be sleeping about now!). 

Finding our bags in the Paris airport!

We were happily greeted by Eric and Lorenzo from the church who transported us to the small village where we're staying.  We are all staying in the same house which gives us a "safe haven" after the work days that are ahead of us this week.

The back of our house

The front of our house and small village street

 

When we arrived this morning, Sandrine (another church team member) had a beautiful breakfast waiting for us.  We enjoyed coffee, OJ, croissants, chocolate croissants, cheese, prosciutto.  It was so sweet to be served like this as soon as we arrived.

For the rest of today (Sunday) we are having a lunch at the church to meet folks there and then we're being taken on a tour of a nearby castle.  Work starts tomorrow and we are all very excited (though admittedly tired!) to be here and to get the work complete.

Stay tuned for more updates!

48 pounds of paint?

Due to costs, we decided to purchase as many supplies in the U.S. as possible to keep our costs as low as possible.  We headed to Hobby Lobby to load up on paint and brushes so we wouldn't have to purchase them abroad.  This morning at the airport we learned that below added up to 48 punds of paint!!  Englise de la Brie, here we come!!

Just a few bottles of paint!

"HGTV" Goes to France!

We are less than two weeks from our departure date!  We've been meeting on a regular basis to make plans and talk about our efforts while in France.  Many people have asked "What are you actually going to be doing?" so this may help. 

If you are a fan of the TV channel HGTV you will appreciate the following scenario.  Our little team has been tasked with turning sketches into "the real thing".  We'll be turning rooms into environments where kids will learn about the love of Jesus.  Can't think of any better task!

Below are sketches of two rooms that we'll be working on.

The first is "Afterdul":

And, "Jump"

 

The fun (possibly funny!) part will be an "after" shot to see how well we execute their vision. We'll be sure to keep you updated.

We're all excited.  Ready to get the job done and watch the progress.  If you're praying for us, pray for safety, team unity, health, removal of anxiety, and a huge blessing on our work while there - that we can accomplish more than we think.

 



Forever Fed

A few weekends ago, our team had the privilege to spend the day together on a mini-retreat/planning session.  As a part of our time together, we participated in a service project to help an organization in the Atlanta area called Forever Fed - a mobile food ministry whose aim is to simply feed the hungry.  Our job was to help them prep the food for the event that evening - feeding a crowd of around 150.  We peeled and chopped, washed and mixed.  We were responsible for sweet potatoes, bread, salads and drinks.  They have the prep down to a science and after a couple of hours we were done! 

Potatoes...

...potatoes...

...and MORE potatoes!!

Manning the drink station... a manly activity!

Listening to their stance on serving healthy food and not just leftovers was a sweet picture of care that our Savior shows us.  Just because we HAVE less doesn't mean we ARE less.

Listening to their story was inspiring and a reminder that can take our visions and blow them out of the water.  He is bigger than all of us.  He can use each of us.  We just have to be willing to listen to His call.    

To learn more about Forever Fed, visit www.foreverfed.org.