Earlier this week, we decided to take a hike with some friends. It was a cloudy day in the city, but we thought we’d go for a hike anyway. When we reached about 5,000 feet (1600 meters) of elevation, we got above the cloud line and experienced beautiful blue skies. Amazing!
Then as we hiked up the trail, we came to a lookout spot and saw this amazing “sea of clouds.”
It wasn’t too cold in the woods, but when we got out at the peak it was quite freezing. When we took this picture we kept telling ourselves “It’s not cold! It’s not cold! It’s not cold!” (It was freezing).
A few weeks ago, David had a day off from language school, so we took advantage of that and went snowboarding at Les Sept Laux ski area. A group from Champfleuri camp and Bible school joined us for the afternoon. We stopped by Champfleuri on the way home and got a little tour of the center. It’s beautiful!
Oh and we saw a white jackrabbit on the slopes. It beat me down the mountain. Yeah…
We love exploring this area and finding so much to love all around us!
Before the winter came, we got to visit our friend from our church in Reading, PA who was working at Camp des Cimes. That camp is about an hour outside of the city near the high glaciers (10,000 feet). The team from that camp including Phil at the time attends our church in Grenoble. There wasn’t much snow on the ground yet, but we just had to build a snowman!
You know the color Chartreuse? It’s name comes from this area – the Chartreuse mountains (one of the 3 converging mountain ranges in Grenoble). The monks and the Chartreuse monastery make a green liqueur that is very popular in this region. We enjoyed walking around the public areas of the monastery. It was quite peaceful and beautiful!
These are a few scenes from around the monastery. The picture above makes me think of Narnia, which I’m reading through now in French with my tutor.
The Chateau de Vizelle is a beautiful spot to visit that’s not too far from the city.
Now many of you may be thinking either “what are they doing in France?” or, if you know what we’re doing here, you may be wondering “why are you having so much fun in France?” ???? Well…let me explain.
We are living as caretakers of an Evangelical student ministry center in France called the FEU (Foyer Evangelique Universitaire) de Grenoble.
Our apartment is upstairs above the center where they hold Bible studies, have a food pantry for students in need and reach out to Grenoble’s large student population (60,000 students for a city of about 600,000).
In addition to hosting students for meals and one-on-one Bible studies along with our team, we’re also responsible for keeping up with house maintenance and (soon) gardening.
The best part of living here is knowing that this is exactly where God has called us to be right now. There’s so much peace and freedom with that knowledge! We love getting to explore this gorgeous corner of God’s creation and are so thankful for the opportunity to live here right now.
For more info, you can read our testimonies and more about our ministry here on our mission support organization’s website.