This weekend I originally wasn’t going to do anything and was fine with that, but then everybody seemed to have awesome traveling plans to Dijon, Strasbourg, London, Venice, Brussels, and pretty much every other cool place and I got jealous. I had been to the Finiels’s house for dinner after church one Sunday and they encouraged me to come on the youth group weekend trip, but I thought it might be kind of expensive and boring so I said no. I’m friends with Heather, an American who is volunteering for the church for a year and I was in the computer lab on Friday and started chatting with her on Google chat and she said I could still go so I packed up a bag and got on the bus with her that afternoon. It ended up being a really good time and for once my French did not deteriorate over the weekend.

The bus took us up the Chartreuse mountain-side to beautiful St. Hilaire du Touvet. We helped Joël Finiel with some cooking when we got there and moved all the groceries from his house to the retreat center and set up. That night we had a good meal and started getting to know all of the people there. Heather had invited two girls from her dorm: a Canadian named Sharon and a Belgian named Sharice. Then there were two French girls, Hélène and Lysianne, and four French boys, Thomas, Florian, Renaud, and Benoit. After dinner we sang a lot, played some games, and did some folk dances which were a TON of fun.

After a cold night, we woke up really early Saturday morning and after breakfast and a few songs got right down to business. Our theme for the weekend was commitment and we did a lot of discussion and group work on different aspects of commitment. That afternoon we watched a multitude of paragliders throw themselves off the side of the Chartreuse and took a walk through the mountain pastures. We also went to a nearby convent where a nun talked with us about what commitment means to her. I wish I could say that I got a lot from that, but she talked really fast for an hour and a quarter and I just got really lost. Oh well…

For dinner that night we had cheese fondue which was fantastic and then did a lot more dancing. Thomas taught us the salsa! (or at least we tried to learn a little bit). By the end of Saturday we had all gotten to be quite close. Renaud and Lysiane are incredibly silly and Florian is just cute and funny to the max. Hélène was super nice and Benoit too. Heather, Sharon, Sharice, and I talked (in English) long into the night and bonded for sure. It was especially interesting to talk with Sharice about my faith. She has Catholic roots, but says she doesn’t know exactly what she believes. Only God can work in her heart, but I really hope that this weekend helped her to think more about what it is that she believes and what that means for this life and the next.

On Sunday morning after breakfast and such Thomas, Renaud, Sharon, and Sharice went home because they had homework and such to do. The rest of us spent the morning discussing commitment in the context of the story of Martha and Mary (Luke 10) and planning the church service for that evening which was about all the things we discussed over the weekend. We had lunch outside where we had a good meal and an even better view. Joël, Florian, Heather, and I then went for a walk which involved a lot of singing “The Sound of Music” on me and Heather’s part. Joël then proposed that we practice a little paragliding since he has his own sail. We got it from his house and then proceeded to glide down this huge hill that people use to practice paragliding. It was so fun! Heather and I took lots of pictures.

Later in the afternoon we packed up and cleaned up the retreat center and headed down the mountain and back to Grenoble for the church service. It went really well. We did a skit of the story of Mary and Martha and different people presented things from the weekend and did readings (including me). I finished the night with Heather, Sharon, and Sharice back at their dorm. It was a super weekend! It was so great to make more French friends and also to spend some time in such a great place. I may not have gone far from Grenoble, but it was definitely at least as much fun as everyone else’s trips. You can check out my pictures by clicking on this link. Love you all! Hope you’re having a great week!

Love,

Lindsey-Rose