Nîmes and Conques

Hello all!

So last weekend I went to Nîmes for a frisbee tournament.  I'm playing in the lowest level of the competitive frisbee of France.  :)  There are 14 players on our team from Rodez and we play fives meaning that we almost have three complete lines.  Most of the other teams had 7 or 8 players which honestly is more than sufficient as the games were 25 minutes and then cap plus two.  If you know what I mean.  :P  So it was fun, I didn't play as well as I would have liked.  I think it takes me a while to get into a game and then by then it's finished.  My team is super nice and welcoming towards me though and I enjoyed being with them and talking strategy and everything like that.  We came in third out of 8 teams.  If you want to see the pictures from the weekend you can click on this link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/118102991518962560588/FrisbeeNimes?authkey=Gv1sRgCLeljdjLkOyiTw

I didn't really see the town of Nîmes at all since we spent all of our time at this gym.  The tournament totally could have been outside instead since it was warm.  We were warming up in t-shirts and shorts outside.

I had a cool experience of going to Mass  in Nîmes and realized again what tender love God has for us.  My plan was to walk to this Church that was half-way between the gym where we were playing and our hotel, google maps informed me that it would take half an hour and Mass was at 6:30pm.  We finish our game and I got ready to head out and the girl who drove the mini-bus insisted on driving me since I guess Nîmes isn't the safest city.  We get there at 5:55pm which I'm fine with as I'll have time to pray.  (I also don't know about google maps walking time, I think it would have taken longer than 30 minutes to walk.)  Turns out Mass was actually at 6pm and not 6:30pm (this diocese really needs to work on their website, it's hard to use and is wrong apparently)!  I was so happy that I got there on time especially as it was the feast of Christ the King and I would have been so upset if I got there late and almost missed the whole thing.  I just was so thankful that God looked out for me like that by having this girl drive me to Mass on time.  She also picked me up afterwards.  :)

This past week went well.  I'm really enjoying teaching the older kids English and can have quite a bit of fun with them.  As many of you know I love charades and basically my job is playing charades with kids where I always get to act.  :)

This Friday night I went to Conques with the kids preparing for Confirmation.  We left Friday night and got there to have supper.  After supper we prayed Compline with the two brothers there and then one of the brothers played the organ for us and let us go to the upper level of the Abbey (I think it's an abbey...) and walk around as he played.  It was all lit up and so beautiful.  (There's pictures on facebook.)  My soul was just so thankful for this experience and filled with beauty.  It showed me how beauty lifts our souls to God.  We worked on the Beatitudes with the kids and it was good.  I felt like I was starting to get to know the kids.  The next morning a brother explained the "tympan" of the Abbey to us.  It's amazing how much detail is in it.  We finished our discussion from the night before and then had Mass.  I drove up with Fr. Bernard and back with him too.  Since it was just us two in the car, on the way back he took me to two look-out points over Conques.  This priest has been so kind to me.  He's always so welcoming and makes sure to introduce me to everyone- highlighting that I'm Canadian.  :)  It was a good retreat for me too since I participated in the activities that the youth were doing.  Next weekend the high school students are going and I think I'll go back to Conques with them.  I'm interested to see how their retreat will be different and I really enjoyed being there.

Thanks for all the prayers and keep 'em coming.

God bless!