An Update From France! (Guest post by Kyle "One of the Husbands" Martin)

Hello friends, family members and supporters!

I'm writing this post in place of Caitlin and April because their internet access at the camp is very limited. I was able to talk to Caitlin for a little bit today, though, and she and April wanted me to pass along a few things to you all:

To get the obvious thing out of the way, THEY MADE IT! The trip was a little rough, consisting of two plane rides, a train and a bus, but they both arrived safely and with all their bags intact. Nothing--including Caitlin's guitar--was damaged in the trip, which is a huge praise.

Their first full day there was spent in training with the camp staff, and then the campers arrived on the second day. From my understanding, there are about 50-60 campers ranging in age from 14-18 years old. Some already speak English very well, while others hardly know any English at all. Regardless of their level of language proficiency, everyone is extremely friendly and have been a joy to work with so far--students and staffers alike.

One big piece of news is that Caitlin and April were asked to lead a music-related workshop for the students! Going into this camp, they knew that staffers in the past had led workshops on things like photography, but they didn't know that they would be asked to lead one themselves. They accepted the invitation, but asked if the workshop could be focused on music in a church environment (i.e. how to lead worship) instead of just "music" in general. Being a camp run by Christians, their request was accepted. On the day of workshop sign-ups, the first girl came by and asked if their workshop was just for music in church, and when they said yes, her response was, "oh." At that point, they didn't know if they could really expect anyone to sign up for such a focused and obviously Christian workshop.

They got 10.

10.

The director even told them afterward that such a high number had not been expected. They are a little intimidated, but still very excited and ready to face the challenge.

So, with that, I move on to some prayer requests that they have:

• Please pray for the camp staffers (including April and Caitlin) and the campers, that everyone would remain healthy, safe and engaged.
• Pray for energy to make it through each day, as the daytime is packed with activities for the campers and the evenings are full of making preparations for the next day.
• Pray for the workshop, that the Spirit would move through April and Caitlin as they put their DCC knowledge to use, and that the campers would understand what they are being taught (both conceptually and on a simple language level).

I hope I didn't leave anything out! I will continue to post updates like this as I receive them, or if I remember something that I forgot here. Thank you all for your continued support and prayers! God is already moving, so who knows what will come of the next two weeks.

Until next time,

Kyle

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There is one more thing: Caitlin said that it is probably the most beautiful place she has ever been. She sent me a picture of the view from their bedroom window. Warning: it'll make you sick.