So this is quite possibly the most fun post I get to write. This is me:
This is me. At Heathrow Airport. In London, England. Enjoying a starbucks toffee nut latté.
Why is this a big deal you say? Because for all intents and purposes I am supposed to be in France. In Biarritz. Getting ready for Christmas WITHOUT my Aussie family and friends.
But here I am, waiting to board my flight back to Melbourne. (Well actually this will be posted about a week after today. So this me, 1 week ago). In the last month I have hidden so many big details from you all, in order to keep the surprise alive. I moved out of my apartment in Biarritz. My beautiful home for the past 4 1/2 years has been packed up and put into storage until I get back to France in a few months and get ready to move into my new place.
Here are my keys as I sadly dropped them back at the agency. This was in November. I told you I was moving mid-late December.
Speaking of a new place, here are the walls of the new place – it’s a rental which I rented off the plans….oh yeah, and when I moved, I also popped in to see my new landlord and sign the lease. Yep ! This baby will be mine in a few months. And when I went to sign the lease, rather than getting nasty surprises, the landlord actually told me he’d decided to decrease the rent by 30€ per month as also upgrade the kitchen from what was originally planned. Thankyou JESUS!
What else has happened that I couldn’t share until now? Good-byes. Lots and lots of good-byes. In Biarritz we had a commissioning service (much easier than a farewell) and at Biarritz Baptist Church, Surf Church Hossegor and also with my friends from YWAM they took a chance to lay hands and pray for me and the next steps for me. I particularly liked when my YWAMer friends gathered around and prayed Korean style (that is, everybody at the same time), because I was being prayed for in both French and english at the same time…French in one ear, English in the other. Definitely satisfied my bilingual brain!
For the past week, my last week, I have been staying back in the house where the Biarritz Baptist church was founded and where I stayed in my first week in Biarritz. I like full circles! It was nice spending my last week in Biarritz without a house to worry about…sort of…
The day I left the agency decided they thought I was leaving in January. And its really administratively complicated, but technically my landlord could have made me pay for the month of December. But she didn’t. Thanks be to God! But…2 days after I handed in the keys, the hot water service exploded and flooded the apartment!!! The whole apartment, including the bedrooms! So Saturday (today is Monday), I’m calling the landlord trying to calm down my poor stressed 87 year old recently-widowed landlord, all the while trying not to get too involved. Her son has taken over the administrative side, and thankfully he has email, but it looks like my insurance needs to cover it. Praying…
As I drove to church that last morning, this was the view:
It was freeeeeezing cold, but beautiful all the same. I was still set to lead worship and got to lead it with my 2 friends that I spent the large part of the past 4 1/2 doing music with. And…I finally did something I had not yet felt brave enough to do. A few weeks ago I heard the Lord telling me to write more songs. I’ve written occasionally but never intentionally and nothing has ever left the privacy of my home piano! So on my last Sunday at Biarritz Baptist, it was my turn to serve and lead communion, for which I decided to explain then perform an original song (in French) with the help of the worship group. I’m hoping to keep working on my music during my time in Oz. Songwriting in French is really important to me. We are so blessed in English to have so much Christian music and worship. But there is a serious lack of French original music, as the temptation is to translate everything, or reproduce English/American/Australian music styles for French worship. So Sunday was a first step towards seeing that happen.
So anyway, it’s officially official – I’m back in Oz! 🙂 Looking forward to seeing everybody!
xo Lauren.
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