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Big News & Everyday Life
Batts Abroad - March 2022
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We shared some Big News this month: after literally six months of praying, fasting, seeking wise counsel, studying scripture, evaluating our God-given strengths and passions, and communicating with ABWE personnel...
We have officially transferred ministry locations from Togo, West Africa to Québec City, Quebec, Canada!
Come June 1, we'll be moved into our new apartment and preparing to serve in a new-ish church plant called Maison Coram Deo while improving our French skills and evaluating opportunities for university student ministry in the city.
We are pumped. We can see how God's used the last three years of our lives to prepare us for this, for here, for come-what-may in Québec. He opened and closed doors to get us to this place, right now, and we're excited to see what He does next.
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Story time with Kendall after pizza on a Friday night.
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But in the meantime, day-to-day life continues here on the Parole de Vie campus. Our weeks look pretty much the same. While the kids are at the garderie in the morning, we are doing the following:
- Monday: weekly planning / preparation session; meeting with language school director.
- Tuesday: day off (which usually means grocery shopping).
- Wednesday: teaching Bible classes; leading prayer time; working on ministry projects and needs.
- Thursday: tutoring sessions; more ministry project time.
- Friday: final preparations for Soup & Study.
Afternoons are spent continuing that work (there's a second study session on Thursday afternoons, for example), homeschooling Ruth, doing laundry, playing ping pong with one of the French instructors, assisting with grounds maintenance on campus, and touching base with students. Often, friends come over to play with the kids, students stop by for coffee or tea and a chat, we're helping answer French questions, or we're working on our own ministry things (like writing blog posts and newsletters).
In the evenings, we do dinner as a family, clean up the apartment, put kids to bed, and either have Zoom meetings to attend, work on ministry projects, or try to relax and go to bed early. Fridays, we have pizza and a movie night with Kendall, our adopted student pictured above (who is also moving to Québec this summer!).
Our weeks are full. God sustains us.
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Full living room and full tummies at Soup & Study.
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At Soup & Study on Fridays, we're slowly marching through the Psalms of Ascent. And this week, we're lined up with Psalm 131. Here's the whole chapter:
My heart is not proud, Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord
both now and forevermore.
It's so easy for us to concern ourselves with great matters, with things that are really too wonderful for us. It's easy to become proud and haughty when we look at a full week and a completed to-do list. We've accomplished so much! We've helped so many people! We've saved the day! #sarcasm
But I love the image that the Psalmist shares: He has calmed and quieted himself before the Lord. He is content with just being with God: no to-do lists, no weekly calendar appointments, no constant email checking. We can put our hope in the Lord both now and forevermore, not because of the great and wonderful things we have done, but because of the Great and Wonderful One He is.
Be encouraged, friends. God is worthy of our hope, no matter the busy season we find ourselves in. We can quiet ourselves before Him, knowing He alone can provide the true calm we need.
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A Behind-the-Scenes Glimpse at Our Life:
1. Allen has been running three times a week with a friend. Some frosty beard pictures have proven that running in Quebec winters (springs??) is no joke.
2. Our whole family battled an intense cold or flu for a few weeks this month. It didn't quite knock us all the way down, but we definitely enjoyed our fair share of movies and pajama days at home.
3. The snow melted! And then it came back. I guess we're experiencing Quebec's fickle season of "You Think It's Spring? You're Silly!" We packed up most of our winter gear when it warmed up, but we had to pull out some heavy gloves again this last week.
4. We made a few videos this month! Some were for our family, and some were for language school instructors. Here are the links, if you'd like to see:
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Ruth, Clara, and Hudson have loved making art lately! Give them some paints, paper, and a paintbrush, and they'll churn our masterpiece after masterpiece. When they aren't painting, they're coloring countless pictures for friends and tucking them into mailboxes or leaving them outside doors here on campus.
Allen and I have been trying to coordinate the movement of our household goods from Alaska to here. We received four or five shipping quotes, ranging from about $14,000 to $24,000... and decided we could just do it ourselves for about half that cost and one week of driving. So in mid-April, we'll be in Alaska to sort the items in our container, sell quite a few things, and move the rest here to Quebec. We'd love for you to come to our massive yard sale! We'll send out more details about it later.
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Thanks for praying for our family! Here are a few specific prayer needs:
- Safety in upcoming travels: flying to Oregon then Alaska, driving from Alaska to Quebec in a 15-foot U-Haul, then flying back to Oregon again before returning to Quebec... again.
- A smooth move to Québec this summer.
- Salvation for Ruth, Clara, and Hudson.
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