since we last talked

Hey everyone!!! Thursday it rained but we still had the kids club because it rained while we were having it. Jim and Tyler were able to meet some men and young men so that is such a praise. Friday Melanie and I went to Djazia's house to have our speaking French session, after that we went into Paris and rode around on the bus. We ate at a cute little cafe... our waiter was Spanish, and yes, he was cute. So far we havent seen any cute French boys. Darn!!!! We rode by the Arc d'Triomphe and la Place de Concord. Very beautiful places. We went back to our apartment for a nap and dinner, only to go back into Paris to go to an international church. Church was interesting. First of all the pastor who delivered the sermon was a woman and she didnt really use the word!!!! no good!! oh well the worship was in English so that was good. We walked around the Latin Quarter and ate a crepe and then we walked over to Notre Dame and it was beautiful, since it was lit up. It was rotic, romantic without the man, all of us there were single, its the joke around here since there are so many of us in such a romantic place. Saturday we cleaned our apartment and then headed over to Betina's to help paint her living room. Then we went to the Latin quarter again and ate in a little French restaurant, good, but wouldnt eat there again. Today we went to the French church, I didn't understand everything, but i understood some of what was said. I have no clue what the plans are for this week besides party tomorrow, class tuesday, class thursday, hopefully some visits this week and bible study in the morning. Pray for the people that we will be around this week that they would hear the word of God and be affected by it. God bless

Pictures!!!

I added pictures to my webshots. Click the photo link and it will take you to it.

howdy

so for those of you who would like to send something over here, this is the address as i know it
rachelle ivy
8 allee henri legall
92230 Gennevilliers, France

we dont have a key for our mailbox as of now but what can you do. maybe i can reach my hand in it and grab stuff out. yesterday we went to the French classes and taught. i tought a women named Filie or Fily. We were working on the alphabet and things like that. It was really fun. Today and tomorrow we are supposed to have a kids carnival to meet contacts,hopefully it does not rain. there are volunteers here from virgina and mississippi. melanie got her bag late monday night!!! anne williams a missionary is staying with us as her apartment is being painted. we are still doing training and Tyler, Melanie and I are doing a Bible study with our project leader weekday mornings and currently it is focused on fear so we are studying stories of the old testament. plans continue to be changed as to what we will be doing. i am becoming more confident speaking french so it is fun to walk around the litte village area where we live. i hope to be able to have conversations today with people at the carnival. God bless all of you who read this. I miss you all very much.

prayer requests

we start trainging this week.... pray for the following
melanie's bag to come
the people learning french
our hearts to be prepared
training
learning stories
speaking more french

i havent gotten my pictures uploaded yet but i am working on it!!! soon!!!!

first couple of days in france

well first of all both of my flights were delayed. i got here and i went to my apartment where i met jim, bethany, and tyler. i have met a lot of american missionaries here. it is very difficult to type on a french keyboard. it is a lot different then good old qwerty. I went to a mosque, saw le louvre, but not inside. I have ridden the bus and metro. it is an experience. its quite lonely living in my apartment. girl tyler is there for a little before i go to sleep but is gone before i wake up. i helped with a language class and i visited a lady today that is going to help me speak french better. i am meeting with her tomorrow to talk. i dont have much to say so it will be hard. in an hour i am going to meet the girls mother. i cant wait until melanie gets here so i wont be as bored. maybe this weekend i will go site seeing in paris. well pray for my french speaking and pray for the ladies i help with learning french.

Packing

Everything is in boxes for the most part that I brought down from school and a few more things I threw in here and there. As sad as it is to pack up all my things, I'm actually really excited; mostly to move into my first apartment in Greeley. This summer in France, I'm going to learn how to cook, FINALLY!!! I've also got a head start on my packing for France. I've got most things in my suit cases, besides the clothes that need to be washed and the other things I need to buy like mac and cheese boxes, peanut butter, maybe some other dry food type things. We're going to have to ration our American treasures. While in France these are some of the things that I'm going to miss... my sister's moveout, my cousin Daurie's high school graduation...my cousin kendall's 22 birthday, my mom's 50th birthday, father's day, my cousin Daurie's 19 birthday, Dalton's 14, Darren's 17, and Keenan's 16 birthdays those are just a few.. I know there are more things, but just in general for the family stuff. I've decided against taking my computer for a few reasons, it's only 1euro/hour at the internet cafe and I'd rather spend the money than have the chance of losing 2000 and i don't really feel like carrying around an extra 6 lbs when i don't have to.
Prayer requests....pray for the first week I will be doing somethings which I haven't been informed of yet. pray that melanie will get there safely a week later and we will start our training. pray for tyler the other american coming. pray for the european coming in june. be praying for the people we are witnessing to. pray for my ablity to speak french...it will be shaky at first...that's about all i can think of for now. oh comment with your email so i can get an email list going. thanks.

Moved out, but not moved in

I AM NO LONGER LIVING IN THE DORMS!!!!!! HORRAY!!! Now that's something to celebrate. I'm absolutly thrilled to not live in the dorms again. I'm only going to live here at home for a week, then I'm off to France!!! I'm so excited. I'm assuming that when I come back I'll only live here for a few days before I move back up to Greeley, in my house!!, to find a job and get settled before school starts. I'm super excited to see what God has for me in the next couple of months. It will be difficult to understand if only one or two people accept Christ, or if no one does at all. Be in prayer for the people that I will be ministering to. I'm still somewhat in the dark to what we will be doing. First week-trainning...becoming accustomed to speaking French. I think speaking and listening will take more than week to become good at; however, I think I'll try and practice as much as I can this week. Second week-go out and survey women and try and spark their intrest in The Truth! This is going to be the most difficult thing the whole trip I think. Only being in France for two weeks and having to step out of my comfort zone and try to speak to them in French about God...it won't be me talking, because I don't even know the vocabulary to say those things. After that, I don't know. Setting up meeting times to get to know these people, building relationships, discipling them. I'm not nervous yet. I'm not really scared yet. I don't think either of those will set in until I go through security at the airport. I'll be all alone for three months, halfway around the world. God laid something on my heart last week that really needs prayer. I can't really describe it yet because God hasn't totally revealed it to me. I think this summer he will reveal more to me about it, but please be in prayer for what God has called me to do after I get back from France...if it's truly from God then it is going to be AMAZING.

Praise God

God is truly amazing. I'm so blessed! When I got here yesterday at 11, I raced to take my French oral and then came back and opened my support letters. God has provided me with more than enough to go to France. It was a great thing to come back to after a hard weekend. The funeral was really good. God was glorified. If people didn't hear the gospel through it, then I would be surprised. I move out of the dorms tomorrow. HORRAY!!! I'm absolutly thrilled. Can't wait. I'm slightly stressed though. Right now without my final I have a 69.8 in Anatomy. Please pray that I pass the class with a C. I really need that for my gpa, but God's will!!! I took my Biochemistry final early this morning and I think I did fairly well on it. Hopefully I got a B on that test so I can have an A in the class. I'm really looking forward to be home next week. It will be fairly boring since no one will really be around to hang out with, and I'll miss all my friends from here dearly, but it should be a good week preparing for France. I'll be reading up on some Islam stuff as well as studying my testimony and the story that I'll be telling while I'm witnessing in a couple of weeks. I'm hopefully going to be able to post about once a week, but I think I'll type up stuff during the week and then just copy and paste it on here, so you'll have much enjoyment. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to read emails and such, but I'm really excited to hear from everyone. I don't know if I'll be able to call anyone, but my family. Please continue to pray for them and healing. This semester has been really tough. Moving the for stuff out of my Grandparent's house, mom losing her job, sister not liking me much, uncle dying of cancer....just not my 3 months. Through all of this, God has continued to bless me and it's been amazing. I'm so thankful for everyone and their support. I would write more today, but I need to pack, study for anatomy, and write me French portfolio. I pray that whomever reads this will be blessed and in good health.
in him,
Rachelle

Praise God