Crazy Sweater

Dawn was nice enough to let me borrow a sweater at her house.

Check out this crazy thing!!

Can you believe it?

Some things just aren't what they appear.

Repentance Or Not?

One of the biggest French Bible societies has made a startling announcement. Apparently the word we translate as repentance doesn't have a good equivalent in French. The Greek word in question is "metanoia." In the last edition of the Bible they printed they used a French word you might recognize and they translated it "repentance" (pronounced with a pretty French accent)

But this year they are releasing a revised translation using creative replacements for this word. The Bible society has stopped printing the version of the Bible that uses the word repentance, and the shelves are bare. You can no longer buy the repentance version. Of course this isn't the only translation change they have made, but it sounds like a potential controversy if you don't know the context.... keep reading ...

Since repentance is a word most people will never encounter outside of the church, a vast majority of people will not know the Biblical principal behind it. If your average French person decided to pick up the Bible and wanted to look the word repentance up in the dictionary, he would find one definition: "guilt, deep remorse" But is feeling guilt what God requires of us for salvation?

So now every time the Greek word "metanoia" appears it is translated, "change of attitude" which we hope will be more clear. And in a few cases they did decide to keep the word repentance if the context already explains the attitude change necessary and illustrated a turning from sin.

Vacation

Did you know that 1 out of 4 French people were on vacation around the 15th of August?

Role Model

I always paint my own nails. And every time I get together with Anne-Cécile I paint hers too. This Saturday we treated Anne-Cécile to a picnic in the country (at her parent's house while they were away on vacation. I painted my nails, her nails, Holly's, and Sanaa's. Only the men were left out of the fun.

Normally I do round pointy tips, but this time I decided to do a more square cut like my Aunt Kim's. I guess it's my way of showing I am fond of my aunt, and wishing we were together.

New found Hobby

At the beginning and end of our time in Spain we were able to do something called Geocaching. For Some who know French the word "cache" comes from the verb to hide. Geocaching is a worldwide game of hide and seek of objects. Before heading to Spain we got a GPS uniti and checked out online on the Geocache website ( http://www.geocaching.com/ )if there were any things to be found along the camino. There were some at the beginning and end of the camino.

The last day of walking we decided to leave around 5AM to be able to get to the place that was 4km (2.5 miles) off our trail while it was still cool. We had about 20km (12miles)to go before we could go off trail. When we left it was still very dark out and as we walked through the woods with our head lamps we needed to be on the alert to go in the right direction. It was quite a different experience than walking during the day. You had to trust you were going the right way but also not be afraid to stop and look around. I think it is somewhat like our walk with God. We need to follow Him and faith but it is sometime necessary to stop and see if we are truly following in they way He wants us to go.

Well we got closer to where we wanted to go but had to ask some locals for directions. My (Rob)Spanish is quite limited but after spending a week with about 10 Spaniards in Spain the semester I took while in college came back and I was able to ask for directions and mostly understand them. We finally got to the path headed to the top of Monte Viso. It was not too bad of a hike up and we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the city and found what we were looking for! Thanks to Emily for getting us hooked on geocaching! Here are some photos from our fun time on Monte Viso.