As part of her schooling, Sophie did a written report summarizing her time in France between June 30 and July 10th… we offer it up to you as today’s post on AIMLong.ca. Enjoy!
In Her own Words…
Hi my name is Sophie, and this year I was privileged to go on the mission trip to France. I was one of the 13 people who went, and my friend Maggie & I were the youngest ones on the trip. 
While over there we were involved in three places, Châtellerault (Western France), Bordeaux (the Southwest) and Melun
(the headquarters church).
Our first stop was Châtellerault, where we spent three days in the city, prayer walking and holding services. Châtellerault is a church of 20 some people and is also the church we will be stationed at as replacement for the Brochu’s while they are on deputation. During the time we were in Châtellerault a lady came with her friend and we got news that she has continued to come. So the first experience in the city was cool for me, to be able to see the church, meet some of the people, and just get used to the place.
Next was Bordeaux, we spent one and a half days there, and that’s where we did an all-youth service with the youth of Bordeaux on a Saturday night. That night was the day I chose to give my testimony (that was also the night where my head decided to have a migraine it was gone within a couple hours so it was all good). After service the youth took us walking downtown to see some sights and also to go eat. After having a nice meal we started to head back and before we got to the tram, one of the young people from 
Châtellerault noticed we had a little problem; we now had one less person. Our friend Nick Cannon had bent down to tie his shoe, saying he’d catch up but had totally lost sight of us. No worries, he was found in about 10 minutes. Once we got to our destination, via tram, we had a five minute walk back to the hotel, and it started to downpour. We got to the hotel wet and tired, but we dried off and had a good night sleep.
We woke up the next morning got ready for church. As soon as the service was over we took pictures with the youth of the church, and headed out to eat. After we finished, we hit the road because we had six hours of driving to get to Melun. The drive was long but with my friends and some hilarious people in the car it made it feel a lot shorter.
The next morning we were going to the headquarters church in Melun (Bro. Nowacki’s church). There we met with the young people for an hour-long prayer meeting to help us prepare for the day. In that prayer meeting a boy from the youth was filled with the Holy Ghost. After praying we went upstairs for some breakfast where we mingled with the youth and got to know some. They brought us outside where they created teams for evangelizing. We handed out invitations to the church, then we went to a square were we sang like a choir. It was really fun too do. Since it was lunch time they took us to a park where we had a BBQ and just had a lot of fun. 
That night we had a service where there was another young person that was filled with the Holy Ghost.
The last day of the trip was dedicated to sightseeing in Paris. It was a rather foggy day but we made the best of it since we were in Paris. We saw a lot of sights and then we headed to the Eiffel Tower. It started raining… then it rained harder. Thank goodness we had ponchos and umbrellas, but our feet were still uncovered. Well, we went to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower and it was nice, for a few minutes, then we were all begging to get down. We had finished that day and now we had to get ready to leave. We got all packed and ready, set our alarms, and slept.
And of all the times for our alarms not to work they decided to not work the day we had to leave. We were scheduled to leave at 8:45 A.M. and our alarms went off at 8:00 A.M. we jumped out of bed, threw the last things in our suitcases and got dressed… all in 45 minutes, which we were proud of.
This trip meant a lot to me. For one thing my family will be moving there in the new year and being there in the church that we will occupy, and meeting people that we will see a lot more, just prepares me, I guess, for when I’m over there.
“I hope to make a difference and help with the growth of the church.
I’m not just going to maintain, but I’m going to see growth.”
Your turn…
What do you think of what Sophie had to say. Want to give her a “shout-out” or a “Kudos”? Leave a comment below… she’ll see every one.
Thanks for encouraging (and praying for) our AIMKids!
We arrived at the back entrance to the White House… well not literally the back door…. the back, heavily guarded gate. We walked to the White House gift shop and dropped a bit of cash at the till in exchange for a few souvenirs and then headed to the south lawn of the White House, over to the Washington Monument down past the War Memorial and on to the Lincoln Memorial
Rev. & Mrs. Jerry Staten pastor the church in Washington and we connected with them upon arrival. We were able to join them for their “Evanglize D.C.” prayer-focus meeting on Saturday morning where some 40+ people had gathered. Later that day, we joined them for their Spanish service “Esperanza Viva”, and of course for church the next morning.
Part way through the tour, the kids were thankful to be escorted first to the candy-stash closet where they got to fill a ziplock bag full of goodies, and secondly to the Missionary Kids’ Lounge where they could hang out and play Wii 
The next day saw us head to downtown St. Louis where we would see St. Louis’ famous landmark, the Gateway Arch.
Exploring God’s Word for the then Home Missions Division.
The kids got to spend lots of time with their friends Winston & Olivia Wojciechowski, whom they’d only met in November 2013, at the French National Youth Convention…. but even then, they hit it off so incredibly well it was amazing.
Yes… we’re still in France, and yes… we still have Nick Cannon with us (He may just make it home Tanya & Jason!).
While going through the city, we stopped to take a picture of the team in front of the Henri IV bridge, built in 1564. During WWII the German army had wired it with explosives in an attempt to completely destroy it and prevent American tanks from crossing the river. A German-speaking Frenchman pleaded with and was able to convince the soldiers to disobey that order, thereby saving the bridge… which is to Châtellerault what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris – an irreplaceable and immediately identifiable municipal landmark.
Bro. Neyland’s church has a double-wide mobile home that is used for visiting ministers which he graciously invited us to make use of. Later, we had supper together and the kids were able to play on the trampoline – entertained by the pastor’s son – before capping the evening off with a bowl of Blue Bell ice cream (oh my word, that’s good ice cream!!).
The first time we left was to go to church, Sunday morning, at 
AIM Long 