Big News! (by Thom)

It’s been a while since we’ve updated things here. There are a couple of reasons for that: First, we just finished our second term here at Les Cedres in France. Again, Amanda eked out a higher score than Thom for a final grade (she’d be happy to tell you about it, too!). The second reason is that we have been awaiting confirmation of some pretty big news! We’re going to be returning to the states for the month of August. The Christian & Missionary Alliance wants Thom to return for some computer training and graciously allowed us to sandwich it with some time to visit friends and family. Here is our itinerary:

Monday, August 1^st – fly into Detroit, MI.

Tuesday, August 2^nd – travel to Mt Gilead, OH

Friday, August 5^th – travel to Lima, OH

Wednesday, August 10^th – travel to Ann Arbor, MI

Sunday, August 14^th – Thom flies to Colorado Springs, CO

Monday, August 15^th – Amanda travels to Northern Michigan

Saturday, August 20^th – Thom & Amanda fly to Salt Lake City, UT

Wednesday, August 31^st – we fly to Bamako, Mali and land 24 hours later!!

We are still working on a couple of things, though. We need a place to stay our first two nights in Lima, as well as a ride from Mt Gilead to Lima (less than 2 hours drive).

Because our time is so short at each stop, if you would like to visit with the McMurrays, please let us know. You can email us at: mcmali@gmail.com. We want to see as many of our friends as possible and are looking forward to sharing some of our experiences from France and language study.

UPDATE: We have been offered a ride to Lima, and a place to stay. Actually, we ended up with several offers, so thanks to all our friends in Lima! We're looking forward to seeing you!

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Psaume 23 (by Amanda)

I always took it for granted that I could memorize verses from the Bible after all I have been doing it since I was a child. We were recently challenged by our biblical French teacher to memorize Psalms 23: The Lord Is My Shepherd (in French of course). The first week we started by learning the first two verses. That is where most of us finished. I need to still work on the rest of the passage but I did learn something. If the Bible were not something I grew up hearing and learning, how easy would it be for me to learn verses? I’m not sure it would be as difficult as it is in another language but I think it could be close. Each time I read it over I have to put meaning to the words just so I can remember what comes next. I still will be trying to learn it as the French say “petit a petit”: little by little. Here’s Psaume 23, en français; see if you can memorize it before me:

Psaume 23 -L’Eternel est mon berger

Psaume de David

L’Eternel est mon berger. Je ne manquerai de rien. Grâce à lui, je me repose dans des prairies verdoyantes, et c’est lui qui me conduit au bord des eaux calmes. Il me rend des forces neuves, et, pour l’honneur de son nom, il me mène pas à pas sur le droit chemin. Si je devais traverser la vallée où règnent le ténèbres de la mort, je ne craindrais aucun mal, car tu es auprès de moi : ta houlette me conduit et ton bâton me protège. Pour moi, tu dresses une table aux yeux de mes ennemis, tu oins de parfums ma tête, tu fais déborder ma coupe. Oui, toute ma vie ta bonté et ton amour m’accompagneront et je pourrai retourner au temple de l’Eternel tant que je vivrai.

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