These are good times!

“These are good times” has been Guy and Rachel's catch phrase since they have been in Montreal and I think it has rubbed off on me. It's actually a good response to pretty much any situation, good or bad. I know that God has brought me to Montreal for His purposes and for His glory, but there have definitely been moments in the last 6 days during which I have forgotten why I'm here and didn't think that I could handle the thought of adjusting to one more thing. Fortunately, God is so unbelievably good and He has faithfully given me grace and strength to continue pressing on no matter what.

Quite honestly, it has been a bit of an adjustment to be living in Montreal, but it's all good! There are so many things that I have noticed about this city since I've been here, but I can't possibly tell you about everything so I'll just choose a few for now.

Here is a slightly blurry picture of the lights of Montreal that I took from the airplane last week. It's just one small section of the city and it still looks huge!



This is Avenue Prud'Homme, which is pretty typical of a street in Montreal. The houses are all tall and narrow and either attached or really close together, so there are a lot of people that live on this street. The Lacey's also live on this street... close to the other end of the block.



Here's the apartment building where Ang and I are living! Our entrance door is on the side of the building.



The apartment where Ang and I are living is quite nice. It is definitely small, but the only furniture that we have is what her parents brought for us, so small is not necessarily a bad thing at this point. Yesterday, Ang re-arranged her room and unpacked some of her boxes, so her room is looking quite nice. As for me, I haven't gotten around to unpacking much of anything so my room does not look very nice. :) My room just has a big pile of boxes and stuff everywhere and I'm not quite sure where to begin... I think I'll just need to pick a box and go for it, so I'm not living in chaos for much longer. It'd be nice if the boxes would just unpack themselves, but seeing as that is not going to happen, I think I'll have to do it! :)

Pictures could never really do justice to such a mess, but here is the pile of boxes in my room...



My bed (for now anyways)...



And the living room...



Now that you've seen the chaos, I'll post some pictures once a bit of order has been restored. :)

Most of the signs in Montreal are in French, with the English translation sometimes written in little, tiny letters underneath the French... but I'm learning and figuring more out every day. After my Wal-Mart shopping trip the other day, I had to look at the receipt for a while to figure out what was what (the list of my purchases was all in French), but I learned some new words in the process.

We are living in the English speaking area of Montreal, so almost everyone speaks English and I'm going to have to force myself to speak French if I want to become fluent. It's just too easy to respond with “hello” to the “bonjour, hello” greetings from staff in stores and restaurants.

It was really cold when I got here last week! But I can happily report that the weather is warming up and today almost felt like summer in comparison to last week... well, not quite, but you get the idea. I have heard that winter is over and spring is coming. The snow has started to slowly melt, so that's a good sign.

I haven't taken many pictures since I've been here, but I should take some while the snow is still on the ground. I went for a walk on Sunday morning before church and found the park that is around the corner. The park is all covered in snow and it was absolutely stunning to see the light of the early morning sun glistening on the snow.

Speaking of church, the first meeting of Victory Heights International was on Sunday! Here are some pictures of the room where we're meeting in the Lacey's home...

And it was a great first gathering! Here's the quick recap... We worshiped to a CD that Guy had made, Rachel shared about how the name for the church was chosen, Guy's message was about love for God and for people, we took communion together, and then we all had lunch together. Ang's parents joined us, as did Rachel, a woman that Guy and Rachel had met shortly after they moved to Montreal.

I honestly didn't really know what to expect, seeing as it was the first meeting of a new church, so it was awesome and exciting to be a part of the birth of something new.

After lunch, we took a picture of the group, so here we are (Guy took the picture, so that's why he's not in it)...



It's all coming together... and these are good times!