Chez Hofman: Living Water

One of the best things we have done since coming to Switzerland is to join 2 of our church's small group Bible studies. Yes - 2! That's because each group (a "cellule" in French) meets every other week, and we wanted to meet every week overall :) It's one of the many ways we've been blessed to both practice French and build relationships here in Neuchatel, Switzerland.

This week, we threw a small birthday party for two of our dear friends from ou

r Wednesday night small group (below). They both said they hadn't been celebrated like that in years, and they had great fun with the balloons. :) We also made them tacos for dinner, and showed them (all in French) how to eat them, as it was a first for both of them. Then we had brownies, which neither of them had had before either! (Can you imagine life entirely devoid of brownies??!)

One of our gatherings with the other group (the Thursday night group) was last night, and there was a pretty amazing international representation there, with French being the main language but English, Spanish, Swiss-German, and Italian being spoken in turns (and sometimes all at the same time) by eleven people from all over Europe and the USA. It's not uncommon here for a child to learn while growing up, for example, Italian from the mother, English from the father, German or Swiss-German from the nanny, and French at school. In general, this cellule uses French during the study, but when we pray the rule is that we can speak to God in our native language, whatever it is.

It reminds us of God's heart for the nations when we are there:

"And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals, for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation." Rev 5:9

Also, "Jacques," who we have written about before, finally made it to this Bible study last night! (He had wanted to come before, but had some health problems preventing him from coming.) It was fun to have him there, as he was very engaged, and had many good questions about how the Bible is organized, what an "epistle" is, etc. Someone else asked for references in the Bible that say that Jesus' death was specifically intended to provide us with forgiveness of sins, and we had a great discussion full of truth and love.

Going to groups like this and hearing God's Word is so encouraging. I've been spending time in John lately, and our experiences this week remind me of some of Jesus' words:

"If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who [speaks to you],...you would have asked Him,

and He would have given you living water." Jn 4:10.

Our times with other believers and in learning from the Bible this week fed us with living water. And to round out God's lesson to us (to make sure we didn't miss it), today when we got home to our apartment after language school, the flowers in our living room were completely wilted. All they needed was some water! Living water, just like us. When they were watered, they sprang right back up to life! It was a good reminder from Christ to not spiritually starve ourselves, but to bask in His living water for us. It's a good time to ask: "Am I thirsty?"