When organizing this trip, I assumed that I was falling in with Pagans or Buddhists or Athiests or something. This is, after all, France. And with super eco-friendly hippy-esque lifestyle, I had lots of stereotypes to draw from.
When I got here, I thought that my assumptions weren't far off. Every morning starts with meditation. Every meal and meeting begins and ends with a song that sounds very chant-like. Every Thursday evening is a four-hour-long meditation-type exercise they call "Full of Consciousness". And everyone kept talking about 'feelings' and each person's 'walk' and non-violence and being close to the earth and conscious consumerism and stuff like that. I figured that was the whole of their spiritual world view. It doesn't help that when conversing about 'feelings' type subjects everyone starts talking really softly and mutteringly (non-violently?) so that I can't ever catch more than a few words.
I let it be known in the first day or so that I was Mormon (it always comes up somehow), but while the other WWOOFers were around, very little was said on the subject of religion. On the day that they left, however, everyone started talking about Jesus! Gaelle, Sebastien, and Kate each seperately asked me about my spiritual views. I told the story of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon twice (in French!!) and read to Kate and Sebastien from 3 Nephi 11, when Christ visits America.
It turns out that we are Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, Suffi, Quaker, and Mormon, with a little Buddhism thrown in for good measure. Everyone here loves Christ. It is amazing how much immediate trust I feel from and for them because of that simple fact.
They asked me for a song to start the meal that I made yesterday, and I sang As I Have Loved You. This little video (which is just audio because i made it slightly sneakily) is of me teaching it to Sebastien and Kate as we are washing dishes and milling the soup. Isn't Sebastien's voice beautiful?
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