How would you like to stay “ A Year in Provence ”? A team of 18 Canadians and one lone Texan were very willing to settle for even two weeks in beautiful Provence !
Provence is one of the prettiest regions of France , located in the southwest corner, bordering Italy on the west side and the Mediterranean on the south side. Provence is famous for its beautiful, rustic “French Provinçale” design and décor as well as its sunny, exotic French Riviera, not to mention the superb Provinçale cuisine served with its choice wines and cheeses.
Near Toulon, France, couched in the verdant hills and rocky cliffs of Provence, is a Christian Camp and Retreat Center called Le Centre “La Pastorale” The present director of “La Pastorale” is Frenchman Mark Perez, whose father founded the camp about 30 years ago.
The EuroTeam mission team of 17, plus EuroTeam Supervisor, Kim Garrity and Assistant Supervisor, Shirley Unger, lived at La Pastorale for two weeks. Their purpose for being there was to continue ongoing renovations. EuroTeam has been sending work teams to La Pastorale for a number of years now, each time leaving the Centre a little better than they found it. Kim Garrity says, “This camp reaches hundreds of non-churched kids every summer.”
Work team building a retaining wall at Le Centre “La Pastorale.”
This mission team did a variety of work, from wall-papering and painting rooms to pouring a concrete slab and building a retaining wall. When Brigitte, one of the French cooks at “La Pastorale” saw the most recently finished work, tears literally welled up in her eyes, “It has been 20 years and I never thought that it would look this good.”
On one of the team's days off, they took a boat tour and viewed the Calanques cliffs of Marseille along the Mediterranean coast, which are somewhat similar to the famous Fjords of Norway. There is an evangelical church situated also at La Pastorale and the work team participated in this worship service. Of course, while at La Pastorale, the team was able, on many occasions, to enjoy the wonderful tastes of French Provinçale cuisine.
This is Brigitte, one of the cooks at La Pastorale, presenting the team some appetizing French delicacies.
Two weeks in Provence was much more than a leisurely vacation, however, because our EuroTeam workers know that their arduous efforts had not only brought sweet tears of thankfulness to eyes of a French cook, but also countless sounds of happiness from the mouths of hundreds of French children!
