My Unplanned Experience Of Being In A French Culture

   We got ready to go to Canada for a business trip my husband was taking. I went along for the ride this time and planned out all I was going to do. Among the many things I planned was to bring some tracts. Of course, going to this part of Canada would not be the same as going to Maine or to Boston, where people are everywhere. In fact, I was very surprised and the surprise started on the plane trip to Canada.

  We were going to a place called, 'La Malbaie' somewhere in Quebec. I already knew that people in Canada spoke both English and French, but I didn't realize just how much French there would be. And, of course, I was not prepared.

  The lady who hosted us on the plane (Air Canada) spoke French. She could speak English, but was much more natural at French.

  I, of course, never studied French. I learned a few words from watching 'Madeline', a cartoon for little girls that had good morals. Other than that, I may as well have been in Greece or China.
 
  Before I left, I was sure I had some French tracts, but I searched my tract box and never found them. I found some Spanish ones, but that is not the same as French. How could I have better prepared for this event?

  The only English speaking people around were the ones from the work group. There were a few other people staying at the hotel or eating in the restaurants who spoke English, but most of the people visiting the hotels and restaurants were even French speaking.

   Suddenly, about the third day into this trip, I got a bright idea. Since we had internet access, I decided to go to Bible Gateway and look up some verses from the French version of the Bible. There were four different French versions and I don't know if any of them are preferable, so I used the top one. I copied and pasted the verses and saved them to a file, and intended to write them on paper and put them in places where I would have put tracts.

   But here is even a better idea: I went to Larry Kent's tract page, because I know he has tracts made in foreign languages. I found one in French, so I downloaded it. Then I copied an excerpt from it onto paper. This is the best way to make a simple tract when you don't know how to speak the language and don't have tracts with you that are in the target language.

  The hotel provided a writing tablet which I used to write the message on. Quite an experience writing words I have never seen before. God's word will never return void, and will accomplish its goal even on a small piece of paper.


   If I ever go to Canada again, I will prepare better. I will order some French tracts from Living Waters and also print out some of the French tracts from http://www.tracts.com/LKFrench.pdf

   Thank you Larry Kent for making this tract available at the moment I needed it. It wasn't the same as printing the tracts off, but it was definitely better than giving up because I don't know the language and didn't have any tracts with me that were in French.