Sunday Morning - It was all I hoped it would be!

Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye

A lovely trip was made up the road through the village near the large aqueduct with its huge arches a la gauche (on the left) and looking a la droit (dwaht—on the right) over the tiled roofs on the hills. We saw a few rows of cold looking netted grape vines between houses and businesses. The car was zipping along going through the many roundabouts of Versailles and beyond. I don't believe France has stop signs. Our French friends from Olathe, KS said they wouldn't stop anyway. :0)
     Baptiste gave us a quick little detour through St. Germain-en-Laye, 25 min. away. There is a grand palace/chateau there and a very "high end" neighborhood. My excitement couldn't contain itself when I found out today by "googling" that this is where Louis XIV was born and lived for 20 years. But, even more exciting to us is that one of Russell's Grandfather's of the Scottish/British Kingly Stuart line was sent to this castle and lived here after his exile from Britain in 1688. King James lived in the Chateau for 13 years and his daughter Louisa Maria Stuart was born in exile here in 1692. James 11 is buried here in the church. We'll have to come back to take a picture.
     Saint-Germain-en-Laye was founded in 1020 when King Robert the Pious (ruled 996-1031) founded a convent on the site of the present Church of Saint-Germain.
     Prior to the French Revolution in 1789, it had been a royal town and the Château de Saint-Germain the residence of numerous French monarchs. The old château was constructed in 1348 by King Charles V on the foundations of an oldcastle (château-fort) dating from 1238 in the time of Saint Louis. Francis I was responsible for its subsequent restoration. In 1862, Napoleon III set up the Musée des Antiquités Nationales in the estwhile royal château. Kings Henry IV and Louis XIII left their mark on the town.

The Church of Saint-Germain

     Baptiste was preaching this day so we continued on our journey to Cergy LeHaut which was only another 15 min.
      Once we arrived we each gave the traditional French cheek kisses or a hearty handshake to every person and then we were able to enjoy the "louange". The singing began with M LeLevier leading in louange with his spanish style guitar playing and Lydia on the electric piano. There are a number of seminary/Bible institute students or former students who attend. One from Switzerland, two from Germany, and two from France.
     I had my English Bible, my French Bible and journal precariously on my lap as the French was being read. The verses from the message were taken from Thessalonians 2:1-12. This is a very hard passage to think about especially if one is not sure about becoming a Christian or have rejected Christ. It speaks about God giving people over to believing the lies and will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. There are those who don't want to believe but it keeps these same people from enjoying what the Father has for those in this category. It talks about how God who loved all of us and by his grace gave us "eternal" encouragement and good hope, so we can encourage our hearts. He strengthens us in every good deed and word. Wouldn't you want that over the other?! I do. Thank you Lord for your love and for all your good gifts!
    After a great morning we went out to lunch at Buffalo Grill (an American restaurant for a Hamburger and fries/creamy cheese dip instead of ketchup and small French dessert delights). The young seminary Bible students and young pastors came with us. We had a lively discussion in French and English around the table continuing the conversation that was started from the verses shared this morning.
It was a good day. - Carol

“Ladies and gentlemen, the Captain has turned on the "Attitude and Blessings" sign.

"Welcome to Flight #2012. We are prepared to take off into the New Year. Please make sure your Attitude and Blessings are secured and locked in, in the upright position. All self-destructive devices should be turned off at this time. All negativity, hurt, and discouragement should be put away. Should we  lose altitude under pressure, during the flight, reach up and pull down a Prayer! Prayers will automatically be activated by Faith. Once your Faith is activated you can assist other passengers. There will be NO BAGGAGE allowed on this flight. The Captain has cleared us for takeoff--Destination - GREATNESS!!"

(I "shared" this from a friend on her Facebook page. I am sorry I do not know where it originated from.)

For my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways...

The last 2 days...

1. A little boy about three wearing a warm, fuzzy hat and a down filled, fat coat looked up at Russell last night as we were walking to the store. Holding onto his momma's hand he pointed and yelled, "chapeau!!" (pronounced shapow)That means hat in French. Russell was wearing his cowboy hat. We laughed.

2. Because I did not leave enough time for us to "get out the door" from lack of sleep, we did not make it to our trains on time. Let's try another train, I suggested, and we'll try to get to a bus when we get there but it only got us so far. We were picked up to head to our language lesson and had lunch with our wonderfully sweet co-worker friends. We sang little baby songs to their petite fille (little girl) in English. Her mama put on an English song with animal sounds. We sang that together. She is 7 months old and her mama teaches sign language to adults and to babies. The babies and parents learn to communicate with sign. They began telling her to go to the bathroom at 4 months old and she will do it on command! She won't think of it on her own though but that is amazing.

3. We saw older elementary and junior highers on the public bus after school -loving their laughter and their animated chatter. Public transportation is a part of life here. We Americans would never consider letting our children get on a public bus without parents. The children swipe their monthly pass and run onto the bus.

4. Our co-workers are having 4 young adults over to their home this evening. 3 are non-believers and one is a Christian. One of the 4, a young woman, went to America last year to study English. She couldn't get into a public school at the time and went to a Christian school to learn her language. Her teacher was sharing with her that she helped to financially support a young French couple in this certain town. The woman told her teacher that was her home town in France! She couldn't believe it.

The teacher let her read the newsletter about this couple's work. The woman is here in France now and is coming over to to their house tonight as she signed up for multiple sessions about what Christians believe and to learn about the Bible. She is an atheist. As the old saying goes, "God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform".

You are the GOD who does wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples. Psalms 77:14

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

An Invitation from a neighbor for Tea

Russell was standing outside waiting for one of our teammates to come over this morning. I was upstairs finishing getting ready. A younger woman was downstairs and began to chat with our guys. Found out she was born in Argentina, grew up in America and married a Frenchman in the states and they moved here later. She said she wants to invite me over for tea. That's very sweet and nice of her. We have something in common besides America. They are without hot water and sounds like they are only getting heat from a wood fireplace.  We have 3 electric wall heaters which are working.

Versailles is experiencing some mild weather for this time of year but it is getting down into the 30s at night and this week the high is 45ish - 50. There are young families who live here as well as elderly so we would appreciate prayer for the workers to be able to get the heat back on sooner rather than later. I'm so thankful we have been having some milder weather. Last year Paris had 16 inches of snow. They haven't had any yet for which I'm grateful.

We had an Epiphany!

We enjoyed our first French service of this season. Baptiste gave a message and the songs of praise were beautifully sung in French. Not by us, though, as we had to get the speech correct with the right rhythm, rhyme and inflection. A bunch of mumbling was going on and occasionally getting it right.
     Baptiste and Franck are avid cyclists and I brought over 2 Pedal and Ponder books with devotionals. Franck was surprised that I remembered one of his loves.
     Emilie and Baptiste invited us over for lunch with sweet, precious Lina - 7 months old. Today, they told us, is the Day of Epiphany. I asked what that meant. The following excerpt can be found at www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/france/epiphany-in-France/2424:
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The celebration of Epiphany is celebrated in many countries across Europe and around the world; however, France has their own unique traditions in the celebration of Epiphany. In France, Epiphany is also referred to as La Fete des Rois as a tribute to the Three Kings the holiday celebrates Since we are living in the city of some great Kings I thought it was also fitting. Epiphany is a Christian holiday and is traditionally a day of feasting. The day celebrates the revelation of God in the human form of Jesus Christ.
     The day also celebrates the journey of the Three Kings, Melchior, Gaspard and Balthazar, to Bethlehem. The Three Kings made this journey by following a bright star which illuminated their path. Epiphany has been celebrated through much of the world since the 4th century. The day that the event is commemorated is traditionally January 6th in France, although parts of the country choose to celebrate Epiphany on the first Sunday following January 1st.
     TraditionsThe celebration of Epiphany also includes many traditions. In France one of the most popular ways to celebrate the day is through food. The French prepare special cakes on or near the day of celebration aptly known as King cakes. The special cakes are baked across the country; however, different regions have unique variants on the recipe. In Northern France the cakes are traditionally made of a fine, flaky pastry that is filled with an almond cream paste. In the South of France by contrast the almond paste is replaced with a fruit paste. The cakes are also available as plain puff pastry. The Kings cakes are more than just delicious snacks as they also incorporate their own unique traditions.
     When preparing a batch of King Cakes it is traditional to include one bean or ceramic figure in the batter. This inclusion means that the bean or figure will be hidden in one of the pastries. Later on, when the cakes are consumed in celebration of Epiphany whoever finds the bean or figure in their cake is named King or Queen for the day and is rewarded with a paper hat.
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King Cake

Baptiste & Emily

King Baptiste found the the little ceramic baby Jesus
and got to wear the crown!

Les Jardins

I couldn't go to sleep until 4:15 this morning and ended up sleeping until 12:15pm. sigh. I thought I had this jet lag licked. We wanted to be out and about by 1pm. That didn't happen.

After a time of trying to fully wake up we did a devotional this morning. Russell and I read part of Psalm 141 in French and English. I have been doing this for a while now at home and take my French Bible to church and read from it while the pastor or teacher are reading in English. Tomorrow we'll go by bus to the "all French worship" service of one of our church plants. This will be the main church we'll be working in while here. I usually take notes during the sermon to see how much I'm understanding and look up some of the words I miss. It helps me stay awake. Listening to another language when you are trying to "get it" can be very tiring after a while. Usually we have someone I can lean into if I really want to know what that person is saying and I'm missing it.

Since it's Saturday and we are still trying to find our way around our neighborhood. Russell's wearing his Aussie cowboy hat to keep warm and has his long coat with cowboy boots. You can imagine the looks. He towers over most people. Hey, at least he's wearing gray and black, the color of most clothing here. we took a walk to the Palace grounds 15 min. away from our apartment - along with 100s of others and really enjoyed it. These are King Louis XVI Les Jardins and it's free to walk around.

It was a pleasant 50 degrees, since the wind wasn't biting today. The government has been painting the entrance gate "gold leaf" and also small sections of the Palace along the roof. It's very bright gold and looks new, which is garish to me. I will try to include pictures soon.

We walked around back to see what the gardens look like in winter. Most of the large statues are covered with dark green canvas to protect them. There are very sculptured evergreens. I'll include some pics of those trees. (think of the Disney World or Disney Land sculptural trees but these are shapes, not animals.) One large, incredible fountain with statues around it was very bizarre. Most sculptures represent something. There's a story to tell. We will try to find out what this story is. There are turtles and alligators at the bottom of this great sculpture going all around it in a circle, the next level has people who have frog heads and webbed hands who look like they are either scared or trying to reach the mother and children at the top of the fountain. The mother and children at the top are beautiful. This is a fountain that was probably made in the 1780s. I thought maybe the mother represented the queen and her children and the animals all around represented either protection for her to warn her or they were the evil trying to get to her. If anyone knows what I"m talking about please enlighten us. It's directly behind the palace on the lower level. I can probably look it up online to get my answer.

On the way back, not far from Hotel d'Ville, we stopped at a very contemporary McDonalds. I know we should be stopping at a French bistro. This was very handy and it's the largest one I've ever been in with an "easy order" ATM like machine in 5 languages. You push your language and place your order. The order goes up front, they make it and you pick it up. The other order lines were long with high school and college kids waiting to order and we were the only ones doing the Easy thing. So we got our food right away. They probably were using cash. Also in this McD's they have a Latte/Espresso area. I did not get a coffee though. Fancy/Schmancy.

My real reason for going was I knew they'd have a free bathroom and maybe a sink in each one - which they did. French restrooms are unique. There are usually individual stalls with no sink or maybe a tiny one. The sink is in the hallway outside for men and women to use. This has felt uncomfortable to me at times or at least strange.

Now we must get our bus directions to find l'eglise por demain. (the church for tomorrow)

Trash, Wash Clothes, Figure Out the Dishwasher Day & Buy a Baguette Speaking French Day

Today was a good day as I accomplished some things. They may seem basic to you but here it will take longer as we figure out the French instructions and locations for everything we are trying to do. Russell found la poubelle (trash location) in the garage ("cave" - cellar is the proper translation). I finally remembered how to work the washing machine based on my experience in Massy where I lived en Mars et Avril. (March and April). The washer seems more complicated with various temperatures and difficulties. It still takes an hr. and a half despite it saying 30 min. rapide. I don't believe it.
     The apartment does not have a dryer but the owner graciously has a "drying rack" for our usage. I will include a picture of this. i was hoping not to have to use one and still hoping there may be a landromat somewhere for drying. That's for another day. It's very easy to use a drying rack. Carolyn said it takes around 10 hrs. for the clothes to dry which will take some planning if you have items you may need right away. For instance, I'm used to doing laundry one day a week. I could use up most of my essential clothes if I wanted to. No longer can do that.
     We ventured out around the neighborhood after taking some pictures of our apartment complex and landscaping. Le premiere écolé let out for the day and all the children met up with their nanny's, grand méré's and le méré's plus bébé's in strollers while we walked by. Les enfants are so cute in their little French attire. I wanted to take pictures but they would probably not appreciate it.
     Our next stop was the Boulanger et Patisserie. This is the bread and pastry shop! Ooh la la! So beautifully done. Bonjour Madame! Je voudrais le pain de rustique et un baguette, sil vous plait. Merci! (Hello, madame, I would like the rustic bread and one baguette, please. Thank you!) The rustic bread looks like it is a whole grain bread with flaxseed. The baguette is with their special whole grain white bread. Americans cannot get the flour they have here. If you find a French bakery in your town you may find out that some will actually ship the flour to America. We know our French bakery in Kansas City did that until his place burned down. We cannot find Monsieur anymore. How sad.

Nous remercions Dieu pour vous. (We thank God for you!)

It's a New Day, A New Dawn, and We're Feeling Fine

It's a new day, it's a new dawn, and I'm feeling fine! Thank you Michael Bublé - once again. Ha. I feel like my old self. Thanks to Carolyn, Peter and Sammy for going to IKEA with us last night and helping us get a few more things to round out our apartment - especially an extra mattress to go on top of this futon. Slept all night and woke up at 6. (Russell at 7 am, which is good.) Now on to our world after jet lag.
     Jerry found out we won't have hot water for a couple of weeks. We can live with that. The furnace exploded in this building before we arrived. No, we are not in Papua New Guinea like some of our other friends on a missionary journey who are probably experiencing more interesting life. We are in Paris and we should be having hot water. Ha. But we have a stove and it heats water. :0) And we have little electric heaters in each room to get some heat. Yay! Thank goodness for that or we wouldn't have heat. It's a lovely apartment and we can't complain.
     Our first journey on the bus was fun; to see the neighborhoods, the people, the children getting out of school hopping on the city bus to take them home, the beautiful old houses and their shutters, the ornamental iron fences and stone walls. We were fortunate to have a bus driver helping us to change buses since we were on the wrong one but still made it to our destination on time. That was a nice little miracle to me thinking about another bus ride I took back in March that got me out to Timbuktu and I had to find my way back by train, missing work.
     A few hurdles to to get over: buy a baguette - speaking in French; locate the trash area - Poubelle. Russell's tried twice; introduce ourselves to the Guardian (manager of the apartment). He is Portuguese and told Jerry that he had to learn French and we will too. So there you go.
     We'll work on language studies 20% of our time - tutored in grammar or formal French education and Conversational French. I will not only help put on this year's Prayer Conference, but will volunteer with a Women's Shelter here in Versaille, redesign the France V.I.E. office, making the workspace more viable. We'll have multiple art workshops around the Paris Metro area and I'll work with Jerry in the office on various projects. We'll mentor and disciple and meet in Small groups. There are some little ones here - missionary kids and I'm sure we will have some kid time. :0) Plenty to do.

Paris Arrival and settling In.

We arrived the morning of the 3rd, extra early with the tail winds. Jerry, our field director, was there to greet us at Charles De Gaulle airport at 7am. No problems. He whisked us off to Cergy LeHaut (pronounced sairgy low) with many of our team coming in or already there to welcome us and have "A Tea". The Australians in our bunch loved Russell's Aussie cowboy hat. What a lovely reception! Since France is 7 hrs. ahead of Kansas City we weren't the liveliest of company. I had fallen asleep while in the car on the way over while Jerry was talking. How rude. :0) It was midnight to my body and I'd only had 1 hr sleep from the night before.
     We went to our apartment in Versailles following our welcome Tea. The electricity was off in the building because a hot water heater blew up, but, the manager and his team have been working on it. The garage was pitch black as we were looking for a parking space underneath the building where Jerry could park. The elevator was not working.
     The three of us lugged the 4 - 50 lb heavy baggage up to the second floor in the dark Let me correct that. The guys lugged the 4 heavy bags and I tried to carry smaller bags from Carolyn that included some bedding and linens all at once along with a smaller roller carry-on. Jerry had his phone lighting the way. On one trip a young Frenchman - another messenger of mercy, lit the way with his phone from behind and came to my pathetic rescue and carried the 40 pounder. I'm such a weakling. Merci!
     Our 1 1/2 hr nap came immediately after Jerry went back to his family. I had only slept 1 hr. on the plane. Russell got a little more. Our journey had begun the day before leaving for the airport at 9am. I laid my head down after being up for 33 hrs. minus my nap.
     Carolyn, Jerry's wife, came at 3:30 pm. to take us grocery shopping. 260 euros later (350.00 USD) we are now well stocked for some time! Since we don't have a car we wanted to get as much as possible for the month.
     Today, being Wednesday, we met with them again to get more direction on our work which I will fill you in later and then we set up our Nav-I-go monthly bus and train passes . Thursday we'll be off to get a French banking account and then over to IKEA to finish getting the things we need for the apartment. It's a very nice apartment and we are soooo thankful to those two for the work they have done to get us a lovely place to lay our heads.
     The Chateau de Versailles is on the way down the street to our apartment complex, only a 15 min. walk. Buses were scattered in the parking lot and tourists were outside walking around when we first drove by. It's an amazing place! This is the palace of the Sun King, Louis XIV. They have beautiful gardens out back with it's very huge and fortress like facade from the front. I'll take a picture someday to include here.
     We awoke at 4:30am yesterday - managing to stay up until 10pm the previous night, pushing ourselves to put things away like food and clothes and organize our little pieces of pottery and art around to make it homey.
     The oven is so tiny one can put one item in there. The tiny dishwasher is right below the oven! Amazingly cute. Perfect for us. Our nearby train station is called "le Gare de Chantier" which is a hop, skip and a jump from our apartment. Le Gare is the train station. No we didn't go to the Boulangerie (to get our morning baguette today) too tired and we had some leftover from last night. But we do have our chocolate du Pain. No, chocolate is not a pain. Pain (pronounced Pah - shwa "a" sound) is the word for Bread and it's like a croissant with little bits of chocolate in them. Cheap too. :0) Just remember I will be walking a lot and already loaded up with ibuprofen to get used to the walking and stairs. The elevator still does not work but we have electric in our apartments and yet no hot water. There is lighting in the hallways and circular stairwells now. I'm so thankful we are only on the 2nd floor.
     Thank you to Carolyn for the coffee maker. I'll add pictures later when I start taking them. We need to show our apartment complex. This jet lag takes the energy and brain cells away to try to remember to do some of these things. This is my 5th trip to this wonderful city. God is good and we are looking forward to meeting our neighbors and getting into community life here after acclimating. We rarely hear people talking in this apartment building. I would like to go over to them to see if their water heaters are working yet. Maybe today!

Carol

Monday Morning we fly away!

January 2nd - noon - flying off into the sky and arriving in Paris 8am the next day. We just saw pictures of our one bedroom apartment from Jerry and Carolyn last night. It is located in the town of Versaille. Yes, that is the same town as the Sun King's palace. This will be a very convenient location for us to travel to our various work places within 20 - 30 minutes by bus or train all over the Paris suburbs and downtown as well.Thank you to Jerry and Carolyn, our field directors, for doing that.

The apartment has walls of lavender and maybe yellows or tan. I see carpet with purple, reds and a modern futon bed with black, tan. There are interesting textures on walls and the bedroom closet. Modern. I'm happy it's not white. :0) For those of you who know me, I like color and texture. We have a few pieces of pottery (small) and small 2D art to take with us to make this our own place.

Adding a few things in our suitcase. Taking out a few others. There is a washing machine in the kitchen. That's how they do things there. No dryer - which is also common. So we find a laundromat for drying and I buy a drying rack. They do have an iron and ironing board. I try not to iron if I can help it. Let's hope there is a laundromat. We do have more wrinkle free clothes than not. It's going to be an interesting journey. We are excited. Jerry will pick us up at the airport and bring some things from their house to help us settle in. Carolyn will be by later to take us grocery shopping and maybe a trip to IKEA for lamps or whatever we might need to make it all work.

Russell is offloading all the files and software onto 2 laptops. He didn't bring his software discs from storage. sigh. But he's figuring it out and calling the Apple people. Delta doesn't let anyone check their large computers as baggage anymore. They must have had problems. Continental would have but since our dear friend and client gave us his airline miles for our tickets we then switched to Delta. He will probably work in our field office to do his design since there may not be space. They may buy a large monitor over there that can hook up to his laptop so he can work on their website as part of his work. I will go in to work  at the field office some days also and it will be a 30 min. bus ride down to St. Remy from our place.

Jason takes dad's iMac for which he is excited to do his projects. We now have a European Skype no. and Jason will take any calls and confers with the European side of the office and can do graphic projects for the US side of BARRgraphics.

So many details to wrap up, had our Button Christmas party yesterday which was a joyous occasion. We visited our dear step mother Vera in the hospital and it was great to hear her talking away telling us her great stories as she likes to do. Since I'm a story person myself, I love to hear hers. Thank you Lord for bringing her out of the fog and continuing to heal her. She had an MRI yesterday and other tests which we are waiting to hear. She had a mild heart attack, seizures, & pneumonia. We would appreciate continued prayers for her.

Pray for our strength and legs as it will probably take 2 weeks to get used to the type of walking/stairs we will be doing since we will not have our own vehicle. That's how long it took me the last time I was there in March and April. Thanks for your concern for our lives. We have had met so many people on this journey and each one is precious.

Happenings in France

As you prepare for your family Christmas we ask if you would put in a little prayer for us as we get ready to leave. There have been wonderful times these past few months with beautiful people sharing in our lives and encouraging us. We hope we are able to encourage and love those along our path too. Our Visa applications have been dropped off at the French Embassy in Chicago. Now we wait for the Visas and enjoy Christmas with family and friends. Here's a little bit about what we will be doing in the coming months.
     Carol will be working with the France Vie director and his wife who oversee the church plants that are ongoing around the Paris region and in Normandy. She will also help administrate the Prayer conference again which will be next April. Carol and Russell will both be tutored in language. We will be working with Baptiste and Emilie and with their interesting projects. We will know more when we get there.
     Russell will also be redesigning France Vie's website & working with French communication team - We will do Specific outside projects and an art workshop to engage others on a spiritual level.
     These days we continue working on Rosetta Stone, reading some French, watching some French TV programs -like Warehouse 13. It's hilarious and interesting to see how much we can pick up. It's actually dubbed very well.
     As we pack and sort, Russell found a bat under a piece of furniture yesterday when moving it out in the barn. He thought the bat was dead and it looked at him with an evil eye and hissed at him. To see Russell hiss at me while telling the story was very scary. The bat must have been ill and didn't move. You don't want to know what my dear husband did to him. Grandpa said he'd never seen a bit out there.
     Here's a great story from one of our teammates in Paris:The season of Advent has already begun and Christmas will soon be upon us. Paris is beautiful this time of year with all the pretty white lights, but for most Noël is just a holiday that includes a big dinner party and gift-giving, with little spiritual significance. In that context we are encouraged by the movement we're seeing here in the heart of Paris.
     At the November event (Faith & Philosophy) 10 people came out to discuss Humanism and Faith. A French pastor gave a talk and then we had a great discussion. Some do not believe that God exists, but wondering and will return. We have these once a month.
     Another of our team mates began her new study last Monday. She wrote the week before begging for prayer as she prepares a group of studies entitled Objections to Christianity, for a special group of friends. The electricity went out just before everyone arrived and she lit candles. This actually helped to "break the ice" and laughter ensued when they realized what happened. Bible Study by Candlelight. Maybe it will be the new thing. She was very excited to have so many attend since many times before no one would show. There is a new season of openness. 7 to 10 have been attending this.
     We would love to hear from you all!

Joyeux Noël
Carol and Russell

January 2nd - Leave Date for France

It's been a while since posting and we apologize. Our schedules have been crazy and we arrived back from Chicago after visiting the French Embassy to apply for our Visas. That done, Russell is doing a few graphics jobs to finish paying bills this month and we pack for Paris, looking for little gifts for our children and grandchildren, parents and siblings for Christmas.

Not having internet at the place where we are staying has put a definite crunch on our time with the computer. We are able to check emails at McDonalds or if we are in Macon, MO at Russell's folks they have internet there. In the mean time we have been staying in Atlanta, MO (no internet) where our furniture is stored to continue to go through things to reduce what we have, give away more things and decide what we take on this leg of the journey. Not much.

World Team has been asking us to read manuals and sign off in agreement with their "Crisis Contingency Plans - 49 pages, US. Sending Country  - 39 pages and Global policy manuals". (no graphics and very serious information - ha!)

We've updated our wills, shared our wishes with witnesses, got forms notarized, and got 2 limited Power of Attorney forms for various events that could happen (we are hoping not). Our pictures are taken, applications filled out, our thumbprints and all our fingerprints are now officially with Interpol through France.

We just found out our French team found us an apartment and signing the papers today!! We can't wait to see it. Jerry, our director, said it's very nice. Thank you God. We are so looking forward to this new work experience with people we already dearly love with whom we will work side by side. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts for their work on our behalf.

There are so many people who have come alongside us to help us on this journey. You know who you are. Even today Wyatt's Automotive is helping us get our car working again putting in a fuel pump, fuel filter and a fuel line. ugh.. From experience that we've already had we know they are awesome people.

Prayer requests:

1. That our Visas are processed quickly.
2. That we use the limited time we have left wisely.
3. Our brains are full, pray that we would have clarity of mind for the remainder of decisions that need to be made.
4. We are using Russell's dad's truck until the 15th and will drive with his family down to the KC area. We may be carless after our extended family time during parts of the remainder of the month and our car  more than likely will not be ready when we head down to the Olathe/Lawrence area from the 16th until we leave or parts therein.

Blessings to all during this wonderful season to remember our Lord's birth!

Carol and Russell

An Extra Blessing

This picture was taken in August while we were attending ICC (the Intercultural Communications Course) in Waxhaw, NC, at the Wycliffe JAARS campus. One of Carol's aunts had been a translator in Mexico for fifty years before she died and we hoped we would meet someone with Wycliffe who had known her aunt. Carol was thrilled to meet Dottie. She worked with Carol’s Aunt “Rie” in Mexico. Dottie also took us to visit Rie’s translation partner, “Bish”, who lived in a nearby town. We had a wonderful time hearing stories of Mexico, some of which stretched back fifty years. Dottie told us that if she wanted to visit her friends Rie and Bish, she could either travel fifteen hours by horse or fifteen minutes by plane. Guess which she preferred.

We're Going to France!!!

We've been asked by World Team to come to France for five months as soon as arrangements can be made—no later than the 1st of January, 2012.

     First there was "Career" missionary status. Then we started talking about plan "B." Now World Team is asking both of us to come for a five month "Midterm" assignment.
     At this point, some of you are probably asking yourself, "What's all this about?" The following bullet points highlight a few of World Team's reasons and our own personal GOALS and DESIRES in agreeing to put plan "B" on hold and pursue this option.

1. There is an immediate need on the French team for our gifts and talents. The French team has wanted us to come for a long time now and reassured us there are several areas where our involvement would move the ministry in France forward. (Carol's recent two month trip to help administrate this years Paris Prayer Conference helped confirm this assertion.) This assignment will also help both of us bond with our team on a more intimate level.

2. Support raising has been rough, and referrals hard to come by. Don Best, Member Care Manager for World Team told us we are not alone in this challenge, as several other appointees are finding raising support for ministry in missions slow going. We hope these months in Paris will reenergize our efforts. We'll return with first hand knowledge of ministry needs, as well as fresh stories and examples of divine appointments God will have given us during our stay.

3. Those of you who have patiently invested time, money and prayer on our behalf will again see a visible return on your investment as we spend five months in focused, task specific ministry in France.

4. This assignment will give us a chance to face up to challenges and move forward. Occasionally, and for various reasons, we've had to confront questions as to our effectiveness in cross-cultural ministry in France. World Team, with our approval, feels it is time to explore these questions head on. The structure, job description, interactions with teammates, nationals, and other agencies' personnel will serve as the final “on the ground” test of our fit with World Team in France.

     If all goes as well as we expect during this short term assignment, we and World Team will know with certainty the goodness of fit for an ongoing partnership and long term ministry in France. This conclusion will be based, of course, on our demonstrated abilities during this mid-term assignment.
     The months ahead promise more than the usual dose of ambiguity. They also provide a real opportunity to walk by faith. Pray that we do so.

Details forthcoming!

Hi all,
     We are trying to finish up our newsletter and have to apologize for the delay. As we work with World Team on the details of our 5 month plan we will work with one of the church plants in St Quentin en Yvelines (southwest of Versailles, France) with Baptiste and Emilie who live there and have begun a new work there and also in downtown Paris for the prayer conference as well as with the France Vie office in a nearby town named St. Quentin.
     (Emilie tell me if this pronunciation is correct. - She has corrected me a couple of times!)
     Saint Quentin En Yvelines
     Sounds like: "Saw" with a nasal sound  and "Kaw - (nasal)-ta" - like cat.  En is pronounced "Aw -Yvelines is pronounced - "Eevawleen" Saw Kaw-ta Eevawleen. Try to say that a few times in a row.
     We keep waiting for the dust to settle with more details in place so we don't have to keep updating. The next couple of days should net us some results.
     In the meantime we have ramped up our language learning en Francaise and continue to meet with folks. We were given 4 names of pastor friends and families of the pastor here in Macon, MO (where Russell's folks are members). Their pastor hales from Arkansas and so we will try to get meetings set up in Arkansas before leaving for France. We also gave an application to a missions committee of a church in New York.
     Thank you to all who read this and are doing the work we have asked you to do.
     :0)
     Carol (along with Russell)

What's Mid Term?

     Over the past two or three months Carol and I have been in discussion with World Team about a cheaper alternative to long term missions. Our support, overall, has been slow in coming and we've been approved for what is termed "Mid-term" status.
     Mid-term for us would be a renewable two year term. As “mid-termers” instead of “career missionaries” we do not have to buy into the French social security system. Other expenses will also be less, resulting in a lower overall cost. This scenario would kick in when the short term 5 month assignment is completed and we are invited back to the field. We would return to the U.S. and finish our fundraising.
      Our original overall ministry goals remain intact but the details are being worked out by the French team and we will have a more complete update for you later.
     It’s our intention to renew this two year term and to eventually raise the additional support needed to stay on the field indefinitely. We also seek to honor your commitment to faithfully give and pray for our ministry in France. This new turn of events also reflects our wish to give you a return on your investment.

     - Russell

Processing

Hi all,
     This has been a time of hustling and bustling! From Monday, September 5th, when we left ICC in Waxhaw, NC, through Friday, September 23rd, we made our way back to Kansas with stops in Highpoint, NC; Hadden Heights, NJ; Warrington, PA; Cortland, NYk; Alto, MI; Chicago, IL; Macon, MO; and finally we've stopped for a few days to catch our breath and spend time with our kids here in Lawrence.
     We continue to raise our funding for France. The gift of the mobile home in Santa Cruz is now supplying our income. We have it listed as a vacation home on www.VRBO.com. It has been doing well.
     Russell has been preaching/speaking more and new opportunities continue to come in. Our hope is to go to Arkansas in October or November for Russell to speak down there.
     With the monthly gifts that have been committed and a shift to a renewable "mid-termer" instead of full-time career (which we will explain in detail in the next blog entry), and a portion of our income we bring to the table, we are now at 68% of our goal. We have others who have committed to supporting us but have not decided on a figure yet. It is very encouraging. All of this could bring us to 75% or higher.
    We met with Sister Carter and Sister Sherman in Philadelphia. Sister Carter attended the Paris Prayer Conference this past April. She wants Russell to design some greeting cards and tracts for her that she can sell for missions. She is writing the text. We enjoyed our time with them.
    Our home team in PA has told us they want us to be in France as soon as possible to begin working with the French team and we will be there in December or early January for a possible 5 month stretch, as a dry run. We are waiting to hear what duties will be. If it's language school for a shorter time first then we will do that followed by working on projects with the team. We will learn about each other, the culture and soak up the language. Russell and I have been practicing French quite a bit and will beef it up even more with our Rosetta Stone program, French movies, French news, & meetups with French people, etc.
     Yesterday, at Olathe Bible Church, our sending church in Olathe, KS, we were blessed to hear from James Hudson Taylor IV - great, great grandson of the very special person, Hudson Taylor and all their organization's work in East Asia. Very exciting to get first hand stories. Part of the heritage of our organization comes from the original Hudson's work and friendship with H. Grattan Guinness. Guinness wanted to go with Hudson to China in the 1800s but was asked by his dear friend to start a training school for those who want to go out. He did, and the school is still open today in London. But Guinness also started several missions sending agencies from the late 1800s and beyond.
     Isaiah 6:8 has been coming up a lot. "Then I heard the voice of the One saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "here am I, Send me!"  Isaiah 6:8
     The following writing comes out of this verse and the follow up verses: I just read this from a letter from a friend and his wife working in Amsterdam. It's from Frederick Buechner, Isaiah in Peculiar Treasures, a ... Who's Who.
     "Then one of the winged things touched his mouth with fire and said. 'There, it will be all right now,' and the Mystery Itself said, 'Who will it be?' and with charred lips he said, 'Me,' and Mystery said 'Go'. Mystery said, 'Go give the deaf hell till you're blue in the face and go show the blind heaven till you drop in your tracks because they'd sooner eat ground glass than swallow the bitter pill that puts roses in the cheeks and a gleam in the eye. Go do it.'"
     Wow.....Carol

We bid ICC Farewell

Carol and I receiving our certificates of completion at ICC

The Intercultural Communications Course is done. We left the Wycliffe JAARS campus in Waxhaw, NC, with our heads spinning and our hearts full. There is too much to tell, but we will try, over the next few weeks, to unpack some of what we learned about cross-cultural ministry, about ourselves, and about what it will mean for the journey ahead.

      The ICC experience was a month of constant input—overwhelming at times. One of the things I enjoyed the most was the emphasis on Spiritual Vitality. The two things that impact missionary effectiveness the most (and ultimately whether they last on the field) are spiritual maturity and team dynamics. Guess what we spent a lot of time on?

      Aside from scripture memory, and a great deal of time doing an inductive study of the book of Ephesians together, there was a three hour block of time one Saturday set aside for a personal spiritual retreat. Usually, when I get alone to pray I pick a spot in the woods or on the water, away from everything. I take my Bible and my journal and try, between reading, praying and writing, to sort out what I've been through and get perspective on the days ahead. This time I decided to forgo the usual and do something entirely different. There was a laundry room in the apartment building next door that Carol and I used while we were there. We were not on the rotation list for cleaning and I decided that for my three hours I would do just that. I cleaned and dusted inside and out. While I occupied my hands with work I let my mind and my heart be still and enjoyed a time of openness to the Spirit. No agenda. No expectations. Just a time when I could free myself to listen.

      I was on my knees trying to get to a spot behind the hot water heater when it came to me that there were places you could only get to on your knees. It may sound trite but try to accomplish anything without prayer and see where it leads.

      Thank you all for praying for us.         -Russell

Outside the French Congolese Church with new friends

An exercise dealing with world views

Carol during break time

Inside our apartment 

French Church and other worldly things

Hello again!

We've had a great week. One of our highlights has been to visit a French Congolese Church last Sunday. When they began to sing it was not only in French but with some African language as well. While singing during worship we heard some of the women making high pitched sounds with their tongues. It was quite wonderful when you add the bongos and all the other instruments. Throw in some movement up and down or from right to left which was a great way to praise. They put their whole selves into it. This is a mission church with 50 or more attending of all ages. Most of the women were dressed like they were going to a special event but they had accepted our culture and it was in the western style. I couple of the women were in beautiful African style dress. Either way they look beautiful. The meeting place is in an industrial area and they fixed their room up very pretty. Our hosts were very loving and wanted us to introduce ourselves. They did have the service translated in English along with French because their District pastor was coming to preach that day. He and his wife are helping them with their mission. We will return for the next couple of weeks and join them in prayer for one of their mid-week services.

We have begun Language Acquisition learning and will meet with our French LRP (language resource person) today as we learn new techniques to help us in our learning and also learn some French phrases and sentences. There are many new friends in our midst as we have 40 folks doing the same thing we are. Did you know Papua New Guinea has 900 different languages? I was amazed. Wycliffe has 600 people that work at their center in Papua and half of the people in our cultural training are going there. 200 of those 600 people are Nationals. Yesterday we learned about the Theology of Suffering. Very powerful as we saw a video from a couple where the husband and one of their teammates  had been shot while serving in Uganda with the Olangi people. The Lord let both of the men live but now the man we heard testify lives with serious chronic pain and they were not able to go back to the field after that. And yet, he has a powerful teaching ministry here in the states.

Many of us will be in areas of the world where the spiritual darkness and forces of evil are very powerful and some of those people don't want those serving God in their midst. But thankfully we serve a God who is all powerful and He has overcome this world of darkness and he loves them! I'm so thankful that we are overcomers and I'm thankful for our friends who want to help us bring the light of Christ to a dark world! Thank you Lord, Thank you!

Carol

Arrived at JAARS - Waxhaw, North Carolina

Hot and humid lately all around the midwest and into the east and south. Cooling temps today as Tropical Storm Emily came onto the east coast leaving us a nice rain which brought the temp down to 77-80. Nice for us, but flooding in Charlotte. Charlotte is about 20 or 30 min. from here. We have been assigned a French church to visit this month in Charlotte. This was our first day in cross-cultural training. One of the fun things I enjoyed was going to a market in the building. There was a group of us as buyers and a group as sellers. Each were given our distinctives as a buying or selling group. Myself the buyer had to look down, no eye contact, no conversation, pay for my items, no negotiating and shake hands at the end of the deal. The sellers on the other hand were trying to make eye contact, shake our hands and get to know us and our families. They wanted to bargain. The sellers didn't know what we would be like and we didn't know what the sellers would be like. Oh and I forgot to mention that we were to spit when we got bored. Crazy, funny, intimidating, loud, obnoxious!

We also learned about the differences in describing people in photos,  judgmental thoughts about what was happening in the photo and what emotions or feelings came out from looking at the photos. Then the teacher would tell us what was really happening in the photos. We had to discern what was real descriptions of things and what were our judgments. Sometimes what we think are real or true is really a judgment call and could be totally wrong.

4 tenets of learning to be around people you are not familiar with:
Assume Goodwill (about the other person)
Suspend Judgment
Tolerate Ambiguity (you don't have all the facts or information) and sometimes you have to wait for answers or act with less  
       information than you think you need.
Think Gray (instead of always black and white) -regarding culture.

Enough to chew on?