Thanks for the Prayers!

So what does it mean to pray?  And how does encouragement work?

Sometimes I really don't know. I am amazed to be allowed in on this prayer thing.  To think we are given the permission, the ability, no, the command to go to the throne of God and lift our requests and praises.  What a gift He has given to us to allow such a thing!
Do we praise Him?  For our food and shelter, clothes and the beauty surrounding us, for life, love, living far from home?  He is SO good to us in so many ways.
Thank you for praying.  We are not in a hard place in France.  It is a wonderful, friendly, beautiful place.  But many people here are lost and don't talk about God at all.  And French, for most of us, is difficult to learn.  We practice and fail most of the time.  We don't expect to know things or understand, but we try so hard.

This is just a bit the prayers and encouragement we are so thankful for- this came in a letter (e-mail) today:
 I will add you and Chris to the bulletin this week so others can lift your needs before God with me.  You two are not alone in this journey. God has given us to you as your missionary partners. We will encourage and support you all the way. In his time he will make all things possible. Even the school, and pronunciation.  Dig deep my sister.  And we shall pray J
How can we not rejoice knowing this!

Thank you God- for e-mails, texts, calls, and visits. Thank you for Megan, for new friends in the making here, for our family.  Thank you for our school to learn and caring Christian teacher.  Thank you for our children, whom we really enjoy being around and watch growing.  Thank you for hope for the future.
Thank you for caring about our friends, the Stoners, who left language school last week and now know that Dan has lymphoma (read his story and pray-) and will be in treatment until December and for providing just what they needed at every turn.
Thank you for Chris's sister Maureen battling breast cancer and for each family member with their own needs that we lift up regularly.
Thank you for caring about the little things as well as the big ones.  Thank you for knowing our hearts and loving us still.
We are not worthy. But we are thankful!

Fountain in hmmm.... I don't remember. Every city has several.

Lac Annecy

In Zurich, Switzerland with Pam taking a tour of a church

'Chance' meetings part 2

Fun story- just a glimpse of God being himself and allowing us to enjoy it!

Our first day in Paris we were between the musée d'orsay and Luxembourg Gardens at a little café.  It was a late lunch and everyone was hungry.  It was good!

Not a bad self shot!

Megan's meal

My salad

When we were almost finished eating, a nice older American woman started up a conversation with Kristin.  She asked how we liked Paris, how long we were there, where we are from - the usual questions.  Eventually she got that we are living in France for language school for work and will move to Cameroon afterwards.  Chris explained that we are in the ministry and will work there.  She asked if Kristin would write her an e-mail from Cameroon, that she had never gotten an e-mail from there.  As we looked for a paper for her, I pulled out our prayer card because it has our e-mail and info on it.  She was excited and intrigued about the goal of using local arts and music and marrying scripture and the gospel with it. I asked for her name and what she did. She said it is Sybil and her husband is Martin and that they were writers.  I probed a bit and she said they were comedy writers in California, but now lived in New York. She gave us her e-mail and left with her husband. She was just a nice lady and kind to our children.

After she left, Chris said, 'I wonder...' So we googled Sybil and Martin, comedy writers, and what do you know, they are fairly famous sit-com writers.  Sybil Sage wrote one of my favorite Magnum PI episodes!  We found that she now makes ornate funeral urns and still writes articles occasionally.

That was just fun and random and we enjoyed briefly meeting this woman.

But....

On our last day in Paris, after saying goodbye to Dirk and his family, we took the subway back to where we left the car. And who do you think we ran into in the nearly deserted August subway system? Sybil, Martin and their son.  How fun was that?  She remembered us and was surprised as we were at the 'chance' meeting.  We admitted that we had googled her and enjoyed her work.  She seemed truly pleased that we admired and appreciated it.  I hugged her (good to hug Americans!) and told her it was God ordained, not chance, and that the best part about meeting her was that she is just a regular person and was so kind.  We all enjoyed the moment.

Just before saying goodbye to Dirk

Why did we meet Mrs. Sage? Twice? We may never know, but I am again thankful for God's fingers in our lives in small and large ways.  He is good. All the time.

The 2 stuffed animals who made it in the car- proof they were in Paris!

Luxembourg and Beyond

Leaving Germany was hard.  We really enjoyed meeting new friends and seeing the town!  We drove several hours that night to a hotel and decided not to drive all the way to Normandy.  TOO FAR!  We were avoiding toll roads, and driving just takes a long time.  Instead we drove through Luxembourg, Belgium, and on to a suburb north of Paris for the night.

Luxembourg was by far the most beautiful city we have seen.  It is clean, lovely to see, museums, a fantastic park, a castle, rivers, hidden streets down the hill and elephants (?!)... but we only had a
few hours to enjoy it.

Cool Park

Romanian Embassy (if you are reading
Laura and Dorin, taken in your honor)

Geocache in the center of the city by the Palace

Elephant 

Lunch- pizza is cheap everywhere!

More Elephants

Driving through Belgium we were looking for a boulangerie (bread store) to buy something for breakfast.  The only one we found only had bread left, no breakfast things.  The next town only had a frite stand (french fries)- we stopped because the kids needed to try frites in their birthplace!

Belgian totem pole?

Yum! Good Belgian Frites!

As we left southern Belgium and entered France, the houses were all cream or white, and in France some had shutters again.  There seemed to be many newer homes and very few old places.  I think this area was hit hard in the war.  I missed the Savoie region of France with homes of colors and mountains!  When we drove through Reims, we missed our turn to skirt the city and I was glad!  That is a cool city - all kinds of interesting buildings and castles.  I looked it up after we passed through.  Definitely a place to visit - very interesting city.  They used to crown all the French kings there.
We arrived very late at our hotel, ate our customary bar of chocolate ( 1 bar split 6 ways) and went to sleep.

In the morning I could see the Eiffel tower and Sacre Coeur in the distance from our room!  Cool!  (We got 2 rooms.  All the rooms of this hotel have a larger double on the bottom and a twin sized bunk above.  So, 3 and 3 in each room- no fridge, no microwave, very small, but clean and with a bath in the room. And of course inexpensive.)  We ate and planned a route for the day, packed picnic supplies and water and headed out.


Three days in Paris- each day we drove around the Arch de Triumph.  Day 1 was Musée d'Orsay, Luxembourg Gardens, and a drive by of Montmartre.

First time around...

Clock tower in the Musée d'Orsay

Happy Bee Keeper at the Luxembourg Gardens, Paris

The famous boats at the gardens

Noah helping kids at the park

First time by SacreCoeur

Day 2 was the Louvre, sight seeing on the Seine, a souvenir, and Sacre Coeur/ Montmarte.

Day 2 around....

The Louvre

Dungeon of the Louvre- very cool!

We saw the Mona Lisa, sort of....

The rest of the people who saw the Mona Lisa...

Statues at the Louvre

Lunch

Art- I bought a small one-

More art.....

Dinner

Art at Montmartre...

Entertainment at Montmartre- watch for pickpockets
my backpack was unzipped after this
nothing missing though....

Kristin's souvenir

Day 3 we met my old friend Dirk and his family at the Eiffel Tower (we walked up to the 2nd level), Climbed to the top of the Arch de Triumph, Notre Dame, walked the Isle de la cité, and the Isle Saint-Louis and the final - and best thing of the time in Paris - was an evening boat tour of the city. Not too expensive, beautiful views, and so nice to do with Dirk and his family!

Below

Above

After with the Sieber family

On top of the Arch de Triumph

Lunch

Notre Dame's famous windows

The bridge with locks

Sunset from the river

New friends 

No longer strangers....

So blessed and so much more to write- but another day...

Glad we have had all the practice walking!  But my legs hurt for 2 days after climbing both the Tower and the Arch!