Moving Day

A hallway full of boxes, and if you look closely, Arianna
is sleeping in her stroller at the end.

Packing up the old house.  And to think, we arrived her four
years ago, with just suitcases.

Our move went well.  Most of the week, as you can imagine was spent preparing for the move. We managed to get almost everything boxed up by Thursday.  Thursday morning (which was Thanksgiving) we met at the house to look it over with the agency.  Boy, did we ever look it over.  Everything, every mark, every hole, every broken piece of everything was marked.  It took about two and a half hours, but we finally had our house.  There was electricity but no water and gas and we are missing the key to the large attic, which they are still looking for.  That afternoon I managed to move 35 boxes in preparation for the big move on Friday.  We also called and got the water turned on.  We called about the gas, which we will have to wait a week before it gets turned on, which means no heat until Friday.  Thursday evening, we picked up the moving truck, and Friday morning we had five guys from Carcassonne show up to help out.  We loaded and unloaded three loads in about 4 hours, and fed them lunch.  We had one more person come and help out in the afternoon, reassembling furniture.  The move went well, we did have a miss communication leading to breaking a hinge on the truck, but everything else went good.  A friend provided supper for us on Friday and lunch on Saturday, which was a great blessing, we did make good progress on emptying boxes and putting away furniture, but still have some work left.  Sunday morning, we had a surprise when the phone rang . . . the surprise wasn't that someone called, but that the phone rang.  We had been told that the phone/internet services would not be working until 8 days, which from our past experience we were expecting up to a couple of weeks.  Things were running Sunday morning.  Services went well Sunday morning.  And we treated ourselves to McDonalds for supper for a little break from unpacking.  The kids love the new place.  We have met two of our neighbors and they are both really nice.  Arianna has been wondering happily all over the house. She has slept really well at night.  The only complaint so far, is the cold.  It was about 55 degrees in the morning when we woke up.  We do have an electric heater that we plug in, and we keep one room warm and heat the kids rooms up before bed.  But we are really enjoying the space, and being so cose to everything.  I just took the kids back to school after lunch and when I got back, Angie looked at me with surprise and said, "Back already?"  Hope you enjoy the few pics that I took.  God bless, JASON

Safe arrival.

We made it back home. The flights went well. We got to Dallas airport without any problems and flew to Newark. The landing into Newark was real rough like last time, but fortunately no one got sick this time. We had a four hour wait in Newark before boarding the flight to Barcelona. Our seats were all seperate, but thankfully the stewardess helped us so that we were closer together in two groups of three. We arrived in Barcelona getting from one to three hours of sleep. We made it quickly through customs to find our friends waiting for us. All the 11 bags made it fine. We loaded up in two cars and made the three hour drive home. We thank our friends who had supper for us and even picked up groceries. We found some things around town look different. We have new neighbors. The house was in order, except there was a leak in the addition and mold was growing everywhere. I had mentioned the leak to the man who did the work before we left so I will have to get back in contact with him. We made it through Saturday allright. Everyone was exhausted, I had a small fever, but we lasted to a reasonable bed time and everyone crashed in their beds. We have quite a bit of unpacking to do and some yard work besides getting everyone back to school and into the routine again. Thanks for the prayers for our safe travel. God bless, JASON

Goodbye again.

We have spent the last few days saying goodbye to friends and family. Today we have packed most of the day, with occasional trips to wal-mart to pick up some needed items. We leave the house tomorrow morning about 7 am, and arrive in France on Saturday at 9:15 am. I think that we are all looking forward to getting settled again. I will let you know as soon as I can when we arrive. Attached pictures is the kids playing at Angie's parents house. God bless, JASON

The return.

We will leave in a few minutes for the airport. We have had quite a bit of snow today so we have decided to leave tonight and stay in a hotel in Barcelona. From there we will layover for a few hours in Newark and then arrive in Dallas a little after 9pm. Please pray that the flights go well that the kids act sane for most of the trip, or at least when people are looking. God bless, JASON

Back in France.

We finished out the retreat well. We left the Island of Aegina Thursday and took a bus to Corinth. We looked at the ancient city and then looked at the 3 mile canal that was dug to cross the land and connect the two seas together. The ancient city was very interesting and well preserved. I had not put the pictures on the computer yet and so I'll have to attach some later. We flew out Friday and arrived back at our house at 11 last night. Today we are getting clothes washed, getting some groceries stocked back up, banking, and paperwork. Overall the retreat was great. I feel very much worth the expenses. I would like to thank all the churches and individuals who gave over $36,000 to help pay for the expenses for this trip for the missionaries. Attached is a pic
ture of us and our missionary friends from Kenya, the Taylors. We had a lot of good times and made some more good memories with them. God bless, JASON

Home Furnishings

Saturday - Our last few days have been spent shopping. We have alternated between several stores Conforama, Ikea, Dartie, and But, looking for the best prices. So far we have purchased beds and matresses for the kids and a refrigerator. We are still looking for the best option for the kitchen cabinets, going to check out Ikea today. The most important thing about today is I walked the aisle at church 11 years ago today. Not what you think. I walked out of the church. . . . with Angie. Thats right, our 11 year anniversary. What a blessing it has been!
Sunday – The group that visited in the services in Carcasonne returned this Sunday and the services were translated into Dutch for them. After services we ate at McDonalds with a newly married couple that has just moved to Limoux. We had a wonderful visit.
Monday – We purchased our bed and washing machine. Today I put all the beds together and while Angie and Lilia went to Ikea to pick up bedding. It took several hours for both of us to get finished. We spent the night here in the new house.
Tuesday – Spending the day getting ready for Lynn and Brenda to arrive tomorrow. For those who may not know. They are a part of our “missionary family”. They are veteran missionaries who have personally worked with us since our call to the France. They have helped out immensely and we are really looking forward to their visit. They are coming through on their way to put on the Greece retreat for Missionaries in September, which we will be going to. We picked out couches and a small breakfast table today.
Wed. - I left the house at 4:30 this morning to get down to Barcelona at 8:00 to pick up Lynn and Brenda at the airport. I really liked the airport, it was small and not to busy. We made it home and had lunch. Then Lynn and I went to bring a load of stuff from the vacation home to our new home here in Magrie.
Today Angie and Brenda went shopping while Bro. Lynn and I put together an Armoire. Attached is a picture of the new place. God bless, JASON

Home

We have a house! We signed all the papers yesterday. The owners were real nice. Today we are working toward getting insurance, gas & electric swapped over, kids registered in school, and may even pick up some appliances. We are excited. Here is a picture of the home. Ok, for some reason I can't load a picture at this time. Pictures to come. God bless, JASON

Confirmation

Friday - The beach trip did not go so well. It was a little cool and real windy. We saw 2 large jellyfish and caught a small one, but the worst part was that the wind would kick up the sand and sand blast us. The kids really did not like that. I think it all lasted maybe 20 minutes before we left. The wind has continued to blow all day and it cooled off to about 60 degrees by days end. This afternoon we went to Limoux. On the way I got a call from the Car salesmen who sold us our Dacia. He had the wrong address on a paper, so we stopped by a McDonald's and faxed him the right paper. He said everything was going well. I showed Angie the home that I toured Thursday. The only negative aspects are that is has no parking, no yard, and the front door opens to the street, but it is roomy, around the corner from a school and in good condition, and only about 2.5 miles from Limoux. I mentioned to Angie that maybe God wants us to start out living in a smaller town because we are going to make a lot of mistakes. It's possible. We have another house that I found online that we are waiting to hear back about. It was in Limoux and had a yard, I called and emailed and have not heard back yet. Tomorrow we are getting a visit from the pastor of the church in Carcassonne.
Saturday – We had a good visit with the pastor this evening. He offered to give us a loan for the car. We took him up on it. It is amazing how the love for Christ unites us. Can you imagine loaning someone that you have only met twice $20,000 interest free.
Sunday – Services went real well this morning. We had some good visiting afterwards. There were several visitors. One family from Ireland was spending there vacation in the south. We had a good visit, they come to this church each time they take their vacation here. There were also fist time visitors from Limoux! It was a French lady who had recently married a man from England and they had just settled in Limoux. How amazing is that. I had planned for the work in Limoux to start slowly. I had in mind to spend a year building relationships and having Bible studies before I even brought up the idea to plant a church. If things continue as they have been we could already have a core group. This couple makes four that we know from Limoux who travel to the church in Carcassonne. As soon as this couple introduced themselves and where they were from the Pastor leaned over to us and said, “interesante”.
Monday - Just got a call that said the house viewing for tomorrow was cancelled because the couple decided to stay in the home. So, I scheduled us to see the home in La Digne D'amont, so Angie can see it, and then we will probably try for it. We are currently at McDonalds, just finished some grocery shopping. God bless, JASON

The search is on (again).

Sunday – Services went well at church. They had a good number there are several people who drive in from villages further out during the summer. People remembered us and had been praying for us. Monday - We had planned to go to the beach. We had put it off all last week and the kids had been begging to go. The weather end up being perfect for it. It was cloudy and cooler, it had rained a little in the morning so the beaches were not crowded at all. I thought being before the French holiday that it would be packed but that was not the case. The kids had such a good time. They are a lot of fun just to watch. Andrew would just get so excited he would start running down the beach. After we got back home and cleaned up, Angie and Lilia went grocery shopping and to check out the clothing sales one more time. They hit a lot of traffic and so were slow going. They did not make it back in time for supper so the boys and I had hotdogs (yeah!). Tomorrow we are trying to decide if we need to go to the fireworks in Carcassonne or not. It is the French independence day, the fireworks in Carcassonne are popular and famous, but about 10,000 people drive in for them and from what they were saying at church Sunday, it could take up to three hours to find you way out.

Thursday - We decided not to go to the fireworks. We enjoyed the Bastille day activities in our little village, they had some kid games and activities. Wednesday and Thursday was spent by me traveling to Limoux and visiting real estate agencies (immobiliers). We have two prospects in mind for a house, I saw the first today. It was a good size, nice location about 2 miles from Limoux, real nice interior, everything practically new, but no yard. I will see the other one Tuesday. We might take the kids to the beach again tomorrow. With me being gone during the day they get kind of restless at home. We did go for a walk Tuesday and saw a large cross on top of a hill near our house. It was dedicated to J. F. Bousquet who died "for the faith" in the 1700's. He was from the town of Ginestas where we are staying. Can anyone find out anything else about him? Enjoy the pictures from the past few days. God bless, JASON

Packing Up

This week the kids still have school, so Angie and I (and Andrew) have spent the time cleaning and packing. Today I have an appointment with the bank for a car loan. I am not really looking forward to going, not because of the paperwork or speaking in French, but because it is supposed to get up to 90 today and the bank has no A/C and only a few small windows on one side. I think that I will bring Lilia with me so that I have someone to suffer with.

We found out Monday from the real estate agency that the house we were looking into renting was not going to work out. So, Angie went to Paris yesterday with a friend and dropped off the deposit for the rental house that we are moving into next week. Interesting arrangement. The owner lives full time in the house, but works at a camp site. So in summer he rents out the house when he can, lives at work, and brings in extra money that way. Angie dropped the payment off with his mother who lives in Paris. Angie said she was very nice and had a good conversation with her.

We do not know what kind of access we will have to the internet over the next month and a half, I will try to blog at least once a week. The kids are really excited about the move. Today they helped us pack up all their toys. What they are really looking forward too is traveling to the beach. I must insert another Micah quote here. One day at school he got in trouble for playing roughly like the other boys were doing. Angie had a talk with him at home about making the right choices concerning his behavior. The next morning Micah walked in and Angie said, "Micah, I want you to make good choices today". Micah sighed and said, "Okay Mom, go ahead and tell me what they are."

We pick up the rental car Friday and the moving van monday. We will keep the rental car for three weeks because our car we purchased does not arrive until between July 20th - 28th. I took some pictures of the kids sleeping the other day (attached). Somehow Micah and Caleb ended up in the same bed, and Lilia always sleeps so crazy. God bless, JASON

Tests are in, school is over.

School finished well. We finished and corrected the last tests. Students met for the last times and said our goodbyes and prayed for eachother. We also received the TCF test results. We both received a level B2. As always Angie's grade was better than mine in fact she was close to a C1 level. About these levels, A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. They are levels of language speaking ability. A1 would be beginners who can just speak greetings and ask simple questions. C2 would be levels that most french have not even attained, more for French teachers. Our level B2 is described as

Intermédiaire avancé

Maîtrise générale et spontanée de la langue. La personne peut comprendre l'essentiel d'un texte complexe. Elle peut participer à une conversation sur un sujet général ou professionnel de façon claire et détaillée en donnant des avis argumentés.

I have no idea what all that means. No just kidding. . . General mastery and spontanaity with the language. The person can understand the essential of a difficult text. The person can participate in a conversation about a general or professional subject in a manner clear and detailled while giving their points of vue or argumentative opinions. Of course the learning will never stop. Our vocabulary will continue to grow, we plan on finding language partners to help our conversational skills continue to grow as well.

As of right now I am waiting to hear the final answer from the real estate agent. We really appreciated the help of the the school and our contacts in the south who we able to vouch for us and get the process moving again. The kids do not finish school until Thursday, we will spend the time between now and them packing, securing our housing, and researching more about a car loan. Attached pictures are from the church kermesse (fair or bazaar) for the kids. Andrew did not go but he did not want to be left out so we did what we could. God bless, JASON

Fireworks

This weekend was the celebration of music in France. There have been concerts and activities all weekend. Saturday night there was a firework show. We wanted to take the kids but it does not get dark until about 11 at night. We decided why not and stipulated that they must have a nap Saturday and Sunday to make up for it. We ended up having a wonderful time. We got there about 10:30 and bought the kids some fancy flashlights to play with while we waited. There must have been several thousand people there in the park, and no telling how many others viewing from their apartments and other parts of the city. We were not sure how Andrew would react to the fireworks because Caleb never liked the noise of them and spent his first few shows burying his face in Mommy or Daddy's shoulder, but after the first ones went off, Andrew said, "Wow!" It was amazing. The theme was "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". It was celebrating the anniversary of landing on the moon. It was well choreagraphed (spelling?) with the music that played on the loud speakers.  We ended up walking down and watching some of the concert after the fireworks were over. Overall the night was a wonderful success. Which led to a three hour nap for everyone Sunday afternoon. That was an excellent fathers day gift.
Sunday morning we enjoyed hearing from some representatives of the French chapter of the Gideons. There was some great testimonies and I will be sure to look them up in our region in the south. The house hunt still continues, we sent our paperwork today to another prospect. We pray that all will go well. School went well today. Two more tests behind us and one more to go. God bless, JASON

Avis d'imposition

We received a letter from the real estate agent that said . . . actually we couldn't understand what it said. We knew it said we were rejected but we could not tell why. So we took it to the language school where . . . no one know what it meant. So finally we received a call from the agent. What is boils down to is the home owner has insurance that requires that the renters have an "avis d'imposition". That is a French tax paper stating the annual income of the person. No problem we say, we do we get it. Angie went to the office and asked about it. They said that they would need our tax papers for the last two years. Those are being sent to us and should arrive tomorrow. Angie forgot to ask while she was there how long it would take to receive the avis d'imposition. So hopefully when she goes with the paperwork tomorrow they will be able to get it to her right away. Not likely.
School is going well, mainly because the end is almost here. That does not mean that the homework load is any lighter unfortunately. I just realize that it has been a while since I included a quote from Micah. Here is one from today. I said to him, "I'll give you four or five more minutes to clean your room. He said, "I choose five." The picture is from when Micah's class went on a field trip to the woods. On the way back he was tired from all the running around. Angie, who went along with them, took this picture on the bus ride back. God bless, JASON

TCF

The week is passing well. We finished three tests already this week. The main test was today. The TCF (test de connaissance de la langue française) is a test that tests the french level of foreigners. We took the parts "grammaire", oral comprehension, and reading comprehension. There are two other parts that were optional oral and written expression. We opted not to take them. The test took about and hour and a half. It was difficult at times. The questions are organized so that they get harder the further you go. In three weeks we should have the results. They will be program down by section so that we will know what areas we are weaker in and which we are stronger in. I am hoping for a level B2. I will explain later exactly what that is. Thanks for the prayers . We are still waiting to hear if we have been approved for the house in Limoux. I got a call yesterday from the real estate agent saying he needed another paper. I wrote it quickly and got it signed by our missions treasurer and faxed it the next day. Hopefully we will be hearing from them soon. Attached picture is from Caleb's end of school program last week. He in the center. He did an excellent job. God bless, JASON

Friday again.

We have had a busy but productive Friday. Today is Andrew's birthday. He is now three years old. We will have a party with his friends at the language school garden tomorrow. He is pictured above playing soccer, he has a good level of skill already. He has already got it down to say three and hold up the three fingers when someone asks how old he is.

Last week we sent our papers by email to the real estate agent in Limoux. We never heard anything from him. We called earlier in the week and left messages but received no call back. Angie called and got a hold of the secretary today. She said that the could not open the PDF files. Okay. Angie asked why they didn't but the lady had no answer. So we got them faxed this evening.

In slightly less amazing news, Barak Obama arrived at Orly Airport today, just about 2 miles from where we live. He plans to be here for the D-day festivities in the North. I do not think that he plans on coming to the birthday party.

This weekend I have a lot of school work to do. We have a test Monday and Tuesday. The big language test on Wednesday. I have a short lesson to bring Monday and the chapel service to do Friday. And on top of that our usual homework. But right now it is time to enjoy a movie with the birthday boy. God bless, JASON

House Hunting in France

Hello everyone, Angie here. I thought I would write about all that has happened lately. The trip to Limoux went great. Michele, a friend from language school went with me and we had a blast. We got a late start for the trip down south because we both had morning class and while she returned from her class in Paris, I watched Andrew so Jason could give his devotional at school. Finally we were both ready and we left. We had McDonald's on the way and saw a Tati (really good discount store)and had to do some quick 10 minute shopping because it was closing at 7pm. Back on the road we were just enjoying all the sunshine and green fields all around. It took a while but we finally arrived at our hosts home at 11pm. We were warmly welcomed by our hosts and their two little doggies. After putting our bags in our room Genevieve immediately took me out across the street to show me this superbly kept home. It was vacant thankfully since we were taking a very close look. The owner had even put in air conditioning. But I have already stayed in a house in that neighborhood and they are all almost the same and I really wanted something a little more spacious and private. This was a new neighborhood and non of the hedges were grown up enough for privacy. I wasn't too interested but it was kind of our host to show us. Saturday we met the agent and he said he had some houses planned to show us, one I had seen online and one that I had not seen. Another one online had already been seen by two couples who were both serious and he said he was going to let them have their chance at it. Then he had a phone call. Then we left to see house number one. It was outside of town about 3 miles in a little village neighborhood. It was updated with fresh paint and a new shower but it had tiny rooms and felt cramped. Another drawback was that the yard wasn't fenced so it wasn't as safe as we would like it for the kids. As we finished the tour of house 1 the agent begins to tell me that he really has no other product to show or offer me. I think what he was saying was none that are as well done as this one. But I said to him that I really needed him to show me another one to compare with this one. ( In my mind I was thinking that house 2 will have to be really bad to make me feel at peace with this one and besides that I made an appointment and drove 8 hours and I think I should get to see more than one house.) I have learned to be more insistent here because that is just the only way things get done. So he took us to house 2. It was right in town in a really cute neighborhood. The house was attached on one side to another house but the yards were divided and private with really big hedges. The house looks very old world French with the dark wood (which I love) and the French doors, just charming. The living/dining area was much larger than the first house. The kitchen was decent sized with a stovetop, oven and cabinetry already there! Somethings we would have normally had to purchase ourselves. There was a "back" kitchen with a sink just next to the kitchen (very commom here) which would be a laundry room. The back yard was really good sized (for France) with a cute cherry tree in one corner and totally fenced -good for the safety of the kids. Then we went upstairs, and at this point I hadn't caught on that it was a 4 bedroom but Jason and I had discussed having a 3 bedroom with a back kitchen that could serve as a guest room if needed. So I was already thinking that this house could work. Upstairs the bedrooms were roomy and they had closets already, something else we would have had to buy ourselves! What a blessing- God sure knows our needs! The bathroom had a bathtub not just a shower - I was really glad about that. Then we noticed that there was a fourth bedroom. And as if we weren't enchanted already that did it for us. One bedroom also had a cute balcony. I think the agent was surprised we liked it but glad he had brought us there. There were other great things about this house too. We had discussed the need for parking space if we had a home Bible study and this house looks out over a big square- one side with shrubs and benches and the other side with trees and along two sides of the square, there are about 20 parking spaces. Also, in the connecting house/building the lower floor looks like it is an office space and it looked empty. The agent said that the upstairs was an appartment that is vacant and the owner is not trying to fill it currently. Very interesting. The kids schools are very nearby. Hopefully, if all works out, we will meet lots of people from the neighborhood just on the walk to and from school. Let me say that I couldn't have done it without my friend Michele. She was such a great help to me in giving a second opinion. I knew I would need someone with me and the Lord provided me with the perfect person I needed for the trip! Although the agent didn't much like her. If she looked as though she was about to say something negative he would interrupt her. Salesmen and their tactics.
After the appointment we went to Carcassonne to enjoy having a car to do some shopping. I showed Michele the big castle and at 8pm we had dinner back with Roger and Genevieve. It was a really nice time and we stayed up late visiting. They were sharing some of their heartaches with me. Please pray for them. Sunday we headed back to Paris and read and discussed God's word on the way. It was a great trip- although short and busy. We are so thankful for our hosts generosity and pray a special blessing on them for it. We are also thankful for God's amazing providence. We hope to hear from the agent this week if we are accepted as renters. If something should not work out though we know God has something else in mind. God Bless You All, ANGIE

House Hunting

Angie made a trip this past weekend to look at houses in Limoux. She had a real nice trip. We rented her a small car and thankfully she had a friend from the language school that was kind enough to accompany her. We had some friends from Limoux that offered them a place to stay the night. Be in prayer for this elderly couple because they are unsaved and God has really put them into a position to need Him. Angie was able to view two houses and found the second one really what she was looking for. It was a good size and in a nice location and had a pretty large yard by French standards. We will start the paper work and see what happens. God has been opening the doors for us in wonderful ways. We have found a car, and well on the way to finding a house, there is a good church in the area we can minister with while we wait for our work to get started, we have several contacts in Limoux already and many opportunities to make other relationships.

In other news, Caleb had a field trip to view the museum of national history in Paris. It was a pretty day for it. It got up around 80 today. Of course realize that there is no A/C in any of the buildings. Some of the students from the south were mentioning how hot it was. I was picking on them for being from the south where it gets up to over 100 every summer. Another student was England came by and complained. I mentioned that he was going to serve in Africa after school, he should be wearing a coat. A front is supposed to come through tonight and cool things off. It did get warm, but I didn't mention it to anyone that I noticed also. God bless, JASON

BBQ

Friday was a holiday here so the school had a BBQ. It went real well. Everyone brought their own meat and then shared side dishes. We had meat cooking on the grill for probably 3 hours. We brought hotdogs for lunch and also grilled some chicken for supper. Others did the same thing. I had the privelege of grilling Octopus for someone, which was a first for me. We played a couple games of volleyball afterwards. Angie felt better and really enjoyed getting out.

We are still waiting to hear from the car dealer about the Dacia. He was waiting to hear from a couple salesmen and said he would call back Monday. Angie has found a couple of nice homes in Limoux that she is interested in as well. She will most likely be traveling there in the next couple of weeks to settle in on one for sure.

Last night we swapped Lilia for two boys from another language school family. Caleb was real excited about his first "spending the night party". So Lilia is getting to spend the night with a friend and Caleb had two friends over to spend the night with him. They have had a real good time together. Attached are some pictures of the BBQ. God bless, JASON

The trip home

So I made it home yesterday after twenty-four hours of traveling with 5 airports, 4 flights, and 1 train. Whew! It went pretty smoothly. Kenya dropped me at the Malindi airport where there was no security check. It was a good flight to Nairobi where I sent last minute post cards and bought a shirt for Jason that we had tried to find in his size in Malindi. Then I thought I was boarding at gate 4 so I waited there. There were more gates at the end of the hall and around the corner but I didn't look down there. After a while my destination still was not listed on the screen so I looked down the hall and the next gate wasn 't gate 5 it was 4B so I realized that was probably the gate I should be at so I went. When I got to the desk it was a mess. It was like I came in on the back side of the security checkpoint because the waiting room full of people was on the other side of the conveyor belt and metal detector. There was one man in front of me and about ten people came behind me. We lined up to send our bags through the conveyer belt but on the other side about 100 people were already lined up and had begun the process. At the same time the security guys were getting agitated because they could not find the manifest. Things were not looking too good. The lady behind me asked where the other people had just come from and they said Somalia. Oh! Now we understood. She said the security is tight when you come from there. She said once she came through that way and there was even a K9 dog to sniff everyone. No wonder the security guys were on edge. So we waited while they passed through security, came through the metal detector and around to our side to collect their items. Then they were told to wait on our side which was not very spacious until they told them where to go next. Finally they realised our side would not hold anymore people so they stopped the people on the other side so that we could go through. That made them oh so happy as you can imagine! Finally, we sent our items through and passed to the other side where the waiting room was and we waited. I guess they got everything all sorted out. It was confusing. I have never seen a security checkpoint in an airport that worked 2 directions. The flight to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania went well. When we got to the airport there we were looking for the direction to go for connecting flights. It was around 7pm when we got there. We had people telling us two different directions to go (and the airport is really small) They kept trying to send us to customs and I kept saying we are not staying in Tanzania we are connecting to Amsterdam. They said "Tonight?" I said yes. They were like oh! Come this way we have already locked the doors. They unlocked them and had us wait. Then they took our passports and boarding passes and tried to get us all sorted out. It was funny like they forgot they had more flights going out that night! It turned out the flight had about 200 or more people on it. In the meantime there was 6 of us for Amsterdam and 4 for Zurich. The Zurich people got to their place. Then the one man kept giving one girl in our group a hard time about her luggage. She looked very young and I wondered if it was cultural that he would speak to her harshly. Another man tried to take up for her a little and questioned the man about it. It turned out that this man was a professional or semi-pro golfer who had just played in a tournament in Nairobi. One of the other men waiting with us recognized him because he had played in some of the same tournaments. Anyway, for some reason the Kenyan staff had written to stop her luggage in Dar es Salaam. Also they had kindly charged her for extra weight on her baggage instead of an extra piece like they should have. It was cheaper for her because her extra box was very lightweight. They were trying to be kind but the next airport caught the error. One man came and she paid him $200 more dollars and he said he would bring the receipt. She and I had a really nice visit while we waited. Her name was Shirley. She works for a flower company in Nairobi and was on the way to an exhibition in St. Petersburg, Russia. She told me that Kenya is the second leading exporter of cut flowers in the world after Equador. One of her clients in France is a store at the market at the end of the bus line that runs by my house. (Of all the places in France!) Small world! She said the Tanzanians kept talking to her and every sentence began with "You Kenyans-" She said they didn't like Kenyans much or at least it seemed that way in this airport. Time passed and people began to line up and go through security and still no receipt. So I asked if she wanted we to go with her and we would get it. She said yes and we went. Everyone seemed to give her a hard time, one lady tried to send us back up to wait- speaking harshly to her again. She turned to go and I said no we should wait right here. They have your money and they owe you a receipt. So the security guys held our passports and let us go through to where the lady was and we stood in her sight and waited. It took about 2 minutes and we had it. Shirley said she was too soft and it was because they were afraid of me that they got it done so fast. I thought it was funny- I never said a word to the workers. I just told her not to leave but to wait there. I guess it worked. We got in line to go through security. The flight to Amsterdam was good. I think I slept 6 of the 9 hours. When we got off there was a passport check as we offloaded the plane at the end of the gate. That was a first for me. I said goodbye to Shirley after we exchanged emails. Then I changed to warmer clothes that had not been sweated on. Then I bought a backpack. I had a big purse but both the straps were very close to breaking on because of too much weight (literally hanging by a thread) and another tote bag that one strap had already broken on because of the weight! I was going to be in bad shape if anymore straps broke. So I put the tote bag in the backpack and carried the purse without using the straps. I bought a cup of coffee and waited for my 9:30 flight to Paris. I saw a lady with a Texas A&M shirt on and said hello to a fellow Texan. She still had much traveling to do. Thankfully I was almost home. I got to Paris. Took the one hour train ride from the airport to home and began to walk home. A man helped me with my bag down the stairs at the train station-a common thing to do here. Then he began questioning me about my trip. He was from Congo and asked me how Obama's place (Kenya)was, did I vote for him, etc. Just coming back from Kenya I noticed that the people there seemed to ask lots of questions about what you were doing and that sort so I was just thinking it was his culture to be so curious- It is not French culture to be so. But then he said something about going out for a drink sometime and I said No sorry I'm married. He was kind of shocked then I realized that I needed to cross the road so I said Au revoir! Waited one second and somebody behind me said Hi Angie.
It was some fellow students Katie and James. They had just gotten back from Greece and were on the same train. I said boy am I glad to see you guys! So I just kept walking and had a nice visit with Katie and James my rescuers. Then I noticed that the guy had crossed to the other side of the road where I was going. I was relieved they were there. I did not have too far to walk and I did not want that guy to see where I lived. I got home was greeted by 5 big smiling faces, gave and received some big hugs, passed out gifts and settled in. I'm home!
Thanks for your prayers, ANGIE

Home.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we made it home okay. The trip went real well and God even granted us the chance to get into a spiritual discussion. I will give more details and share pictures in the blogs to come. Just received the news that my grandfather, Clyde Clark passed away yesterday. He was a godly man . He trusted Jesus to save him as a young man. He had a great sense of humor and great faith as well. He was a missionary and pastor for about 50 years. I praise God for his example of faith, for raising my father up in the way of the Lord, for his support of me and my family and our work here. He died yesterday, but he is doing great now. He was a saint, all who are saved are saints. The greek word for saint, sounds like - hagios, is from two words meaning literally "not of earth". Those who have accepted Jesus' sacrifice for their sins and put their faith and trust in him as savior are just temporary dwellers on this land. Now, he is truly home, in heaven with his Savior Jesus Christ, he will be missed here on earth, but I will see him again. Pictured is me, my father and grandfather. JASON