August 11, 2006

Hello!

Wow - the year has gone fast! This is the last email update you'll receive from us for a while - probably until December. We finish up with our last group here at the Chateau on the 28th of August, which is only a little over two weeks away. After that, we're without responsibilities, jobs, or income until February, so we're taking advantage of the possibly only time we'll have this much open time in one block to take a long hike. We'll be following the Saint James Way - you can read more about it on the wikipedia page.

If we make it the whole way that we're planning to go, we'll be hiking a little over 1,800km (1,100 miles). It will take about 75 days going 24km/day - about 6hrs walking each day. We'll be doing the Paris route, which isn't a very common route, but once we hit Spain we'll be joining the other routes, where tens of thousands of people walk each year.

If all goes well, we'll finish up in mid-November, and fly back to the U.S. just in time to spend Thanksgiving with my family in Indiana. Wish us luck!

We'll appreciate your prayers during the next months, as we continue to work out a plan for returning to the Chateau. We're still tentatively planning on Jan 2008, but there are still many details to work out. Additional training, language study, teammates to work at the Chateau with us, as well as finding financial partners during our time in the U.S. are just a few of the things we'll be working on and talking with GBIM about.

Ecole Radio Biblique
This month we currently have the ERB group here - a group of people working with north African countries. They're a great group, and we've enjoyed being able to have them here.

left: One of the small break-out groups during the ERB conference - lots of discussion and training took place during their week here. right - The ERB group also had an organized program for the children, and this lesson on "The Fruit of the Spirit" doubled as meal preparation for lunch.

This weekend we're going to have an astronomy night with youth from the Macon and Chalon churches - a Christian astronomer will be joining us for a cookout and camp-out in the orchard. We're excited about this, since it was planned by the youth groups themselves, not something officially organized by the church or by us - and it's exciting to have them take ownership and use the Chateau themselves.

Work Projects
We're trying to finish up the projects we've started around here before we leave. Although Pam left on the first of August, we now have another person to help us, Dennis, from the Aalen Church in Germany. He's 15, and just decided to use a few weeks of his summer vacation to help out - needless to say, a huge encouragement to us not only for the help, but also because of the interest European churches are showing in the ministry of the Chateau.

We've just about finished up the library, so I'll go ahead and post pictures of that for you, since I'm not going to have a chance before we leave to put together another newsletter.

The stairwell/hallway is also just about finished, just a few more doors (there are 7 doors in the hallway) to paint, and a little more work on the stripe.

Jay fixing a broken window (we're becoming professionals at this) and working on painting the stripe in the hallway

be the first to email us and tell us where our inspiration for the color scheme of the hallway came from, and you'll win a chocolate bar from France!

Library is just about finished with new stucco, paint, and new wiring & lights.

Cool et Pas-Cool
In July, Debbie and I took a trip to Switzerland - up to Schaffhausen to celebrate Jordan Cone and Tirza Ernst's wedding. We had a great time, and enjoyed seeing old friends. I've decided to use images from there for this month's Cool/Pas-Cool. Cool would be the amazing way that they utilize their vehicles. This actually goes for France as well. Although this picture isn't that crazy - just a canoe on a tiny car - not a minute earlier a moped drove down the road towing what was probably about a 15ft SPEEDBOAT on a trailer. By the time I had my camera out, it was gone, and I had to settle for the canoe on the tiny car. I've also seen a VW Golf towing a camper (not a pop-up, a full 15ft camper) going down the toll road at 120kmh. I don't even thing you're allowed to put a hitch on a Golf in the U.S.

Pas-cool will go to the confusing signs we encountered in Switzerland. Although I'm sure they would all make sense if I had studied for a driving license in Switzerland, they didn't make to much sense to me with my American driving background. The bottom symbol on here is a "No Parking" sign. However, it has a diagonal bar though it, leading to the obvious conclusion that this is actually a "Non-No Parking" zone... demonstrated by the vehicle parked squarely behind the sign.

Prayer Requests
I'm just going to leave you with one broad prayer request for us. Please pray for wisdom as we talk with GBIM and plan for our next term. The transitioning to a European-led Chateau ministry is a great opportunity for Debbie and I - and we're really looking forward to the challenge. But there are a lot of details to think through and a lot of work ahead of us. We'll have a lot of time to think and pray during our hike as well. Thanks again to all of you who have supported us so faithfully this year, and have made so much possible through the ministry of the Chateau.

July 11 , 2006

Bonjour from a much warmer Chateau than we're used to!
This month we're especially thankful for friends with swimming pools, and envious of those friends with AC in their cars. I suppose I should be used to the warmer weather after growing up in Africa, but I suppose I've been spoiled for too long. But along with the warm weather, we've enjoyed a lot of outdoor activities.

The Macon church annual picnic was this month, and was a great time of fellowship with the church family we've grown to be a part of. If you ever come to France - the word "picnic" is something you don't have to translate, and they're just as popular here in the summer as they were in the U.S.

We also invited some friends from the church over to watch the final match of the World Cup on a projector outside in the Chateau lawn - and although France didn't win, we had a great time together .

Ghana Group
We had a group of young Ghana imigrants here at the Chateau this weekend - 90 of them instead of the 50 we had been told. Luckily, they were doing their own cooking, and all we had to do was try to find room for all of them to sleep - somewhat tricky since we only have 70 beds. But they were very flexible, and didn't mind mattresses on the floor. They stayed for three days, and since Ghana's official language is English, they did all their worship times in English, and were the liveliest group we've had yet!

Library
A few weeks ago, John & Rebecca Gurnish, who were on a GO Team to Paris came down to the Chateau for a few days just to give us a hand. Debbie had just finished texturing the walls with a kind of plaster, so they helped us paint the walls and all the trim work, as well as finish up some other projects.

Weekend Trip to Carcassonne
Last weekend Pam, Debbie, and I drove down to Carcassonne for a quick camping trip. Carcassonne is a fortified town, some of its current structure dating back to Roman builders in 100BC. After the second wall was completed in the 1200's, it was never conquered, and it's easy to see why. I couldn't really get pictures of the entire town, so it's kinda hard to see the scale of it, but there's more info here if you're interested. It's also the castle used in the movie Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves, and in the picture below Debbie and I are standing next to the entrance that Kevin Cosner rides through.

This year we've been able to really appreciate the differences between the history we're used to, and the history of the French people. It's amazing that they have little ice-cream shops in buildings that are over a thousand years old, and within a walled Roman city over 2,000 years old. Visiting empty churches from the 13th century gives you a new perspective on religion - it's easy to understand how the a Frenchman would see anything having to do with Jesus Christ as something that's been tried before, and isn't relevant today.

Future Plans
We'd like to thank those of you who have been praying for our future plans - we've had some big decisions to make, and really appreciate it. A few months ago we were asked to consider returning to the Chateau, to aid in the transition to European leadership. We've been thinking it over, praying about it, and talking with the other missionaries who we work with, and have decided to pursue returning to the Chateau. We've just begun the process, so there aren't many details yet, but we'll keep you in the loop as much as possible as our plans evolve. As of now, we're planning on returning to the U.S., finding jobs and looking for financial partners. Hopefully we'll have met our support level and be able to return in late 2007 or early 2008. Our role will be a transitional one - and the goal is to work our way out of the job within a term or two by finding and hiring European personnel who will manage the day-to-day work at the Chateau, and more importantly who will expand the ministry of the Chateau through their vision of what it could be. Any details here are subject to change, but wanted to give you an idea of the direction we're heading, since you've played a huge part in partnering with us to put us where we are now.

We continue to ask for your prayers, as we're just starting this process, and there are still lots of details to be decided.

Cool et Pas-Cool
This month's category is completely unrelated. Actually, I suppose it could be "Things having to do with leisure". I'll start with the Pas-Cool. Every 5th car that goes by is pulling a camper. The problem in France is that there aren't really any pickup trucks, so it's common to see $50k+ luxury cars (BMW's, Jaguars, or Mercedes like the one below) pulling a camper. There's just something wrong about that. Cool for this month is going to be Petanque, or Bacci ball, whatever you want to call it. It's played everywhere, anytime, and by anyone. You can try it online here to get the hang of the simple rules (it's all in French, so you'll have to figure it out on your own if you don't read French) Click here to play. We play in the Chateau lawn from time to time.