On Thursday, our firstborn turned 17 and we celebrated another year of God’s faithfulness in her life, and another year of blessing in ours.

There’s an awful lot that I could say about Sophie – to celebrate this special girl, but I’ll limit it to the following and give it to you in bullet form (to keep me from waxing wordy):

• She’s as beautiful inside as out.
• She doesn’t wear her feelings on her sleeve… but they run deep.
• She’s a determined, diligent student
• She’s a beautiful singer…but discreet.
• She adds a great deal to the ministry here.
• She’s a joy and our treasure.

Dominic & Co.

Last Saturday afternoon Dominic had 3 friends from school come over for his birthday. Three delightful kids who each, in their own way, face daily challenges in various ways. It was interesting to see how each of them had bonded with Dominic. The love of Christ in him has attracted others to him…

Cultural Divide: After a few games we had supper at 6:00pm. This is an absurdly early time for the French who typically eat between 7-9:00pm. One of the guests politely & nonchalantly asked if we always ate that early. “Yup! We diff’rent” 🙂

Heat Wave

For the better part of the week… we were dying of heat. Daytime temps reached 39 celcius (over 100 fahrenheit) almost every day. I mean to tell you that productivity was very low for the most part.

We survive by keeping all shutters and windows closed during the day so that the house stays relatively cool (27C / 80F). The downside to that however is that we spent most days living in near darkness. On Wednesday I worked down at the church building where we have air-conditioning… it was heavenly!

 

Celebrating Sophie… with Pirates!

Thursday was Soph’s birthday… this girl knows how to get her up-town high-class on as well as her downtown casual!

Since her birthday fell on a Thursday, it was tougher to gather a few folks together to celebrate so we opted for something entirely different.

Our neighbours’ grand-daughter was in a pirate-themed musical called “The Pirate’s Code”. They’d worked on it for nearly a year and even filmed a portion of it on France’s “l’Hermione” – replica of the 18th century tall ship that carried General Lafayette to America during the American Revolution.

So on Thursday night, we were surrounded by pirates and about 450 other people (in an air-conditioned room no less – hallelujah!!) for “The Pirate’s Code.”

Once again let me say how God has blessed us with these neighbours and we pray that they will repeatedly see something in us that points them and draws them to our heavenly Father.

In case you missed it, Sophie also actually contributed a post to this blog on Monday…. if you didn’t see it, you can read it here.

Bible School Weekend

This is the final Bible School weekend of the school year… but that’s not all. It’s also the first ever French National Kids’ Camp. Timo joined me for the trip to attend the camp.

The heat wave broke yesterday morning so temps were better (28C/81F) for the drive. That being said, traffic was very heavy. We often take the Lord – and his protection – for granted but we were reminded again yesterday of our need for Him. 

Nearly 2h into our drive traffic slowed to a standstill and we were stuck on the highway for roughly 30min. Three lanes of traffic had to squeeze into a single lane (on the main highway between Spain & Paris/Northern Europe) as a transport truck had ran into a highway workers van… the former was in the ditch and the latter… well, you see it. Completely mangled.

Later, on the same drive, we were nearly hit by another car, again, when traffic was merging. He was so close that it folded-in our side-view mirror (but they swivel anyway, so there was no permanent damage – we folded it back out).

We were VERY glad to arrive (safely) in Melun… and thankful for the Lord’s hand of protection! Whenever the Lord puts someone on your heart or in your mind… offer up a prayer. You never know what they may be facing at that very time and how your prayers might be affecting the situation!

Thank you for stopping by again today.
Let what you read, inform your prayers for us and for France!

 

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A Reminder…

Just a reminder that in July, I’m going to run promo-pricing for the book:

• One deal in honor of Canadian customers, starting on Canada Day (July 1st) and
• One deal in honor of France’s national holiday (July 14th).

Details here… on Facebook