France

Everyone's In

2009-06-22T11:24:00.001-07:00

Kelly, Christine, Michelle, Jon, Dustin and Tyler are in Southern California, Erin is in Missouri, Christina is in Germany with her brother and Sarah is in New York with her friends and family. Despite flight cancellations, everyone is now at their intended destinations. I'll try to organize some more pictures but it's taking awhile.
For now, remember that we're having a recap night Sunday, July 5 at LBAC. I'll include more information later.
Thanks for all the prayers! It was a great trip and God really used your support.

Home, For the Most Part

2009-06-21T03:58:00.000-07:00

The dinner Friday night was really nice. There were about 200 people there as a celebration of the end of the school year and to thank us for the project. We had a cool variety of French salads and desserts as it was a pot luck. The theme was cowboys so it was fun to see a whole bunch of French kids line dance (which was choreographed) wearing cowboy hats and whatever Western garb they could conjure. Saying goodbye was difficult but it was a cool evening. The next morning we arrived at the school at 6am to get to the airport in Zurich. It's about an hour.five drive which was a nice goodbye to the land as well. We all checked in and then said goodbye to Erin, Matt and Christina. Erin's flight was a few hours before ours and Christina is staying for the summer. With a couple hours to kill, the rest of the crew hopped on a train into the city. It was cool sorta being on our own as a group and trying to navigate our way through the German signs ourselves. We did some shopping, ate a bit and saw a couple streets of the city before heading back on the train. Michelle, Jon and I got a great opportunity to talk to the girl sitting next to us for about ten minutes about what we were doing there, what we were about, and how Christianity was poorly represented to Europe in times past. We got to share with her for just a minute, but I could tell she was very interested by the conversation. Her name is Doris and if you get the opportunity, pray for her as well. In Zurich that day there was a big recycling/protect the earth gathering. It was so strange! Everywhere we went we were handed free stuff with little tags on it explaining why recycling is necessary, complete with clever quotes. It looks like Green Peace has taken on Christian evangelism tactics. It was sad to see a complete turn-around in values; not that recycling isn't important or is bad, but they have totally lost the Creator in admiration for creation. It actually is what started my conversation with the girl next to us though. I had a bottle of lotion with one of those German tags so I asked her if she spoke English and could translate. She did know English very well (Swiss people-at least in touristy Zurich-speak excellent English) and after translating asked where we were from and such. It was cool that God used the recycling witness for his own witness.
The flight went well as we chased the sun. We arrived tired and sore to LAX.
HOWEVER, Sarah who had left the day before left me a message and got stuck in Washington. I didn't even think any of her flights went there-I don't know if it's DC or state-so I was shocked to hear that. She unfortunately missed the wedding she missed the appreciation dinner/hoedown for. She had to stay over night there and will hopefully be back home soon, but I really don't know. Erin is also stuck in Philadelphia and is in a hotel for the night. I really don't know what's going on; bad weather I guess. I'm trying to look it up but I'm not sure what the issue is. So please pray for their safe returns home and for their energy levels-we're all exhausted and hurting and somewhat overwhelmed-I can't imagine how they're feeling. I'll update this once I find out how they're doing.

Pictures and LAST DAY!

2009-06-19T04:11:00.000-07:00

Well, today is our last day! We finished most of the work and now just have to put some stuff back together. Tonight we're having an appreciation dinner so it'll be cool to hear more about the school and what this project did. As for yesterday, we were invited to the home of Laticia and Cedric (the guys' host family) for dinner. They have an incredible apartment; it was a lot of fun. Their friend Agla (sp?) made us a meal from his home country-the Congo! It was an amazing meal and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Laticia decorated the apartment for the occasion and had some African worship music playing. After the meal, we gathered 'round for some worship through music. They played us songs with a few jembes (sp?) and we sang the worship songs we knew with a guitar and harmonica. It was really cool!

Yesterday was miserably hot and sunny and today is really rainy. It's funny how God has given us relief from whatever weather we are having right when we need it. We finished all our work now and are getting ready for the evening's events. We said goodbye to Sarah this morning who is now in the air probably just reaching the Atlantic now. Pray for safe travels for her and for the rest of us. We're going early in the morning so this is our last night. Au revoir!

Thursday!!

2009-06-18T00:12:00.000-07:00

I didn't blog the last couple days because there wasn't a whole lot to say. Now there's lots. Tuesday we had a whole array of jobs. We finished with the tractor and are working on mixing concrete and laying foundation for a bathroom and making a walkway the distance of the building. We also finished powerwashing the roof and several other jobs. It's been pretty crazy but in a good way. Monday night was the last night we really had to spend with our host families. It was really nice just to spend time with them and enjoy their company. We came back the next day well-rested for a full day's work. After work, someone from the school brought in food from their restaurant. We had a nice lasagna and then prepared to hike up the hill. Unfortunately there was a miscommunication wiht their host family, so Christina and Erin went back with her. Laticia joined us on our hike. She is so fun and youthful! I really had fun talkign with her. The hike was awesome and beautiful and full of all sorts of nonsense, from black cherry-made blood to zombie videos to scaring each other in tunnels to fallen trees to throwing stuff at each other to putting bugs on each other. I'll put up pictures when I can. It was a lot of fun and had an incredible view of all of our town and the next towns for miles. We could see France, Germany and Switzerland from there!
Wednesday we had off. We went to a castle which was super neat. On the way David, one of the missionaries, helped drive so I got to pick his brain on all sorts of things about missions and the culture in Europe. I was glad for a detour that took us about 20 km out of the way and through a pretty little village just so I would get more of a chance to talk to him. The castle was awesome and I'll put up pictures of that as well. We found a toad that made its way into Michelle's hood but other than that we weren't too nonsensical. From there we went to Colmar, France. It's a beautiful city in Alsace. We had lunch there-Alsacian pizza-Tart Flombee (SP?)-basically a tortilla with cream cheese and then onions and bacon on top. We walked around for a few hours there looking through tourist shops and the church. Tyler and David went through an incredible museum and Christina and Erin took a boat tour. Following that, we went to Kandern, Germany (where the Black Forest Academy is) and went to the Greater Europe Mission headquarters. There we met some missionaries and another EuroTeam. We looked through Matt's office and locked somone in a bathroom for a few minutes. Then we went to Matt's house where his wife, Esther, with the help of Erin and Christina, had prepared for us a lovely meal. There was all sorts of nonsense going on there and we all ate so much we thought we might explode. We drove home through the beautiful countryside with a beautiful sunset over the hills. This morning we're continuing lots of work, which I should get back to. I'll put up pictures later!

New Week, New Blog

2009-06-15T00:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday we were given good news-we're renting a tractor to complete the trenches! That really helped us as far as morale goes and we were able to get a good amount of work done. I got really sunburnt from being on the roof all day and everyone was pretty sore and sick of the heat, but otherwise work went well. Afterwards we went to town for our first kebabs. People in France are shocked to hear that we don't have kebabs in America. They're Turkish sandwiches that are similar to corn beef I guess but they pull it all off one piece of rotisserie. Alysha Sbitity, a girl our age from my host family, joined us. We appreciated her help ordering and even more her company. What was cool about that evening is that to get from the school to the restaurant we broke into groups and took different routes. We did a prayer walk and just prayed aloud for the people and places we were passing as a small group. That was really cool-praying aloud with no shame (mostly because nobody could understand us) was really different but awesome. When we came across people that looked easy to talk to, we would. We asked them questions about Christianity in the area. Tyler, Erin and I arrived at the meeting spot pretty late because we ended up talking to three groups of people. The first was an elderly lady who spoke English well enough but could hardly understand us. After a lot of digging and misunderstanding each other, she said she was a Catholic and she thinks religion is necessary for young people to learn good character but that you didn't need it as you got older. She said she is distant from Catholicism. When we asked if we could pray for her she looked shocked and asked why we wanted to do that. We explained a little and she asked for prayer for her family. We did that after saying goodbye. We approached a group of three elderly men who spoke no English whatsoever. We didn't really get much across except that two of them were Italian (which we didn't realize until after we tried all the French phrases we knew and then recognized some Spanish-like words) and one was from Algiers. When he smiled at us his dentures fell down a little bit. They were an awesome group of men but we didn't get to witness to them at all. Finally we talked and walked with these two French women. They said about the same thing about being raised Catholic but not going to church anymore. Everyone kept trying to point us to a concert held at the Dominican church. We were a little depressed that this beautiful building that once hosted worship now is a fancy community center. I hope that those who go to it are somehow reminded of the original intentions for the building and consider the God it was built to honor. We prayed for those women. They asked for prayer for their jobs and for their husbands. I got the impression that they were divorced or else had broken marriages. The language barrier (and etiquette) made it difficult to ask those questions but we prayed for them. They were really polite and friendly. If you remember to pray for them, their names were Anna and Gabby. Other groups had similar experiences. Altogether, it was an awesome evening. It was late by the time we finished eating (though it was still totally light out) so we decided to postpone our hike up the hill.

Each of us spent yesterday with our respective host families. It was nice because we all had different experiences. Coming together the next day was a lot of fun-we all had stories to share of our time. They boys all went to a charismatic church with their host family. It was really absurd and they were all stretched when considering their church tradition compared with this one. That was followed by a very strange lunch-hard boiled eggs and vegetables floating in clear, plain gelatin. They went on a hike up a hill after that. Christina and Erin went to a Mennonite church and then had a really nice lunch complete with delicious sausages. That gave them a good avenue to speak with their unbelieving host mother. They went to a mideval walled city after that which was cool for them. Christine and Sarah went to the church Michelle and I attended last week. They really liked the message which was translated for them by their hosts. They had a large lunch afterwards and then went to Vosges, France to see the WWI trenches. They were totally amazed by that and even brought back some bits of barbed wire and shrapnel. They had the opportunity to crawl through some tunnels used during the war. Michelle and I went to Europa Park, a large theme park in Germany. We went with our host family (British Christians), their family (British Muslims) and their friends (French Muslims). It was quite the multi-cultural experience. The park was fun and a lot different than Disneyland. It was a good day for all of us. Today we rented a tractor (HOORAY!) to do the rest of the trench. That's been fun for people to try out. It's been raining pretty hard all day but it just stopped but that hasn't been much of a hindrance for us to work. Matt's wife and daughter arrived today to see all that's going on.

Pictures and Blog

2009-06-13T03:30:00.001-07:00

Here are pictures as promised from Luzern and others from the project. After the last blog, we continued working. We almost felt lazy though we got a lot accomplished. It was just that it was much less painful than the first couple days. We’ve finished half the trench, replaced parts of the roof, began leak-proofing the ceiling and did several more odd jobs on site. Michelle and I went back to our host family for dinner. Our host momma’s sister and her four kids were over playing with the family. We will spend more time with their family on Sunday and we’re very excited about that. They are a Muslim family and I’m looking forward to getting to know them better and starting to understand the typical Western European Muslim family. Erin and Christina’s host momma isn’t a Christian so pray for opportunities for them to show her Christ. Sarah and Christine’s host family is a real inspiration to them. Pray for them to continue encouraging each other and learning from one another. The guys are all staying with a young couple who work at the school. They are a young family. Cedric, the father is helping us with the project and Laticia, his wife is always around the school with her three children. Getting to know them better has been a real pleasure and one of the nicest parts of the long work days. I’ve especially liked seeing how much my host family prays for their children. There is a lot of craziness going on with a large family but they have constant reminders to commune with God built into their day. They’ve given me a lot of insight into the cultural and religious climates of Western Europe and the Arab world.

Well, I've been composing them without the internet and posting them when internet becomes available. So that was delayed and now the latest news is that our trench which spanned the whole of the building was only a little over half as deep as we needed. We didn't dig deep enough to go below the frost line, so that was a bit discouraging. We'll continue on with that all day. Meanwhile, I've been working with a man named Fred who works for the French military to replace about 20 of the roof tiles (which are very large and heavy). We've almost completed the work. Jon is working with the jack hammer, most of the girls are digging, Dustin and Christine are working on the ceiling and Michelle is working with Pierre on the plumbing. It's a busy day and a very hot one, but it's lunch now and my host momma, Aida Sbetity, has made us all homemade pizza.

Quick Update

2009-06-12T02:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were in Luzern, Switzerland for a few hours. It was pretty far away so we got see lots of the French, German and Swiss countryside. The city was unbelievably cool. I'll put up some pictures later of the sites. It was a German and Swiss holiday so most stores were closed and the only people on the streets were tourists with no time to spare. We were only there for a few hours ourselves so we weren't able to do any evangelism. We did, however, go into Germany for dinner at an Italian restaurant. There a whole crew from Greater Europe Missions met us and we were able to talk with them. It was a really nice time. We returned sleepy to our host families for a night of rest before heading back to work. Today we are beginning a new phase of the project so things are moving somewhat slowly as we learn new jobs. We are continuing on the trenches and washing the roof (which the school is amazed at-they never knew their roof was white). While replacing roof tiles, Sarah was horrified to find a decaying mouse. Other than that and the bees, we've had pretty pleasant experiences with everything. Oh, also Dustin saw a funnel web spider a few days ago which was fairly horrifying. Soon we'll start putting in some new supports to raise the ceiling to regulation size. Yesterday one of the teachers of the school stood in the garden and began to cry as she saw her dreams for the school come true-more classrooms. The missionaries last night were all amazed at the thought of a Christian school in France, of all places. College Daniel is an inspiration to all the Evangelicals in the area. Its staff and students have been incredible. We pray for each other each morning and play with them during our breaks. They serve us and we serve them. Even in a cross-cultural environment, the church is fulling its purpose and we are all working together. I really think this is how short term trips should go. We invest in ministries already existing that need our help and ask GEM to send a team. Then we can serve them and learn more about the ministries here and spend time with our host families. I think that's the best part of it for all of us-staying with the locals and getting an insider and Christian perspective on the culture and religious climate of the area. I really love how EuroTeam is set up.
Tomorrow we are working as well and then will go into town for dinner (and we're planning on doing some evangelism then-it'll be a Saturday evening) and then we're going to climb up the top of a vineyard-covered hill overlooking the town for sunset. It's going to be an incredible and worshipful experience I think and I look forward to sending you pictures. Thanks for your prayers.

2009-06-10T23:26:00.001-07:00

The last few days have been exciting and wonderful. Tuesday after lunch, the team headed back to work. We ended up getting so much done! What was once a row of cabins is quickly becoming nothing at all. We worked really well yesterday and everyone found jobs they enjoyed. It is so encouraging to see how excited the students are for this project. They took us into our classroom to pray for us in French that morning and they’re always smiling and trying to talk to us when they’re outside. We really enjoy the kids and are so blessed to be serving them.
After working, we were served pizza for dinner. It was similar to our own pizza except one of them was topped with calamari and mussels. It’s entertaining to see the different types of food even though most things are pretty similar. I think all of us are now fans of Nutella. Afterwards we went back to our host families for evenings with them. Michelle and I were taken to church. It was about 15 miles away from Soultz, but it was very large. The congregation has about 2,000 members! That’s incredible for an evangelical church. I’ve learned a lot more from the people of France about how few Christians there really are. Most French people believe that Evangelicals are a sect that worships fish because of the typical Christian symbol. They’re highly suspicious of evangelicals so to have that many meet together is a real blessing on them all. Our hosts were gracious enough to translate the message for us so we heard a nice sermon about the power of God.
Wednesday we began work again. We were told that we were actually ahead of schedule and that we had exceeded the expectations of everyone. That was cool to hear but I think we may have let it get to our heads a little. After lunch the girls were a little sillier and less work was completed. Part of that was that we were stuck and uncovered a hive of bees, got sawdust in someone’s eye and weren’t able to get the materials in time to move forward on the project. With work and work ethic running low, we ended early and walked through Guebwiller. The village is incredible. Everything has so much history. It’s been traded back and forth between Germany and France so many times that the whole Alsace region is its own little entity. There is a strong mix of German and French heritage. We saw two incredible churches. The first was the most beautiful building I’ve ever seen in person. It was built in the high middle ages. The structure was designed to give people that could not read the Bible a sense of God and it does that. You cannot help but feel relevant while staring up at the gargantuan ceiling and supports and laying eyes on the magnificent organ or glorious altar in the front. It’s a beautiful thing but a shame that the people of this town have such a great reminder of the history of the worship of God but no knowledge of God himself. The second was much later and has been rebuilt twice. The first structure was built in the 8th century and the final one was sometime in the low middle ages (12th century I think). It’s less glorious than the first but still an awesome reminder of church history.
Tomorrow (Thursday) we have the day off. We are going to Lucerne, Switzerland to do some touristy things and then do some street evangelism. Please pray for that!
Also, I’m not able to update this every day but I’ll do it as much as I can and hopefully will have new pictures each time. Thanks for praying and sending. We look forward to sharing more. God bless!

First Days

2009-06-09T04:11:00.000-07:00

Already this has been an adventure for us all. Our time spent at the school, with each other, working on the project and with our host families has been a blessing. Yesterday we went to the school for chapel, orientation and to begin the project. We were introduced first to the younger students and then to the older ones (jr high-early high school). Watching the kids worship God with extreme enthusiasm in a different language was a great reminder of the transcendence of God's glory above all. After worshipping, they brought us up to say hello to the students. Afterwards, about 15 of the little kids came up to us. They took turns praying for us in French. The prayers of children are a beautiful thing in any language. We noticed that they each addressed God as "Signeur" which is like saying "Sir." They also use the informal when speaking to him. That was pretty fascinating. The older kids did the same thing and prayed for us and for the project at their chapel. Afterwards, we were introduced to the project and to the organization. Matt Bullock is our project leader and he has been incredibly helpful in everything. Soon we were ready to begin. Yesterday in a few (very long) hours we took the ceilings out of four cabins, removed the dirt, began digging trenches for a bathroom, cleaned the roof and did a few other tasks. I do not think we ever been more dirty in our lives. The work was somewhat grueling but we left that evening satisfied by the day's accomplishments. We were relieved with some afternoon showers though the weather never got to be too warm or humid. We each went back to our host families and enjoyed the night with them. All of us had incredible home-cooked meals and some wonderful fellowship. Michelle and I enjoyed ratatouille (a common French dish) and a Moroccan dish with some Moroccan tea. It was delicious! We also enjoyed a Bible study with the family and some great time of talking and laughing. It doesn't get dark until around 10:15pm so we went to sleep just afterwards. We were very exhausted.

Today has been an easier day as far as the work goes. So far we have taken down lots of wood beams, demolished a concrete wall and removed the rubble, cleaned out the remainder of the rooms, continued on the roof and trenches and are now enjoying a lunch break. We eat at the same time as the kids so after eating from the wonderful spread they put before us (wonderful breads, cheeses, meats and veggies), we have an opportunity to play soccer and volleyball with the students. The school is in a chateau-it's incredible! We meet at the very top of the building and have to climb up a narrow winding staircase to the third floor each time, but it's a beautiful place to be. I've learned more about the school and it's a wonderful place. The family that I am staying with was given acceptance though they weren't able to pay the tuition when they first moved to France from England. They have three kids at the school right now and have been there for a few years. They love that it's a family for them and that their kids can grow up knowing Jesus.

Thanks for your prayers and we would ask for continuous prayers for safety, health (Christine was pretty ill yesterday but is doing much better now), good conversations with our French brothers and sisters, opportunities for evangelism and strength and endurance. God bless you all!

Arrival

2009-06-08T23:42:00.000-07:00

We’re here! After an 11-hour flight, all of Team France met up in Zurich, Switzerland. We were picked up by Matt (our missionary friend/Christina’s brother) and David Leigh (another missionary friend) and we drove through parts of Switzerland, Germany and France to finally end up in Guebwiller at College Daniel. There several families from the school had a warm reception prepared for us. We were able to meet them and find out more about the school and the language. The girls on our team were able to speak with a girl named Astrid who is from Germany and teaches at the school and another girl named Sara who actually lives on the top floor of a Chateau that is part of the school. All of it is absolutely amazing.
After the reception, we went home with our respective host families. This will be an especially valuable part of this trip. Michelle and Kelly are staying in the next town, Soults, with an English and Moroccan family. They thankfully speak English but it’s been amazing to see the way the family all switches back and forth seamlessly from French to English. The couple has four kids and the wife’s mother living in the house. They are very welcoming and have given us a better understanding already of French, English and Moroccan cultures. We look forward to spending more time with them.

Flying out at 7pm

2009-06-06T01:23:00.000-07:00

We are off today-technically, since it's 1:30am. But we're really excited to go and look forward to giving you the updates. We'd love to get encouraging emails or comments. Our email address is francemissions2009@gmail.com. Thanks for all the prayers and support!

Almost There!

2009-06-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

Well, it is June! We leave in 5 days for Zurich, Switzerland and will be taken from there to Guebwiller, France. I cannot believe it’s here. This is the update on a few things that have been going on with us. Firstly, we sent in our money a few weeks ago. Most of us paid for our own airfare, but the generosity of our supporters covered most of the rest of the costs of the trip. We have received about another $2500 since we paid GEM for the trip which will go towards team expenses. Whatever is left over will be used to refund some of the costs of plane tickets.

We have purchased most of the equipment we’ll need to bring for the project. This includes goggles, gloves, masks and some really fun coverall jumpsuits. I think we’ll be the best dressed young adults in France! The project is going to be quite heavy so if you could continue to pray for physical strength and stamina we will need it. We are all super excited to serve the church in this way. Please also pray for the students who will grow in Christ in those classrooms and who will be prepared to be a light in a very dark world.

Dustin Karzen and Sarah Davis have been preparing songs to play in France. It looks like on Monday they will be playing for the students of College Daniel. We’ll be presented to them during their chapel time and will have some question and answer time with the students. Most of Dustin and Sarah’s selections will be played when we do some street evangelism in the evenings we have dinner in the town as a team. Pray for confidence for them and for opportunities to make cross-cultural connections through music.

We are all also both anxious and excited about outreach. We have the Holy Bible in French in audio on mp3 disks that we are making copies of to distribute to people who seem like they would make use of them. What we are looking to do is have conversations with as many people as we can. Love, wisdom, holiness and righteousness are the motivations we need to have for everything we do. Pray for us to be revolutionized by this mentality and be effective ministers.

We are staying with families whose children attend College Daniel. This will be an incredible opportunity for us to understand the French culture first hand. We hope to learn a lot from this experience and start to see the distinction between our own cultural Christianity and universal biblical truths. Our interactions with these families will be times for us to take note of cultural differences and to also connect with other members of the body of Christ. Despite differences of opinion and lifestyles, we will share with our hosts the most important thing about us-a relationship with our Creator and Savior. They are our brothers and sisters and are more like us than any friend, relative or neighbor that doesn’t know Jesus.

We plan to update this blog as much as possible during our trip. We would love it if you left us comments to encourage us as you pray for us or have any questions. Our teamail is francemissions2009@gmail.com and would love to hear from you! On Sunday, July 5 at 6:30 we will be at Long Beach Alliance Church (3331 Palo Verde Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90808) to share our experiences with you. Thanks and God bless!

Preparations

2009-04-17T16:16:00.001-07:00

Well, plans for this trip are really coming together. We are getting very excited to see what God will be doing with us. So far he has provided for us in incredible ways.

Thank You
This trip was originally put together to mobilize a group of college-aged kids for missions. It, like the church as a whole, requires an inter-generational partnership in order to work. We cannot go unless we are sent which is what we ask of you. As young adults, we can take off for two weeks in the summer without shirking too many of our responsibilities. We can serve by doing construction and are deeply impassioned to see God's kingdom built. We want to open up conversations and shine light upon a dark world. What we make up for in freedom we lack in security. Most of the preparation for this trip has been dedicated to trying to fund it. God has used many people in the past few months to provide for us. We would like to thank all of them. They are as much a part of this trip as we: without their help we simply would not be going. Others have been gracious enough to help with organization and encouragement. Thank you everyone who has prayed for, advised, encouraged or provided for us. God is using you as a vessel to build his kingdom and that is as great a call as any.
The Team
This team has nine members ready to go. Here's a little bit about us and where we come from:
Kelly Douglas-Sophomore at Biola
Christine Douglas-Freshman at Concordia
Jonathan Kiser-Senior at Cal State Long Beach
Dustin Karzen-Sophomore at Long Beach City College
Erin Murley-Sophomore at Truman State in Missouri
Sarah Davis-Seminary grad from New York hanging out in LB before heading out to the mission field
Christina Bullock-Grad student of Trinity International and works at Biola. Her brother is the missionary we're helping
Michelle Napper-Junior at Cal State Fullerton
Tyler Payne-Sophomore at Biola God has blessed us abundantly with this team. Please be praying for strength for each of them.
The Trip
We will be going to the village of Guebwiller in eastern France. We will most likely also be in villages in Germany and Switzerland for at least a portion of the trip. We are working to convert a group of cabins into classrooms at a Christian college (which may be what they call grade school in France, I'm still not entirely sure on that point). This will entail demolishing everything aside from the roof and frame, pressure washing the roof, running electricity throughout the building, insulating/covering the ceilings and beginning the process of framing the classrooms. It is a considerable amount of work for 9 people in two weeks, but it should be a lot of fun. Aside from the main project, we will be spending time with people in the village. We would like to do as much street evangelism as we can and plan to use street entertainment to open up these conversations. We also have two days for sight-seeing and will get to attend various churches in the rural area. Each of us will be staying with different families whose kids go to College Daniel. That will be an exciting cultural experience!
This morning I received our expected daily itinerary. Here's the basic details:
Saturday, June 6: Leave LAX
Sunday, June 7: Arrive in Zurich, Switzerland and travel to Guebwiller. Tour college, meet hosts
Monday, June 8: Attend orientation and then chapel at school, begin project
Tuesday, June 8: Work on project
Wednesday, June 9: Work on project
Thursday, June 10: Sight-seeing. Not sure where we'll be going yet
Friday, June 11: Work on project
Saturday, June 12: Work on project
Sunday, June 13: attend church with host family, spend day with hosts
Monday, June 14: work on project
Tuesday, June 15: work on project
Wednesday, June 16: sight-seeing
Thursday, June 17: work on project
Friday, June 18: finish project, Appreciation dinner
Saturday, June 19: fly from Zurich to LA.
It's going to be a very full trip, but we look forward to it!
Prayer Requests
Please pray for God to continue to provide for us. We still have a lot of planning to do and are still thousands of dollars short on our funds. We know that it will work out because God has made it clear this trip is his will. While we have faith he will accomplish his will, we would appreciate your prayer and support. We also need strength as individuals and as a team to complete this task. It seems daunting at times. Physically we need the strength to complete the project but also the boldness to faithfully carry the Gospel overseas. Pray for opportunities for street entertainment evangelism. We are really excited about this and have reason to believe it will be an effective way to do outreach. Pray for encouragement for all of us. Pray that we will be diligent about meeting and organizing so that when we arrive, we will be fully prepared to serve whole-heartedly without wasting time coming up with new plans or ideas. Pray that we will find ways to present the Gospel to those we encounter without losing anything to language, cultural or personal boundaries. Pray for open ears to receive the message we are are working this hard to bring. Pray for health and safety while we are there. Pray for the details to be worked out. Pray for the missionaries and people of France and Europe. It is a very hostile and unreached place. They need to know about the God that made them and then died to save them. If they don't know, they won't believe. If they don't believe, they will be judged for it. Pray for this college and for the expansion project we're doing. Ask God to use it to train young people to minister to the hostile climate of Europe. Pray for his glory and Kingdom come.

Cabins we will be converting to classrooms

Hotel in Guebwiller

Forest just outside of village of Guebwiller

Part of College Daniel

Old Church in Guebwiller

Vineyard in Guebwiller