Joel and Kristen's African Adventures

Heading Back to Cameroon

2009-06-22T23:10:00.003+02:00

Pastor Ron and Susanne posed with us for a pic after

Joel's ordination at District Council in Dothan AL.

Well it has been a while since we last posted on this blog. I guess facebook has kind of taken over the world. Anyways, we figured since we have so much history at this site, and the fact that we are indeed heading back to Cameroon, we might try to start updating it again. It will be a good place for those few of you who are interested can keep up with what we are doing in Cameroon once we get back in January 2010. We don't have tons to post right now except for what we are doing here in the states and Jeremiah.

We'll keep in touch.. Thanks to everyone who is behind us. We are looking forward to getting back to work in Africa.

Pictures from Northern Cameroon

2008-03-16T14:15:00.014+01:00

Here's some random pictures from our trip up North. What a beautiful and interesting place!

Just Chillin'

We threw him a fig to eat for posing for us.

We saw these guys just hanging out on the side of the road.

Scenes sur la route (on the road)

This is the mountain outside of Ngounderie. They say it looks like an "outie" belly button.

Waza National Park

2008-03-16T12:49:00.020+01:00

While up north, we had the opportunity to go to Waza National Park. It is like a safari but in your own car and much more "in the wild" in my opinion. We saw lots of different animals, but we didn't get there early enough to see the lions at the waterholes or to see elephants. We drove 80 kilometers inside the park. It was really fun! Some of the pictures seem blurry, but it was just really dusty.

Driving through Waza.

Elephant tracks

Kristen in an elephant track.

They were looking at us.

This is a beautiful blue bird. Sorry the picture is a little blurry.

This is the back of the same type of bird. He is my favorite!

This was a pee break by a water hole. I sure am glad there weren't any lions around!

These birds were so beautiful! There are so many cool birds here in Cameroon.

We saw several heard of giraffes while driving through Waza. It is so cool to see them in nature!

I love GiGi's! They are so cute!

Some ostrich were running by. Our friend Jeremy had never seen an ostrich and he was amazed at how huge they are.

Tchatibali--a village in Northern Cameroon

2008-03-15T19:09:00.015+01:00

On our trip to the North, we were able to visit the home village of one of our closest African friends, Jeremie. We enjoyed getting to visit his and his wife's family there in Tchatibali. They were so friendly!

This is one of the churches in Tchatibali.

Kristen taking a nap in our beautiful hotel room in Tchatibali. It's always an adventure in Africa!

Here's the entry way to our room.

Here's where we bathed in our luxurious room. And, No, there was not even a hole to pee in. We had to go outside and ring a pipe in the ground in the open in front of the bar. Needless to say, we tried not to drink anything that night!

Up North they harvest a lot of millet (It tastes kind of like corn). This is how they store it.

This was one of Jeremie's really good friends house. It was so interesting to see how the cows were just in a little bity pen by the house.

Jeremy and Kristen gettin' their grub on! We love African food and enjoyed one of the
Northerner's favorites--millet couscous.

Kristen in front of one of the family's huts.

Brigitte's mom wanted to make us some coffee so she went to get her pot out of storage. Yes, this is where they store things! She went up a ladder and climbed in to get her pot.

This is our friend Brigitte's parent's house.

This is a picture of us with Brigitte's family in her village. Yes, it was cold in the morning with the wind blowing. It is very deserty there.

2008-03-14T20:31:00.003+01:00

Hello, everyone! Yes, we are still alive and kickin' here in Cameroon. I know it's been a really, really long time since the last post, but our internet it not quite up to par with the rest of the world.

We are doing good and ministry is going well for us here. We had the opportunity to take a trip up North last month and it was great to see a different side of Cameroon. It is like a totally different country up there and the people were so friendly. It was a 3 day drive to the city of Maroua and when I say three days, I mean three 10 to 13 hour days of driving. All I can say is that I can't wait to see interstate when we get back to the States! I praise God for a husband who loves to drive and is great at it! It was definitely an adventure driving instead of flying but it was great to see the countryside and how the people live. Well, I will post some pics and let you see it for yourselves.

For other news, we will be arriving back in Bama in June for our time of furlough. We look forward to seeing everyone.

Nous sommes toujours la!

2007-12-17T17:03:00.000+01:00

Kristen and our new puppy, Bruster. Well, he is a lot bigger now. This was when we first got him a few months ago.

Well, we are still here! Sorry we haven't updated very much lately. We have been staying pretty busy with ministry here in Cameroon. We are still working with the new church plant and things are going well. We have had the opportunity to reach out to a lot of people in our neighborhood and they are now coming to the church. God also provided the money for us to be able to buy some land to build a structure for the church. We have been meeting in one of our friends and deacon of the church's house. So we were so happy when we were able to purchase the land. God is so faithful! So after the first of the year we will really begin to clear the land and prepare it for a structure.

Thanksgiving was really fun. We spent the day with the Lemons, our missionary friends and mentors. We ate lots of good food and had a good time of fellowship. Joel was able to ride their motorcyce while Cynthia and I worked on preparing the food. He always looks like a little kid in a candy store when he is riding. He really loves it. Well, we were really glad for the time we were able to spend with the Lemons while they were here. We took them to the airport the last day of November for them to return to the States for furlough.

I can't believe that it's almost Christmas and that this year is almost over. God has been so faithful to us this year to provide all of our needs and take care of us while we minister here in Cameroon. We praise Him for all He has done in our lives and for choosing to use ordinary people like us. We are so thankful for Jesus coming to this earth only to be rejected, suffer and die on the cross for our sins. What amazing love!!!

We pray that the Hope and Love of Jesus Christ will fill your heart during this Holiday Season!

September Update a few months late!!!

2007-10-15T20:36:00.000+02:00

Ok, well I know that it is now December and I am posting an update on September. Yeah, so we are a little behind here! I actually put this post together in October but never had the opportunity to post it with our internet being so slow. We stayed busy in September with our church plant and we also had the opportunity to work with Jim Byh, the Book of Hope director for West Africa. We were able to go into some neighborhoods and hand out the Book of Hope books and then show the "God-Man" film, which is now translated in French. This was the first time they had shown the film here in Cameroon and it went really well. So I have been meaning to post these pics for several months, but they are here now, so hope you enjoy!

Lydia handing out BOH books

The kids were so happy to receive their own Book Of Hope books

Kristen and Lydia, the Book of Hope Coordinator for Cameroon

The girls and their BOH books

Joel with Jim Byh and some of the neighborhood kids

Getting ready to show "The God-Man" film in French!

One of the little girls at the Book of Hope distribution. Isn't she precious!

Mefou-Gorilla and Monkey refuge

2007-09-15T12:07:00.000+02:00

So for our free day for the team, we took them to the Mefou refuge (It's a Jane Goodall sponsored reserve). It was really fun to see all the monkeys and gorillas and also take a small trek through the jungle. This is actually the first time we had been there ourselves, but we really enjoyed it and would go back again.

A nice picture of a baby gorilla

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Silly Monkey!!!

Kristen in front of one of the really huge trees of the rainforest.

Joel holding some beans from the coffee family that grow from long vines from trees in the rainforest.

This guy kept throwing sticks at us. He definitely wanted us to know it was his territory.

One of the gorillas

Here's a baby monkey that had been shot and almost died.

What's for Dinner?

2007-09-15T11:41:00.000+02:00

Viper...the other white meat! Here's Janet and Kristen holding dinner. Viper and peanut sauce, it doesn't get much better than that.

So we picked-up a viper on the side of the road that had just been killed....Yummy fresh viper!

Have you ever wondered what the inside of a viper looks like....Well, here you go!

Here's the viper skin!

Team Pictures

2007-09-11T11:38:00.000+02:00

Janet sharing with the women of the church on mother/baby health. Janet is a midwife in the States.

Bob, Mark and Joel working on putting the solar oven together. Bob and Jacquie brought a solar oven to give to an African to help them with cooking. It really works! Thanks Bob and Jacquie.

Jacquie sharing her testimony and Joel translating

Mark and Joel shoveling dirt

Pastor Simplice, the pastor of the church in Ambam, with his youngest son, Jean-Christ

Bob and Jacquie putting bolts into the frame of the tabernacle

Kelly and Kristen were working hard to move the dirt and flatten the foundation of the church

Here's the tabernacle in Ambam that the team paid for and helped build. It is such a blessing for the church of Ambam to finally have a tabernacle after 5 years.

This is a picture of the team

Some pictures at the beach in Kribi

2007-09-08T13:08:00.001+02:00

Here's a sunset

Here is a picture from the dug out canoe in the Lobe River.

The Lobe Falls make for a nice view.

Here we are in the dug-out canoe

Joel and I with the chief of a pygmy tribe

Here's Joel playing Tarzan

We really enjoy the beach at Kribi. It is always a nice get away for us.

Some photos of our church

2007-09-08T12:35:00.000+02:00

Here's me and Brigitte with a few of the children of the church

Here's Joel and I with some of our church members

Hello World!!!

2007-09-05T18:19:00.000+02:00

Yes, we are still alive! I know some of you were worried that we got lost in the jungle or eaten by a hippo or something, but we have just been extremely busy. We just had a team here for several weeks. We were able to construct a tabernacle in the village of Ambam as well as hold several evagelistic meetings. Things went really well with the team and we really enjoyed their fellowship and all the ministry they were able to do here.

We are now getting back into the swing of things with our church plant. Satan has really been trying to discourage us and attack a lot of the people in our church, but we know that God has great plans to prosper this new church. We are really trying to give a good foundation and disciple the people here. The people of this province are so religious but they have no substance to their faith. Most of the people have been in churches a lot in their lifetime but have no foundation in the basic things of living a true Christian life. Most of the children don't even know the ten commandments or have even heard basic Bible stories, like Noah's Ark. But what is even crazier, is that a lot of the children have more knowledge of the Bible than the adults. A good majority of the people here go to church, but they have no idea what it means to really have a relationship with Jesus and truly live their lives for Him. We just pray that God will use us to see individuals really surrender their lives to Christ and know Him in such a real way. Anyways, we are encouraged because we know that God has greater plans than we could ever even imagine. He is so good and faithful!

Well, it is always an adventure living in Africa. We recently had the opportunity to take a dug out canoe through the jungle to meet with a small pygmy tribe. It was a beautiful trip down the river and very interesting to meet some pygmy people. Joel and I look like giants compared to them! We will try to add some pics, but our internet is very, very slow. We will try to update more often, but as I said, our internet is very difficult to work with blogging.

Thanks to everyone who keeps up with us. We love hearing from all of you and covet your prayers.

Back to Cameroon!

2007-06-02T21:41:00.000+02:00

Well, we are actually sitting at the Birmingham airport right now getting ready to leave to go back to Cameroon. We had a great visit here in the States. We enjoyed just seeing friends and family and shopping and eating out (yeah we gained like 10 lbs each since we got here, but maybe we will work it off with a sardine and monkey diet or something).

We have to say a great big Thank You to Pators Sims, Mrs. Peggy and all the MC's for honoring us during the graduation ceremony and with the presentation of the Legacy Award. It was such a huge encouragement to us and we will never forget it. Thank you guys for everything and for the picture too. I have it in my carry-on right now with us so we will know that you guys are praying for us and behind us. We love you and appreciate all of you!

We also had a great time going out to the Melting Pot with Clark, Kelley, and some of the MAPs team. It was a good time of fondue and fellowship. Thank you guys for including us.

Well, it was great seeing everyone. We will try to keep in touch as much as possible. Gotta get ready for some long travel time. God bless!

SWEET HOME ALABAMA!!!

2007-05-08T19:43:00.001+02:00

Yes, we are in the States! We arrived in Alabama on April 23rd, after about 35 hours of travel time. We had planned to take a vacation to the States in May, but our plans changed a bit when we got some bad news. Joel's brother, Andy, died of respiratory failure at the age of 42. He had been having some health problems and had just been released from the hospital. Everyone thought he was doing better and was going to pull through, but he unexpectedly died. At first we didn't think it was going to be possible for us to get back to the States for the funeral, but God really opened the door for us to change our flights. We changed our tickets on Thursday and we flew out on Sunday. We arrived in Birmingham on Monday night and went straight to Wal-Mart. Of course I couldn't resist. We were in Alabama for two days and then we drove to Shreveport, Louisiana, where Joel's family lives. They had the memorial service on Saturday afternoon for Andy. We are so thankful that Joel was able to be here for the memorial and be with his family during this time. It also helps him to get some closure. It would've been really hard for him to be so far away during this time. Thank you so much for all of your prayers for Joel and his family during this time.

We have been in Shreveport for almost two weeks now. It has been a bitter-sweet time here with the death of his brother but also enjoying the fellowship with the rest of Joel's family. We will be driving back to Alabama on Thursday and will be there until June 2nd. We can't wait to see everyone and spend some time just hanging out. If you haven't been able to get in touch with us and would like to hang out with us please just leave a comment and we will try to hook up with you while we are here. We can't wait to see you!!!

We'll miss you Andy!!

2007-05-08T19:36:00.000+02:00

Joel with his parents and his brother Andy

Ministry Update

2007-05-08T19:33:00.000+02:00

Well, it's been a while since our last post, but we have been super busy and our internet and power situation in Cameroon is not so great.

We have been busy doing lots of ministry stuff. We had a 4 day campaign in Ma'an and a lot of people gave their hearts to the Lord during that time. Joel was able to do his first two baptisms in the river there and we had the opportunity to try out all sorts of new foods like lizard, some huge bird, more viper, and lots of monkey(it tastes like roast).

We will never forget this years Easter Sunday. It was quite an adventure. We were having church in our new church plant and during the time of worship we heard someone yelling and throwing rocks at the church. We thought that someone was just trying to disrupt the service, but Joel stuck his head out the door to see what was going on and about 3ft away was a black cobra. It was about a 6 foot cobra that was trying to get into the church. It had tried to go in through the back door but it was a neighbor who was yelling and throwing rocks at it. When the cobra didn't succeed in getting in the back door, it tried to go right into the front window, where 25 people were praising God, with their eyes closed. We would have never seen the cobra coming in if it weren't for the neighbor throwing rocks. Needless to say, our worship was interupted and the men of the church grabbed their machetes to go after the cobra. Finally, after a couple of minutes they killed the cobra.

This could have been a major catastrophe. The cobra could've come into the church and killed someone. It was definitely a spiritual thing. For one, a cobra would not try to get really close to a lot of people make noise and clapping their hands, especially in the morning time. Also, this type of cobra doesn't even come from Cameroon. It is from southern Africa. We think that a sorcerer raised it and sent it to the church to disrupt the service. Lastly, one of the ladies in our church said that she had been having dreams of that exact snake. In her dreams, the cobra was trying to climb a tree and eat all of it fruit. So we are so thankful for everyone who prays for our protection. We would have never expected something like that to happen on Easter morning, but God protected us and we also had a newcomer to the church, who gave his heart to Christ that morning. We also had the opportunity to show "The Passion of the Christ" and 200 people from our neighborhood showed up. Well, it was definitely one of our most interesting Easter Sundays.

Well, we will post some pics of our time in Ma'an and try to post some pics of the cobra. Again, thanks for reading our blog and leaving comments, and also for all your prayers.

Cobra Pics

2007-05-08T18:57:00.000+02:00

Here are some pics of the cobra that tried to come into the church Easter Sunday.

Pics of Campaign in Ma'an

2007-05-08T18:10:00.000+02:00

Here's some pics of us holding some of the bush meat we picked up on our way to Ma'an.
Yummy!!! Lizard and viper make for some good eatin'

A couple of pics of some of the people who came forward to receive Christ

We spent Saturday working on the floors of the tabernacle. We filled in the floor and flattened the dirt to get ready for the first service.

Joel giving a message before the baptism

Joel did his first baptism during our time in Ma'an. This is in the Ntem river which is close to Equitorial Guinea border.

Joel doing his second baptism in the Ntem river. Sorry the picture is so blurry I was trying to take pics and video at the same time.

Here's Joel praying for people to be healed after one of the night services.

This is was baby crocodile that someone was trying to sell us to eat.

This was the first service in the new tabernacle we built

This is a picture of the installation of the new pastor, Isidore, and also the dedication of the new tabernacle.

Loading-up to go back to Ebolowa! Thank God for STL!

Book Of Hope Distributions

2007-03-23T11:41:00.000+01:00

Here we are getting ready for a Book of Hope distribution at a school in our city.

Here are some of the kids after the distribution.

Here they are with there Book of Hope books. They were so happy to receive them.

Here's the kids waving goodbye to us as we were leaving the school.

This was another Book of Hope distribution that we did in our community for a children's crusade.

Ma'an Tabernacle

2007-03-08T14:26:00.000+01:00

This is the road to Ma'an, a village about 2 and half hours south of where we live. At the end of December we had the opportunity to put up a tabernacle for the church there. The pastor, Isidore, is a really good friend of ours and we always tease him because he really lives in the jungle.

Here's the men pushing up the steel frame truss.

This is Joel with Pouma, who is not a Christian yet, but still wanted to help with building the church because he saw it as a good thing. He is very open to the things of God so we are praying he will give his heart to the Lord really soon. We will be having an evangelistic campaign at the church in Ma'an at the end of March. Please pray the Pouma will come and give his life to Christ.

Here's the guys loading up our STL truck with sand to mix with cement for the posts of the tabernacle. We are so blessed to have our STL truck!!

Joel bolting the frame together

Here is Joel with Isidore, who is the pastor of the church in Ma'an. He is a good friend of ours and worked with us when we were here before.

Here's Joel standing in front of a typical Cameroonian village house. They build them with mud bricks.

The ladies from the church cooked us a typical African meal for lunch. They made chicken, rice, and peanut sauce. It was Yummy! Joel and I love African food!

Here's Kristen with some of the ladies from the church. The ladies had just made lunch for all the workers. This is how they carry everything here.

This one of the cute little boys from the church.

Here's Joel helping put the roof on the tabernacle.

This is the framing and roofing of the tabernacle finished. The church is responsible for putting up the walls so that they have ownership of their church. We put up the posts, frames, and roofing in a day and a half.

Monkey Business

2007-03-07T13:12:00.000+01:00

I took this picture in the Nakuru game park about a 2 hour drive from Nairobi.

It's been about two months since we returned from Kenya. It was a really awesome trip! We spent some time with other AG missionaries from central, east and southern Africa for some food, fun and fellowship at a campground about an hour north of Nairobi. It was a really great time of fellowship and encouragement for all the missionaries involved. With Kenya being quite more developed than Cameroon we flew in a couple of days before the retreat and took advantage of some of the malls and eating places which was really a nice treat. After the retreat we flew to the coast in the city of Mombasa where we were able to take a mini vacation on the beach. It was a great time of r and r for us and a couple of other missionary family's from Cameroon.

We just wanted to share a few photos of some of the things we were able to do and see in Kenya. If you ever have the opportunity, I say go for it. It was a really awesome trip. Enjoy!

Joel and Kristen

Safari Pics

2007-03-06T10:13:00.000+01:00

SAFARI TIME

Joel and his monkey friend. Before our safari we took a pit stop and while we were away from the van several monkeys climbed in the windows and stole all our breakfast food. When we walked out of the bathrooms we saw the monkeys eating muffins and bread and thought, "Hey that looks like what we had for breakfast." Little thieves!

Kristen and Amelia enjoying the safari.
These are some huge birds!

We saw a lot of gazelles out there.

This is an elk.
The zebras are so cute. I love their skin it is so interesting.

All I can say is that God is so creative. It is awesome to see how diverse each animal is.

Just a scenery pic. There were actually some giraffe way out there but you can't see them in this pic.
This is Lake Nakuru, which is known for having a pink flamingo migration.

Here we all are in front of the lake. From left to right: Jim, Cynthia & Michael Lemons, Kristen and Joel & Amelia.

There were so many flamingos there that half the lake looked pink. It was really pretty.

We spotted some gi gi's taking their afternoon break.
These were some huge birds in the top of this cool looking tree.
This is a white rhino. Everyone said we were lucky to be able to see one during our safari.

This is a lionness, which had just made a kill. You can see the carcass of the dead animal next to her.

This is one of the most beautiful birds I have ever seen. His color was just amazing.

"Everybody's got a water buffalo, yours is fast and mine is slow, where do you get them, I don't know but everybody's got a water buffalo ooooowwwhooo!"

Here we are in front of Lake Nakuru again.
This was another really cool bird that we saw. He was really bright blue.

Baby Elephant Orphanage

2007-01-21T19:11:00.000+01:00

Feeding the Giraffes

2007-01-20T14:20:00.000+01:00

Here we are at the giraffe center in Nairobi, Kenya
Here's Joel feeding a gi gi. Aren't they soooo cute!

Kissy Face!
Talk about a French Kiss! This giraffe was a little too friendly!

Mombasa

2007-01-19T21:30:00.000+01:00

Here we are at the beach in Mombassa on the Indian Ocean. It was so beautiful there!
This was after our camel ride. I guess I just wore the poor camel out!
This is a picture with a couple of Massai guys. The guy next to Kristen is really tall.

Monkey Business

2007-01-19T21:01:00.000+01:00

Christmas Party

2006-12-28T09:27:00.000+01:00

We had a little Christmas party with some of our really close African friends and their kids. We just had some cake and gave them some gifts. Their kids were so excited and it is probably the first time they have ever gotten toys for Christmas. A few days before Christmas, their son was outside playing with his flip flop pretending it was a car because he didn't have any other toys to play with. When I saw that I knew that the little truck we bought him for Christmas was the perfect gift. We are so blessed and don't ever want to take it for granted. We hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Oh Christmas Tree!!

2006-12-23T12:10:00.000+01:00

Here's our little Christmas tree! We were so happy to find a tree this year and even some ornaments. We had a really fun time decorating. Sorry it took so long for the pics but our internet is super slow. We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!

Happy Holidays!!!

2006-12-04T20:51:00.000+01:00

Joel and I after our big Thanksgiving dinner at Jim and Cynthia Lemon's house

Here's Kristen stuffing her face. I'm not sure but I don't think all that food is going to fit.
Here's Joel enjoying his food. Yum! Yum!
Wow, what a feast we had this Thanksgiving! This was Kristen's plate.
Joel is taking this photo of us at the dinner table with Jim, Cynthia, Michael, Amelia and Kristen

Well, I was going to post more pics of our ministry stuff here in Africa but I guess I will post our holiday pics first because it takes so long with our internet. We had a really nice Thanksgiving with our missionary mentors, Jim and Cynthia Lemons and another missionary, Amelia. We all got together and had a really big Thanksgiving meal. We couldn't find a turkey but we had just about everything else. We had chicken, ham, sweet potato casserole, stuffing (the best I've had so far), green bean casserole, and pies (pumpkin--my favorite, pecan and coconut cream). Yummy!!! It was all so delicious. Cynthia did a wonderful job with the cooking. We had a good time of food and fellowship. It is always hard to be so far away from friends and family during the holiday season, but we are so grateful for the other missionary families here in Cameroon.

Well, we actually found an artificial Christmas tree in Yaounde and a few decorations. I am so happy that we will be able to have a Christmas tree even though it is really hot and dusty outside. So we are still working on decorating the tree as I post. I will try to get a picture posted as soon as possible.

More Pictures of Book of Hope Distribution

2006-11-29T13:36:00.000+01:00

Some of the kids from the school. They love having their picture taken!!

Random Pics

2006-11-28T23:05:00.000+01:00

Kristen with some of the kids after the BOH distribution
This is the Book of Hope team we helped train at our first BOH distribution at one of the largest schools in our city of Ebolowa.
Joel with our friend Isidore who is the pastor of the church in Ma'an. The kids loved our STL truck

Some pics from our part of the World

2006-11-28T18:52:00.000+01:00

Here's Kristen with some of the kids in the village of Ma'an
In memory of ButterBall our dog. She died a few weeks ago. We think she was killed by a poisonous frog.
This is the road leading to our house.
Here is a recent picture of our house. We are thankful to have a such a nice place to live while in Cameroon.

Ebolowa aka Rotten Chimpanzee

2006-11-16T09:17:00.000+01:00

So it's been a while since our last post but considering our current internet and electricity situation I am sure you will all forgive us.

We have been getting settled into our new home in Ebolowa (which means rotten chimpanzee in the Bulu language---nice huh!) We have also been traveling to many of the villages in the southern province and preaching and assessing the needs of the church. We were able to travel to the village of one of our good friends, who is now a pastor there. It's a village called Ma'an and it's out in the middle of the jungle. I mean there is nothing out there. We were able to go and hold a campaign there. On our way we were praising God for our 4x4 STL truck, because we definitely needed it. We were slipping and sliding the whole way and actually almost got stuck in a ravine at one point, but we finally made it there after 4 hours (it should've only been a 2 1/2 hour trip but the road was horrible). The village has no running water, electricity, village restaurant, or anything. All they have to eat is bush meat and we ate our full of it while we there. The first night we arrived Joel preached and around 15 people prayed to receive Christ which is awesome. After the service the pastor asked us to stay because the women of the church had prepared something for us to eat. Yes, of course it was bush meat! We had viper, anteater, and plantains, but it was actually all really good except the skin of the snake I couldn't eat that. We then headed back to the little Auberge, took a nice bucket bath and went to sleep. The next morning was Sunday so we got to the church early and of course the women were ready to feed us again. They were so hospitable. What was on the menu for breakfast you might ask? Well, we had dried fish in eggs, black snake, leftover anteater, and plantains. Yum Yum! And whatever was leftover was lunch. I have to say that it really wasn't that bad at all. I have actually come to really like African food and viper in particular. Yes, it does taste a little like chicken and crab meat. It's kind of a sweet meat. Viper--the other white meat!!

Well, it was a really good time with the church there and with our friend Isidore. We also drove through many other villages that you wouldn't even know existed. There is so much work to be done here. It is amazing to see village after village just in the middle of the jungle and God has a plan for each one of the people that live there. It's hard to even know where to start sometimes because there is so much need, but we just continue to ask God to lead us and guide with what He wants accomplished here.

We have also been working with Book of Hope International and helping get that started in the southern province of Cameroon. Book of Hope is an awesome ministry to reach out to the children and youth all over the world. The books are actually in a magazine form and contain information to help students deal with issues they may be facing like sex, drugs, and family issues, and make right decisions. It also gives the students the opportunity to make the most imoportant decision of all, which is giving their life to Christ.

So we had our training for BOH (Book of Hope) in Yaounde and loaded-up about 45 boxes of books to be handed-out at the schools there. We did our first distribution in Yaounde. It was a small elementary school, but it was good to see how it works. We then helped with training a team in our city. We had the opportunity to go into one of the largest schools in Ebolowa for our first distribution with our team. We went class by class and gave out 2653 BOH books to the student. It was really fun and reminded me of my days in Master's Commission.

After Thanksgiving we are planning to help another missionary here with building a tabernacle for the village church in Ma'an. We will also be helping a team that is coming to build a tabernacle for the church in Ambam, that we helped plant 4 years ago. So things are going pretty well for our ministry right now.

The biggest frustration has been our electricity situation in our neighborhood. It has been cutting off 4 to 5 days a week. We have bought a generator but we can only use it for a few hours a day and it gets really hot at night without a fan. So please be praying about that situation for us because if it doesn't get any better we will have to move into another place in the city when our lease is up. Also, our dog Butterball died Monday morning. She was a really good dog and had a great temperment. We don't know why she died but we think she may have eaten a poisonous frog or something. There is a lot of spiritual warfare going on in our neighborhood and satan has been attacking hard, so please pray for our safety. It isn't always easy living here, but we know that we are where God wants us to be.

So that is an update on a few of the things we have been doing here. I will try to post some pics so that you can see where we live and what we have been doing.

6 Years and Counting

2006-09-20T20:37:00.000+02:00

So Saturday is our 6 year Anniversary! This is just a little list that tells a little something about our past 6 years.

6 Years:

10 moves
9 jobs
8 pets
7 trips to the beach
6 cars
5 Christmas's
4 cell phones
3 countries (lived in)
2 states
1 happy couple

So we will be going to the capital city of Cameroon, which is Yaounde, for our anniversary. It is only a 2 1/2 hour drive away and the only place close by to find a decent restaurant and hotel. We will be staying at one of nicest hotels in Yaounde (Mont Febe) on Friday night and we plan to have dinner at a restaurant called Cafe de Yaounde. I already know what I am going to order: Le capitain forestier, haricot verts, et pommes frites ( a really good fish in a white cream sauce, with green beans and french fries) Yummy!! I'm sure it's going to be a great week-end!

Now for an update:

We are finally in our house in Ebolowa. We are getting settled in. We finally got some living room furniture after being in our house for over two weeks, but it's not like we can just run to the nearest furniture store and pick-out some stuff. We had our furniture hand made and the wood it is made out of was actually a tree in the rain forest only a couple of weeks ago. We have a small little stove and a really big refrigerator (american size) which works when we have power (which hasn't been very often lately). We have a well and running water, but no hot water. We actually have a nice bed and dresser that we were able to buy from some other missionaries and we even have a guest bed ready for whenever you want to come visit. Our house is really nice and roomy. It is located just outside of town, in a village that is becoming part of the town now. It isn't a very long walk to our market, where they sell all sorts of fruits, veggies, fish, plantains, and all sorts of just stuff. We really love our house and our neighbors. Everyone seems to be really friendly and there are several families from the church that live in our neighborhood. So God has really been good to us and provided all of our needs. With that said I would also like to say a big "Thank You" to the sunday school classes and all the people who have sent us money to help set-up our house. We really appreciate it.

The beginning of October we have our Book of Hope training and then we will be setting up and training in our city to have a Book of Hope distribution in the schools. We will also begin traveling to all of the churches in the Southern Province of Cameroon, which is our main area of ministry, since we are the only missionaries in the south. We have vision to really encourage and help the churches that are established as well as planting new churches that are so desperately needed in so many villages. Please continue to pray for us that God will give us favor and open the doors to the schools for Book of Hope and that He will give us wisdom and guideance as we begin to plant new churches.

Clarification concerning the 3 things list

2006-09-01T18:04:00.000+02:00

In reference to three things lists comment listed below, we are sorry if we offended any mother in laws or anyone in general with the comment. It was meant only as a joke and we really love our mother in laws and listen to almost everything they say.

Thanks Moms for all you do for us. We love you!

Joel and Kristen

More Pics

2006-08-25T16:18:00.000+02:00

Here is the welcoming sign to our City Ebolowa.

This could be our mode of transportation if we didn't have our Speed the Light vehicle. Thank God for STL!
A little top heavy don't you think? Everyone in Africa carries something on their heads. We have yet to master the skill.

This is right after one of the Children's Campaign that was held in Mbalmayo. They really love to have their picture taken and then see it on the screen.

Our second week here, we traveled to the Northwest Province for a Pastor's Conference. This is Jim Lemons the missionary in Mbalmayo and Sebastian who is the Pastor of the church that Joel preached at in Mbalmayo.

Joel had the opportunity to preach at one of the churches in Mbalmayo. We have been really encouraged to see the churches hungry for God's Word and expectant for Him to move in their lives.

This is our dog Butter Ball. You can't tell in this picture but right after she eats which is quite often, she ends up looking like a butter ball turkey and she will lay on her back and wait for you to rub her belly. We think she is going to be a good dog for us.

Cameroon Pics

2006-08-24T16:56:00.000+02:00

Kristen with the Kids after a Children's Crusade in Mbalmayo, Cameroon.
Joel with some of the Kids after a Crusade in Mbalmayo, Cameroon.

Here we are in on the Bible School Campus in Mbalmayo.

Joel with the new Speed the Light Truck paid for by the youth of Alabama!!

Bienvenue au Cameroun!!!

2006-08-22T16:11:00.000+02:00

Bonjour tout le monde! We are so happy to finally be here in Cameroun. We have officially been here now for 1 month. We have been really busy and moving at warp speed to get things done here. We have already found a house to rent, gotten our Speed-The-Light vehicle, attended a youth conference, attended a pastor's conference 6 hours away, worked with a team doing 8 services (children's and adults), and Joel preached his first Sunday morning service this past Sunday morning.

So we have been really busy and our internet access is limited. For the time being we are driving an hour away to get on the internet but once we move to Ebolowa on September 1st we will have an internet cafe in town that we can use.

We are feeling great and God has blessed us in so many ways already in just our short time here so far. We want to say thank you to everyone who has been encouraging us and praying for us. Please continue to pray that God will do awesome things here in Cameroun. We are also hoping for teams to want to come in and work with us. So if that is something that interests you let us know. We miss you all and love you!

My 3 things list (Joel & Kristen combined)

2006-07-22T16:07:00.000+02:00

3 things that scare me:
-getting some funky disease in Africa
-spiders(Joel)
-something bad happening to either one of us

3 people that make me laugh:
-Doug Heffernan (King of Queens)
-Steve Martin
-Ryan Thomas(Missionary to Mexico)

3 things I love:
-Jesus
-my family
-traveling

3 things I don't understand:
-French people
-Men (kristen) Women (joel)
-People that know they are called to do something & never make an effort to do it.

3 things I have on my desk:
-DVD burner
-french dictionary
-sunglasses

3 things I'm doing right now:
-packing to move to Africa
-taking anti-malarial medecine
-typing this

3 things to do before I die:
-travel more of the world (14 countries & counting)
-have children
-travel some more with our kids

3 things I can do:
-speak french
-eat almost anything (grub worms, anteater, viper)
-ride a bike

3 things I can't do:
-drive a manuel (kristen)
-play a musical instrument (kristen)
-sing well (joel & kristen)

3 things that describe my personality (Kristen)
-Quiet (until you get to know me)
-Analystic
-Simple

3 things that describe my personality (Joel)
-layed back
-adventerous
-real

3 things I should listen to:
-Father
-Son
-Holy Spirit

3 things I shouldn't listen to:
-satan
-mother-in-law
-booty music

3 favorite foods:
-Mexican
-Pizza
-Indian (anything spicy)

3 things I'd like to learn:
-speak more languages
-basic medical skills
-too many more things to list

3 favorite drinks:
-water
-diet coke & diet sprite (kristen)
-coke & dr. pepper (joel)

3 shows I watched as a kid:
-Dukes of Hazard
-Knight Rider
-Quantum Leap

3 people tagged:
-Shanda
-Austin
-Michelle

Nous l'avons fait! (We did it! We have finally graduated!)

2006-07-14T14:24:00.000+02:00

Here we our with our certificates after our graduation. We hope to be fluent within the next ten years!!

Ok, so it has been a while since we posted. Things have been really busy for us during the past two months with final exams, graduation, Kristen's parent's visiting and packing to move to Africa. We finally finished our French course and graduated on June 24th. It was 10 months of intense language learning. Honestly it was a lot harder than we expected, but we have progressed so much in our French. We can understand almost everything we hear, about 95% or more, and we can communicate enough to build good relationships and preach and teach. We are still learning and will have a tutor when we get to Africa.
After graduation, my parent's (Kristen) came to visit us. It was so great to get to see them after being gone for 10 months and before leaving for Cameroon. They stayed with us and we took them around our region, which is the Rhone-Alp region. We went about 30 minutes from where we live to a city called Beaufortain, where they have a cheese factory. We showed them the cheese factory, bought some cheese and french bread and had a little pic nic. After that we drove through the mountains, which mom was not too happy about, and made it to a beautiful crystal blue lake, where the cute cows with there big bells on where being milked. We also went to Geneva, Switzerland which is only an hour and half away from us and Mont Blanc, which is the highest mountain in Western Europe. Anyway we had a really great time with them and were glad they could come see the beautiful placed where we have been blessed to live for the past 11 months.

Here we are in front of the famous clock in Geneva. We have done Geneva several times, but it was good to be able to do it one last time with family. I think we could have worn a little more green...

Here we are at a castle which is about a 15 minute drive from our house. Chateau de Miolans was built in the 15oo's and has an awesome view of the mountains and of Mont Blanc.

Only in France can you find a bread vending machine! We couldn't believe it but the bread was actually hot and fresh. Yum Yum....

Larry was really wanting to go to Euro Disney while here in France but settled for a short ride in this Mickey Mouse car outside an arcade in Chamonix, which is a city at the foot of Mont Blanc.

And for what is going right now-packing, packing, and more packing. We leave for Cameroun in 10 days. We will be leaving our house at around 3:30am to get to the airport in Lyon, which is an hour and 3o minutes away on July 24th. We are almost finished with packing all 9 of our bags. I know it seems like a lot, but only having 9 bags of stuff to live in Cameroun for 2 years is not that much considering that you can't find many things there. We have are necessities like our water filter, meat grinder, pressure cooker (for me), wind up flashlights for when we have no power, flip flops, flip flops, and more flip flops (of course for me-K), clothes and a partridge and a pear tree. We are excited about finally leaving for Africa. We should get our STL truck soon after we arrive, but we will have to find a place to live. Please pray that God will help us to find a nice little house or apartement to live in with an outdoor area for our dog and to hang our clothes out. I am so excited that we will finally have a dog. We plan to be getting a puppy from another missionary family. It will be a german shepard and if we get a girl I think we'll name her Ally and if we have a boy as well, we will name him Bama. Please pray for us as we travel that God will protect us and give us favor with customs once we arrive in Cameroun, and also that we will get all our bags and none will be stolen. Thank you for praying for us, keeping in touch, and encouraging us. We'll try to blog as often as possible while in Cameroun but we are not sure of our internet situation. We most likely will not have internet in our house but we are hoping that the city we live in will have an internet cafe. When we lived in Africa before we had to drive 3 1/2 hours to get internet connection, but after four years I'm sure things have progresssed a lot more, well, at least I'm hoping. That's all for now, we have to get back to packing.

One down and eight to go. Here is Joel weighing our bags.

An interesting story

2006-05-29T21:32:00.000+02:00

Here is something you don't see everyday. If you read the rest of the blog entry you will find out why I put in a picture of a chimp. We took this picture in the Canary Islands.

And people keep telling me I don't put enough pictures of Kristen on the blog!! Well here you go. :-)

Hello Everyone,

Just a quick note to say hello. We haven't been up to much here lately except for going to school and studying. We had a long weekend this past week so week took advantage of the the beautiful weather and went biking for three days. Not three days straight. We actually went to Geneva on Friday and saw X-Men 3 which was nice to see but I still like the first two the best. Thursday, Saturday and Sunday after church, we went biking around this region. It has been really good to get out and see the country at a slower pace and get some good exercise at the same time.

It's actually starting to get a little warm here now and when I say warm I only mean like 80 to 85 degrees. It's not that bad but we are thinking Oh God, Please help us because once we get to Africa we'll never get a break from the heat. I guess it is good to be here without AC because we will be there without AC so it is kind of breaking us in to help us get used to living without it. We are getting ready to go and are very excited. The other missionaries in Cameroon will help us get set up once we are there. So once we are there, the tone of our blog will change a bit with more things pertaining to the ministry we will be doing in Cameroon until we are able to set up a nice website for the ministry side.

Ok, so I heard an interesting story the other day about Cameroon. According to a Scientist at the University of Alabama at Birmigham, scientists have cofirmed that the the origin of AIDS is from a group of Chimpanzees found in Cameroon in the Southern Provence where we will be living. Is that weird or what? I don't know if it is absolutely 100% certain but it sounds legit. If you want to read more about it, you can click on the Interesting Story Link. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197024,00.html

Thank you to all of you who continue to keep up with us, pray for us and support us. We know that you are a big a part of the ministry that God has called us to in Cameroon. You help make our dreams possible and we don't want to take that for granted! I know our blog hasn't been that ministry oriented since we have been here in language school but we have had to remind ourselves that right this minute our ministry is to learn the language of the people whom God has called us to. A lot a times we want instant results but sometimes instant results don't stand the test until the overall goal is completed. We are committed to the end goal and right now that committment has led us to language school which is something that has taken a lot of time and even money but it is a necessary step to take so that we can be committed longterm and be able to reap lasting results.

Thanks for your prayers during this time of our lives and thanks for praying for us as we prepare to go to Cameroon. We know for a fact it will not be an easy road or life in Cameroon but we are ready for what God wants to accomplish through our obedience to His Call. Keep in touch. We love you guys.

Horrible Bloggers!!!

2006-05-13T23:42:00.000+02:00

Hello Everyone,

If there is anyone still checking our blog, it would be a miracle, but thanks to those of you who are still interested. We have been horrible bloggers. We just spent a couple of weeks with my Mom and Dad and we had a really nice time. We were able to take a break from french and do a little traveling. We were able to see a few places that we never thought we would have the opportunity to see and we really enjoyed seeing my parents. We will probably not have the opportunity to see them for another two years, so this was a real blessing to us. Here are a few pictures of the the places we we able to see. You might have to scroll down to get to the first ones, but they are there. Check back and we will try to keep you updated.

By the way, we will be leaving for Cameroon very soon. We are excited, and we know that God has used this time in France to prepare us for the work he has called us to there. We appreciate your prayers as we make yet another transition to finally get to where God has called us. We are expecting great things in Cameroon. We believe God has a great plan for the Continent of Africa and we are greatful to be a part of the harvest fields of Cameroon. Once we arrive in Cameroon, we are not sure but we will more than likely live in the city of Ebolowa, which we are not sure if the internet connection is so great but we hear they have one there now and we will definately keep everyone updated. Thanks again for taking an interest in our lives.Joel and Kristen

All roads lead to Rome just isn't true!!

2006-05-13T22:35:00.000+02:00

On our way to the famous castle in Germany we were able to see some of Austria. It was an absolutely beautiful place.

Just below the Castle, which is called Neuschwanstein (probabably pronounced like NOY SCHAWN STINE) there is a really nice lake. The sun was just beginning to set, but you can still see the beautiful mountain backdrop.

This was taken from Mary's Bridge which gave us a really nice view of the Castle.

Question:
What does 17 years, plus a lot of tired dudes, plus 200 million US Dollars make?

Answer:
This castle that King Ludwig lived in for only 6 months before he died at the age of 43.

Is this thing really leaning....

2006-05-13T21:57:00.000+02:00

Pisa was one of the first places we stopped off to see in Italy. We only spent a couple of hours here, but it was a really awesome experience. I am not so sure that if the tower hadn't ending up leaning that Pisa would be so popular. But none the less what an awesome thing to see.

Could you please just hurry up and take the stupid picture! This thing is getting really heavy!

The Colleseum The Colliseum and Rome altogether was an awesome experience. We are so grateful to have had this opportunity.

Here is a nice picture with Kristen and my parents. If you hadn't noticed, Kristen got a nice haircut before they came.

The Roman Forum

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome!! That's about all I can say about the Roman Forum.

"ça fait une éternité" " It's been an Eternity"

2006-04-02T19:38:00.000+02:00

Here we are on Tenerife Island in Spain. We had the opportunity to visit our friends who we used to work with in Cameroon. They are doing an awesome job in the Islands. It was really encouraging experience for us to see their passion for the people. Can you see I am sporting a cameroon t-shirt. It's the first one I have ever found anywhere. Woo Hoo!

Ok, So it's been awhile. One month and three weeks to be exact. Sorry!.... Some of you have been very encouraging with all your comments and we really appreciate you being interested in our lives. We have been pretty busy with studying for upcoming exams along with just trying to keep up with all the new things we learn everyday.

Anyways, I will throw some pictures in here and try to do a quick upate of what's been going on for the last month and half and I then we will try to be more regular about updating. We hope everyone is doing well and we would love to hear from you. We read many of your blogs and since you are more faithful at blogging than we are, I guess that makes it a little easier to do. Well, we will try to do better....

A bientôt

Joel and Kristen

"Geneva on Fire"

2006-02-08T14:27:00.000+01:00

Ok not really on fire but there is a story behind the title. As many of you know one of the cool things about living in Albertville is that we are only about an hour and half away from 3 major cities and Geneva, Switzerland is one of them. About two weeks ago, we decided to take a trip to Geneva with some friends from the language school who arrived here in January. The day turned out to be a fabulous one and we really enjoyed ourselves. I don't want to sound too shallow, but a couple of the highlights of the trip for me were drinking a nice warm caramel mocchiato from the only Starbucks that we know of in our region, and number two was eating a nice fattening Whopper from Burger King. We don't have Burger King in France, so it was a treat for me to eat something that reminds me of home.

Anyways at the end of the day, we were walking back to our parking garage which is a really nice one by the way, and we saw a bunch of fire trucks and flashing lights and Sapeur Pompiers(Firemen) blocking the entrance to our parking garage. My heart suddenly dropped, because we realized that we left all our identity cards and passports in the car. The fire men weren't talking. All they would say is that it was really bad and that they didn't know what the extent of the damage was. So for about an hour and a half all I could think of was how we were going to get our passports and identity cards replaced. I wasn't too concerned about the car, becuase we have insurance but if you know how much of a hassle it is to get your passports and id's in France you might be able to understand our concern. Anyways, at the end of the day the firemen reopened the doors and we found our car just the way we left it, not even damaged by smoke. And we got free parking out of the deal.

Anyways here are a few pics of our day in Geneva, Switzerland.

Geneva has a really nice lake called Lac Lemans. During the Summer they have a fountain that shoots out of the lake. We haven't had the opportunity to do a lot of exploration, but it makes a nice picture.

Geneva is famous for a lot of things, i.e, Swiss bank accounts, Lac Lemans, Swiss Army Knives and bien sûr (of course) watches. They have everything from Cuckoos to Rolex. You name it they have got it as far as watches are concerned. So we took the photo op in front of the infamous Geneva Clock in the front the Lake. It is a lot nicer during the summer but still a cool thing in the winter.

Ok, I will be honest, we've never really been on the Starbuck's bandwagon, but do I have to say we thoroughly enjoyed our caramel mocchiato while just relaxing in the nice warm american atmosphere. One could really feel like they've never left the States after walking into this place. Anyways, Merci beaucoup Starbucks for the atmosphere.

Ok, I know it's just Burger King but once you go without American fast food for a while a place like Burger King hits the spot. The only catch is when you find fast food in Europe, expect to pay a little more for the Not So Value Meal!

Did somebody call 118? (that's our 911) you bet they did. Some pour guy's car decided to burst into flames in the multiple story parking lot. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Something seems vaguely familiar about this fire truck. Oh yeah, that's right "our wedding". We just can't seem to get away from these fires.

For those of you who don't know, we had a fire at our wedding when a candle caught a table on fire. Maybe these are signs??? What do you think?

Joel's Culte Francais "French Devotion"

2006-02-08T13:16:00.000+01:00

Hello Everyone,

When we first arrived here in France, it took a little getting used to using the word culte for a devotion or a religious service. I mean in the States if you were to hear the word culte, you think of cult which is not a good word in christian or even often times secular vocabulary. However, now after five and a half months here in France, we have come to know the word culte as our word for devotion or church service. It's kind of wierd to see how our thought process is changing and we often times think in french before thinking in english. Anyways, I guess that is the goal of our being here. We need to be able to clearly communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those whom God has called us to. I will be honest, it has not for one second been as easy as I thought it would have been to learn french. In fact it has been very humbling! Sure I consider myself to be a fairly decent communicater on most subjects and I can get by quite easily when it comes to basic conversation in French. However, when it comes to really expressing myself and telling stories and expressing the spiritual aspects of my life in french, I often find myself at a roadblock with my vocabulary and some of the basic tools neccessary for clearly communicating what is on my heart. Kristen and I are learning that we cannot be too hard on ourselves and will just have to continue working everyday towards improving our french. One of the most important things that we can do besides working on our language study is working on it with the right attitude. It's not an easy task for most people, but in the end, every frustration and every bit of hard work put into it will be worth it! I guess you could really apply the same attitude to almost any aspect of life. When we go through those difficult days, weeks, months or even years, we have to remember what God has done for us and we have to continue working towards accomplishing those goals, visions and dreams that he has put in our hearts... Will it be easy?.. Probably not.. Will it be worth it?... I guarantee it will be...

Below are a couple of pics from the culte that I did in french for the school. I basically talked about the sacrifices involved in the lives of missionary's and tried to encourage to continue to follow after what God has put in their hearts.

Here I am translating a few words to help to the debutants (beginners) better understand the culte.

Yes, I do look pretty pale. But I promise it's not because I was nervous, but because I had been sick for a whole week and I was still sick when I had to deliver my message.

Believe it or not, I was not nervous here either. I don't consider myself self to be a great singer or guitarist by any stretch of the imagination, however I don't think it was too bad considering the condition of my throat at the time. Plus it was freezing in the room. I actually translated and sang "Love Song for a Savior" by Third Day.

Christmas in Venice, Italy

2006-01-20T11:44:00.000+01:00

Bonjourno from Padova Italy, which is about a 45 minute train ride to Venice. Which by the way is so much cheaper than in France. It only cost 5 euros for a round trip. The same distance in France would be around 30 euros!

Happy New Year to Everyone! Yes I know it's been a long time since we last updated. I guess I really only have an excuse for 2 weeks out of the nearly 5 weeks that you haven't heard a peep. We were without internet for about 2 weeks and the rest we have been busy catching up in school and helping new missionary families get setttled in.Anyways, enough of the excuses! So what have we been up to? Good question. Well, to begin with, we didn't want to be alone during the holidays, so our friends Kurtis and Amy who are missionaries to Italy, invited us to spend Christmas with them at their home in Padova. They only live about 6 hours from us. We had a great time with them, and to top it all off, we got to go to Venice on a gloriously sunny day! (Pics to follow) Also, we were able to use our french with a Cameroonian and a man from Gabon who are immigrants to Italy. We met them at Kurtis and Amy's church which is an international church.

We returned home on the 27th of December and then on the 28th, we picked up a new missionary family at the train station and helped with getting them settled. They are really great people and will be heading to Mali after their language study here in Albertville. We haven't been up to too much here lately besides our daily routine of going to school and learning french.

Thanks to everyone for leaving comments. We always love to hear from you and also read your blogs too. And for you faithful xanga writers, I still think blogspot is the place to be! Well, we hope you enjoy some pics of Italy. Yes, we are soooo blessed!!!! Thanks for all your prayers and support. We only have five months to go before we finally get to Cameroon. Then the real adventures begin......

Venice ( The city of Gondolas ) 1

2006-01-19T23:15:00.000+01:00

Are my eyes playing tricks on me or is that Hamburgler driving that gondola? No its not Hamburgler. For some reason these guys where outfits that look like they're straight out of the old McDonalds commercials. I thought they look pretty funny!

Here is my CIA or James Bond photo. They look like their in that typical European rendez-vous just about to work out some international espionage. Except Kristen looks like she's about to start praying or something...but Kurtis, he definately has the look of a 007. And the other guy, well if i told you who he was, I'd be lying.

Yes, you are looking at a canal in Venice.

If you are like me and don't know much about history, you would have thought that Venice's crest would be a gondola or cupid or something, but thanks to our good friend Kurtis I actually learned that the crest or symbol of Venice is a Lion. But I couldn't tell you why.

Europe and escpecially Vencice is always full of opportunities to take really cool photos like this one. If you click on it you might be able to see more detail. It actually turned out better than I thought.

Venice ( The city of Gondolas ) 2

2006-01-19T21:53:00.000+01:00

Here is a nice view of the Grand Canal taken from our Gondola ride. Venice is a really nice city made of many islands. We only had enough time to see the big touristy places.

I don't think our car would have done us much good here!

Yep, that's right... That is the Ambulance... and 118 is the emergency number like 911.

Oops, we did it again, we put another mushy picture up on the blog. What do you expect, we are in the city of Love and Lions and all that stuff. Anyways, that's our Gondola guy. You can't tell from this picture but he was sporting a nice Michael Jordon jacket. He sang nice little Italien songs in between the times that he would tell us the history of Venice of which we remember approximately 1%.

Yes we actually do really have friends in Italy. This is Kurtis. He played our own personal tour guide for the whole six hours in Venice for the cost of lunch. Not a bad deal for us. Thanks Kurtis!

This is a famous bridge that Kurtis told me about. It has something to do with prisoners being exiled from the island and this would be the last the they saw before that left or died or something. Sorry Kurtis, I totally forget. It is a very interesting story though when he tells it.

Does anybody have the time? I think not. All I can say is .... Different..... but kind of interesting.

This is a nice pic of St. Marks Bascillica. It was actually pretty cool to go inside. We got in trouble by security for leaving our hats on but is was interesing for me to learn that the island is sinking. The floor was like walking on a waving ocean. The city is making efforts to rebuild the sinking parts but I say good luck.

Thes guys really freak me out. What is up with that...... it's just wierd.
Aside from these guys, Venice and Italy in general was a really nice experience for us. We got to visit friends and see a part of the world we never thought we would. I would go back if I had the opportunity.

La Fête pour rendre grace à Dieu: AKA Thanksgiving

2005-12-18T13:56:00.000+01:00

Hello Everyone,Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. And in case we missed anyone back in November, Happy Thanksgiving! Ok so our pictures aren't as interesting as usual, but we have been getting ready for and taking exams over the last month, so we haven't had a lot of time to do anything but study and go to school and of course all the other things in "normal" everyday life. I have to ask myself the question though, is our life really "normal"? I think not! However, normal or unnormal, we are grateful to God for all he has done in our lives and all that he blesses us with. He is so faithful even when we are faithless. And by the way, we did pass our exams. Kristen got a "good", and I got a "good enough" grade. I was a little annoyed, that I didn't do as good as I wanted to, but maybe next time will go a little better. Our proffessor is very pleased with everyone in class, and their effort on the exams, so I guess that means something.

Anyways, we spent a nice Thanksgiving here in Albertville with all of the other missionary families. We had a huge "Turkey Day" known to the french as an American holiday by the name of "La fête pour rendre grace à Dieu" which translates to The festival for giving thanks to God. And yes, they do drag everything out here. Even the names of our American holidays. But it's not so bad, the french people are very kind and usually open to American traditions. It is true that a lot of people here need Jesus, but the people here are not as rude as they are made out to be. I am not speaking about the Government that is a whole different issue!

Here are a few pics of our Turkey day, and also a couple of pics of our early Christmas presents. If anyone knows Kristen very well, you'll know how important a Christmas tree is to her. So this year I went all out and got her the biggest and best Christmas tree I could find!

Later,

Joel and Kristen

Ok, so it's not the biggest or best tree you've ever seen, but I say it's the thought that counts and it gets the job done but Kristen begs to differ with me on the subject. Hey, at least it's decorated! Along with her beloved Tree, Kristen is sporting her old Navy gifts from her Mom and dad, and you may also notice the bag of Hershey's chocolate chips she is holding sent from her sister Tammy. Yum, yum, chocolate chip cookies here we come! I know, we are a little too excited about chocolate chips.

Here is one of the sacrificial Turkeys that we enjoyed so much. There were probably around 75 people in total. So I think this guy had about 8 more cousins hit the chopping block at Le Boucherie. (aka: the Butcher)

Kristen says that this is my early Christmas, birthday, next Christmas and next birthday present. I really don't think she's kidding either! She's hoping she will not regret it now that she's been hearing me play Feliz Navidad a couple of times during the Holidays. Thanks Kristen!

Here we are right after our Turkey Day meal. I think the tryptophan from the "turkey boy" and his cousins is starting to kick in. It looks like we were struggling to keep our eyes open. Oh yes, and please, no fat comments!
Thanks to Larry and Cathy (aka Mom and dad, the inlaws, the outlaws, etc) I am able to sport the latest Old Navy Fashion while being in the heart of France. Another early Merry Christmas present to us. Thanks! We love ya'll.

I"m Dreaming of a White Thanksgiving?

2005-11-25T21:24:00.001+01:00

Bonjour tout le monde,

I know it's not Thanksgiving anymore, but Happy Thanksgiving anyways. We actually will not even even celebrate until Saturday. We spent thursday in school all day, and it actually snowed a little in the morning and we were happy. Then we woke up friday and all was white! It continued to snow to the tune of around oh I don't know 18 inches. I know for you northerners its not that big of a deal but that is a lot of snow for us southerners. Anyways here a few pics of our first snow here in Albertville. It's supposed to snow for another 2 or 3 days. Too coooool....

By the way, our french is getting better. We have our days that are sometimes frustrating and we realize just how difficult it is to learn a new language within such a short period of time! Anyways, we won't be doing anything to exciting in the near future, except for maybe around Christmas, but you can check back and see how we are doing from time to time. Oh and yes to Holley with your comment. All the cool things we are getting to see and experience here does make the wait to Cameroon a little bit easier.

A tout à l'heure

I promise this is not rigged. I have never seen a sign so happy that it snowed. :-)

Sorry the pics are not in any order. This was taken about 3:00pm when the sun started breaking through the clouds. The Savoie region that we live in is such a beautiful place!

Kristen and other students warming up during our Friday morning worship time.

With a few ingredients and and little help from God with providing the snow, Kristen made some delicious snow cream. Yum Yum...

Joel and the Giant. Matt is a fellow student who hopefully will stay in France after his studies and work with youth. A really great guy, just not someone to stand next to when your trying to look tall.

This was right in front of our house at about 7:15am. We were really excited. I know we are silly.

It was still coming down at 10:30am. We spent our whole 15 minute break playing in the snow.

I guess it would just be easier to walk!!!

"J'aime Paris" ( I love Paris )

2005-11-17T21:03:00.000+01:00

Ok, as promised here are a few photos of your two favorite missionaries "suffering in France". Ok, we are not exactly suffering and we really love living here and we love having the opportunity to experience a little bit of Europe while learning french. We are truly blessed! Paris is an amazing city and a wonderful place to spend our 5th wedding anniversary. Yes it has already been five years! We personally really loved Paris and there is so much to do here and so much to see and experience with the history and beauty of the city but so little time to squeeze it all in. Here are a few highlights of our anniversary trip!

Sacre Coeur was an interesting place. It was a bizarre experience in that it reminded me of the story where Jesus went throught the temple and turned over the money changers tables. I believe he said you have taken a house prayer and made it into a den of robbers. I guess that's kind of what it felt like with all the tourist shops and prayer candles for sale for 2 euros a piece that you could buy to pray to a saint. There are somethings about the place just didn't seem so sacred anymore.

The Eiffel Tour is a lot bigger than it looks on television and pictures!

I guess you can never go wrong with a little Van Gogh. This was in the Musée d'Orsay. We also saw the Mona Lisa and tons of statues at the Louvre. The Louvre is probably the best value for money, but I really liked the Musée the best.

What do you expect? We were celebrating our anniversary! :0)

The Arc d' Triumphe was actually more than just something to look at. You can actually go to the top and have a great view of Paris or check out artifacts from the Napoleon era.

"Riots"

2005-11-17T20:15:00.001+01:00

As far as the riots go, everything has pretty much calmed down. It was a very bad situation and a lot of people were affected and some people even lost their lives. Thousands of cars were burned and many schools and business's were destroyed. I'm sure many of you have seen a lot of news on the subject, probably more in the states than here. We were not affected by the riots in any way, but it is kind of interesting that we had just left Paris the day the riots began. We were actually staying fairly close to the suburb were the two young boys were killed while running from the cops. The violence spread to many other cities and two of which were within two hours from where we live. Hopefully now, the government will begin to take a look at some issues, but more importantly that the church here in France begin to address the situations and the spiritual conditions of the nation.

Thanks to all of you who expressed your concern for our saftey during this time and prayed for us. Please continue to stand with us and ask God to do a miracle in this country. France is a very beautiful and wealthy country, yet very poor in Spirit. We really need God to move in France!

Also please continue to pray with us as we learn french and prepare for Cameroon. Pray that God will give us wisdom and direction as we make certain decisions for ministry in Cameroon. Thanks again to everyone and please feel free to write or comment anytime.

Love from,

Joel and Kristen

Long time no update... Désolé (Sorry)

2005-11-17T20:15:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone and yes it has been nearly three weeks since we last updated. But I guess it's better late than never. It's been good to hear from everyone and read your comments. We hope that you will continue to check back in the future and leave more comments. We love hearing from everyone!

"Moving Mountains"

2005-10-31T18:36:00.000+01:00

This morning at approximately 4:40 am Kristen and I were suddenly awakened as our apartment shook back and forth for about 5 to 10 seconds. Still dazed and confused from our slumber, we didn't realize that we had just experienced our first earthquake. I'm sure there are plenty of people who have gone through larger earthquakes but when you have never been in one they can be quite scary. After 30 minutes of my investigating possible scenarios like planes crashing or boilers exploding, I had come to the conclusion that we must have just been in an earthquake. Then right after we laid back down to "faire un grosse matinee" or sleep in for you english speakers, there it went again. The aftershock was nothing like the original quake which I later found out registered a 3.71 on the richter scale, nevertheless still a bit scary for us. There was obviously no structural damage to anything and it wasn't even big enough to make the news I don't think but I will say that it did provoke some thoughts in our minds. I can't imagine what the people in Pakistan felt about three weeks ago when around 40,000 people lost there lives to the devasting earthquake. It makes us realize just how quickly things can change and how little control we actually have over our lives. Without warning we were totally out of control. We felt helpless. Today we are grateful that we serve a God who takes care of us and tells us that we don't have to have everything under control in this life. We just need to surrender to him and trust him completely.

Thanks to everyone who has been posting. We love to hear from all of you. Keep checking back for new posts. If anyone is interested, we had the opportunity to go to Paris and we will post a few pics from that trip. Keep in touch.

Joel and Kristen

La Belle Etoile

2005-10-15T22:21:00.000+02:00

Pictures of our recent hike on La Belle Etoile. This is about a 15 minute drive from our house, then about a 2 and half hour hike of the mountain. You can see Mont Blanc which stands right at 3,800 meters and sits on the border of France and Italy. You can also see the city of Annecy which is about 45 min drive from us.

"En Classe Nous Parlons en Francais"

2005-10-04T12:53:00.000+02:00

"In class we speak in French" is supposed to be the rule now after 1 month of class and we pretty much stick to it most of the time. However, there are times when you just can't find the french or maybe you brain has been "french fried" as I coined the phrase. It was good to be able to begin the year with already having some french and we are are learning a lot, but now we realize how much french we do not know. It can be frustrating at times but we will prevail. We have a total of 11 people in our class from different countries like Australia, South Africa, Germany, USA, and Brazil who are all at different levels of french. Class is very often like a roller coaster ride. Sometimes you get everything and you feel like your at on the top of a mountain, then there are times you feel totally lost and everything seems downhill and you will never be able to speak at the level you desire. However me being the optomist I am, I believe our comprehension and speaking has progressed since we have been here. Also you have to remember that we are trying to cram about 8 years worth of language learning into 10 months. Maybe we should have learned to speak english correctly before we started trying to learn french!

"Bon Anniversaire" Happy Birthday"

2005-10-04T12:49:00.000+02:00

Happy birthday Mom! We can't wait to see you in April. Have a Great Day!

Flower in the Night

2005-10-04T12:20:00.000+02:00

This has absolutely nothing to do with anything, except the fact the I like the way this picture turned out. I thought I would share it with all the other aspiring photographers out there. By the way, in french the person who "takes the picture" ( prends le photo) is called the Photographe, and the camera is called "un appareil de photo".

Lac D'Annecy and the Ville

2005-10-03T18:39:00.000+02:00

Here are couple of views and the Ville of Annecy along with a couple of nice views of the lake. I don't think you can see it in these photos but they often have 50 or more people paragliding at the top of the mountains. We will actually go back to Annecy this Thursday for a school field trip designed to practice the french we already learned!

The Best "French Fries" of Annecy

2005-10-03T18:30:00.000+02:00

I love this picture. I took it in city called Annecy which is about a 45 minute drive from Albertville. Annecy is a really neat city that boasts about its fine french cuisine like Tartare and the fact that it has the purest and most beautiful lake in all of France and some say all of Europe.

Notre voiture d'occasion (Our used car)

2005-10-03T17:44:00.000+02:00

This is our ticket to freedom in France. We got a really good deal on this car and we really feel it was a great decision for us to go ahead and get a car. They don't have a transportation system here in Albertville, so we would be doing a lot of walking if we didn't have this. Also it gives us the freedom to travel about the France and other parts of Europe when we have time. Many thanks to everyone who helped us be able to have a ride. By the way it is a 1996 Renualt Megane. A very popular car here in La France.

2005-09-05T19:12:00.000+02:00

At the top of Conflans you will find some of the actual fort and canons along with a little park to hang out and have a picnic while you enjoy the amazing views of Albertville and the surrounding areas.

2005-09-05T19:06:00.000+02:00

Here are just a few shots of Conflans. Above you have the old Catholique Church and a view of some of one of the streets in Confans.

Conflans "A Medieval Village"

2005-09-05T17:59:00.000+02:00

This is the small village of Conflans. It rests on the side of a mountain overlooking albertville. It was was used as a fort when the french and Italians were fighting over this region. (It actually used to belong to Italy back in the 1850's. These pictures depict the entry way into the village. Believe it or not people actually live here and drive up and down the narrow roads.

Around the Village

2005-09-05T17:40:00.000+02:00

This is called rue Gambetta. It is one of the main streets in Albertville. Along with the cool looking church we also have shops to buy almost anything you want. From internet cafe's to Boulangeries (bakeries) to clothing stores you can find everything except it is usually a little more expensive than US prices. We also have stores that would compare to Super Wal-Mart and local grocery stores.

The Kitchen View

2005-09-05T17:24:00.000+02:00

This is a nice little view we have while eating breakfast, lunch or dinner. Right now it doesn't get dark until around 8:00pm becuase they do daylight savings time here as well. This picture was taken around 10:00 or 11:00 am. It has actually only rained one day since we have been here but I expect that to change.

Our Apartment Building

2005-09-05T13:07:00.000+02:00

This is a limited view of the side of our apartment building. We live on the top floor while two other single people occupy the other two apartments. We have a terrace with shutters we can open and close. The view from the terrace is in the previous picture.

2005-09-05T12:52:00.000+02:00

Above is the view from our terrace. We also have a nice view from our breakfast and kitchen area as well. We are so grateful to actually have an apartment here in Albertville. We have a really nice situation being that we are not off campus but it feels like we are. The other families are in the family building connected to the school while som are off campus about 10-15 walk away.

Bienvenue au Albertville

2005-09-04T22:16:00.000+02:00

Hello to everyone from the beautiful city of Albertville, France. As most of you know, we will be here in the Southeastern part of France learning french for the next 10 months before we continue on to Cameroon. Many thanks to all of you who helped us get here! We are new at the blog thing, but will do our best to keep you updated. Check back from time to time and see what's been happening with us.
Au Revoir