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

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"

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"

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

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

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

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

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?

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 )

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"

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)

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"

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

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"

"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!