My 3 things list (Joel & Kristen combined)

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!)

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

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!!!

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!!

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....

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"

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!!!