June | 2008 | Love, Laughter, and Life

June 24, 2008
by Angie Leave a comment

Appointment Week

Wow! We are here, and things are moving along quite nicely. Very, very busy…except this morning when I have time to borrow a lap top and blog and add some photos. I could blog in the library, but those are secure computers and they won’t recognize my camera. Oh well. Jerod and Rebekah were nice (or gullible enough) to lend me their technology.

Where to begin? So far, the biggest thing we’ve done is to have dinner with and meet with our regional trustees. They are/were the ones that approve or deny our application. It was a great time where we shared our testimonies and call to France. They asked a few questions, prayed for us, and affirmed our call. It was very encouraging. There are only 4 of us headed to Western Europe at this appointment week – Jared and Rebekah Motley, from Okra-homa, and us, the Q’s from the beautiful and not humid northwest. (As a side note, in February, when we were here for candidate conference, this was not an issue. My hair is at least 6″ wider in Virginia in the summer humidity! I am NOT joking. I have mucho product on my hair to keep it to a width appropriate to fitting through doors!) The formal approval will be Friday night during the commissioning service in Oklahoma City.

The rest of our time has been full, I mean really full. Meetings, meals, planning, paperwork…friends, new and old. The great news is being able to see how much God is working among our lives and the lives of the ones we are meeting and talking to. We are blessed to be here when the emeritus (retiring) missionaries had their services. Kevin and I carried flags for the flag ceremony portion of the service. We enjoyed worship services together, and then the emeritus laid hands on and prayed for us. We’ve spoken with many who used to work and live in France, and they were very encouraging and said how much they loved the people and their jobs. 🙂 Good to hear!

Here we are at the International Learning Center. It’s been pretty warm and humid. At least for this NW girl. There are several from the NW here, including Chad and Miriam, right from the Yakima Valley. We’re pretty sure they will be here with us in January, after their baby is born. 🙂

The greatest thing is hanging with all of our friends who are going through the same thing (like learning how to share 2 minutes modules, or 155 word count testimonies, or how to crate belongings and figure out how to get the crate -about 8′ tall- out of a house). The sad part is missing friends like Tess and Chris, who we LOVE and want to have here with us. They will have their turn! Sell house sell.

We, the northwest, have a couple here from the Gresham area, two couples from the Yakima Valley, and another young lady from our area. So there are 5 new m’s at ILC from the northwest! Wow! That is great news…

Oh, you should see the lighting bugs! Like little floating Christmas lights. It’s so neat. And the blue birds, red birds, long tailed robins, some other kind of bird like a miniature magpie, squirrels,…and deer. I just know there are deer. We have a river/lake right near us, with open fields and trees all around. Just haven’t seen the deer yet, but I know they are there.

On to the next meeting. Love ya!

June 18, 2008
by Angie 1 Comment

Did you know?

Did you know they have band-aids for eyeballs? I found out today. It’s not even an exciting story or anything! I was putting away my clothes in the dresser. Yes, that’s it. I wasn’t climbing a mountain, walking in the wind, chopping wood, or riding my bike on the Greenway.

As I was deeply involved in this exciting adventure of laundry, I puffed ???? some air and something else up beneath my glasses and into my eyeball. Ouch. It felt immediately like a pokey and sharp prize in my eye. I have an older dresser, which always has splinters and little bits of wood in the bottom. So it was that – or lint. I really wanted to stay in this mode of most exciting day, but my eye hurt. I rinsed, rubbed (gently), put in drops, cried, flushed…nothing changed except it got worse.

All good things have to come to an end, so I stopped putting away clothes and cleaning out the closet. I had to break down and call for a ride to the eye doctor. [Sidenote: Dr. LaBissoniere. I chose him in high school because his last name is French.] The receptionist, of course, asked what was wrong. I gave a blow by blow account of the fantastic details of my movie-like life event…I was worked into the schedule.

After I explained my weird, let’s just say it, it’s too weird, not even spectacular, accident for the 3rd time in the office (not counting on the phone), the doctor came in. She got those giant insect lens looking things out and peered into my eye. “There it is. A piece of wood. Sticking straight into your cornea. It never would’ve come out by itself.”

Whew. I’m glad I wasn’t over-reacting. But my mind had already thought ahead to HOW it was coming un-stuck from my eyeball. And could I please be put out for that. “Oh, we will numb your eye.” Is that by shot, because if it is, I’m outta here, sliver or not in my eyeball.

“We have eyedrops.” Ok then, praise the Lord for eyedrops! Now that’s a weird feeling. Numb eyeball. I could just barely see her stick the tweezer-thingy’s in and grab out the wood.

Now, there were scratches, but they are off center of my field of vision, so if there is scarring (I hadn’t even thought of that yet!), it wouldn’t really affect my main vision. “I’m going to give you a band-aid (thinking eye patch here) so the scratches will be protected while they heal. And some antibiotic eye drops.”

Band-aid for eyeballs = contact band-aid! How cool is that! She popped it into my eye, and I wear it until I see her in 2 days. Luckily, I already wear contacts, so I’m used to things being in my eye (but not pieces of wood). No makeup, no contacts, no rubbing…Just eye drops and a contact band-aid. The marvels of modern medicine and technology.

It was exciting until my sister, who I love dearly, said, “Oooh, how will they take it out?” Good question. Surely contact band-aids don’t rip off your skin like normal ones, do they?

You learn something new every day. And any typos are a direct result of a contact band-aid and blurry vision.

June 18, 2008
by Angie Leave a comment

Way Back When

My bad! I haven’t blogged for quite awhile…but who’s counting? Kevin and I are getting ready to head to Richmond, Virginia, and Oklahoma City for our appointment week! Yeah! That means one more step in the process to serve the Lord overseas in east Paris. 🙂

I was reminiscing recently, thinking back to when our 2, Bub and Bubbette (thanks Grandpa) were preschoolers. My journey through missions began then. But my love of all things French started much earlier, high school, or maybe middle school. I was fascinated with the French people and culture. I dreamed of visiting or studying in France. (visited – yes; studied there – no). My mom likes to say I was born French, just in the wrong country.

Fast forward to Kevin and I having 2 little Q’s. I needed something to do with them on Wednesday nights, while Kevin was working with the youth. Nothing was offered for preschoolers or children. Our pastor suggested we try Mission Friends. Wow! What a great and life changing choice for us. The curriculum is great. We had a ball learning about people groups, countries, cultures, customs, foods, languages…and missionaries that lived and worked in different places around the world to tell others about the love of Jesus. With each lesson and unit, I became more and more involved and in love with missions (living with the love, heart, and eyes of Jesus).

Skip forward many years. I was blessed to write curriculum for Mission Friends (another love of mine is preschoolers) and articles for Mosaic. With each assignment, I became thirstier to join the team of those serving the Lord in other lands. My call to missions didn’t happen immediately, but God used numerous layers of experiences to point out and confirm His will for me. Another layer was the mission trips I took. Kevin went with me to Paris to work alongside believers in the city. That trip confirmed our call to serve overseas. It also gave us our destination – Paris.

Leap ahead again! (God knew we would take awhile to be really ready!) We are poised on the edge of leaping totally into His arms of care and into a different culture. Our little Mission Friends are grown up and ready to live independently of mom and pop (ouch! it went so fast). So instead of them leaving home, well, they really have already, mom and dad are moving away!

On Friday, June 27 in Oklahoma City, we will be appointed as missionaries. (Please pray for our commissioning service and the weather! As true northwesterners, we are used to volcanoes, rain, wind, snow, dust, sun, snakes, scorpions…not tornadoes!). Upon our return home, we will prepare in earnest to transfer residence to France. The house is gone, but too much stuff is still hanging around. You know what that means ~ yard sale, storage unit, giving away, selling, packing, loaning…the paperwork alone is daunting. Kevin will still be PK (Pastor Kevin) until December 28. In January, we travel to Richmond for orientation and training. We anticipate being in Paris and attending language school in early April. Tres bien, oui?

Good news – we have YEARS of experience. Bad news – it is harder to learn a foreign language as an older (not ancient) adult. We were even advised of this tidbit at a previous meeting. Sigh. But I do believe these 2 old dogs can learn new tricks – and vocabulary. So, woof woof, I mean au revoir, mes amis.