17 | October | 2008 | Love, Laughter, and Life

Look what I never published! It’s only a few months old…

My 2 Favorite Mission Friends

My bad! I haven’t blogged for numerous days…but who’s counting?

Kevin and I are preparing to head to Richmond, Virginia and Oklahoma City for appointment week. This week will be chuck full of meetings and gatherings and sharing…and commissioning for service overseas. It’s a bit overwhelming! One thing we will do is to prepare our testimony, which we will share at the appointment service. I was thinking back…

Way back when, our two children were preschoolers! Even before that, in high school, maybe middle school, I have had a love of the French people and the French culture. The extent of that was to perhaps visit the country one day, maybe study there during college (mission trip to France, yes, studied during college, no). Like my mom likes to say, I was born French, just in the wrong country.

Fast forward a few years. Bub and Bubbette (my dad’s nicknames for the 2 little Q’s) were not yet in school. I needed something to do with the kids on Wednesday nights at church, as nothing was offered. Our pastor suggested we try Mission Friends. Cool. That began my journey with missions. What awesome curriculum for preschoolers (and mom’s who teach it!). We studied cultures, foods, languages, people of the world, and missionaries and their families that lived and worked around the world to share the love of Jesus. With each lesson I prepared and taught, I fell more in love with being obedient to the call and serving wherever the Lord called. I didn’t instantly know that I was being called, but rather, grew into it. I’ve always felt a pull towards Western Europe, but thought it would be ‘in the future’ trips exploring cities and countrysides.

My babies!

A few years later, after writing for Mission Friends and Mosaic, the call to go myself, instead of just reading of others going, continued to grow. I went on several mission trips. Each trip confirmed the direction I needed to head. Kevin and I both went to Paris on a mission trip, where we served alongside workers in the city. That trip and the relationships we built confirmed the call for both of us, not just going, but the place and the people. Whoo-hoo!

To make a really long journey of manageable length for this blog, now we are getting close to heading across the water to live and work in east Paris. On June 27, in Oklahoma City, we will be appointed as missionaries. Please pray for us ~ it will be exciting and awesome! And we’d prefer not to experience any of their world famous tornadoes. In the northwest, we are used to volcanoes, wind, heat, rain, snow, dust…Not tornadoes. Show me the safe place please.

Following appointment week, we head home to prepare in earnest for living in another country. The house is gone, but too much of the stuff remains. You know, yard sale, storage unit, giving away belongings, lists of what to take (or not)…We will be at our church in Union Gap (13+ years) until December 28. We leave for orientation and training January 26th-ish, with hopes of being in Paris, going to language school, around the beginning of April!

The great news is we have years of experience…in English! The bad news is it will take us old folks longer to learn a new language! (We were informed of this wonderful tidbit.) That’s ok. I’m sure you can teach 2 old dogs new tricks – and words.

Look at how young they were!

Chelsie at her Starbucks

This is it. One of the last happy days before our flagship store of 15 years was closed! What a going out party! Our best, most favorite, family Starbucks was one of the unfortunate ones that had to be closed. Nevermind that it was the first in Yakima, had the best workers (especially the beautiful one above, my baby), and had a great community. Tears were abundant as baristas hung out and worked together for the last shift. But what a party!

Let’s just say, I love Nicole’s plan for happy hour…basically from 4:30 until closing (free drinks!). Throughout the day, customers had delivered flowers, so the tables were all decorated with fresh flowers in miscellaneous (ie coffee pots, vases, urns) containers. One customer brought pizza for lunch, another brought a carrot cake decorated with his phone number. Cookies, donuts, and pastries were brought out of the case and passed around. Calories were not an issue. Neither was caffeine. Photos were displayed, along with a poster board showing each barista and where he or she was being transferred. The only horrible thing was that this was the last night the store was open.

Amidst the tears, there was plenty of laughter. I had to really laugh at the dismantling of the store…which commenced promptly at 7:00. Furniture and things that had to go were walked out of the store and deposited in waiting vehicles. And then that was it. The store closed. Now it is just a shell – contractors have already removed the counters, shelves, signs…Blah. It’s the saddest corner of the whole parking lot. Empty, quiet, and dark. I know Top Foods took a hit with the store leaving. They had a great partnership. Just give me 10 minutes with Howard. This is one unhappy chick.

Now, in order to see our favorite baristas, we have to travel to 4 other stores, hoping to catch them while they are working. (I almost got in trouble today, as it’s taken me quite a while to catch up to Stephanie – sorry Steph!). Bittersweet. But wonderful memories. For more pictures, look for me on facebook.

Peeps, make me a grande, nf, xhot, 3 pump chai…to go.