Appointment week

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!

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!