Kami's Trip to St. Martin...

Kami left Sunday evening for St. Martin so that she could attend her government required class...the topic: Living in France.  

The class had already been canceled and rescheduled twice, so Kami didn't really know what to expect.  Although the class was supposed to start at 8AM on Monday morning, she had to wait until 9:45.  The reason for the delay?  "The class will not start until at least 10 people have arrived for the class."  Needless to say, the tenth person finally showed up at 9:45 !

Kami said that her class was very interesting and that she learned quite a bit about France... The class was taught in French and translated into English and Spanish.  Here are some things that she was taught :

- Being that Adolph Hitler was against homosexuals, gypsies, and Jews, France decided to enter WWII and to fight against Germany because France "stands for the equal rights for all men and women.".... Hhmmm...and I thought it was because Germany invaded France and tried to take them over...

- WWI was about France fighting against Russia, England, Germany, and Italy.

- Homeless people have equal rights as anybody else.  In fact, if you are homeless in France (living on the streets and in parks) the government will pay you 480 euros or about $630 per month as welfare.  By law, shower buildings are required to be built in each city so that you can shower each week.  You are allowed 1 doctor visit per month (paid by the government)...I'm lucky if I get to see the doctor once a year!  You will also be supplied (by the government) if you choose to accept it, one round-trip bus ticket or airplane ticket to travel to the south of France or any French Caribbean island during the winter months so that you do not freeze in the winter months.  You are allowed to beg for money on the streets for extra income and your only obligation is that you must notify the police of the approximate area or park in which you plan on being homeless.

- Law is always superior to religion.

- Once a child turns 15, a parent has no right to stop any sexual relationship their child chooses to enter.

- You have the right to Free Speech, however, you also have the right to "not be offended".  This means that you cannot say anything that will offend another person.   Thus you cannot say anything "offensive" against homosexuals, race, religion, etc.

- There are more government benefits such as more money and lower taxes if you live with someone instead of being married to someone.

- By law, a wife/husband cannot read or look through their spouse's cell phone messages.

These were just a few of the things that Kami learned at this meeting and she came back with a new wealth and knowledge of France.  She did enjoy her day and made the entire class laugh when she replied, "Not my husband!" to the statement, "A man, by law, can have only 1 wife but as many girlfriends as he pleases..."

Until next time....or the next class!

Here they (them) go again...

Okay, my last post was about Kami & Josh having to go to St. Martin again for one of those "Invited" obligatory meetings with the government.

For the last meeting, we received a call the afternoon before that the meeting was canceled.  Well, on our way to drop Kami & Josh off at the Ferry boat yesterday evening, we got a call that the meeting was canceled and rescheduled for Monday. 

Wow, that was close...we were almost to the boat!  So we had to immediately call and cancel our car rental.  Then we tried the hotel...of which we were told that the hotel could not do anything for us...we would lose our $100 for the reservation.  We then tried Expedia and the gentleman told us that we could reschedule our room reservation for an extra $30.77.....this is a whole lot better than having to book a whole new room so we were very greatful! 

We didn't need to worry about the boat tickets because they do not expire and can be used at any time.  So, for now, Kami and Josh will be leaving on Sunday evening to spend the night on St. Martin for Kami's "invited" obligatory meeting!

Here they go again...

Well, this past week, Kami received another letter from the French government.  She was again "invited" to an obligatory meeting with government officials this Friday (tomorrow the 21st).  She will be attending an all-day class from 8AM to 4PM on the subject, "Life in France".  This is just another required step in validating her VISA which is set to expire on November 15th.

So, once again, we had to purchase 2 Ferry tickets to St. Martin, reserve a room at a hotel, and arrange for a car rental.  Since the class starts at 8AM, Kami must spend the night on St. Martin because there are no boats or planes that arrive that early and Joshua is going with her for safety reasons

This will be the first time that Kami will spend the night away from Micah.  He is still nursing so we bought some powdered formula for him.  This time I searched the ingredients to make sure that there was no "fish oil"....the last stuff smelled awful and tasted just like rotten fish!  (Momma is not thrilled about leaving her baby but she is looking forward to having some time alone with Josh.)

Joshua will return on the morning ferry while Kami attends her class on Friday.  Then Momma will return on the evening ferry back to St. Barths.

Please pray for their safety as they will be arriving on St. Martin in the dark and getting to the hotel in the dark as well.  (St. Martin can be dangerous at times traveling alone, especially at night.)  And please pray for their safe return.

Hello from Ukraine !...and our Picnic...

This past Sunday, we took a trip in our Bible study service to the country of Ukraine.  As most of you know by now, we have been having a Mission's Emphasis during the month of September.  Each Sunday we have a presentation from Joshua about a foreign country and we highlight a missionary family serving there.

After Joshua's presentation of Ukraine, we had a great treat watching a video sent to us by the Sloan Family (this is me translating into French)

The Sloan's have an amazing testimony and are doing a great work in Ukraine.  Please feel free to get aquainted with this precious family at Mrs. Sloan's blog : With Love From Ukraine 

We also had a special time of prayer for the Sloan family, especially for their need of their long-term VISA to be re-approved.

Joshua made special placemats and we feasted on traditional Ukraine dishes such as this Russian salad called Olivier.

We also ate Borsch which is a soup made with beets, potatoes, carrots and cabbage.  One of the things that we learned is that Ukrainians eat lots of sour cream and dill seasoning.  Our instructions were to add sour cream to the Borsch soup and both the soup and salad both contained Dill seasoning.

This is Éliane, one of the ladies who comes faithfully to our Sunday Bible study and Wednesday lunch fellowship.  She loves trying "new" foods!

This last item is called Napoleon Torte.  It is also made with sour cream as well.  It was a fun trip to Ukraine and the only thing that would have made it better would to have been to have the Sloan family here in person!

 

 

Our Picnic

 

This past Friday, Joshua planned our family Fun Night and he chose to have a picnic at the beach!  So we loaded up our chicken salad sandwiches, chips, and Pepsi's and headed to Grand Fond.

It was perfect because the skies were overcast and there was a terrific breeze. 

We were even treated to a surfing exhibition!  The wind was coming from the Atlantic side and made for some nice waves.  There were a dozen or more surfers taking advantage of the waves and we had a first row seat!  It was fun to watch but Silas and Callie spent most of their time doing what they love to do, throwing rocks into the water!

It was a great time together and even little Micah got to play in the sand!

 

We look forward to this coming Sunday's adventure to a new country and appreciate your continued prayers for our family and the work here.  Until next time...

 

Slightly Pale Green Thumb...

We have always tried to have a garden where ever we have lived.  Only 1 has ever turned out and given us a bounty of vegetables.  That was in Canada where the soil was rich and filled with huge night crawlers!

So when we arrived in St. Barths, it was natural for us to try another vegetable garden, especially when the prices of food is soooooo expensive here.  Our first garden that we tried (cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes) all died.  Yes, shriveled, wilted, and just plain died. 

So we tried again.  We bought bagged dirt because the soil here is hard as a rock, filled with rocks and resembles rocks.  We tilled the soil, used containers and even added fertilizer.  Wow, the plants took off !  We finally had a garden that seemed unstoppable! 

Then the iguana showed up and ate most of our tomatoes.  The green beans that weren't eaten by the iguana shriveled up & died.  The enormous cucumbers that had over 50 flowers, gave us 1 cucumber and then they all died.  All we have left are three cherry tomatoes plants, one regular tomato plant, 5 green pepper plants, and 3 eggplants that have dropped all their flowers.

Needless to say, we were excited when we harvested our first batch of cherry tomatoes!  Yes, all 3 of them...ok..."harvested" may not be the word to use here when there are only 3...

But 3 are better than none! 

 

So looking at our gardening thumbs, they are a slightly pale green!

Mission's Emphasis Month...

For the month of September, we are having a missionary emphasis presentation at our Sunday morning Bible studies.  Each Sunday, Joshua gives a presentation about a foreign country and a missionary family serving there.  This past Sunday we visited Kenya!

In honor of the Cormier family who work with the deaf in Kenya, Elisabeth sang a song along with sign language for our service...

Joshua made up placemats that decorated our table for our lunch.  After the service, we have a meal together made with recipes from that country.  The family in the upper right-hand corner is the Cormier family serving in Kenya.  They are a great family with a great testimony for our Lord Jesus Christ.  Please feel free to visit Mrs. Cormier's blog (listed below) to get aquainted with their family.  Please also be in prayer for their family as men forced their way into their home one night and tried to break down the door to their bedroom to get to their family.  You can read the details here: Mrs. Cormier's Blog

 

Our meal from Kenya consisted of Kachumbari (a Kenyan salad), Coconut Beans (oh so good!), and Pilau (A Flavorful Rice with meat).  You can find these recipes on Mrs. Cormier's Blog as well!  For dessert we ate Sweet Potato/Coconut pudding.  It was all great and definitely recipes were are going to make for our family again!

 

On Wednesdays, we have two ladies over for lunch and then we have a time for them to help in the ministry.  This is not only a time of fellowship, but also to teach them to have a part in reaching others.  In this picture above, they are working on lap-quilts (Les Couettes) that we will be giving as a Christmas gift to the elderly folks who live at the hospital.  We not only want to teach our children, but the ladies as well, that God wants you to use your talents to reach others for Him.  So, they are using their sewing talents to make a gift that hopefully will touch the hearts of others for Christ!

 

We also use our Wednesday time to fill our Door-Hanging bags as well.  In each bag we place a French Gospel Tract, French copy of John & Romans, and an invitation to our Sunday Bible study.  We have been placing these in the mailboxes on the island.  We have managed to distribute over 225 of these bags into mailboxes thus far! 

 

Continue to pray with us that we will soon see a family join our services and for a young man to accept Christ as his Saviour and to surrender his life to preach the Gospel.  We know that God will not force anyone to accept Him, we all have a free choice.  But we can pray with all our might for God to convict the hearts of the lost and to open their eyes to the truth. 

 

Until next time....

 

The Great-American Hotdog Fun Night !

Brenna and I were tasked with the responsibility of planning our Family Fun Night for this past Friday night.  So we decided to open a Hotdog shop that serves Hotdogs from around the U.S.!

We called our shop, Hotdog Island!  We even made ourselves some Deli hats!

 

Brenna took the orders from our menu's.  There were five hotdogs to choose from.  We listed the name of each hotdog with its picture but didn't list the items on the particular hotdogs so that they would be a surprise!

There was one unanimous favorite: The Puka Dog from Hawaii !  We all loved the flavor and it was a sellout!  It is actually a sausage and not an actual hotdog but the guava-mustard relish was amazing!

 

This is the Sonoma Hotdog from Arizona...

We also had Chicago's, New York Systems, & Slaw Dogs to choose from.

 

 

Here is Beth with the Slaw Dog...

 

 

Josh is eating the New York System...

 

 

and for dessert, we made coconut icecream sundaes in home-made waffle cones! 

 

They were amazing! 

We ate so many hotdogs, laughed and had a great time together as Brenna & I realized that working in a "restaurant" serving customers is not easy! (by the way...our family are lousy tippers!)  We finished the evening having a Hotdog Trivia Competition.  Each person got points for correctly answering questions like: What is the world's longest hotdog?   & What is the number 1 hotdog condiment in the U.S.?  (mustard...we all thought it was ketchup!)  It was a evening or true family fun!

 

We cherish our family time and are taking advantage of the time we have together to make great memories!

 

 

Mission's Emphasis Month....

Last year, during September 2011, we emphasized Mission's and reaching others with the Gospel during our Sunday morning Bible studies.  This past Sunday we started our mission's emphasis for September 2012 !

Joshua did a great job with a Power Point presentation of our first country, Canada.   He gave facts about Canada and presented the need for the Gospel there.  Then he introduced our Missionary Family of the week serving in Canada, The Jason Hamby family!

 

Bro. Hamby had also sent a letter for us to read in the Sunday Bible study time addressed to the folks here on St. Barths.  It was a great touch hearing from a family serving from a "foreign" mission field.  Come to think of it...a pastor from America would be someone serving on a "foreign" mission field to them as well!

After the service, we had a great lunch together.  Joshua made the Mission's placemats with our theme verse for this month, Marc 16:15.  On the placemats were also a map of Canada, the Canadian flag and a picture of the Hamby's.

This is Shepherd's Pie, a recipe from Canada that Kami made.  We also had one of our favorites, Poutine! (french fries covered with gravy and cheese)  Then we had Poor Man's Pudding for dessert.  It was a great time together and there was good fellowship as we tasted foods from another country.

 

For the evening service, we joined L'Église Baptiste de la Foi, in Trois Rivières, Canada.  This is where brother Hamby is pastor and is also one of our supporting churches.  We joined them via Skype for their services and had a question and answer time in French.  Wow, I still have a lot to learn in French!  It was great to see everyone there at the church and to be a part of their services.

 

We have also begun distributing our plastic bags that contain a French tract, a copy of John & Romans in French, and an invitation to our Sunday Bible Studies.  We began placing them in mailboxes here last week and ask you to pray that a young man will get saved and surrender his life to preach and for a family to start coming to our services. 

 

Until next time...