17 (dix-sept) 70 degrees and rain….

(This blog post covers the month of June )

  Bonjour, Salut….

It’s July 16th, and we haven’t been keeping up with the writing.  Why?  As the days became longer and longer, we started getting more involved with visits.  I’ve never seen the sun go down at 22:30. (10:30 p.m.) Or the first light be at 4:30 a.m.…. Doesn’t make for very many sleeping hours.  I figured that when summer hit, the situation we were in with no A/C may become terrifying.  I’ve only lived in very hot climates, and no A/C didn’t seem like a good situation.  So far, we’ve only had one or two nights when I missed the A/C! 

The oceanic climate in North France has been very nice.  We have had many 70-degree days and maybe a few hours of that day with a little rain.  Wheat, sugar beets, potatoes, and flax crops are thriving.  How do the crops get enough heat units?  I’m guessing the long days must be the key.  The fields of flax have been blooming the last week, and it’s a beautiful sight.  There are whole fields of light blue flowers waving in the breeze.  There are quite a few local linen companies that use flax for material, upholstery, and curtains. Yes, all those Miller cousins who have to have their linen dresses would be in linen heaven here!:)  I don’t see much flax grown outside of the Flanders region.  Lille, France, is the capital of Flanders.  The Flanders region includes Northeast France, North Belgium, and Western Netherlands.  As I see it, a lot of Mennonites are of Flanders origin, so getting back to our roots and wearing Linen shirts and dresses is probably a good thing:)  We see a lot of Linen garments available locally here.

 There is a little village that replicates the 1600s locally here that shows how the weavers used to harvest the flax and turn it into the clothing they wore.  Anybody who likes history will recall the Mennonites as early makers and traders of cloth.  Many had weaving shops, and I can imagine the farmers would have grown the product for the weavers, which would have been a great source of economic activity for the community.  That was before the big cotton planters of the New World. The Flemish Mennonites liked clothing and the Friesland Mennonites liked farming. I can believe there may have been some butting of heads on these issues…. but enough on that subject.  I like our history, and it’s hard not to notice it when we live so close by.

  We have visited quite a few contacts in Paris over the last month.  One of the families there is from Ukraine originally and used to come to our church there.  They have increasingly wanted us to visit them, and it has been a good time every time.  They have family members being called up and relation that have been killed.  The Ukraine war feels different when you talk with the ones that are losing loved ones.  We need to pray for a solution to this European problem.  After all, North America has fought two wars in the last 100 years in Europe, and our brethren faced the draft board.  Could this happen again? 

Back to our Ukrainian friends…   The last time we were there, Halyna served us coffee and a very good brunch.  We noticed Mikhailo didn’t eat much of it.  Suddenly, he jumped up and said it was time for some decent food! Not all this pastry stuff!  We need meat and “sandviches” and “vatermelons!” (As he put it). “Would you like some?” he asked.  We had just eaten a bunch of French pastries and were stuffed!  Then he laughed and said, “I guess we fill you up with the pastries so you won’t eat our good stuff!”  We all had a good laugh over that one! She promised next time, she would feed us some of their “Good stuff.”  And she has already invited us again! We were also invited back to visit several different friends in Belgium.  There are many friendly people here in Europe!

Doug and Laura Schroeder visited us at the beginning of June on their way to Burkina to see their daughter Brittany.  We had a good time together!  Lots of talking, of course, and laughing!  One of those evening discussions may have lasted into the morning.. I think the cool weather was a bit of a shock for them! We were happy that they stopped in to see us!! We made some good memories!

  The missionaries from London, Fred and Adela Wiebe also visited this month.  They only stayed 24 hours, but we had a lot of fun together.  Adela accused me of being too fast-paced a driver because I wasn’t stopping when she saw flowers! (There are abundant, vibrant flowers here..-L-) I told her to holler, “STOP!”  Whenever she saw flowers she wanted to take a closer look at.  She took me up on this, and in a few km, everybody had whiplash from me breaking for flowers!  It sounded like Fred might have some work cut out for him when they return to Canada:) (Lots of planting). 

We stopped by the Canadian War Memorial in Vimy, France, and to our surprise, a couple from Walker, MO. stopped and met us.  She was a former nurse who had taught prenatal classes. She had taught many Mennonite couples.  She showed us her WhatsApp chats, which were full of Mennonite names!  Interesting coincidence!! -Tyson-

I’ll pick up where Tyson left off…Toward the end of June, we got a call from some contacts in the Alsace region of France, Denise and her husband, Thierry. They needed help clearing brush and paths on an overgrown piece of land. Denise had recently taken a fall and injured her arm, and Thierry could not do it alone because it was a lot of work! Denise had been praying and unsure what to do, and we popped into her mind! So she asked, and the next morning, we packed our bags and headed out! Instead of spending money on hotels in the middle of peak tourist season, we picked up some inexpensive camp gear! It will be useful throughout the summer and fall when we visit contacts! (We skipped the cooking gear to make things simpler! ) It worked well! We found a campground in the La Petite Pierre wooded area with clean showers and bathrooms! Although the couple of days we were there were quite warm, it would cool down to the 50s at night! So we were thankful we were in our tents and not in hotel rooms! (I don’t think we have ever stayed at a hotel or Airbnb in France with A.C., so having the cool air and being in nature was lovely!))

You miss the great outdoors when you live in a city!! The campground was next to a hayfield that had just been cut, so in the evening, when we got back from working, Sterling would take out the binoculars he received for his 8th-grade graduation (Thanks again, Loewen Aunties and Uncles!) and watch the hawks and the foxes in the field.

The day we worked with Thierry’s, Denise and I ran to a local grocery store and bought some supplies to make sandwiches for lunch. When we got back to the land, the workers were HUNGRY! We had only had coffee for breakfast! ( the local Boulangerie was closed!) We ate our lunch and visited beside a meandering creek that runs through the property. They finished the work in the late afternoon, and Thierry’s expressed gratitude for us coming and helping. The following day, after grabbing some coffee and baguette at a Boulangerie, we made our way back home.

Between trips, we do language classes and tract work. Since school has been out, Bella has been working on her sewing and helping more with making the meals. Tyson and Sterling went to the local Ding Fring (thrift store) the other day and picked out some old jeans. Bella and I cut them into squares to make a jean picnic blanket. We all decided it would be nice to have one when we pulled off at rest areas to eat whatever lunch we packed along with us. We are almost finished with it, crossing our fingers and hoping it turns out!

Ms. Adela, from the London mission, gave us some simple instructions for crocheting when we were with her. Of course, she can go a mile a minute while we struggle along! HA! But we have been enjoying trying! :))

We received Bella's school books from Abeka the other day, and she’s just itching to get started! Our little school will begin for both of them on August 1st!

Sterling stays busy with yard work, tracts, reading, road biking, and playing soccer with his friends. They are both taking French courses daily as well!

We love to hear all the things going on in your daily lives! Thank you to all who reach out and share; we really appreciate it! —Lydia—