Neuf (9)

We walked to this castle in Germany. It was just a short walk from where we were staying..

December 11, 2023

It's been quite a while since we wrote! Things got pretty busy around here! We moved to a new neighborhood in Ronchin, France. It's a nice 3 bedroom, 1 and half bathroom brick house in a quieter, safe neighborhood. The park is only a little walk away so Sterling and Bella still have their place for recesses! Bella and I have been walking to the new Boulangerie about a 15 minute walk away from our house every mid morning for her recess. :))  

This house also has a small garage, and little front yard and a hedged in back yard with a patio and a small shed for a lawn mower and such.

The weekend before last we got our very first snow of the season. It was maybe 2 inches or so and lasted until the next evening. The kids played in it while they could! It was beautiful while it lasted, large snowflakes floating through the air. 

Last Thursday Warren and Lorrie Dueck, our Field Secretary ((Twin Rivers, Manitoba)) came on the high speed rail from London. The day after they arrived we invited our Landlord Herve over to chat. He is a really nice man and has been so very, very helpful to us!!  He spent the good part of an evening with us visiting.

Saturday morning we left for Germany to visit with some of Warren and Lorries old acquaintances from their mission days. Edward and Lisa were very hospitable to us and we all stayed at their house. They attend a local Mennonite church, so we went with them on Sunday morning. Their service would be similar in some ways to ours, but also very different. We made a few new friends during our visit there at the church. The man that interpreted the message for us had been doing missionary work in Kenya for two years and had just got back to Germany.. He was a very nice man near our age. He encouraged us to go downstairs with him after church. After church, they all go downstairs to the basement and have coffee, tea and cookies. It's a time to visit with each other before they go home. (( Germans would have their lunch a bit later, like at 2 in the afternoon…So the cookies and coffee don't spoil any lunches.. :))) ))

We came home to Mr. Edward and Lisa's house, she had made us borscht and bread. In the afternoon their granddaughter Sarena, who lives with them, had a Christmas program at the church she attends. It is a conservative Baptist church. Sarena is 20  and she goes to school and has a job where she helps handicapped people. The Christmas program was pretty. In some ways it was like our own school programs but this program had people of all ages involved married and single as well. It was a very touching program and there were snacks after. 

Sunday evening Tyson and Warren decided that they would try to make contact with a couple in Belgium. So on Monday morning we left Edward and Lisa’s and headed to Belgium. We arrived to Bart and Annetes at around 12:30. They were very, very hospitable and had a full meal waiting for us! We talked through the afternoon whilst they fed us some of the traditional food of Belgium and France. Bart was a very successful businessman, but has retired from his main work and now has cottages that he owns and rents out in the country. Annet is a very nice woman who is fluent in at least 4 different languages! (Probably more I don´t even know about!) They know MANY from our church in the U.S. and were naming off all the different people they knew!! They are big travelers and have done a lot of the traveling around the world and in the United States. We told them we came from Alabama and they told us they had been to Alabama one time and that was to pick up a piece of equipment that they needed for their sprinkler business. We were surprised to find that it was exactly our hometown! ! What a nice day we had getting to know them! They invited us back to their house for Christmas day and I believe its possible we just might take them up on that offer.

Now we are back in France…Warren and Lorrie are with us until this afternoon and they will leave and then they head back to London to be with Wade and Kathy a day or so more. 

We think of you all at home in the states often, and hope you are all enjoying all the things that come with the season. Continue to pray for us please…Sometimes there are challenges that we have to face that are hard… it helps to know that you are praying ..we pray for you all back home as well! -lydia-