(Huit) 8
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Safe? Or not…
Good morning from NORD (NORTH) France. I was going to write a bit about the neighborhood we have lived in for about a month now. We are currently moving tomorrow to another location about 30 minutes away. (We will write another post on that area later).
It has felt relatively safe in this town of Tourcoing. There are a lot of Muslims around us but they for the most part have been friendly. The situation changed a couple of days ago. As we were walking across the Avenue de la Fin de la Guerre, (about half a mile away) a man started shouting very loudly at us. It was in rapid fire French so we didn’t know what exactly he was saying. Lydia said he saw her head covering? Not sure..I wasn’t sure what to do so we kept walking, trying to get some distance between us. I turned around after we had crossed the street and saw another man (also very angry) passing by on a scooter. He stopped in front of the angry man. The scooter man was giving him the Gears, as they say in Alabama:) and having some intense conversation with him! We also saw that the man that had been shouting had chosen an area right in front of the police station!!!(not a good idea). There were duex (two) officers standing at attention that quick outside the door watching the action! We were a little shaken up but moved on home and I didn’t think much of it.
Until we started putting the last 2 days of actions together…
The following day after the incident, I went out with Sterling to the soccer pitch for recess. The soccer pitch is about 300 feet away from our house and I go out with Sterling and Bella frequently for recesses. This day was different. Sterling had beat me out there and had started playing. As I was walking up, I noticed there were 2 French Special forces vehicles parked about 100 feet away, one behind the other monitoring the soccer pitch and surrounding area. I was curious so I walked by the 2 vehicles and there were 5 special force officers per vehicle. They didn’t seem at all friendly. Actually, they wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone. They all had bulletproof vests on and were heavily armed. It looked as if they meant business. I went back to where Sterling was playing and asked him if he had noticed anything. No, he didn’t see them when he had got to the soccer field. It must have been after he showed up and I walked out, that they appeared in that area! They stayed in place and monitored the soccer pitch area for about 1.5 hrs and then left. Only 1 officer ever got out of the vehicle. The whole time they were watching monitors and scoping out the area. I thought that seemed a little odd. It was very much out of the ordinary. Sterling and I have went to that soccer pitch every day for the last 3 weeks. Now it’s being monitored? On to the next oddity..
Yesterday, Bella and Lydia went on a walk locally together and they had an interesting story to tell! Bella walked into our house and said, “Dad, wherever we walked there was a police officer following us!” I asked her how many times she saw them? “We saw them at least 5 different times watching us. (OR WATCHING OVER US?). That’s when I realized there was a protective hand watching over us here. The French officers had been monitoring us wherever we went locally. That was NOT normal. We had remarked of how we hardly saw police officers because all speeding tickets in France are captured by roadside camera and they seemed out of a job.
I believe the Prayers of my Brothers and Sisters that had been lifted were WORKING! To this day I don’t feel unsafe in that area. But, I have NO idea what could have happened in those few day. God not only protects but he also gives Peace in the time of trouble. It was a faith builder to see God’s hand of protection in this strange country where we don’t always know who is a friend or foe. -Tyson
