Vingt-quatre (24) Visitors, Galette des Rois, & Aimee..

Bonjour a tous,

Well..It’s been a little too long since we wrote!!…January and February have found us closer to home. The weather has been sometimes snowy, sometimes rainy, and pretty much always cold. Sounds like winter, right?

Since we last wrote, we have received quite a few visitors! Our first set was our friends Mikayl and Halyna from Paris. They have lived in Paris for 8 years but were originally from Ukraine. They came down and stayed with us for a weekend. They speak only French and Ukrainian/Russian. Halyna had just taken her language test for Visa purposes…it sounded like hard work! Anyway, we had a good time catching up and talking. We took them to see downtown Lille and walked around a bit. The roasted chestnut stands were still up, so we munched on a small bag as we walked around. Mikayls had never had them! I was glad I was carrying the warm bag as the wind was whipping and it was quite cold!

Galette des Rois

After supper that evening, we cut into the Galette des Rois for our dessert, which Tyson had bought that morning at the boulangerie. This cake is eaten mainly on Epiphany, January 6th, but I saw them at the grocery stores and boulangeries even toward the end of January. Epiphany is the holiday that commemorates the Magi's visit to baby Jesus. This cake is a neat part of the day of feasting. In the old times, there used to be a bean (fève) hidden inside the cake. In more recent times, it has been replaced with a tiny figurine. The cake is cut into pieces, and whoever gets the piece with the fève/figurine inside is the King for the day! :)) The cakes come with a thick paper or cardboard crown. I (Lydia) was lucky to wear the crown for the day, and no, I didn’t rig it!! My crown is in the kitchen on top of the sugar canister in remembrance of my one day of royal status :)

On Sunday, we all gathered in the living room to listen to the service from Poland. Tyson B. and Aaron H. led a wonderful service, and they had an excellent Russian translator, which allowed all the members from Russia and Ukraine to understand. Tyson even had the opportunity to pray with the group all the way from France. We heard some truly beautiful testimonies from various members, which were very inspirational. It was one of those moments when you realize that technology can be a true blessing, bringing together people from four different countries! Although we were not physically together, we were together In spirit!

Mikayl’s left us in the afternoon after lunch. We sure enjoyed their visit and were amazed at how well it went. Halyna and I keep up pretty much every week for the most part. They are very dear people.

Keith and Karen Wedel and their daughter from Roxton Falls, also stopped in. They were coming back from an Africa trip. They were with us for a few days and got to have church with us on the Sunday they were here. Tyson also invited Aimee (AM-E), a young man of about 24 who attends Lille University. Tyson and Sterling had met him several times for visits at a cafe, but this time, he was coming for a church service! Tyson told him and Phillipe to come for lunch, so we had a nice little day together! We were all sitting on the couch together, and I asked Aimee what part of Africa he was actually from, and he said Burundi! Karen and I were quite astonished! Keith and Karen are field secretaries in Burundi; and they had just been there! We told Aimee, and at first, it didn’t register, but then he came alive! He was full of smiles after that and talked enthusiastically with Karen about Burundi!

We also had Kent Friesen from Glenn, California, stop in a few days after Keith’s left. He was on his way home from a business trip in Prague. He only stayed a day, but we made it count! :) And it was really good to see him again!

So, a lot of January and February has been spent just doing more local work, passing out tracts, and visiting with local people. We also started having Sunday school with Phillipe and Aimee. And yes, Aimee has returned every Sunday to be with us for church. He lives 15-20 minutes from us and has to take the bus. He rides it for over 1 hour to be with us. And then, on the return trip, Tyson or Phillipe offer to take turns bringing him back home. Tyson could offer to pick him up and take him home, but we think it really says something for him that he is willing to use his money and time to come to worship with us. Don’t you think so too?

He seems like a very sincere young man who loves the Lord. I believe it was the 3rd Sunday he had been with us that he brought us a letter he had written to give to us. In it, he said how he was so thankful that we could worship together, and after researching our church, he felt that he was aligned with our beliefs :)) It was super sweet.

This last Sunday, we sang “I Shall Know Him” as we listened to the Roxton Falls church service together. I noticed Aimee was really into it, and he is a pretty good singer! Later, he showed me on his phone that he had a songbook in his native language, and this song was in there. He told me he would sing it for me. Later in the evening, Phillpe took him home, and sure enough! A message came from Aimee to Tyson. He said he was sending the song over that he had promised “The Mother” he would sing!:)) We thought that was pretty neat! :)

Phillipe and Aimee have become inspired to work on tract distribution! Phillipe created a list of local towns and the days they host their outdoor markets, which he thinks would be ideal for passing out tracts. He would like to go with Tyson sometime when it works for him, and Aimee would like to do so when it works with his school schedule.

We visited Bruno and Marie in Belgium the other weekend, and it was nice to see them again. Bella did art with their daughter Julie(30?), and when we went to leave, Julie gave me a picture of a horse she had drawn; she's a real sweetheart. She was getting ready for her weekly horse riding lesson with her niece, so horses must have been on her mind. Julie is a special girl; when God made her, he made her forever 14, and she is so sweet and giving. She always offers Bella and me a little gift she has created or makes sure Bella has some blank pieces of paper to draw on for the ride home :)

While we were at Bruno’s, Tyson told him about Aimee and how he had been wondering if any Bibles would be available to give to his college friends who didn’t know about Jesus. He scurried off to the back room and came back with a stack—a few even translated into Islamic! (We gave them to a very pleased Aimee, and he has already started distributing them. He is eager to spread the gospel story to his friends!)

We also had Brad Isaac’s stop in from Creston, B.C.! They were on their way to Uganda (field secretaries). They had been in Paris for a few days, so they took the high-speed rail down on a Sunday morning. Tyson picked them up at the station, and we had Sunday school and lunch together. They were off again at 3 p.m. before our French churchgoers arrived at 4p.m.

We are currently without a car as our lease on our Peugeot was up. Technically, we are only supposed to be able to lease for a year, which has something to do with taxes, I believe? Thankfully, we found a Renault dealer that would lease an SUV for an extra 6 months. After that, I'm not sure what we will drive! (We will save that worry for another day! ) So our new Renault comes in on March 1.

Tyson thought it would be a nice challenge to do without a car until then. So, if you find yourself at the end of Rue René Cassin, you might spot a woman in a black trench coat, with a scarf fluttering in the wind, biking toward the grocery store with a grocery bag on her back. (That would be me… trying to keep up with Sterling!) It’s been a nice challenge, but the weather forecast predicts rain, rain, and more rain this week. Hmm… I might have to figure out how to juggle an umbrella on a bike!

We hope you are all well and that Spring will be making an appearance soon wherever you live! T & L