They have these kinds of "non-portable" potties near the beach areas. We didn't go in that day but are told that they are nice and clean but you have to pay 50 euro cents to use them.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Beautiful Places
They have these kinds of "non-portable" potties near the beach areas. We didn't go in that day but are told that they are nice and clean but you have to pay 50 euro cents to use them.
Language School Is Fun but Hard
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Yes, We Live in a Pink Apartment Building
There are other colored buildings besides pink, but there is a lot of pink. We were told that pink was the color of royalty.
On The Way to Language School
Well, here are some views of the route we take (by car) to our language school. Of course now we are taking the Metro (subway) everyday, but for a few days we braved the roads, three lanes going the same way and sometimes four. This particular morning we were a little ahead of the rush. The top right picture is taken from our classroom window - we are on the 3rd floor. Across the street are several buildings that have tile fronts. It is strange to see some of the more modern buildings right next to some of the buildings that are from ages ago.
Pizza?
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Food, Phones, and Driving - Yikes!
On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we had language classes in the mornings from 9-12:00, and the afternoons were full of running other errands. One of the first things we had to do was go get a tax number so that we can get a bank card, and then we went get a cell phone so that we could be in touch with our team members. That's Don and me in the picture talking with the sales guy, who was happy to practice his English.
Two Days in the Hotel
We Are Finally Here!
Monday, August 3, 2009
The "Strain of Life"
It is hard to comprehend that two weeks have gone by and we are finally on the other side of the final details of closing on our house sell - the garage sales, Craig’s List deals, sending off the rest to auction; the rush to finish emptying and getting out for the new owners; our crate being built, loaded, and sent off on the semi-truck; stuff loaded on a UHaul for our daughter to use and store; the rest given away or trashed... A lot of other details were taken care of like sending off files and records, paying last bills and closing out accounts, gathering our prescription medicines, finalizing plans with and for our children.
We have had special times with our children and my parents and many, many long hours of physical, mental, and emotional tiredness. To be honest, this whole process has been really hard at times and not something I would look forward to ever again and yet, God’s hand has been constantly with us, ordering the details and many last minute rescues ; )
Today’s Oswald Chambers reading was the reminder of what this process really has been for us. “God does not give us overcoming life— He gives us life as we overcome. The strain of life is what builds our strength. If there is no strain, there will be no strength. Are you asking God to give you life, liberty, and joy? He cannot, unless you are willing to accept the strain. And once you face the strain, you will immediately get the strength.”
I know this was just a session of “strain” for us and that we are headed for more but hopefully we will remember these times and be able to “thank Him for all that He has done” as we leave the things in His hands.
Our Crate Experience
I wish that it could be said that it was a “great” experience but that wouldn’t be true from the typical human point of view. But when you see it from God’s perspective you see that He was giving us opportunities to trust Him and watch Him work. From the very beginning, because of where we live, there had been one obstacle after another to get over - obstacles that the Lord removed.
First the crate was delivered before we got home from orientation and just our son and one of our daughters were there. The rain was pouring down, the truck couldn’t get up our driveway and even if it could have, there was not sufficient room in our garage to have built and packed the crate. The driver was patient and took the bundle to an empty trailer at one of the businesses in town he delivers to and let us keep it there for days until we found a place to build it.
The storage facility we called to see about renting a unit from was run by someone that had been in the funeral business in town and had known Don from years before (we didn’t know that until we made the call). He let us use part of the garage that cars are stored in so that a forklift could get in and out easily when it came time to load the crate and then he didn’t charge us the full rate for use of the space when I went to pay the bill.
Two friends in town (George and Marty) came with their pickup trucks and helped get the bundle to the storage garage and then helped Don and Ben put the crate together.
We had to rent a bander and forklift to come over to the storage facility. On the day the truck was scheduled to come (from out of the area), our window of time was 2:30 - 4:30 but the driver showed up around 1pm! We didn’t even have the crate fully loaded yet and here was the truck! The driver had other deliveries in other towns but said he would try to get back later on. We called the place with the forklift and they said if he didn’t get back by 4:30 they couldn’t send the equipment. That would have put us off another day and possibly more because we weren’t guaranteed a semi-truck the next day.
The guys who were going to band the crate were also the forklift operators and came over around 3:30 to get the banding started. Just as they were finishing off the banding, the driver called at 4:05 and said he was on his way and would try to make it by 4:30. The guys had to go get the forklift and within 20 minutes or so, the forklift was driving down into the storage facility with the semi-truck following behind.
And it wasn’t over yet. They really needed an extended fork to get the crate up and into the truck and didn’t know for sure if the fork they had (and a strap) would work. The Lord was gracious and the operator was very careful and in just a few minutes our crate was finally on the truck and on its way.
You know, we’ve been praying that God would be in the details and take care of things according to His timing, we just haven’t always paid attention that these are some of the very details that He was using to grow our faith.
Outside the Crematorium (our daughter, Carolyn, thought this would be a good title)
One of the surreal things we did was to pack our crate and load the UHaul at the storage facility. We had to be out of the house to let our buyers get in and weren’t quite ready just yet to leave Bradford. We still needed to sort things th
at needed to go in the crate and arrange things in the UHaul.
Our oldest daughter is moving cross country soon and is taking some of the family things from Bradford to a storage place in North Carolina, and Ben and Carolyn are leaving the country to teach English, so they have things they need to take with them and other things to leave. Anna’s college apartment is amply supplied now with everything she could need and more (even the canned goods ; ).
For a few days we felt like homeless people living among our things in a parking lot. (Thanks to the Preston family who took us in and gave us a place to sleep and eat breakfast, such a blessing from the Lord as it ended up taking three days, instead of the one day we had anticipated.)
Now inside the garage area where we had the crate set up was a door that was larger than the average door. As it turned out there was a crematorium behind that door and just about every day it was in use.
Here we were, going about the business of packing and sorting “stuff” while, at the same time, a stretcher would come in and be taken through the big door and a little black box would come out.
As the machine ran while we worked, it was a constant reminder of why we are doing what we are doing, how stuff is not as important people, and how so many need the opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ and His love for them before it is too late to make a choice.