Follow

Film project

To finish up our August flurry of activity, we hosted International Teams colleagues Rick Knox and Michael Williamson for a film project.

Rick is a longtime overseer for us currently stationed in Great Britain and Michael and his wife April are currently raising funds in hopes of joining our team here in Paris.

Rick and Michael recently attended a conference on using video effectively and they came up with the idea of doing a video to help us find the additional funds we need to stay here.

They were here shooting from August 20 to 26. Never did I think that talking in front of a camera could be so hard.

Bordeaux and toes

While the kids were at English camp, Jen and I were hosted by her friend Sophie in Bordeaux. We had to cut the trip short, though, for several reasons.

Among them was Todd's toe, torn up by stepping on something under the water at the beach after jet skiing with Sophie and husband Loïc.

Here's a wonderful shot of my torn up toes that made it tough trying to walk around Bordeaux after that. And the other is us with Sophie's mom during an excellent meal we had with them.

Anyway, after coming back to Paris, Jen and I realized that Paris can be a lot of fun when you don't have kids. It was the first time we've been without the three of them at the same time. We didn't know what to do at first.

At first.

Anyway, it was a lot cheaper being at home anyway. No room and board, no eating out.

Jen didn't get to go to her beloved mountains (except when we took the train to Grenoble to pick up the kids), but it made for a relaxing break anyway.

English camp and Dixie

OK.

More on the summer. Backing up to July. The kids went to summer camp in the Alps near Grenoble. This was a two-week camp put on primarily for missionary kids. It was Olivia's first time going. They all had a ball and we realized again that they are hitting an age at which living in American culture and language is important to them.

The camp gives them a healthy dose of American culture as well as work on their English writing and reading skills. Just as important, they work with counselors who challenge them spiritually.

European Vacation

You might think I've been unfaithful in not writing you all this time.

That's only because you don't understand vacation in France. Everything here is based on the scholastic year. From September through June kids are in school and everyone else works. In July and August, it's vacation.

People don't have two months of vacation. But almost everyone, no matter what their job, has at least one month off in the summer. And they almost always go away, somewhere.