Our journey started off a little rough... after our six hour flight to Newark we had a two hour planned layover, but once we got on the plane, we had mechanical issues right before takeoff. We waited on the plane for about three hours while they tried to figure out what exactly was wrong and whether we could still fly (apparently it had something to do with the landing gear), then they asked us to deplane. We waited for about an hour (thankfully they did give us meal vouchers), then reboarded and waited for another hour and a half before our seven hour flight finally departed. Seems like "somebody" doesn't want us in France, haha! God must be on the move. :)
Once we landed in Brussels, Belgium (around 1:00pm on Thursday) we met Kevin and Debbie, our primary hosts. They are a fantastic couple from El Cajon who have been working with BLF for years. We only met them today, and we already love them! They drove us to the Bibles and Literature in France (BLF) office where we met all of the missionaries there. Nathan and Annie are a young American couple who were called to France separately, then met and married and continue to help with BLF. Sarah and Florence are around our age, and they are both French native. Philip Kapitaniuk is another French native, while his wife Heidi is an American. While gathered in an upstairs room to snack on tasty French food, Philip told us about our mission as a team. He told us that our main goal is not to do office work or help with building, which we will be doing throughout the week, but rather to see the deep spiritual needs of France and take that knowledge back to the States and tell others. Aside from just giving details of our trip, this is my goal with this blog! Philip told us that in a workplace of 1,000 people, it would be extremely surprising if even one of them were a Christian. The people of France are hardened against God, and they are taught carefully to avoid "cults", as they consider Christianity to be. Only 1.8% of people in France are Christians... please be praying that the number grows!
To keep us awake, Nathan took us on a walk up a little hill to a windmill - the Moulin d'Marpent - just so we could see what a real windmill looked like. However, upon our arrival, an older man (the owner of the mill, who happened to be sitting outside his house across the street) asked if we'd like to see inside! He took us up to the top of the mill, showed us how it worked, told us all about its history (all in French - Nathan translated for us), then took us back down to the tiny gift shop in its base. We sang for his and his family there, and they gave us a few souvenirs - a baseball cap, a pen, one of the original shingles from the roof which was re-shingled several years ago; and in case you ever wondered, the mill has 8,000 shingles on the roof and the rotating top alone weighs sixteen tons. :) Even better, we got to tell them where we were from, what we were doing here, and invite them to come to church on Sunday! When we got back to BLF, the others were shocked and amazed that we received such a welcome; even though the others have been there for years and know the family, they have never had such an experience with them. God is already opening doors for us (and BLF after we leave) to share about Him!
After our adventure we drove back to the flat, had dinner, and walked around a little park down the street from the flat. Lovely first day - now off to bed!
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