Joshua lost his first tooth in France. It didn’t just fall out, he really lost it, when we asked when it fell out he didn’t realize that it fallen out. We didn’t even realize it was loose. Joshua went and examined the missing space in the mirror. I guess the tooth fairy doesn’t have to come if there is no tooth to stick under the pillow. It was not one of his damaged teeth from the fall it was the front one on the bottom, and we can see the adult tooth trying to break free.
Our Mailing Address
We can only receive flat envelopes at our residence – That address is:
David & DeAnna Anderson
10 rèsidence du Parc
91300 MASSY FRANCE
Packages can be sent to the school but must include the name of the school or they will be returned
Les Cédres
Attn David & DeAnna Anderson
17 voie de Wissous
91300 MASSY FRANCE
Posted in France, home
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French Fuses
I now understand a little more about electrical wiring in France and I also understand why our Handbook for the school states; “You are however responsible for buying and paying for expendable items such as light bulbs, electric fuses, etc.” Well, the first day here I learned where the breaker box was for the flat and also why there were some fuses mixed in with a box of cloths pins and light bulbs. I changed the one that I overloaded but last night while DeAnna was cooking dinner I managed to take out all of the power to the flat. I tried resetting all the switches and pushing all the buttons I could find but there was still no power and I didn’t have enough fuses to change them all, so off to Cora I walked (imagine Walmart and Sams club ten 10 and this is Cora, it has 2 isles for just cheese.)
Normally this store is closed on Sunday but they were having a special off sale of 20% off one item so the store was packed with tons of people. I managed to buy all new fuses and a flashlight, praying this would fix the situation. I got back and swapped all the fuses and still no power. So I headed back to Cora to see if there was something else I could purchase to fix the situation, but even if there was it was all in French so I didn’t know what to get so I headed to one of the other families that just arrived from Norway that will be attending class with us and asked to look at their fuse box to see if I was missing something. Their box was not the same as our but it had a big black box with two buttons. So when I arrived back at our flat I managed to pry open a non-descript white box that we had and determined it was the master power for the flat because after I pushed the green and red buttons the power to the flat was restored.
Our Flat
Below are some pictures of our flat where we will be living while we are in France. We’ve managed to open a bank account which is needed for getting cell phone or internet service and both boys are registered for their school which will start next week. Walking around the town has given us an opportunity to practice our French and our hand gestures; I now know how to get a 1 Euro coin from 2 50 cent coins. We needed a 50 cent coin for a cart at one store and a 1 Euro coin at a different store. We are also learning some of the different French foods as we go shopping and just because there is a picture of a nut on it doesn’t make it peanut butter. We’ve also learned to be careful in the WC (toilet room) because if you get to close to the hot water pipe you will get a bad burn.
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- Master Bed Room
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- Another View From Master Bedroom (No Closets)
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- Boys Bedroom
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- Boys bedroom (cont)
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- Dining Room – off the living room
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- Bathroom
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- Kitchen and Washer
Encouragement
Paul writes in Philippians 2:1 “Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ?” (NLT) The answer to this question is a very loud YES. As we said our last good bye and prepared to go through airport security at Philadelphia International Airport there was a sign with a picture of the Incredible Family with a statement that said “Your Family can do incredible things, too.” The next two pictures show the sign and a picture of our family dressed up as the Incredible Family from a few years ago. Although this transition has had times of trials and difficulties Christ has always been there to encourage us in our journey.
We made it to France
Just a quick post to let everyone know that we made it safely to France. Thanks for all your prayers. We will have more information in the upcoming days.
Off we go
Off we go into the wild blue yonder was the first line of the Air Force song that we sang every morning at Basic Training. Now that we have all our bags packed and we’re ready to leave I’m ready to sing that song again since we will be in the air so long on our flight. But I won’t, since I’m no longer in the Air Force and I really don’t remember all the words to the song. I’ll teach Jonah the tune and he can make up the rest of the words for us, there might be some ethnomusicology in his future with all the songs he makes up and sings for us.
Many thanks to Swatara Church of God for allowing us to borrow the church van to get to the airport with all our 49.5lb-50.0lb suitcases. We’ve canceled our cell phones as of midnight so if you need to contact us please send us an email and we will be back online in a few days. Thank you for all the prayers, support and encouragement that so many of you have given us as we have been preparing for the last year to leave.
Prayer of a servant
Today as I was reading my Bible I was encouraged as I read the prayer of Abraham’s servant as he went out to find a wife for his son Isaac. In Genesis 24:12 the servant prays “O LORD, God of my master, Abraham,” he prayed. “Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham.” After the prayer was answered he shared the prayer with Laban repeating the prayer in v42 “O LORD, God of my master Abraham, please give me success on this mission.” (my emphasis added) I love how God will use anything that will bring him glory, including the prayer of a servant.
I’ve heard George Cowan, former Wycliffe president say “I prayed,’ God, I don’t know how you’re going to do it. It looks humanly impossible. I can’t conceive how it’ll ever get done, but you’re the God of the impossible.’” I’m sure the Abraham’s servant must have felt the same way when he was told to go and find Isaac a wife. And there have been many times when I’ve looked at what we needed to accomplish and it seemed like it was impossible. All I could do was pray and trust that God would show me the way.
As we get ready to leave for France to learn a new language and then on to Cameroon my prayer is that I will be a servant that prays that God will grant us success on this mission.
Spiritually Hungry
Great video from a new website www.scriptureaccessforall.org that highlights the needs in Tanzania and Uganda.
Scripture Access for All is an enormous challenge. Wycliffe missionaries are working with national translators and partner ministries in remote areas of Tanzania and Uganda to translate God’s Word for nearly 2 million people.
The need is particularly acute in Tanzania, where 112 of 124 languages do not have adequate Scriptures. This lack of mother-tongue Scriptures is devastating.
Many longtime churchgoers still cannot adequately answer the question, “Who is Jesus?” or even explain biblically why He came.
IT Support
Sometimes when working on computers everything seems to go wrong. I remember spending all night working on various servers because of problems that were beyond my control. Yesterday I read the blog of a fellow IT worker working in a similar role that I will have in Cameroon but he is working in PNG (Papua New Guinea) and he shared all the problems that happened when a small change caused problems that don’t seem to stop and there is nothing you can do about it but pray. (For my tech friends he was doing a DNS zone transfer and if it could go wrong it went wrong – read his description)
But then today I read his blog and he gave a summary of the Bible Dedication that he just attended and every time I read about how amazing these various ceremonies are I am put in complete awe.
No doubt about it! God is good— good to good people, good to the good-hearted. (Psalm 73:1 The Message)
Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
D squared + J squared = Anderson 