Thoughts from Matthew 18 (in French)!

Lire Matthew 18:23-27

Aux Etats-Unis, nous sommes enseignés des règles pour arriver à un monde qui nous ne montrera pas probablement la grâce. Il y a des expressions que reflète ces règles : « L'oiseau premier obtient le ver » ("the early bird gets the worm"), « Vous obtenez que vous payez » ("you get what you pay for"), « Aucune douleur, aucun gain » ("No pain, no gain"). Je reconnais que j'habite par ces règles. Je travaille pour ce que je gagne. J'aime gagner. Je tiens à mes droits. Je veux que les gens recevoir qu'ils méritent.

Dans cette parabole (parable), Jésus nous demontre un concept radical de grâce. Dans Matthew 18, un serviteur a accumulé une dette (debt) insurmontable. La dette était très grande- c'était impardonnable (unforgivable). Néanmoins (nevertheless), le maître a pardonné le serviteur et le serviteur était libre de la dette. Il a été traiter beaucoup de mieux qu'il a mérité.

Cet enseignemant de Jésus sur la grâce est le contraire (opposite) de que nous sommes enseignés dans la vie. Jésus nous est en train d'apprende pour marcher l'extérieur de notre « ____________________ » ("tit-for-tat") » monde et marcher dans le monde de grâce.

Certainement, quand Jésus est mort sur la croix, Il nous a gardé d'obtenir que nous méritons (He saved us from getting what we deserved).

J'ai mérité la punition mais, plutôt (instead?), j'ai obtenu le pardon. J'ai mérité le colère (wrath?) mais, plutôt, j'ai obtenu l'amour. J'ai mérité pour devoir une dette plus grande que je pourrais payer mais, plutôt, mon compte a été essuyer clair (my account was wiped clear). J'ai mérité me recroqueviller dans la crainte (huddle/cower in fear) sur le sol mais, plutôt, je suis offert une chaise à une table de banquet (I am offered a chair at a banquet table).

Thoughts from Isaiah 40 (en Francaise)!

Thoughts from Isaiah 40 (in French)

Je pense <<>>.

Donc; Je suis pilote. Est-ce que vous pouvez deviner mon verset favori dans la Bible? C'est Ésaïe chapitre 40, verset 31.

< Ils s'envolent comme des aigles, ils courent sans se fatiguer, ils avancent sans s'epuiser>>.

Ce verset est écrit au present. J'ai trouvé dans <>.

Mais, quand j'étais jeune j'ai mémorisé ce verset dans le futur simple. Donc, j'aime plus le futur et je l'ai cherché. Je l'ai trouvé dans la versions d'Ostervald révisée. Il dit;

< Les ailes leur reviennent come aux aigles. Ils courront, et ne se fatigueront point; ils marcheront, et ne se lasseront point.>>

J'aime plus cette version parce qu'elle est plus proche de la version que je connais.

J'ai réfléchi à cette expérience. Peut être, c'est une bonne chose- une promesse de Dieu dans le présent et l'avenir. Peut être, que dans ma tête, je n'ai jamais pensé à cette promesse dans le présent. Peut être, que j'ai besoin de mémoriser cette promesse dans le présent pour m'aider à comprendre que je peux courir sans me fatiguer maitenant; que je peux avancer sans m'epuiser aujourd'hui. C'est une promesse pour toujours! Tout de suite et plus tard! Aujourd'hui et demain!

Donc, porquoi nous attendrons de vivre dans cette promesse? Aujourd'hui, maitenant, nous pouvons vivre dans cette promesse. Je nous encourage à mettre notre espoir dans le Seigneur. Il ne faut pas mettre votre espoir en vous-même; votre compétence, votre cerveau, vos muscles, votre résistance physique. Ces choses baisseront. Mais, ceux qui s'attendent à l'Éternel reprennent de nouvelles forces!

Bike Rides in the Snow!

We are getting back to classes after a week and a half break. Alace and myself to our language school and Joey, Megan, and Sam to the French public school- which is their language school. So, PRAY for us as we get back into the routine of things. We are hoping that we recall things from our first semester quickly and build upon it effectively.

Also, Joey and Megan are now being assigned a special period each week for one on one interaction with a french schoolmate in a study hall period. Their school is working very hard to accomodate their language learning, which has been very nice. We are also challenging our kids to balance their time between French speaking friends and English speaking friends. As you can imagine, they naturally gravitate toward the English speakers. Please PRAY with us that they get to know one or two French friends well enough to have them for a sleepover by Christmas.

We've also been challenged with some car problems. This was a very discouraging thing as it happened on the outset of our vacation time, casting a dim light upon the coming days. However, we did salvage some extended time together as a family, chilling out at home, and watching some movies that we borrowed from some other students. Please PRAY that we make wise decisions concerning our transportation needs. Just to give you a flavor of things... today we were made our 3 mile round trip to the schools and back in rain, sleet, and snow!

Also, the Euro is clobbering the Dollar nowadays and that's making our funds thinner and thinner. We're working to make adjustments, but there's only so much we can do. Please PRAY that our needs would be met in a way that would bring glory to our Lord.

We are grateful for all our praying supporters. Thank you for this crucial teamwork with us

Scary Moments Part II

Scary Moments, Part deux?

First of all, an update on Megan...

MEGAN- Meg's continues to be great... no sign of any problems. We are praising God for HIS healing touch.

SCHOOL- Studies continue to get harder as more and more is expected. Please pray that we are able to expand our relationships with French people to find one or two that would be willing to be "language coaches" for us.

KID's SCHOOLS- Joey, Megan, and Sam are dealing with some of the normal things (bullies, locker room issues, and homework), but, being the "new & different" kid, the normal stuff becomes tough to deal with.

MOST RECENT "LOST IN TRANSLATION" MOMENT- We wanted to get some rotiserie chicken from a butcher/grocer for dinner. These are often in a very visible "bin" on the sidewalk in front of a store. I (Steve) was with the kids as we rolled up to just such a place. There was no one around and all the items needed to do self service were right there- the bags, the tongs, the ladel for gravey, etc. So, thinking self-service was the way to go, I selected a chicken, put it in the bag, scooped in some gravey, and closed up the bag. It was at this exact moment (closing the bag) that I found a very angry butcher bounding out the front door, yelling at me, and then pushing me firmly to the curb and grabbing the bag of chicken out of my hands in one motion. The yelling in French continued as the kids and I looked on, very alarmed. I even noticed that his co-worker appeared in the doorway of the shop with an average sized butcher knife in hand! In the moments that followed, he calmed down as we used my limited French and his limited English to understand one another. Apparently, they will have an occasional chicken thief and are a little touchy about things. I now know to never ever assume that anything is self service until I have asked!

TRANSPORTATION: We've had some bumps and bruises and very chilly mornings to deal with on our bikes, but there is light at the end of the tunnel- we will be purchasing a 1990 Nissan Vanette in "OK" condition, from a former student. In fact, he's also a pilot/mechanic who is headed to Cameroon with SIL- the place where I will most likely doing the maintenance on the aircraft, once deployed to Gabon. A neat connection.

That's our update for now! Have a great weekend, everyone. Steve

Scary Moments

Here at our language school in Albertville, France, Saturday mornings are evaluation days. A chance to display what we've learned from our weeks' worth of studies.

I decided to make it to the classroom extra early today to do some studying prior to the test. I arrived just before 7am, made myself some coffee in the game room, and then made it up to my classroom giving me just over an hour and a half to study. About an hour later, Joey came into the classroom, out of breath, saying "you need to come now! Megan doesn't know where she is and mom needs you!"

As I was studying at the school, here is what was unfolding at home: Megan, upon waking up, had blurry vision, even after putting on her glasses. She's near sighted, but couldn't even make sense of things close up, nor could she make sense of any written words from a book she's been reading. She became very frantic and, as she walked around the apartment, realized that she couldn't figure out where her room was. Crying, she found Alace, who started to realize that this was an emergency and sent Joey for me, on bike, at the school.

As Joey and I got back to the apartment, we made some phone calls and secured a ride to the hospital. The reason that Alace hadn't made those calls prior is this- we just had our phone service come on line a couple of days ago, and we're still getting used to having access to phone numbers. I found some numbers and within about 10 minutes, we a teacher at our school walked through our apartment door and we were on our way. While we waited, Megan's condition became very drowsy and she was unable to recall some basic information as we quized her. As soon as she really started to concentrate on answers to our questions, she would start to doze off in my arms. As you can imagine, this disturbed us greatly. At this point, I prayed for her aloud and then sang "How great is our God" and rocked her back and forth. She was very limp in my arms and it was such a helpless feeling as a dad who can usually figure things out for his kids. Many things were racing through my mind- meningitis, a freak virus, a stroke or related issue.

We are blessed that the only emergency room in Albertville is only about a mile and a half from our home. We had no idea this was the case, so we were blessed that our teacher, Verena Teko-Agbo was our driver. The hospital took great care of us and promptly got Megan to a bed, made an initial analysis, took some blood to run tests, then put her on an IV. All throughout the ride, Megan continued to come in and out of awakeness. We would ask her questions, so of which she could answer, others that she struggled with, mumble some jibberish, and then doze off again. As expected, when she saw the hospital workers, she perked up a little and was not happy about needing a needle prick in the arm.

As this was going on, Verena stayed by our side as our interpreter and we were happy to find that many of the hospital staff spoke some English. Others from the language school (CEF) started to show up to pay a visit and pray with us. It was such an outpouring of love and support- we were, no doubt, the most visited in the ER. Lisa Nikky, another student training to join the team at the Bongolo Hospital in Gabon, came quickly as well. It was so comforting to have her there, as someone highly trained in the medical field.

Over the next hour, Megan continued to go through phases of dozing, then sitting up, sometimes vomiting, and then laying back down. The doctor returned with news that the blood tests came back all normal and the next step would be a CAT scan. As we wheeled her down the hall to the scan, we noticed that Megan had perked up slightly and was able to answer questions about herself, what day it was, and what had been going on that day. This was greatly encouraging. The scans went well, with Alace in the room with her, and I in the next room, watching the computer images of my daughters head. The technicians and doctors looked at them and I looked for any signs in their mannerisms for bad news. However, these tests came back normal as well.

Megan was then assigned a room in pediatrics for continued evaluation. The doctors noticed a marked improvement in her state. She hadn't thrown up in a while and was smiling and very responsive. The analysis of the doctors seemed to be pointing toward a possible reaction to a sever migraine. There is a history with Alace and her mom to similar instances, however, never at such a young age. However, with many other things ruled out, this was looking like a possibility.

Throughout the afternoon, Megan ate some bread, kept it down, and continued to joke and be her funny, spirited self. More visitors came and, around, 5:30pm, the pediatric doctor released her. We were advised to monitor her closely for any behavior out of the ordinary. Tonight we will be waking her up every two hours to ask her some questions and ensure that she's ok.

Today was a scary one for Alace and I. Feelings of hopelessness and fear came and went many times. It's amazing that we are back home this evening with our daughter who is bugging us to go play with friends and go climb trees! We are thankful for the return of her health and praying for it to remain.

It was so great to see such a huge outpouring of support from the community of faith here in Albertville. We've only been here a short month, but people came forward quickly to help get us to the hospital, comfort us, bring us lunch, let us borrow a car for the afternoon, pray over Megan, and take care of Joey and Sam. Thanks so much to those that helped us our and prayed for this situation.

Thoughts from France

Hope you all are doing well.

"YES" there's plenty of room in our apartment! Come on over. Here's our address: 1090 Rue de Commandant Dubois, Btmt. E Etg. 2, 73200 Albertville FRANCE. Drop by any old time.

I've got a day off- Wednesdays are free in France for most schools. It's a day for sports and clubs. Then, they have a 1/2 day of school on most Saturdays to balance it out. It's kind of interesting. We're not sure how to feel about it. I do know this... when Wednesday rolls around, I'm usually always ready for a break!

We unpacked all the stuff from the packages that finally arrived from the states (4). It's so so so nice to have some more of our stuff from the states. Alace whipped up some mashed potatoes with "Mrs. Dash" (one of the items in the pkgs.). That was a little taste from home- good stuff. I think some customs or UPS workers helped themselves to at least two things from our stuff- our DVD collection (big bummer) and our wireless router (that thing with the bunny ears to make your internet wireless in your house). There was a lot of craziness the last couple of days in the states, so it's very possible that we put them in storage instead of in the packages, however, I'm 95% sure that they were in one of the boxes. A little sad.

Good news... my HP printer works great and we already put it to use making some copies. Also, the Starbucks and Scuttlebut (York brand) coffee was in one piece. The French drink little espressos at meal time only, so the coffee will be nice to have at our home.

I'm off to a decent start to the day, today. I walked with Joey to his school (6-12 grade on one campus- a little intimidating) with another girl from a family attending the language school. I had to drop off some paperwork (the French LOVE paperwork!!!) and then, on my way back to the language school (where I am now), I found a little cafe/bakery that had some great cafe au lait and donuts! I'm going to start making a list of creative excuses to have to walk Joey to school, now!!! They will even serve their coffee TO GO! This is very unusual for a French cafe. They view beverages and food as social items- when your partaking of them, you do so with other people sitting down.

Speaking of eating with French people (am I venting?), we had a SEVEN HOUR LUNCH with our landlords last Saturday!!! NO JOKE!!! The good news is, they live on the side of one of the Alps about 30 minutes outside of Albertville, so the kids had a blast exploring and hiking. They didn't mind one bit. We had cheese, then the bread, then a salad, then a drink (thought it was cider, found out later it had a little touch of alcohol in it- called Panache... who knew!), then some vegetables, then some meat, then some more bread, more cheese, more drink, and so on and so on. I was stuffed to the gills. They made so much food and the expectations were very high for the Americans to feast. I think that's their impression of us... probably a true impression, however, they went overboard.

They're a very nice couple; Marcel and Liddy (pronounced LEEDY). We're renting their apartment in A-ville for about $1200 a month- and we're told that it's a great deal! That's almost twice what we had budgeted for lodging. We're a little disappointed at the school for not giving us fair warning about this. They wouldn't tell us where we were staying until the last moment. They said that this is necessary in case there are those whose visa's fall through and they need to relocate some. Hmmm....

Ok, enough venting. Hope all is well with you. It's a chilly morning here. A reminder that we'll need to start getting serious about finding a car soon. We're looking at a van this weekend.

We miss you all alot!

Come visit some time! Don't be a stranger! Love, Steve

We Sold Our House!!!

Dear Support Team,

We have some exciting news... WE SOLD OUR HOUSE! Praise God! Please check out the "Breaking News" section of our website, "StrawsInAfrica.org" for the full story on this and Steve's daily journal of his time at Missionary Aviation Fellowship in Nampa, Idaho.

Thanks for praying for the sale of the house! We are so grateful for your support.

Blessings from Colorado,

Steve, Alace, Joseph, Megan, and Sam

"Cleared for Take-off"

Taxi for take-off: At 9:30pm, September 1^st, Samuel, Megan, Joseph, Alace and I will climb aboard Aer Lingus flight 108 from JFK airport in New York City to Dublin, Ireland and then onto Lyon, France. It has been an incredible past couple of months and it's hard to believe that we're almost on our way to our 10-month language school in Albertville.

Sale of House: Thank you for praying for this very important detail. As of this writing, we have a couple of promising offers, however, we're waiting for the buyers to secure financing to come through. The prospect of leaving the country without selling doesn't sit well with us. We are certain that there is a reason this is dragging out with this, however, it doesn't make things easy on the stress level.

Pilot Evaluation: On Monday, July 23^rd, after hours and hours of cross-country driving, I walked in the front doors of Missionary Aviation Fellowship US headquarters in Nampa, Idaho. 4 days later, my flight skills had been observed and evaluated very positively by Scott Channon, part of MAF's elite pilot instructing team and also a LeTourneau University grad. This affirmation is a blessing from the Lord as we seek to confirm a high level of excellence in our air ambulance efforts. As I write this, I'm in my second week of evaluation with a focus on my skills as an aircraft mechanic. A big thanks to Dusty and Chandra Benner, from the Rock Church, for hosting my stay.

Family Cross-Culture Prep: After two and a half weeks apart, I will reunite with Alace and the kids at Denver Int'l airport this Sunday (8/5) and we'll make our way to Colorado Springs and the Missions Training International campus. The 17 days at MTI will focus on assisting families as they make the huge transition to completely new cultures. Pray for us as a family as we seek to draw close and help one another through the challenging days, weeks, months and years to come.

Bon Voyage Events: On July 14^th, about 50 State College area supporters blessed us with a great time of fellowship and a prayer of blessing over our family. Thanks to all those that attended and the very special ones that put so much work into setting it up (Kendra, my big sis Jane, Mom, Dad & others). The very next day, we were back at Pine Glen Alliance Church for a repeat visit with one of our most supportive churches. At the close of our visit, I was moved to tears as the congregation gathered around our family and lifted up prayers of blessing over our family. These sweet times will be cherished in our hearts and dwelt upon on those difficult days of language study. Thank you so much!

Bongolo Bond Update: We're over 90%!!! Thank you supporters! For information on joining the Bongolo Bond team (monthly donation of $50), please visit our website, StrawsInAfrica.org.

Aircraft Funding Update: Since last October, the total raised for purchase of an aircraft grow to over $60,000! Recently, Joey, Megan, and Sam donated $40 of their own from a lemonade stand fund-raiser! You can also get involved in raising funds creatively for this effort. Drop us a line if you are interested: Straw@aircalvary.com.

Upcoming Dates:

7/30-8/3: Nampa, ID- MAF Maintenance evaluation

7/31: Steve and Alace's Anniversary!

8/5-8/23: Colorado Springs, CO- MTI Cross-cultural preparation

8/6: Megan's birthday!

8/7: Alace's birthday!

8/16: Colorado Springs- Meeting w/ IFAP leadership at Christian & Missionary Alliance offices.

8/25: Samuel's birthday!

8/26: York Alliance Church- worship service (10:15am) and "Bon Voyage" lunch

8/29: York Alliance Youth "Sanctuary" meeting (7pm)

9/1: Mount Kisco, NY- Air Calvary "Bon Voyage" (2pm)

9/1: JFK Airport, NY- Depart for France (9:30pm)!!!

9/3: Albertville, France- Kids register for school

9/6: Albertville, France- First day of language school classes

Prayer: Above all, we covet your prayers for the sale of our house, the transitions to France, and the acquisition of the French language.

Our "airplane" is on the taxiway getting ready for takeoff… and you are all on the passenger list. We could not make this trip without support from each one of you. We are so grateful for your partnership in this journey to bring Health and Hope to Central Africa in the name of Jesus.

Blessings,

Steve, Alace, Joseph, Megan, and Samuel Straw