Goodbye France; Hello Greece!

As I shared in a previous post, our last weekend with our church was really special.  We had been praying for several months that we would leave well, and we see that, by God's grace, that prayer was answered.  

We spent a solid 5 days packing up our house after our church weekend.  Judah of course preferred to unpack boxes rather than pack them, so we had to be strategic in how we cared for him and how we cared for our stuff.  

On October 7 we had 5 men from our church show up to help move the majority of our things into a storage unit.  It went surprisingly fast, though we still had plenty of things left to pack as we were living in our apartment for another 5 days.

On October 8 we hosted a Going Away Party and invited everyone we knew in Aix-les-Bains.  We counted roughly 70 people (including kids) that came to eat ice cream from our favorite ice cream man and say goodbye to us.  With so many people to talk with, neither Jordan nor I took time to take photos, but it was a great day for us!  

The reason we wanted to do the majority of our move an entire week before our actual departure was so that we'd also have some time to spend with the people we love in the city we love before leaving.  Though we felt like there were still so many things to do that last week, we also felt like we were able to be truly present with the people we saw - another answer to prayer!

We even had some GEM friends come from north of Paris to help and say goodbye.  They cleaned our windows, played with Judah, and I was even able to spend an entire afternoon relaxing with them at the pool - what a gift! 

On October 13 we met our landlord to walk through our empty and clean apartment (all thanks to Jordan!).  We heard that it's not common in France to receive your security deposit back - landlords always find a reason to keep it.  Our landlord expressed her gratitude to us for being such good tenants for the last 4 1/2 years and wrote us a check on the spot.  She even kissed us on either cheek as we said goodbye (typical in France, though not typical between landlords and renters) and said to call them when we're back in town to get drinks.  This was another answer to prayer as we ended this relationship well.

After saying Au Revoir to our home, Jordan finished filling our storage unit and took a load of things to the dump while Judah and I ran last minute errands in town - including a stop at my favorite café.

After lunch and a nap for Judah, we hopped on our bikes for one last family ride to the lake - but first, one last Fleur de Sel waffle from our favorite waffle shop.

We are really going to miss this place!

On October 14 we left Aix-les-Bains.

Despite an extremely long line at the check-in counter, things went really well - yet another answer to our prayers.  We were thankful that we didn't have to rearrange any of our 6 checked bags or 2 carry-ons, nor did we have to pay for the car seat as we'd expected.  The only glitch was an unattended bag left somewhere in the airport causing everyone to evacuate the airport, the bomb squad to arrive, and then resulting in us nearly running to our gate and being some of the last to board the plane.  Yet even as we boarded the plane, we saw God's kindness through two girls behind us who offered us their seats so that Judah could have a seat other than our laps.  We let out a big sigh of relief as we headed to Athens.

In 2012, before moving to France, we attended a pre-field training in Colorado Springs.  One of the things we talked about was regularly brining stress levels down - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually.  In the process of saying goodbye in France and preparing to move to Greece and the US for the next year, there has been a lot of stress and non-stop running.  

All flights to Lesvos require a layover in Athens, so we decided to take advantage of that forced layover and rest there for a few days.  It was so good for our family!  

Of course, Athens has so many historical sites to see and explore, but our real goal during our time in this ancient city was to rest.  Thankfully Judah cooperated.  We often walked around the city for a bit in the mornings, found some yummy Greek food for lunch, then we all took naps in the afternoons before taking Judah to the local park and having dinner at our airbnb.

We also visited the Greek Bible College, founded by GEM missionaries in the 1970s.  It was nice to connect with a few other GEMers before taking the hour flight from Athens to Lesvos.

We landed in Lesvos on Friday night, October 20.  The GEM intern, Robbie, picked us up and brought us to our new home.   

On Saturday we ventured to the grocery store, Judah-proofed the house, and unpacked our suitcases.  About 10 days before we arrived there was a pipe that burst in the upstairs bathroom of the house, causing about an inch of [clean] water to flood the entire house and basement.  Needless to say, this has added a bit of stress and chaos to our arrival, but we are thankful for the work that was already done by others before we came so that we could still move into the house!  It also seems that the mold situation is under control.

We want to update you more on the current situation in Lesvos, but that will have to wait.  

It's currently after 10pm here in Lesvos.  Judah is sleeping and Jordan is at the airport (30 min. away) picking up a short-term team from France that is here to serve for the next 2 weeks.  We hope to update you soon, but in the meantime, please continue to pray for us as we transition to this new country, culture, and ministry.  Your prayers are sustaining us.  Only God is big enough to respond to the current refugee crisis.