Friday, July 3

Today we rode into Lille with Bruno and the girls to meet with Gary DeGraaf. We met at the FEU, the Christian fellowship center downtown. (Note: Greg's camera is still on Iowa time. It's the 3rd here, but still the 2nd back home.)

Bruno is pointing out the FEU building. 

After meeting with some of the folk there, Gary put us to work scraping and sanding one of the upstairs bedrooms. On Monday we'll return to paint.

When we were finished, we headed out looking for lunch.

We found a great restaurant that serves crepes. Mark had a delicious egg and mushroom crepe, while Greg feasted on an egg and bacon one. Then we were treated to a dessert crepe. Emma is obviously pleased with her dessert crepe, complete with Nutella and chocolate! (It's a child's crepe, but that's the one Mark chose as well.)

After lunch we headed to the church building in Lille where many of the activities of Bouge ta Metropole will be held. We moved chairs, tables, food supplies, and did various tasks in order to get everything ready. A highlight of the afternoon was getting to meet the other workers, most who could speak some English. It was exciting to see Christians from all over come together in order to share the gospel. Many now live in France, but their origins include Belgium, Cameroon, Pittsburgh, and Naperville, IL. Their sweet spirit was very evident.

Somehow, we also managed to find time to play some ping pong! (It was reported that Greg was victorious in this heated match.)

In this match, Greg wouldn't let me report the results. 

In the evening we were delighted to spend more time with Bruno and Aurelie, this time at the Le Jardin (secret garden) restaurant in the city of Somain. We had the added privilege of meeting Christophe, the owner, who is a member of a church in Douai. There, we both had a chicken entree with ratatouille.

Tomorrow is a day off, which we will spend celebrating the 4th with the Rizzas and DeGraafs.