France Blog Four

Well, the day has come; this morning we leave Valence by the fast TGV train to Paris. The director here will take us to the TGV station after coffee break at 10. We will stay at a mission guest house in Paris for three nights. On Tuesday we will meet Rosie's niece and her husband and Rosie's sister; they are on a trip around Europe and coming from Germany to Paris for a few days. It will be fun to visit around the city for a bit in the afternoon. On Wednesday we are on our own with lots of places we would like to see, although we will probably only see a small part of what there is to see in Paris. On Thursday noon we fly non-stop to Chicago.
The last week in Valence was another good one. We got lots of work done, winding down on the project. One couple will leave on Thursday and the other couple will leave the following week, so there are some last-minute tasks to do yet.
In the evenings we went out to dinner with various families--a French/American couple, a Swedish lady, one of the single staff ladies, and the director's family. It made for a busy day, working until about 5:30 or six and then going out for dinner, getting home about 9:30 or so most nights.

On Saturday we worked until noon and then went for an outiing with two people from the office. We drove about an hour south on the tollroad to Poet-Lavel where there is a 13th century hilltop village and a Protestant museum. The museum tells about the history of the Protestant reformation in the south of France, the persecution of the Hugonotts and wars between the Catholics and Protestants. It was a very picturesque village and interesting small museum. On the way home we also stopped at a pottery store in a grotto motif; very unique.



Yesterday (Sunday) we went to a small Salvation Army church within walking distance; quite a contrast from the vibrant church the week before. Afte lunch the six of us went for our last walk around Valence; it ended up being a two and a half hour walk along the Rhone River and back into town. We were all pretty tired but it was a lovely afternoon--warm, sunny, clear sky.

Afte supper we packed, did some email work, and late into the night I finished Big Russ & Me by Tim Russert; a very interesting book.

Now it is breakfast, final packing, coffee break and off to Paris.

France Blog Three

We’ve had a full week of work, including a few after-supper jobs. Things have gone well; we are still all healthy and accident free, so I would say it has been a good week. Little by little we are checking items off the list. One more week to go!

Yesterday (Sat.) we worked until noon; Rosie and her fellow-cook, Donna, went to the open air vegetable and flower market. That was fun. In the afternoon we walked around town for a few hours. It was a sunny day; lots of people were on the streets and in the shops. We stopped by the train station to pick up our tickets for next Monday’s ride to Paris. We joined a tour of the 150-year-old Valence theater; our french-speaking friend was with us to interpret. Across the street from the theater was the town hall; a popular place for Saturday weddings, fun to watch them exiting. We also walked through the ancient massive cathedral, then stopped at the ice cream shop on our way home.


In the evening we did a 12-minute fast walk down to the train station to meet the Eurasia Director of Wycliffe Associates and his wife who arrived by train from Cologne, Germany. It was a fast walk because we were reading and didn’t watch the clock for the 8:12 bullet train. The train pulled in just as we arrived at the station. We walked them to their hotel and spent about an hour with them catching up on news. They are friends from the England project earlier in the year.

Today we walked to another church nearby. Our friend translated for us again; all but the songs and prayers! It was a 2-hour service with about 250 people, a good cross-section of ages, and a good music team. Right after the service we walked to a downtown Italian restaurant for a delicious dinner with dessert. The Eurasia director treated us; a thank-you dinner, so that was nice!

Tomorrow we begin the last week of work; hopefully we will get most items off the list! We will leave even if we don’t.

Hope you have had a good week. Any comments are always enjoyed; you can click the “comments” button at the end of this blog, stay anonymous if you like, and tell us a bit about your activities.

France Blog Two

Another week has passed here in France so it is time for a new blog posting. The weather has been cool and wet; we had several days of heavy rain but some sun too. It was a good week though; we are all well, nobody has had a cold, flu, accident or anything. Praise the Lord.

Work went well; we got a lot of things done from scraping walls to final painting, dropping a ceiling under a stairway landing, removing an old tile floor in a small bathroom and retiling the walls and floor.
Rosie has been busy preparing meals, baking for coffee breaks, shopping, laundry, etc. Another gal helps her in the mornings and does shopping with her.

Yesterday (Sat.) we went to Avignon with one of the other couples, the Carmans. It is about an hour and a half south from here by slow train. Avignon is a pretty city on the Rhone River, very ancient and originally completely walled. Today it is a bustling city, lots of hotels and restaurants thriving on the tourist industry.


In the 14th century the papal residence was moved from Rome to Avignon. Nine popes ruled from there before it was moved back to Rome in 1376.
We toured the huge papal palace that was built by the first two popes and walked the streets and parks of the city. It is a big tourist attraction and was loaded with people, including a man we met who drives a metra train through Prospect Heights every day and knows a friend of ours! Small world! Also had coffee at McDonalds!

Today we went to a good church of about 300 people; great enthusiasm, good music and preaching, lots of young people, young marrieds couples as well as older people. In the afternoon two gals took us north about 15 miles to visit a thousand-year-old church and a winery.
The area is vineyard country. It was interesting to see how the vines grow fastened to stakes. Most of the bunches of grapes hang on the bottom fifteen to twenty inches of the vine. It was a sunny afternoon so the drive along the Rhone River was very pleasant.

Tomorrow it is back to work; two more full weeks of work before we go north to Paris and fly home.

Thanks to those of you who responded with comments to our last blog. Hope you are well.

Valence, France Blog One

On September 2 we left home for Valence, France. The trip over was quite uneventful; we made our train connection in Paris with about 30 extra minutes and enjoyed the 200-mph, 2 hours and 10 minutes, non-stop ride to Valence. We were met at the Valence station by the director of the Wycliffe Bible Translator office in France. After a restless night without too much sleep we began work on the project set out for us.

After a few days we have adjusted somewhat to the seven-hour time change and have accomplished a number of tasks on the list. We are here as part of a three-couple team to assist the French organization complete the renovation of a 200-year-old building they have occupied for several years. Two previous teams in 2006 and 2007 did most of the heavy-duty dirty work; we are trying to finish up most of the remaining work.
The building has offices on the ground floor and an apartment on the second floor. The third floor is an attic that is only used for storage now, quite uninhabitable! We have had to do some major plumbing work, install door latches, repair a rickety bannister, and scrape off old textured paint from hallway walls.

After three days of rain we finally had a beautiful sunny day today. We walked to a local reformed church. After lunch some friends guided us on a visit to an ancient castle overlooking Valence.

It was a great afternoon for the long climb up and panoramic view of Valence from the castle. On our way home we walked through the city park along the Rhone River. The office and apartment here is only a five minute walk from the center of town; very convenient.

Rosie and one of the other wives have been busy with meals -- shopping, cooking, cleanup. Everybody has been glad for the excellent meals; we will have no problem surviving!!!
We’ll tell you more about Valence later; this is a new and interesting place for us. We will probably also go out of town on a couple of weekends.
Abner and Rosie

Comments on the blog or emails are always welcome. Thanks.

Our Next Trip - Coming Soon

On Tuesday, September 2 we plan to leave for a one-month service project in Valence, France. We will be doing volunteer work at the French headquarters of Wycliffe Bible Translators. Keep checking the blog for more information and photos.

LONDON BLOG FIVE

Hello from Illinois. We arrived home on Wednesday evening after an 8-hour boring flight! Now we are trying to adjust to the time change and relax after a very wonderful and strenuous three months in England.
The final two and a half weeks at the Wycliffe Centre went by with mixed emotions. We said goodbye to many good friends as some left for another smaller project in Germany and others returned to the U.S. and Canada. At the same time there was much work to do so those of us left worked extra hours and I was asked to give the daily devotions in the morning.
One weekend we went to my relative’s apartment in Chiswick (west London) for two nights. They were out of town but invited us to use the place for a time away from the routine. On Saturday we went into London via The Tube again. We took a boat ride on the River Thames, visited the Imperial War museum with a special Holocaust exhibit, attended the Evensong service at Westminster Abbey (free, instead of the usual $20 each for a tour!), walked around Picadilly Circus and strolled through the opulent Harrods department store. .

On Sunday we returned to the Centre by tube, train and bus, with a short walk through Regent Park on the way

On the last Sunday we woke to a surprising and beautiful two-inch snowfall.
That day we had a car to take people to church in the morning and also enjoy an afternoon ride in the countryside with another couple. The snow added to the beauty of the wooded hillsides and we walked through two towns along the River Thames nearby.


The last two days a company was hired to finish the drywall and “mudding” that we were not able to complete. Our crew was diminished and now since we left there are only about a dozen people working on the project. It will be a struggle to gain occupancy by the first of May, but that is the commitment.

It was hard to say our final goodbyes to the team, the “Brits” we were working with and the staff and students at the Wycliffe Centre. During the three months a very strong bond developed with many. We are glad we went on this service project; it was more than we could have imagined. God has been gracious and kind.

For now our travelog ends. We don’t have specific plans other than to take care of some personal matters, help a few people and visit some of our family. Thanks for traveling with us; your comments are always appreciated.

With our love.

LONDON BLOG FOUR

Happy Easter. Here in London we are in the middle of a long, cold holiday weekend -- Friday through Monday. With less than 5% who attend church on Sunday in Britain it is rather ironic that there is a public holiday at all. Since we are not “Brits” many of us have continued to work. On Good Friday we had a 30-minute service after lunch at which I read and commented on the crucifixion story of Luke's Gospel. After that quite a few of us went back to work and some went away for the weekend. About a dozen of us also worked yesterday. The kitchen staff is on holiday too, so Rosie has been doing more in the kitchen with an outside weekend chef who was hired to keep our team fed.

This morning Rosie is making her favorite rolls for dinner, so we will walk to a nearby small church this afternoon for Easter service. Tonight at six we will have our regular Sunday service with our team and others on the campus who want to join us--there is one Romanian, one Swiss, and three Russian girls here in training for translation work who have become close friends of our team. This will be an Easter emphasis and communion.
On Saturday, March 15 our group went to Portsmouth by bus to tour the old and famous naval dockyard. There are three old ships there, two that we could walk through, the other was the salvaged remains of the Mary Rose that sank in about 1545 and recovered from the channel in 1992. The partial ship is in a special building constantly being sprayed with a liquid to keep the wood from further deteriorating. The small museum also houses thousands of items that were also recovered when the Mary Rose was discovered.

We haven’t done much other exciting activity lately; just working. The project keeps moving along; slower than hoped. Renovation always takes longer, costs more and is dirtier than expected! Most of my time is spent putting on the third and final coat of joint compound on all the walls; others do the first and second coats which are not as crucial for the final finished product. There are no other experienced finishers here right now so that part falls to me--final prep before painting.

The camaraderie is very high; we have lots of fun at work, mealtimes, sometimes playing board or card games after supper. It is a great group, but we have had to say ‘goodbye’ to some wonderful people lately. This week more will leave, but there are also some returning to help out in the final stages of the work. It will be great to see them. We have just over two weeks before we leave on April 9. By that time there will be a small handful of people left who will work throughout April to complete the project. A 200-plus conference is scheduled for the first weekend in May, so they need to have full occupancy by then.

Rosie and I are well; our colds are about over; more than can be said for quite a few others on the team. Most of all we are happy and feeling fulfilled in the work, our friendships, the accommodations (shown here), etc.. We talk to our family and some friends regularly by Skype, a computer and internet program. We can call regular land line or cell phones for about two and a half cents per minute. But someone else has Skype we can only receive emails and thanks to many of you who have written.
We say again, you can anonymously leave a comment at the end of this blog or write us an email at: abner_bauman@wowway.com

Hope you have a good day and the week coming up.

With our love,

Abner and Rosie

Blog three London

It is time for more on London. We are now in our seventh week here at the Wycliffe Centre and it seems like only a short time.

Good progress is being made on the work project but it seems like time is slipping away before their first scheduled week of conference. Everybody is working hard; our biggest frustration is the lack of some much-needed tools that we keep begging the leaders to buy!
A number of us have had colds but the English weather is cooperating. Over the last two or three weeks we have had a record number of sunny days for this time of year. There is often frost on the grass in the morning but it warms up to high 40s or mid-50s. For three weekends we visited with friends in different parts of London. Not only do we see many parts of the area but it has been wonderful (a blast) to visit longtime friends in St. Albans and Luton. It was exciting to see some ruins dating back to the time of the Romans and the huge Cathedral built in honor of St. Alban, the first English martyr back in the fourth century.

Last Thursday I came down with an ear infection needing to see a doctor at a nearby medical clinic. The antibiotics and warm compressions he prescribed quickly gave me some relief. I wasn’t up and around much over the weekend, but went back to work today (Monday) feeling much improved.
On Saturday Wycliffe provided a coach to take us on a trip to Bath, the old Roman city with relics of the supposed healing baths of spring water. It was a cool, cloudy day but great to tour a bit of the old city. The two-hour drive through the countryside was very picturesque.

Some of our friends here have returned to the US and Canada the past few weeks and other people have come to replace them. We hate to see people leave but they had only committed for shorter times. Rosie and I have extended our time here; yesterday I changed our flights to Chicago to April 9. We will be here for three additional weeks. Hopefully, the project will be about wrapped up by then.

Thanks again for traveling with us; pray for us as we come to mind--for good health, freedom from accidents, good relationships with the team, etc.
We wish you well; we’d enjoy hearing from you via comments at the end of the blog or by email:
abner_bauman@wowway.com
If you have Skype you can connect to us at: abrosie

Goodbye