We made it! We have finally arrived in our town of service for the next 6 months--Saint Gaudens. It is a city of about 10,000 people with a little Baptist Church tucked away in the center of town. I'll do another blog about the church once we know the people a little better. We're about an hour and a half southwest of Toulouse at the base of the Pyrenées Mountains and about 12 miles from the border with Spain.
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| The line starts from home in the North |
We arrived on Thursday, the 3rd of August. It was HOT!! 37°c with no air conditioning. We do have it in the car and the first night we stayed in a hotel that had air conditioning but since then there is none. Fortunately, for us, it has cooled off.
The missionaries, (David and Melissa Price) who we are replacing were leaving on Friday morning. We went to their apartment so that they could show us around the house. Then we walked over to the church (3 min. walk) and David showed us around the church. That night Mike went with David to another town, Luchon, even higher up in the Pyrenées mountains for a Bible study. I went back to the hotel where we had left Emily.
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| The mountains from our hotel window |
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| Zoomed in but not as clear but you can see the moon |
The next morning we moved in. We got to the apartment around 10:00 and it was already 27°c outside. Unfortunately, being that the house is in the middle of the city, there wasn't a parking place close by. We each, including Emily, filled our arms with things from the car and made our way to our new home away from home.
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The gray building is the apartment building. The door is right in the middle.
Our apartment has the four windows on the first floor on the left. |
We tried the key to the door of the building BUT we couldn't get in. We tried ALL of the keys but none of them would open the door. So, here we stand with arms full of pillows, bags, books, in the hot sunshine wondering what to do next. If we can just get into the building we'll be able to get into the apartment. We ran all of the doorbells to the other apartments but nobody answered. Finally, a lady came out. We talked to her, she tried our keys, but couldn't get them to work either. At least she let us into the building.
We went up to the apartment, on the first floor (not the ground floor), and got into the apartment. Then poor Mike started making the 357 trips (at least that how many it seemed like) back and forth from the apartment to the car to unpack everything that we had brought with us.
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| The car was parked in that parking lot on the corner right in the middle of this picture. |
We have settled in, had our first Sunday, been to the store, had our first Sunday and Tuesday night at the church. Mike had his first day at the marché (market) but more about that in another blog, and I've been to the doctor, which was NOT in the plan for the week. Tomorrow Mike will have a men's prayer breakfast at the church with tract distribution afterward. Next week we'll go to Luchon for the first time on our own.
I moved wrong and pinched a disc in my back. I was having a lot of pain, different from anything I have ever had before. I decided I needed to see a doctor. We looked in the yellow pages, online,and found an office that had several doctors in it hoping that one of them would not be on vacation. August is vacation month and this weekend is a long weekend because of a holiday on Tuesday. I stopped in at the office this morning and the secretary asked me if I could wait. The doctor had a cancellation and could take me right then. Praise the Lord!! So, I am on medicine.
Here are a few pictures of our new, temporary home.
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| You enter the building (once you get the front door unlocked 😀) The stairway is in the middle on the right |
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| Stone steps, iron and wood railing |
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| Welcome |
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| The view from the door. Emily's room on the right (door closed) big closet then our room, where the sun is shining in. Toilet straight ahead and bathroom on the left |
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| Extra room, yes that is a sheet hanging on the door. It is more of a storage room but it is usually the Prices little boy's room. Emily's door is still shut. |
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| Emily's room. Usually the little girl's room |
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| Living room, dining room |
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| Kitchen with Mike working hard at the table |
Here are some misc. (don't ask me to spell it out) pictures.
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| See the shoe/boot scraper next to the step. |
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| This is to show you the downspout. |
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| Zoomed in. Interesting, isn't it? |
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| Yes, this is a picture of the mailboxes but I think it is interesting that down there at the end of the hall is a manequin. Why? I don't know! |
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| Looking up the stariwell |
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| The post at the bottom of the steps. |
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| Our balcony |
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| I'm trying to keep their flowers alive in the heat |
