CCMI Post

Only a few things for today......

~ Check out www.bogotabridges.com for a blog entry there today with a few other pictures from our training here.

~  We are going to Brussels South train station tonight (Wednesday night, at 11am Memphis time) to meet up with our new Iranian friend we met at church.  He & our family are going to dinner tonight. We are looking forward to this opportunity & pray all goes well to meet & find him since we don't have phones here to communicate.

~ Would you pray for my sweet friends Kevin & Lee from church in Memphis?  Today, they will bury their stillborn son born Saturday night.  Be encouraged & read her inspiring blog at http://leedholt.blogspot.be/. If you don't have time to read (although I recommend it), please say a quick prayer on their behalf.  

~ And thank you for your prayers for us while we have been away.  We are one week from departing Belgium, with a  quick side trip to London to celebrate a teenager in our family, then will be flying back to Memphis.  The prayers have sustained us & we are thankful for each of them.  Love you!

Trains

We have learned a little about train travel in Belgium.  Without a car, one must quickly learn the system that we are dependent on & it is something completely out of my control too.  I can't just hop in the car & go somewhere.  I can't just run an errand or two & be back in an hour.  This has been good preparation for me before we move to Bogota.  Last week, we  had 2 people ask us for help with the train system, so I guess we are starting to at least look like we know what we are doing :).

I think I've posted this picture before, but this is the view as we approach our local train station.

Our stop is Zaventem.

And here is the train as it approaches that we take.  The 1 is for first class & 2 is second class.  We travel 2nd class, but there looks to be little difference inside the train.  You can see Isabella's reflection in the train window here.

B is for Belgium Rail.

This is a view of the channel terminal from the Brussels South train station.  This is where we will leave from when we go to London.

Practicing for London

The girls on the train 

Sitting on the train, this is the board we read to know what our next stop is.  This sign says the next stop is Bru-Zuid, which is the same as Brussels South or Brussels Midi.  Next is is Brussels Central, Brussels North (our stop for church), & then Zaventem.  

Our one Dutch phrase we've learned is: De volgende halte,

which means "the next stop" is Zaventem.

Isabella walking on the train.  This was late at night, so the train was fairly empty.

Brook after a long afternoon resting on the train.

We use the key cards to get us to & from places on the train.  Each time we travel, they have to be completed for the day of the week ,date, & cities we are traveling between.  Each card is 20.00 Euros, & we fill these up very fast.  It has been a month since we've been in a car!

Happy Tuesday!

Update & Gent/Ghent/Gint

Happy Monday!  It is a new week & a full one ahead for us.  This week we have our language training, where we don't actually learn a language, but we learn how to learn a language!  It will be full days for us, but we are looking forward to it. Isabella will be able to participate in this part of our training too.  Last week was the hardest week for me so far.  I had bad headaches 2 days, & also just a harder time living in community.  Basically, I have been slapped in the face with sin & new realities.  I am thankful for some good friends here though & prayers from home.

Late Friday afternoon, our family went to Gent.  Or how it is written in other languages:

Gent - German & Dutch
Ghent - French
Gint - Flemish

You normally see at least 3 spelling for words here, especially for the cities.

Depending on the train you take, the ride to Gent is 1 hour or 1 1/2 hours.  We took the 1 hour there & 1 1/2 hour train back so we didn't have to change trains. Including walking to the station, & a tram ride from the station in Gent to the city center. it is safe to say it is at least 2 hours from where we are staying.  We actually just spent 2 hours there, but then had to wait an hour at the train station to catch the train home. We enjoyed a waffle & hot chocolate while we waited though!  I took a lot of pictures for just 2 hours in the city.

Belfry tower

Covered bridge next to the tower

European girls

Frozen yogurt!

But they are closed in the winter :(

Avery & the girls in front of the city center listening to music

We found a castle!

The doors leading into the castle

Door details

The neatest little area of Gent

One of my favorite pictures

I tried to take more people pictures this time instead of just scenery.

My best meal all month...steak, small salad, & fries!

To you, this may look like just a shoe...

but these are chocolate shoes!!

the covered bridge at night

being silly in the train station while waiting for our ride home

End of another Week

It is hard to believe we have less than 2 weeks left here in Belgium.  With this many people living together, germs are spreading like wildflowers.  There are lots of colds & such here because of that.  It is beginning to hit me this week too.  I have basically been having headaches, so pray for us all to stay well.  Because of that, I have stayed in the past 2 days for much needed rest.  The girls have been out with others though both days.  This afternoon Avery & I did have a good meeting with our mentor here.

Here are a few random pictures from our time here:

Isabella with Anna

Avery & I with one of our favorites here...the Bowles.  They are cute little Jonah's parents.  Avery & John went out one night & brought Julie & I flowers.

Isabella, Mandy, Leah, & Brook trying to watch a movie on the computer

Self photos :)

Our outlets here & adapaters

A church in Zaventem

Zaventem

a park in Zaventem

And for a glimpse into my Thursday, here is what I have on my bedside table:

cold medicine, headache medicine, vitamins, headphones, pen, water bottle, mug,  & devotion book

underneath lies adapters, bag of groceries, and bag of medicine

today on my bed...school work I need to check from the girls' morning 

After our morning classes, everything gets dumped on my bed.  Sometimes I clean it up right away, but this week, that doesn't happen until bedtime.

The girls beds

Needless to say, we have moved in & it got a little messy around here.

I did some housekeeping this afternoon....vacuumed the floor, put away clean laundry, & changed the sheets.  There is still light house work to be done here.  Now the girls beds were clean for bedtime!  

And this is the view outside of our window

This is just a little bit of my reality of how our room looks on most days.  The weekend ahead prediction is for lots of rain.  I hope to relax & hope you all have a good weekend in the states too!

Food update:  It's getting comical around here.  The other day we had steamed carrots for lunch.  The next night, we had carrot soup.  Last night, we had leftover carrot soup!  Nothing gets wasted here :)