Day Twelve - Chateau D'If

Well camp ended yesterday. :( Last night we stayed up and watched the Count of Monte Cristo in preparation for the Chateau D'If. We took a bus and the subway twice to get down to the port today only to find out that the boat to Chateau D'If was not going there today. This was a blessing as we ended up going to Ils Frioul (Island off the coast of Marseille). This was a BEAUTIFUL DAY of sightseeing and snorkeling. The Mediterranean water is as clear as bath water (before the bath). Kyle and Stephanie are thinking of planting a church on the island! : )

We ate Merguez (something like Chorizo) sandwiches and ate some worthy ice cream. The highlight of our time on the Island was when Rob and Kyle were the only ones left in the water and Rob yelled "Kevin! Come check out the octopus!". Needless to say, I hobbled over the little sharp rocks (no sand) and went over only to witness Rob abuse an octopus. He prodded it and grabbed at it trying to get it out of it's little cave. Keep in mind the octopus' arms are about 18-inches long. Well it decided to fight back and grabbed his arm. Rob was relentless in his attack though. He was determined to get this thing to come out, even to the point of weighing himself down with rocks to enable himself to stay down there long enough to wrestle. Yeah, this is who we have out in the field! : )

It was a great time of fellowship and just getting to know eachother better. We got a chance to talk about the camp and how it went and what went well or could have gone better and so on. We also had some time to talk to and get to know Simon (the other pastor at Point Bible) better. He is a very nice guy and very encouraging. It was fun to talk to him about the difference between Europeans and Americans. He told us a story about visiting a family in America and how crazy he thought it was that after washing his clothes in washing machine they asked him to put it in the dryer. How crazy is that when it is a nice sunny day outside and the sun that the Lord had provided was perfectly capable drying the clothes on a line. We then went onto energy conservation and how Americans shower too way too often. Interesting stuff... Kyle took his Bus/Subway pass for a swim in the Mediterranean and it no longer worked. Lord took care of that though as Kyle was at the machine to buy another all-day pass and some guy just walked up and gave him one. Vicki had to leave us early to go home and start preparing for church tomorrow as it is going to be held at the Anthony's. We left a little later and went into town and did some more shopping before going home. Kevin bought some sunglasses from a street vendor only to realize that they were ruined. Tried to get his money back from the Senegalese sp? vendor to no avail. So he ended up with a very feminine pair that he could probably never wear. Any takers??

Jeff and Steph had the best Frappucino I had ever tasted! This thing was SOOOOO good. Jeff was later commenting how he wanted another one. John was able to find some nice things to take back to his family. There were some cruise ships that had docked so there were many Americans around.

Well we spent the rest of the evening preparing eating dinner, showering, and thinking about what we will say tomorrow at church. Each one of us is to go up and tell the church how this trip has affected us. Looking forward to it. It will be a long day of church, cleaning and packing tomorrow as we fly out on a 6:45am flight on Monday morning.

Please pray that we can have an impact on and be an encouragement to Point Bible Church one last time before we leave. Also, that we would faithfully pray for them even after returning to the states.

We thank God for all of your prayers.

Grace and Peace to you....