Rainey Days

This week I am overwhelmed with guests. I have my friends Matt and Cristina Price visiting from Nantes, four hours north of here. I spent a week with them in August touring their beautiful area, and this week is their turn to visit Bordeaux. I'm thrilled to have them staying in my apartment, since among other things, it means playing board games until late in the night--something I haven't done since I left language school. However, I also have two important guests coming tomorrow: my area director for Western Europe, Gerald Branum; and the All-Europe director, Greg Mundis. They will be arriving this afternoon to spend time with another missionary couple tonight, and tomorrow I will be touring them around the IC France ministry at our office building, as well as taking them out to lunch before they catch their train back to Paris for another meeting. It's a big deal to host two men who are my "boss" and the "big boss" as they say in French. I...

I heard from Dan today. He and his missionary team were able to make it out of Guinea and into Mali. They are safe, but he described some pretty harrowing and miraculous events as they fled to the border. Thank you for your prayers for him and my other friends, as well. I hope that you continue to pray for the situation in Guinea. In other news . . . you all might get a kick out of this. Wednesday when the repairman fixed my blinds, they wanted to wash their hands at the end. I showed them the kitchen and then stepped out into the hallway. I overheard one whisper to the other, "There are crabs everywhere in here." I laughed and explained that it's a regional speciality in Maryland, and I decorate with all things "blue crab" as a reminder of home. The one guy got kind of excited. Apparently he loves crabmeat because he asked, "So, now, can you get crab all over Maryland or just in one town?" It made me feel like he was going to rush home and ...

Have you ever rented a home? Living in my current apartment is my first experience with renting completely on my own. In Israel, the ministry rented the apartments for the staff, and the secretary took care of all the communication with the landlord. Here, if something breaks or floods, I have to deal with the landlord myself. My landlord is a large real-estate company, run by any number of people in an office building located two hours away. I pay my check by mail each month; generally things run smoothly. However, in late November, I had a problem with my shutters in the living room--the largest and most well-lit room of my apartment. All the volets (shutters) in my apartment are "rolling" shutters. I wind them up and down with a handle, and they roll like a garage door. I noticed the problem first when the handle seemed to have more tension as I would roll the shutters up in the morning. Soon, I could hardly turn the handle because it was so resistant. Then came the day w...

I received this update from my friends Jim and Becky : Thursday afternoon a US military flight came into Conakry to help American citizens get out of Guinea. Other airlines also came, but there are way more people than seats on the planes. It was a long day packing up everything, closing up the mission, and going to the airport, waiting there for three hours, flying to Dakar, Senegal and then finally making it to the conference center here around midnight. . . . So where do we go from here? We aren't sure for the long term. Next week we'll be talking about what we can do until conditions are safe to return to Guinea. . . . Please pray for wisdom. In the meantime, please pray for the people of Guinea. The day before we left I got a call in the morning from Hasinatou, one of Becky's language helpers. She said that she, her husband, and her 7 children had no rice left. In the afternoon during the few hours people are allowed out of their houses, I went to take her family a s...

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had "auditioned" to be part of the choir for the musical that my young adult group is doing here in Bordeaux. I haven't told you the rest of the story . . . Christian, the pianist and leader of the musicians, approached me later that night with a jump drive in his hand and asked me to copy a song file from it to my computer, so I could practice it on my own time. I thought at the time that he must think I needed more help with the French words of the song, so I agreed. When I got back from Amsterdam, I found out that he had been saying that he wanted to me sing the song as a solo, with the choir as back up during the chorus. I was really pleased and amazed that I would be entrusted with such a big role in the music part of the musical. Then, he changed his mind (in a good way!). He gave that song to another soprano who has a wispier, more vulnerable sounding voice. It matches the song better, so I understood. However, he told me that he ...

Please pray for the political situation in the African country of Guinea (Conakry). Due to a decision made by the corrupt president of the country, riots and violence have broken out all over the country, but particularly in the capital city of Conakry. Over the weekend, houses were looted, government buildings were burnt, and over 29 people were killed. I have several personal friends who are missionaries there: Jim and Becky (6 mos. pregnant) and Hannah, their two year old daughter; Chad and Nikki , and their two sons under the age of five; and Dan , a single young man in a remote village without electricity. I studied French with these missionaries, and spent a lot of weekends playing Uno and eating barbecue with them as well. The circumstances are very scary for them, most of them being too far out even to get to an Embassy rescue flight, if that was even an option. Please pray for them, as well as the ministries and the converts they work with, who are risking their own lives to ...

Yesterday I had lunch at a hip restaurant downtown right on the river that runs through downtown Bordeaux. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and 60 degrees, and I had a lunch date with the Bordeaux Women's Club, a club I joined to find other English speakers. The lunch was delicious but the company was really what I needed. I ended up sitting next to an American woman who came as a guest of a regular member. She was visiting from California and we had great conversation during the whole meal. To my right was an English lady in her 60's who moved to Bordeaux just three months ago. We had some conversation as well, and somehow we got to talking about Maryland. Someone at the table asked if my family was originally from Maryland (and that made me snicker in my head, "Ariel Rainey of the Millersville Raineys" like some snooty social climber). I said, "Yes, on my mother's side, but my father is from the mountains of North Carolina." Maggi, the English lady, said, ...

Saturday at the young adults group at church, we had a night of prayer. The intercession team had prepared a skit illustrating different aspects of prayer, such as: thanksgiving, adoration, meditation, intercession, and listening to God. They had also prepared a number of power point slides with various subjects for prayer under several main headings. The young adults prayed out freely for well over an hour, while a young lady discreetly advanced the slides projected up on the screen. One of the subjects caught my attention: " savoir attendre et saisir les promesses divines." Under the heading of “personal life,” this subject, knowing how to wait for and seize divine promises, grabbed my attention. What a great thing to pray for! I felt convicted myself, because while I have no problem seizing (or claiming, as we say more often in English) the promises of God, I have a big problem waiting for them. I’m so impatient; I want what God promised today! There I sat, surro...

ThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyou! That was for the ladies of my home church for all the fantastic goodies they sent me! I have enough peanut butter and peach iced-tea mix to last until my furlough! And I can't wait to rip into some of the other stuff, too. I was down to my last English magazine, so it was great to get a whole bunch more. You guys are so great. Every missionary should be so blessed as to have a group like you taking care of them! I also got another package with a wonderful necklace, bracelet, and earrings from my aunt Ambra in New Jersey! I love it, love it, love it! Now I just need fancier clothes to wear it with, ha ha! Thank you for a great Valentine's Day gift! And, not to be outdone, my mom sent me a bunch of new pictures of my neice Olivia. I have included some of my favorites here. But why should I have all the fun? Feel free to add your own captions (I added a few already). We could make it a little contest! a) Help! This beard...

The French kiss each other twice because no one else will. --seen in Reader's Digest

Often I have tried to give you an interesting, unique view into my missionary life, and today is no exception. It's time for me to file my financial reports. Each quarter, I have to report all of my business expenses, as well as give an accounting of my use of my STL car. This involves multiple forms and a pile of receipts. First I do the mileage log for the car. Every time I drive it anywhere I record the mileage (in my case, kilometrage) in a little notebook. Then each quarter I type up a master list of where and when I drove, noting if it was personal use (shopping, errands, going to church or work) or business use (going to conferences). Then I determine how much of the gasoline used was for business or personal use. When I do the financial report, I start with my receipts. Usually, I have receipts from rent and utilities, STL car insurance, business calls, meals/hotels while traveling, postage from newsletters, and any ministry supplies. Each of those receipts has to be trans...

What a trite expression for so powerful a truth! I think each of us probably has stories to illustrate the fact that prayer changes things. Perhaps they were situations where God miraculously intervened or circumstances that made 180 degree turns; we know when this happens it's because we (and likely our friends) have been praying. I work with two colleagues on a daily basis. There are a few others that are in and out of the office, but two of them are there with me every day. We should be like a three-strand cord--not easily broken--but actually it's often been more like a rope used in tug-of-war. The two of them pull against each other with all their might, and I'm stuck in between leaning to one side or the other. A friend suggested that I needed a whistle to referree their arguments, and I admit there have been times when I was tempted to bark "Enough!" in the voice my father used when he barked at us kids arguing in the back seat of the car (ahh, good ti...

Several months ago, I mentioned on my blog that the evangelism pastor at my church didn’t seem to like me very much. He was always cold and on certain occasions even rude. I was very frustrated by his seeming dislike of me (what’s not to like!?!), so I asked you to pray about it, and I started to pray about it. Slowly in October and November, I noticed small changes: we had a long conversation at the fall pastor’s convention, and I got to know his wife while working in the coffeebus. I also observed his manner with other people and determined that his reactions to me weren’t as personal as I’d taken them to be; his personality is just very serious and stiff, which makes him seem cold to others as well. Of the three pastors at my church, I have a good relationship with only one, the youth pastor Patrick. He’s from Kinchasa, Congo and very progressive. He and his wife have warmly encouraged me to get involved with the youth group and given me opportunities to speak to the youth abou...

I got back late last night and hit the ground running this morning with our latest Muslim Evangelism seminar (part 3 of 4). I had a session to do this afternoon on folk islam but the other sessions ended up going long, so mine got pushed back to the next seminar in May. I can't say I was too disappointed. Being away for the past two weeks didn't help me prepare, and after speaking only English all that time, my French just wasn't as fluid as usual. I was just thinking slower than normal. I really enjoyed seeing all the folks that came to participate though and I added a few comments where I could. Now that I'm chez moi (home) I'm worn out. I have a busy schedule tomorrow, too (more on that tomorrow probably). Guess what happened in Bordeaux while I was gone . . . It snowed! Ten centimeters! And I missed it! Apparently, it went well below freezing for several days after that, so it didn't melt right away. That explains why I thought it was so cold l...