Do I like chocolate rice pudding? Well it sure tastes good when, by freak incident, it takes you 2 hours to get home because of an "accident grave" at la station de Nation, which means that someone decided they didn't like their life and jumped in front of the RER on which I normally ride home. A tragedy of this caliber causes much pain in my heart as I think of the life that ended. It also causes a huge "bouchon" in the RER traffic (bouchon= literally the cork in a bottle of wine) and as I listened to the suggestion of the "annonces" at Etoile, I took the Metro au lieu de la RER from Etoile to Nation which only landed me standing in a 5-6 person deep line up all along the quai. The trains were slow in coming and when I finally joined the "sardines" who balanced themselves silently by mere immobility, they demanded we all decend at another station to wait for a train that took 20 minutes to arrive and was so full that you would have had to crowd surf to get in. So I waited and jumped the next which happened to branch in the wrong direction than I needed. Fortunately by God's grace, I felt like jumping out of the train at my last chance and got the next correct train. When I got off the RER at 7:30, the full moon was painted against a sunset nuanced nightblue sky.


I was extremely tired today but managed to make it through my classes. Jean Baptiste brings me the Saturday NYTimes suppliment to Le Monde. He says I am the student that would most appreciate it. JB is a really encouraging prof. He always asks us now if we are understanding our grammar and uses words like "Bravo!" and "C'est juste" to keep us going in conversation.


I've been pursuing, with the aid of Jonathan, my carte de sejour. What a fiasco! The Consulat did not return my original documents with my Visa so I am stuck here with a visa that will expire if I don't get the carte de sejour soon. We already visited the Prefecture one time last Friday, and so our trip this morning was the second stop on our wild goose chase and rendered me a headache to go on top of my fatigue. I am searching for my papers now with a vengence. I found the email address of a representative in Portland and have emailed her. My next step will be call her, but with the track record from last fall (nearly 10 calls before contact), I doubt I'll actually get to talk to her on the phone.


An interesting histoire has unfolded from the trip to the Pays Basque. The team of us (Griffins, Schlange's and Probasco) met a young french basque guy who surfs. It was one of those crazy encouters where we got so busy that it looked impossible to meet with him in the short amount of time we were destined to be in French Basque territory. I had a couple conversations with him on my cell phone and the evening we arrived at our host home near Bayonne I talked to him once again to try to apologize for us not being able to meet with him. He wouldn't stand for it but squeezed a time and place out of me to meet us the following day. We showed up and met a cool kid- with a feather in his hat- who promptly drove us to his favorite surf spots and introduced us to his surfing buddies. We stood in the coastal rain and watched his buddies brave the breakers which were 3 times the size of the day previous. I got thoroughly soaked but enjoyed each moment until we said goodbye at the train station (I returned to Paris). Jean Yves must have been ready to hear the Gospel when we encountered him cuz I just got word today from the French host and house church host in the area that Jean Yves accepted the LORD the weekend after our departure in full, truthful conversion! Who would have guessed?!! Praise the LORD for calling a young man and prayerfully his pregnant girlfriend will follow soon! JY is now surfing Tahaiti but already dreams of returning to reach his Basque family for the LORD! I'm starting pray for my place... Experiences like this, brushing so close to me, get me all too excited to live for Christ here in France!


Bref, one life lost to dispair, one life gained for the sake of Christ! A somber hallelujah....