My wife and I invited Max Cadalig and his wife today for dinner.
It was a nice opportunity to get to know each other.
Brother Cadalig is teaching Hebrew and Daniel and Revelation here in AUP.

We had invited the Bingcang family today for Christmas dinner. We had a nice time together and it was friendly.

Fwd: Salutation

Aujourd'hui j'ai envoyé la photo du suivi à Benjamin, à Béré.

Our farewell to Bendele church. This was my last sermon in Bendele today. People were shocked that we would leave them. There is so much spiritual and material needs.
We are leaving tomorrow for N'Djamena where we will take the flight for Manila.

The last photo:

Today, during my sermon in Bendele church, I told them that we would be leaving after next Sabbath, Sunday 21st.
They were of course very surprised and very sad.
I know, the needs are great, but we need to go.

Here is a local Adventist brother teaching a nature lesson.

Like every Thursday, I am going to give a Bible study in Bendele church, on the moto lent by Gary Roberts of GMI. 

I am giving French lessons to an American missionary couple, Dr. Bland and his wife.

Here with Dr. Bland.

I am preaching again in Bendele church today.
Here is a photo of the children' Sabbath school.

This Sabbath afternoon we went to Benzaki's house. They are celebrating their wedding anniversary. I was asked to give a little speech and we had a meal together. There were many guests especially from the hospital, mostly couples. In fact, Enock refused the entrance to guests who came alone (without their spouse)!

I was asked to give the morning devotional at Béré's Adventist  Hospital this morning. I like to do it because it is an opportunity to give our specific message to non Adventists people. Most staff are Adventists but not all.  The patients also are not Adventists and many come to listen to the devotional.

Today we went to the market to get some fruits and vegetables. We take the motorbike (it takes 5 minutes) to go there. On the market, local people are selling their products.

Here on the picture is a street scene in Béré

Today we went to Enock Benzaki's house. They had ask Lindie to do some massage for Eunice and then 2 other ladies showed up and asked for massage too. We see them both on the picture below.

Another picture of the flood around Béré, this time taken from Gary's plane.

There is flooding all around Béré! Local people have never seen so much rain, so much water, so much flooding in the last 50 years.

Here Jonathan from the USA is on the picture.

We were awakened this morning at 1:30 AM by Marcie's voice: "We lost Minnie, we lost Minnie".
Wow! What an awakening! Minnie died! She was a missionary from the Philippines, a friend of us. She had come to our wedding in Manila.
She had malaria since last week, we visited her Friday morning and she went into coma around noon on Friday.
Olen, Gary and all the missionary nurses did all they could to save her but she died.

Sure enough! I got malaria too! 5% malaria is the verdict of the laboratory. Lindie has 10%.

I don't feel well myself (aches in the joints, fever) and I will go for blood and stool analysis today.

Lindie got the analysis' results today: she has malaria.
After many of our friends here, it is her turn!

We asked someone to built an oven in the courtyard to bake bread.
It is made of bricks and covered with cement.

The oven is almost ready. It just needs a layer of cement and it will be done. I hope we can bake some good bread in it!

We went this Sabbath morning to Béré church. The music is always colorful there. Here is the photo of the worshipers singing.

 

We were invited at Olen's (chief American doctor of the Bere Hospital) Birthday Party.
A lot of people came, workers of the hospital, friends, other missionaries.
Minnie Pardillo was also here.

Here is a photo of the rice ready to be eaten.

more pictures from our new room. It's quite small but we will get used to it. Here you can see how the kitchen is installed...

This is our new apartment (room), near Béré Adventist Hospital.
I am preparing food for the Sabbath meal, and trying to get used to our new premises.

 

Other photo of Bendele church where I was preaching today and giving a Bible study. Here on the photo is during the Bible study with Frederic as translator.

We are moving today from our nice big hut to a one room apartment near Béré's hospital! Lindie needs electricity to be able to do her work on the laptop. But we do not have electricity here in the hut.
This will bring us closer to civilization... Good or bad? We will see.

Our first Sabbath in Béré (Bendélé in fact)! 19 days after our wedding day!
Yes, we arrived in Béré on May 23rd, 3 days ago. We will post more pictures soon, especially of our new house.
We received a very nice welcome, especially in Bendélé church. It is a joy to see these brothers and sisters praising the Lord!

We arrived last night in Béré.
I hope I can upload some pics soon of our new home.
......
Las! the internet connection will not allow to post pictures until we leave Chad!
Even the blog will have to be irregular because of the very very poor internet connection.
Sorry!

We arrived today in Béré, Chad! we will spend  our "honeymoon" in the mission field. The travel was a bit tiring.

We left Manila Sunday evening and arrived late in Hong Kong. An Chinese attendant was waiting for us at the airport to help us not miss our connection to Bangkok. We were like running in the airport, through all different checkpoints. China, the beautiful? Will see this next time!
Bangkok - Addis Ababa was without any incident.
We had to wait a long time in Addis to get our flight for N'Djamena.
In N'Djamena we had the (bad) surprise that our bags were NOT there! We made a complaint to the local authorities. We were told that because we were late in Hong Kong (our luggage were not able to run in Hong Kong airport like we did), the bags didn't make the connection but took the following flight and therefore should be arriving in N'Djamena tomorrow. Hoping that it is true.
As we exit the customs, we meet Gary Roberts, whom I recognize right away even though I never saw him in picture. We explain the situation to him and he goes to speak to the custom to tell them someone will come to pick up the bags tomorrow. As for us we will take another (small) plane to go to Béré.

Our chance is that big shot Garwin McNeilus is arriving tomorrow and a plane was rented to take him, plus 2 nurses accompanying him, to Béré. And there is also room for Gary, Lindie and I, the pilot and his little daughter in the plane. It's a Cessna Caravane.

We will fly today to Béré.
It will not be Gary who will pilot the plane but a pilot from the evangelical church.
What happened is that Garwin McNeilus arrived from the US yesterday and paid for the plane to go to Béré.
That's why we have the privilege to fly to Béré instead of taking the bus.

We arrived today in N'Djamena: Gary Roberts from GMI was waiting for us at the airport.
Thank you Gary!
Thank you God for making our trip without any problem.

And we got another (unexpected) leg to our trip: Gary will take us by plane to Béré. We will not have to travel to Béré by bus (which usually takes up to 8 hours).

1st impression: Chad IS hot!

That's it! We are leaving Manila today. The first leg will take us to Hong-Kong, the second to Bangkok, the third to Addis Ababa and the last to N'Djamena!

Today is our last day in the Philippines before our departure for Béré, Chad where we will be missionaries.
I will be a (self-supporting) volunteer missionary for GMI (Gospel Ministries International) and Lindie will be working for AHI (Adventist Health International) at Béré's hospital.

Angel Grace came to visit us with her son today. It was an opportunity for me to get to know them.

First day of married life!
Big thank you to God.

D-Day!
5 pm... the ceremony begins!
6:30pm! Married!
Thank you to God.
We have been married by Pastor Israel Andoy of NPUC

D-Day minus 1!
Everything is ready for the wedding! Even the decorations and the food!

All invitations have been sent.
We will sent some (many) through email and FB to France and the US, for family and friends.

8 days before the wedding!
I made the model for the invitations on Publisher. 
The invitations have been printed!

We went today to Sampaloc SDA church.

First Sabbath of the year with my fiancee!

Amazing! In two days we got all the papers ready for the marriage, the venue and people who will prepare the reception!

Running around in Manila to have all papers needed for the marriage.
The wedding date is set to May 7th.
Will we be able to have everything ready then?

Yesterday evening I met my dear fiancée, Lindie, at Manila International Airport.
Matt, the brother of another Filipina missionary, took us to Sampaloc.

New Year (in the Karaite calendar)
HAPPY  NEW  YEAR !
I am in for a Sabbatical Year.

Flying today from Sacramento to Manila.
Object: Marriage with my dear Lindie.
Taking a Sabbatical year starting tomorrow.
Today is the last day of the year.

Today is my last day of work as a Bible worker before taking a Sabbatical year.
My last sermon in Davis church.
On Matthew 15:15-29