Phillips in France

Phillips in France - June 2018 - Coming to America + Good News. Bad news.

1 Corinthians 4:5

Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.

Good news/Bad news
You’re told to start the process of renewing your visa three months before it expires. Ours expire at the end of June, so naturally we started the paperwork in early April. Everything should have been ready before our planned departure in mid-July. Well, there is a time for everything, and it’s not often according to our schedule. Finally on June 12th, we had an appointment to get our fingerprints taken. That’s when they told us the good news/bad news. Good news: We will be able to go back to America in mid-July as we hoped. Bad news: We won’t have our new visas by then. There was a change in the processing procedure that has caused a long backup of visas. Ours won’t be ready until October. We have temporary papers that will allow us to travel back and forth until the end of the year.

The other good news/bad news: In order to stay legal, we have to come back to France before the temporary visas expire to pick up the official cards. Good news is that we get to come back in November to get the cards, check on our house, pick up some medicines, and visit Ragamuffin! Bad news is the trip will cost an extra $900 that we didn’t expect or budget for. Please be in prayer for yet another unexpected expense. God has always provided before; we know He will continue to do so.

So far, So good
(Plans for America)

July 16th: fly from Paris to Seattle

July 22nd: at Calvary Crossroads Church - Wenatchee, WA

July 29th: at Southcenter Community Baptist - Tukwila, WA and Benjamin's 2nd birthday

August 5th: Visiting friends in near Edmonton, AB Canada

August 12th: at Emmanuel Baptist - Snohomish, WA

Trip around America begins
August 26th: at Ustick Baptist - Boise, ID

September 2nd: Topeka Bible Church - Topeka, KS

September 8th: BLF USA Board meeting - Wheaton, IL

September 9th: Wheaton Bible church

September 16th until October 7th: churches and friends - Midwest to east coast

October 14th: Bethel Baptist - Bethlehem GA

October 21st: Sarasota, FL

Annual Business Meetings

Everyone has to do it! BLF held its annual business meeting this past month and welcomed some of our volunteer readers, authors, and local clients for an evening to discuss what happened in the last year and what we plan on in the coming year. We discussed which of the books we had read and the impact it had left on us.

That is always encouraging! We love to hear how what was written, published, and mailed actually made a difference in someone’s life.

American Family Day

America holds a certain allure to many French people. Our town’s Spring festival was themed after our home-country, so we had to go! Of course, it was all cliché cowboys and country music, but we had fun watching the horses race through obstacle courses of barrels and flags. We drank Coca-Cola, and Annie and Ben enjoyed a short horseback ride.

Ben’s Business

Ben made up for his uneventful month of May. He went to see the mobility specialist doctor in Lille again for a follow-up. She was very happy with his progress. The last time she saw him was before he was walking on his own.

Now, he goes to every corner to see what is there that’s interesting. She recommended adding a second session of ergo therapy each week, and Ben has really improved during this last month. More and more often, we see him reaching with is bad arm and using his hand to move something or pick up a toy, though we still have to ask him to use his other hand sometimes.

He also had a check-up with his neurologist who was also pleased. We spent the majority of that appointment discussing how to keep working with him to keep up this progress. Please be in prayer about how to continue his therapy while we are in America. We have already contacted Children’s Hospital in Seattle, but there is a lot of paperwork to go through and the therapy possibilities will definitely depend on the insurance we find.

Prayer Requests

- Praise God that Nathan was able to fill his prescription for 6 months of his MS medicine! In France, you need special permission to get more than a one month supply of most medication and the other miracle is that any MS medicine is usually restricted to a 1 month supply. Praise God for our local pharmacists who insisted on our extenuating circumstances and the 6 boxes that take up an entire shelf in our refrigerator!

- Praise God for the support shown to BLF Editions at our annual business meeting! Praise Him for the wisdom and motivation given to the Directions Committee as well as our team of staff to put on an event that was both informative and fun.

- Praise God for the family who will be taking care of our dog, Ragamuffin. Pray that the cats get used to having the dog around quickly.

- Please pray for us as we fly back to the States this week. Pray for a safe flight and that we will all (especially Ben) get to sleep on the plane.

- Pray for our expenses while we are stateside. There will be extra costs like American health insurance, the van we will be renting, plus the extra plane tickets to return for our visa cards.

We are forever grateful for your prayers, thoughts, and encouragements.
Thank you!

Live today for eternity,
The Phillips

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Copyright © 2018 Nathan Annie Phillips - Synergie Francophone (Formerly BLF USA), All rights reserved.

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