Sunday Pictures

HILLSONG PARIS...and it was AWESOME!

Our metro station

A typical Paris Café... all of the tables face outward so you can enjoy the day and watch people passing by.

Our view from our seats in the café

A bridge along the Seine River

Le Mosquée de Paris

Us in front of the Arc de Triomphe

Le tour Eiffel... no pictures do justice to the size and beauty of the arc or the Eiffel tower!! They are both breath taking- to quote a man who saw the arc and said this to his family "this is a WOW moment, I need a sec"

L'école militaire

Pictures from Thursday, Friday & Saturday

Today, in addition to visiting The Louvre and Notre Dame, we figured out we have Wi-Fi in our hotel room......it has been a good day. As promised here are some pictures from our trip thus far.

This is a statue that was right in the middle of our terminal in Toronto.

The view from our hotel... and yes we are staying at Hotel Odessa, kind of ironic.

Notre Dame- We never got to go inside, the line had hundreds of people in it!!!

Hotel Dieu means 'Hotel God', I am sure it has some importance here... I just really liked the blue door.

Typical French Street

The Louvre -archways leading to entrance

A vanity from Henri V house

Becasue the Louvre was once a palace, all of the ceilings look similar to this

In the promenade area of the Louvre

Walking along the Seine River...if you look real close you can see the Eiffel Tower in the distance!

All that said, we have had a blast thus far!

Bonjour!!!

We made it!!! After a LONG two days of traveling we are here! Yesterday we spent some time in the city of Toronto. We have heard that Toronto is very diverse, and it really is. When we were riding the Subway, we realized there was no minority in the car, but rather is was a smattering of many different ethnicities.
Today,once arriving and navigating our way through Paris, we got to go to our adorable hotel, and also walk to the Luxembourg Gardens. It has been a great trip thus far, we are already tired :) and we are both amazed at the pace of Paris. More to come.... hopefully. Internet has been difficult to find but we will post when we can!

Love you all!

Allison and Justin

THE PRODIGAL BLOGGER

We hope that you, like the father of the prodigal son, will lovingly embrace our return to the blog world in spite of our long absence. We also hope that you will not judge the timing and motives of our return……… 3 days before we leave to go to France and, unashamedly, to ask for your prayers as we travel. Here is the itinerary for our trip as of this afternoon:

• Arrive in France Friday June 19th
• Friday through Sunday will be spent in Paris
• Monday we will travel to south France to meet with a missionary couple
• Tuesday and Wednesday will be spent in Marseille
• Arrive in DFW Thursday June 25

We intend to visit mosques and churches in different parts of the country as well as different neighborhoods within the larger cities. There will also be time to enjoy museums, restaurants, wine, cheese etc. I guess you could say that it is part exploratory, part visionary and part vacation. We are really excited about going. We simply ask that you would pray for safety and clarity. Our intention is to blog while on our trip so that we can share some of it with you…we will see how this goes. Regardless we covet your prayers as we seek out what it means for us to be obedient to what we believe we have been called to.


Thanks so much.
THE KITCHENS’

Flawed Logic

This morning I read two different stories regarding the issue of forced marriages of underage girls to men. (Finland) & (Spain) In addition to the obvious reasons to be offended and frustrated with these stories add to your list the logic of the parents. In both instances they claim that this is strictly a cultural issue not a moral one. This is the social norm in their former countries and therefore it is Western Europe that has the problem not Islam.

Even if this statement were true, which I do not believe it to be, their reasoning is bias. If we run out their argument then I should be able to live in their former countries and drink a beer or look a woman in the eye and have a conversation with her. My wife should be able to walk around with her head uncovered. However this is not the case because they would claim these cultural differences were moral issues. I would be subject to the laws that govern their country. In most instances Islam would be the law that governed the country, which I think helps to make my point.

These people are not trying to integrate into the countries they now inhabit….they are trying to conform them to Islam. Sometimes it is subtler than others but it is almost always the root issue of conflict between Western European countries and the Muslim population. They do not ultimately desire equality and freedom of religion. They want Islamic Republics governed by Sharia Law.

I share these things with you not to “get you all riled up” but rather in hopes that we will be moved to intercede on behalf of an already large and rapidly expanding people group that is, for the most part, unreached. I hope that our hearts will break for little Muslim girls that are forced to marry grown men AND their parents who think it's ok. The gospel is the only remedy for these problems. Because it values life (all are created in the image of God), it allows for submission to local authorities (God instituted them, He is sovereign) and because it is the power of God for salvation (which, from what I hear, is a pretty sweet deal).

I would love to hear your thoughts…..all 2 of you who have persevered through our blogging inconsistency.

the kitchens’

I would like to think that at some point we will get better at blogging regularly but that probably just isn’t going to happen. However we do intend to continue to blog and hope that you will continue to persevere through our inconsistency.

March has been a busy month just like all the other ones. Allison and I had our one year anniversary which we celebrated while Allison was sick. Conveniently about the time that Allison got better I got sick…..with the same thing. It was eventful to say the least. To celebrate we went to a nice restaurant called Lambert’s that Saturday night (which was good but took forever) and then to the Dallas Museum of Art Sunday afternoon (which was fun but you should probably take it in through multiple visits). It wasn’t quite on par with our honeymoon trip to Hawaii last year but we had fun and are extremely blessed and thankful for the last year. Also of note, we did yard work for the first time today in order to avoid becoming “those people”.

Upcoming we have Allison’s graduation…..6 weeks and counting. She will then officially become “educated” and able to answer questions effectively, per her father. We are also finishing up our travel plans to France this June. We are looking at spending more time in Marseille than we had originally planned due to various articles and trends that we have read about. If you think about it pray for this to be a fruitful trip. We are not really sure what it is supposed to look like and have found it difficult to set up meetings with folks over there.
That’s all for now boys and girls. Until next time

the kitchens’

Bathroom humor

This is what happens when you assume that the peanut butter crackers that you are about to eat are not tainted. You have to move the couch in front of the bathroom door.....for obvious reasons.