70 Years Young

Margarite & Elder Metcalfe

Jack's 70th birthday dawned on a Sunday this year, but what he was excited about was that our new ami (friend of the church), Margarite, had promised to come to church today. This long journey began for us back in mid-June when Elders Andrus and Meyers (two super missionaries) passed her along to us because she lived too far away from the city for them to teach her. They had contacted her by helping her with several heavy grocery bags, and had gotten her name and address. Finding her house was incredibly hard...it's like she lives at the end of the world; a former commune that she and her husband are gradually renovating from dorm like rooms into a residence for their family, consisting of three nice sized buildings. So few streets are named on signs here in France that even Mappy-Ann gave up, and we resorted to asking the 'man on the street' for directions. We were 15 minutes late by the time we finally figured it all out, but she was gracious and understanding of our plight as we met her for the first time. Jack launched right into the first discussion of the Godhead and Joseph Smith's first vision, and she sat and listened respectfully, nodding her head and asking a couple of questions here and there. He gave her a Book of Mormon and she read the promise, then I had her mark it with a red pencil so she could find it again, and she said she'd try to read, but was very busy with two young teenage daughters.

At our next visit we showed her the Joseph Smith story on video, and afterwards in the discussion he asked her, "If you gained a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, would you be baptized?" "Well, that would be the natural next step, wouldn't it? she smiled. She said she'd been baptized as a baby, and because of the influence of her religious grandparents she has always believed in God. Jack told her how in our church we don't baptize babies because they are sinless, and I thought of Moroni's chapter 8, which teaches why infant baptism is an evil abomination. It is strong doctrine, but Margarite is so open minded that I thought she needed to hear it. I found it in her book and she read the heading, then got into the verses, reading quickly aloud, until she finished the whole chapter! We sat there amazed as she seemed to be carried away with the words she was reading. Jack talked to her about prayer, how it is a conversation with her Heavenly Father, pointing out the steps and asking if she'd close with a prayer. She did, even though it was foreign to her to pray aloud, but she was pleased and vowed to do better next time.

Two weeks later at our next meeting, she wasn't home when we drove up, no cars to be seen anywhere in her courtyard. We were quite sad, but as we turned to leave Jack's phone rang and it was Margarite, saying don't go away, she'd be there in 5 minutes. We helped her in with her groceries and then had another great visit with her and answered her questions about Adam and Eve, with help from 2 Nephi 2:11 where it talks about opposition vs. agency, and about Satan's designs on the children of men vs. the joy we can have with God someday. We taught the Plan of Salvation and it made sense to her with the scriptures to back it up, she definitely chose the Celestial Kingdom as the goal to strive for.

Then just last week, we had a great experience with her, because a couple who are stalwart members of the nearby Branch came with us to teach her about the Word of Wisdom, and it was so much fun to see these French people connect with each other. By the end of our visit, Margarite had promised to come to the Branch this Sunday, so we were all very excited about that. Jack and I left Lille before 8 a.m. Sunday morning, for the hour's drive to St. Omer to be there for Margarite's first time at church. It is a small Branch, and this is vacation month, but the people are very faithful (even though few in number) and we had all three meetings for her to experience when she came. The members welcomed her heartily, and one woman even knew the person Margarite had once worked with who was Mormon, and who had impressed her very much. This is why Jack was a happy camper today, on his birthday, that he was able to be a part of the welcoming committee for a special ami that we have been working with, and have such good feelings about and high hopes for.

Emily

Singing Soeurs

After church we rushed home to get ready for the 2 p.m. dinner appointment at our apartment with the 3 Soeurs (sister missionaries) who are serving in Lille together right now, plus a young member who could use a friend, Emily. We got home and I had an hour to get things ready. Jack went to pick up the Soeurs because the Metro was running slow, and they brought a chocolate sweet treat from the legendary Paul's for me to sneak into the fridge. Then Emily came bringing a pear tart and a big, round brownie as well....hmmmmm. Since he asked me to make him a Lemon Luscious Dessert for him, I see a huge sugar overload in our future! I wondered how everyone found out about his birthday? We had a nice dinner and sampled all the desserts, then the Soeurs sang a special song and their voices blended together beautifully. Then Jack requested that they sing his personal favorite French hymn, Souviens-toi (Remember me), and that capped things off perfectly.


A surabondance of birthday treats!

The next day we arrived at the church for Family Home Evening and there was quite a good crowd of young people there. I took our rhubarb dessert into the kitchen and the irrepressible little Somalian refugee, Emanu, rushed in begging me to quickly cut a piece so that he could put a candle in it for "Elder Metcalfe". "It's his birthday, a day late, but it's his birthday, so hurry, I've got a candle!" I did it, and it was presented to a surprised Jack as the Young Adults all sang happy birthday to him. Then they brought out homemade greeting 'cards' from all the Elders and Soeurs in the area (including Andrus, who is now in Orleans ), complete with their handprints to seal the deal. He loved the whole thing and was very touched by their show of love for him, and that was how Elder Jack Metcalfe spent his 70th birthday.

Surprise!

Make a wish.

Two Different Experiences

Waiting for the race.

Jack heard that the 'real' Tour de France bicycle race would begin its premiere stages here in the north, so he looked on the map to see if it would be coming through anywhere near our area. We'd been traveling to Calais to work on the apartment there, and he saw that a side trip from the freeway would take us to a little town called SAINGHIN-EN-WEPPES, where the race was scheduled to pass through at 10:30 a.m. We decided that catching a glimpse of the race would be a fun 'memory souvenir' for us; so on July 3rd, on our way to Calais, we veered off for the 20 minute ride to the village. We got there 10 minutes early, only to find out that it wouldn't come through until after the noon hour! Rats....those best laid plans, foiled again! Jack said that we should wait because this was a onetime event for us, our chance to see a real French tradition in person, so we did. Finally, at almost 12:30, the pre-race HOO-HAA began to arrive: support cars and advertising sponsors hawking their products through loud speakers, came zooming wildly through this little intersection, throwing things at us from their tricked-out vans and trucks. They targeted a little 9 year old girl and her energetic mother a few yards in front of us, so Jack was able to catch a bag of Madeleine cookies, and another one of crunchy snacks, that were tossed into the air. Finally, at 1:32, a break-away group of 4 riders rushed by us surrounded by cars so close to them it was scary. These barely 2-lane skinny French roads are a trial for cars, let alone break-neck speed bicyclists trying to jockey each other for position. Three minutes later the main body (the peloton) of riders came by us....ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM, with their bright colored costumes and head gear; more support cars with their extra bikes and wheels on top; and camera crews, all before you could even blink an eye! That was it, the whole she-bang over and done with...sure glad we didn't have to pay admission for that 3 minute show, but it was interesting to say the least and Jack did have conversations with several people there, so that was good too.

The Breakaway Group heads through first.

Here comes the Peloton!

Support cars trail with extra bikes.

We love working with and getting to know the missionaries here in Lille, and we've had many experiences with them, mostly about the work, but sometimes things take a different turn; like the time we got a frantic phone call from the Elders when their apartment key broke off inside their door lock, and they were all stuck out in their hall. They asked the neighbor lady if she'd get a hold of the owner for them, and she just laughed at the ridiculousness of such a request. Apparently no one had even seen such a person for 25 years at least! So one of the Elders called Jack and asked if he could come over with his tool box to help them out maybe?

Four homeless waifs.

Almost two hours later, on a cold rainy night, I answered the intercom - it was Jack, and he said, "I'm back, and I have 4 homeless waifs with me!" They'd tried everything they could think of to loosen that key, but no luck, so he brought them home with him to do the best we could. Luckily, we had just bought 2 blow-up mattresses for some Young Adults to be able to stay with us for their weekend conference, plus, one shorter Elder might fit on our half-sized couch; but we had no blankets or sheets or toothbrushes (and no Walmart nearby). None of them had eaten since lunchtime, so I started pulling out left-overs from the conference out of the fridge to warm up for them. The one thing there was plenty of was the chicken spaghetti, and they were so grateful for some good hot food it was funny. I also had a pan of brownies made for the next day's Institute dinner, so they got a good dessert too. We figured out the problem of no toothbrushes by handing out floss and baking soda. We could only come up with 2 extra pillows, but two heavy BYU sweatshirts, each rolled up into a ball worked OK. The poor guys just had the suits they'd been wearing all day, and we only had one blanket on our bed; but we passed out Jack's robe, the pretty little lap quilt that Heather gave me at the airport, and coats from our closet to use the best they could. We turned up the heat in the living room til it was nice and warm in there, and since I knew they were awkward about being around a female, I told them I was shutting the door to my room and that was the LAST they'd see of me that night!

Le petit-déjeuner au Café Metcalfe

Those good Elders' alarm 'watch' went off at 6:30 a.m., so we were soon off and running. We were almost out of milk, but I had some newly discovered Lait Fermente (looks and smells like buttermilk to me!) for pancakes, and plenty of eggs, so I scrambled some while they all took turns showering, and we had a nice breakfast with orange slices and yogurt to boot! While Jack had a captive audience, he taught them the ins and outs of genealogy, but Elder Maynes slipped away to the kitchen to help with the dishes. He loves history and was able to be a part of a flag folding ceremony at the U.S. Soldiers Monument at Normandy a while back. He talked to some of the old ex-servicemen who were there and was touched by their stories. One man in his 80's was in France for the 'last time', hoping to locate the very SPOT where he was wounded on a day so long ago. It meant so much to him to be a survivor when all around him other men had been killed or were dying. This was his third try, but everything seemed so different now that he just couldn't find it.

Soon it was time to leave, someone had the idea that maybe super glue might work to meld the two key ends together...Hmmmm. Their best bet had to be Plan A - find a locksmith, and they actually got one willing to come and help them out. The locksmith came with a special tool so as not to ruin the wooden door and was able to finally install a new better quality lock system with much heavier keys. We paid $265 cash for it and were reimbursed later. They all hung together and we had an interesting experience and love each other all the more for overcoming the little trials of life.