I have mentioned before that the first five weeks here in Paris were really difficult for our team, and I wanted to regale at least one example of how the Lord has been breaking us down. This is a 2 part post because the story i'm about to tell is long, but worth reading.
Throughout the first five weeks God had been stretching the relationships on our team and testing our patience almost daily. It was a struggle to all be living under one roof, but having no other viable options we endured. Then, about three weeks ago when the men on our team landed an apartment! That week was also the week we were starting classes and had an exhaustingly full schedule every day. We moved in on that wednesday with the whole team carrying the men's luggage and makeshift bedding across the city using public transportation. We were quite a sight. For the next two nights we slept on the floor, and it wasn't until that Friday that we could take a trip to Ikea to get things like: beds, mattresses, blankets, etc.
So we meet up as a team that Friday to leave and emotions were already running high. This was due to a couple of reasons: we had just finished a week of an intensive French language course; we cancelled what is usually a fun "team time" activity to make this trip; and Ikea is not close by. It is in Thiais, which is more than 12km from where we were and with no car we have to figure out the best way to take several metros / trains to get out to its location nestled deep in the suburbs of Paris.
We meet up with Xavier, a member of the French staff team along for the ride on this night to help us carry back all the things we planned on buying, and off we (Myself, Brett, John, Xavier and the girls) go. Two metros and a train, a thirty minute walk through the rain from the station and one stop to ask a Frenchman for directions later, we made it to Ikea over an hour after we left Paris. Wet and tired we arrive and realize we have about an hour and a half until it closes for the night. We quickly eat dinner (Swedish meatballs and potatoes of course) and trek through Ikea for the next hour or so.
I feel it's necessary to interject here that I had never been to Ikea before. It is entirely overwhelming! Room arrangements made entirely of plastic, endless kitchen appliances, and more duvet cover colors than I thought possible, team up to overload all of your senses until you walk out of the store, look down at what you bought and go "huh?"
After looking at several bed options, we decide to get two bunk beds for the three of us men, and leave the bottom bed off the second to turn it into a loft-style bed.
We were within fifteen minutes of closing and, having accomplished most things on our list, headed down to the towering warehouse where we hoped to simply get our two bunk bed frames and three mattresses. We really should have known.
The good news: we had our French staff friend with us to communicate with the Ikea staff and figure out how to get our mattresses and bed frames; the bad news: both bed frames and one of our mattresses are at another warehouse about 2k down two different roads, and they close in 15 minutes. The adrenaline is seriously pumping at this point. We had come way too far not to try our hardest to finish this mission. Not really knowing where to go Brett and Xavier strap up their shoes and literally run off to find this place while John and I stay behind to get the other two mattresses and check out of the store with all our stuff.
We walk around the city of scaffolding until we find the place where our mattresses should be, but the shelf is empty. Seeing a crate with our mattresses higher up, we ask an employee to retrieve them for us, he says its not possible to get a lift available until the morning. He walks away, then with John as my spotter, going into hyper drive I climb up the shelving and start ripping open the crate containing our mattresses. He sees me from across the warehouse and hurriedly asks me to come down insisting that he will get a lift for our mattresses.
At this point Brett and Xavier had made it to the other warehouse and were checking out there but had no way to get these beds and mattress back to the train station. The plan was to meet up with them, call a cab to get to the station helping them carry these beds through this whole process. So mattresses in hand John and I get in line and well after they had closed, check out of the store, when the girls come up to us and say that they've found a ride to the station. At the same time Brett calls and says that they've found a ride as well from their location and for us just to meet them at the station. We coordinate with the girls and walk all of our stuff down to this completely random French guy's car thinking we're home free.
Not so fast. It turns out this guy speaks great English, but drives the pinto of station wagons and can only fit the girls in with all of our stuff. So we send the four girls on our team off to the station with this random French guy, and John and I are left to get ourselves back to the station to meet up with everyone and leave together. Remember that thirty minute walk we made to get to Ikea from the station? Well, at this point we realize that trains stop running back to Paris in the next 20 minutes so we have to book it to make the last train back of the night.
With all that had happened so far that day, and leading up to this day, there was a moment where John and I were running through the still raining suburbs of Paris, in our rolled-up jeans, sweaters and slip on shoes and I thought, "What. am. I. doing?" The safe, comfortable American inside me woke up for just a minute and it was the first "reality" check I had had since being in France. God quickly responded with, "well, you're on STINT."
Trudging through the suburbs, the train station is finally in sight and I get a call from Brett that they had been dropped off to another station further down the line. So we find the girls and let them know we have to figure out which train Brett and Xavier are on and jump quickly onto it when we do figure it out. We do, and finally all together again and on our way back to Paris.
Now comes the hard part. Yup, the hard part. Earlier upon arriving at the warehouse, Brett and Xavier had discovered that the long, awkward boxes of beds frames we now had to carry through two stations, a metro transfer, and then through the streets to our apartment each weigh 112lbs. So the girls took all the rest of our stuff, we put one guy on each end of a box and just manned up and got it done. My arms, neck and back had never had that much strain before and several days later they were still letting me know how unhappy with me they were that night.
Mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted we reach our apartment and just collapse. We bid farewell to Xavier, and all three of us determined to sleep in our beds that night, and still high on adrenaline, start building. One bed down and several hours later we realize that there is a crucial piece that is defective in the second box. The second bed is not able to be built. Defeated for the last time, we give in to the exhaustion that had set in hours ago, call it a night and sleep, two in the first bed, and one on the couch, for the next 10 hours.
We went back out to Thiais the next day to remedy the defunct piece and by the next night we were settled in and all of us sleeping in beds. God is good. He carries us through even the most ridiculous of situations because he loves us deeply and wants what is best for us in our lives.
Stay tuned to see how this story pertains to Ezra 5-6.
