Ward Family Vacations

France 2002

Eglise Protestante Evangelique Church - Savigney Le Tempe

A group of men from Faith Baptist Church were planning a mission trip to the Eglise Protestante Evangelique Church in France in November. They approached Dennis in the early Spring as they needed tile setters to lay the tile for the church.  We discussed it and prayed about it and our church came forward to pay the airfare and several other people came forward and made the trip possible.  Preparations were made for the men to leave on November 15th and stay for ten days.  Dennis along with Donald Rule (who was French Canadian and spoke French), Edward Buckner, Floyd Reed, Larry Dykes and Fred Mueller got ready to leave on November 15th.

Since most of the men lived in the Starkville area, around a 75 mile drive from us, they decided to leave from the Golden Triangle Airport which was close by to where they lived.  Since Fred Mueller lived in Greenwood about 30 miles from us in the other direction, we drove Dennis to the Pilot Service Station in Winona which was right off of Highway 82 to meet Mr. Mueller so the could ride together.  Their first flight was scheduled to leave Columbus, Mississippi at 2:40 pm and arrive in Memphis at 4:10 pm, then they were to pick up their connecting flight at the Memphis International Airport which was scheduled to leave at 5:00 pm and arrive in Detroit at 7:49.  Then their connecting flight direction to Charles De Gaulle airport was scheduled to leave Detroit at 9:20 pm arriving in Paris at 11:20 am the next day. The flight coming into the Columbus airport was delayed an hour and that put them late arriving in Memphis, so needless to say they missed their connecting flights.  Northwest Airlines put them up at the Hampton Inns, they checked in and then went to a small Chinese restaurant to eat dinner.  They asked Dennis to prepare a devotional for the next morning and they had their devotional and breakfast and then left for the airport on the same flights they had the day before, arriving in Paris on November 16th (Don't forget France is 7 hours ahead of us).

Morning Devotional

Getting ready to leave for airport

You will notice as you go through these photos that there are very few of Dennis.  He does his best to dodge the camera which makes it real handy when you are trying to document a trip!