Note: This information is subject to change. Please check back frequently. Last updated July 10, 2004.
There will be several events in advance of the main tour:
May 30 -- "France 2004 Exposé" Presentation of the tour and concert at Steele Creek Church of Charlotte, 7 pm.
June 4th, 5th, and 6th -- Team-building retreat at Easton Bible Church, Mt. Holly, NJ. Entire team will be meeting together.
June 25 -- "Praise and Graze" concert and presentation of the tour at Cherokee Cove Conference Center, Mountain City, TN.
Everyone will need a valid passport. Please check that your passport is current, and if not, get it renewed RIGHT AWAY.
We will be flying on Lufthansa to Marseille, France, via Munich or Frankfurt. We will leave from Charlotte and Montreal on Monday, July 19, arriving in Marseille (pronounced Mar-say) the next day. Tickets have been purchased and given to the group leaders.
We are working with a missions travel agent, InterMission, in Charlotte, NC to get the tickets at a better price than you can get on the internet. John Dudeck will take care of making the reservations. Please contact Greg or John if you have questions or special travel needs.
All money raised for the tour expenses goes into a fund at Steele Creek Church of Charlotte. Contributions are tax-deductible (for US donors). We will be purchasing the airline tickets and paying for accomodations in France, equipment rental, vehicles, and other expenses from these funds.
The total funds needed will be around $43,000.
For our Canadian participants, a fund has been set up in Canada where you can put your contributions tax-deductibly.
For personal spending money, the best thing to do is to bring your own credit card and/or ATM card. You can easily buy anything with a credit card, or withdraw local currency (Euros) from ATM machines.
All participants are encouraged to contact as many friends as possible who may be interested in contributing funds for the trip. We suggest you write a letter (or E-Mail) in your own words, telling some of the story of why you are going on the trip, pointing them to this web site (http://www.laclef.org), and letting them know the need for funds, and how they can give.
In addition to your personal contacts, there will be a couple of public events where there will be an appeal for funds. We don't know by what means the Lord will provide, but we are confident that He will.
We will have thirteen nights in France plus one on the airplane, so pack enough clothes for fourteen days. We may not have a convenient place to do laundry. The weather will be very warm in France, so you will probably only need a jacket for traveling.
Performers should dress "hip, cool, and casual" for the concerts.
Don't forget:
-Bathing suit and Towel
-clothes for church
-plastic bag for dirty clothes
Try to pack everything into one large suitcase and one small carry-on. Of course musical instruments will be in addition to that. You need to be able to carry all your stuff. We don't anticipate needing to carry our stuff too much, but don't overload yourself.
If you bring electrical items, remember that France uses 230 volt electricity and has a different plug from North America. Unless your hair dryer is a dual voltage model, don't bring it. Shavers should be dual-voltage, or else you need a 230-to-115 transformer. The same for any other items. If you plug a 115 volt appliance into 230 volts you will destroy it.
Cell phones won't work unless they specifically include France in their network support, which is not common for North American phones. We probably will not have convenient access to the Internet.
We will be renting a keyboard, sound system, and bass amp in France. Otherwise you will be bringing your own instruments. If you have any questions about what to bring, please contact Greg Hardee.
We will be staying in a youth hostel right in the old fortified city of Carcassonne. The couples will be in separate rooms in a Catholic guest residence 500 m away, and everyone else will be in dormitory-style accomodations. There will be a room available for meeting together and rehearsing, for storing instruments, etc.
We will be eating most of our meals at the youth hostel.
Each day we will be studying together from Ephesians Chapters 1 and 2, taking about four verses per day. Adam Short will be facilitating the study discussion time. Each team member will also have the opportunity to share their personal life's story with the others. You may want to be thinking about this in advance.
The work that we are going to do is something that the enemy of Christ Jesus does not want. We would do well to be aware of the possibility of opposition. Here is an outline for a teaching on spiritual warfare from Kevin Bacon, missions pastor at Steele Creek Church of Charlotte (Word, 28kb).