Dear Friends,
Since our last letter, Bonnie made a two week trip to the States to honor the homegoing of her 88 year old father, Lt. Col. Wilbur Morgan, on the 21st of January. All three of our sons were involved in the funeral service – Timothy brought the message, Bob did the graveside service, and Daniel led the choir of 20 grandchildren who sang a beautiful arrangement of “Nearer Still Nearer.” I sorely regretted being the only one of our family not present, but commitments here made it difficult to leave at that time: including the fact that I was scheduled to teach in our Bible Institute in the north of France.
Our three churches are doing a Cantata for Easter this year. A 30 member choir will be doing a translation of “Bread of Life.” A beautiful and powerful musical, it will be presented in each of the three churches during the two weeks before Easter. Please pray for the good number of lost friends and family members at each of those 3 presentations.
Our annual “Repas Agape” went very well with 28 different countries represented. A good one-half of the 55 university students who attended were lost and unchurched. Our son, Timothy, who has pastored in the States for the last 2 ½ years, was the special speaker. He brought an excellent, timely, and clear message in French on John 3.17.
Speaking of Tim and Ruth, it was a joy to have them with us for 2½ weeks, along with two of the sweetest six grandchildren in the world. Tim preached five times-- three times in French and the other two in English. It was their first time back in France since they came five years ago immediately after their wedding and spent a three-month “honeymoon” replacing us during our furlough.
Speaking of “honeymoon” church replacements, there will be a repeat. This time, however, we are talking about a French couple: Matthieu and Jeanine. We have mentioned both of them often in our letters. They are two very dedicated young people who were both in our church during their student days. They will be married in Jeanine’s hometown 3 hours from here on March 25. I will have the honor of doing the ring ceremony and uniting them in marriage. The following month they will be coming to Bordeaux, moving into our house, and replacing us for the four months that we will be in the States. Please make their wedding and adaptation back into the work here a matter of prayer.
Last month we were happy to add Alicia Andrews to our team here in Bordeaux. She has come to do a one year internship and will be working with us in the church using her valuable secretarial skills and experience to streamline some of our work. She will also be studying French in the University. She has fit in extremely well, and we love her very much already. It is obvious to us that she loves the work, the students, and the families in the church. Although not officially a short-termer, we have loved having Crystal Sperling (our daughter-in-law Jennie’s niece) with us this year. She, too, has become a vital help in the church, especially with the music.
The Lord willing, we will be seeing some of you face to face during the summer months; we are looking forward to these four months of travels amongst our supporting churches. We will send out our itinerary as soon as we have it and will try to make a point of visiting some of you at least briefly.
In Christ,
Bob and Bonnie
Here are my illustrious students hard at work. They are learning that life on the mission field is full of mundane duties which demand a servant's heart. They are doing a great job of working (and eating new foods) with a cheerful spirit. (I have to say that I think the work part is easier than the new foods part!) All are doing well. They had a lot of opportunity today to practice their French. They are doing well, though facing the reality of some very rapidly spoken French! 
Day 4--
Clockwise - 1. Airforce One, 2. Exact replica of the Oval Office, 3. Airforce One, 4. Grave of Ronald Reagan 
The conference ended this morning. It was an exceptional conference and I am very glad that I came. This afternoon we drove 45 minutes north of LA to visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. It was very interesting. I have some pictures, but for some reason I can't get them uploaded on this blog too easily. Here is Jeremy Scott and Tony Jones. Tony is pastoring in St. Helena, SC. He is attempting the very tough task of starting a church in that area. I think this conference has been a real blessing to him. I sure have enjoyed being with him again.
Hello, this is Chip Wiginton. This morning we went to the open air markets in downtown Bordeaux. The first one we visited consisted of mainly clothing. They offer basically any type of clothing you can imagine, from shirts to socks. After walking through it for a while, we headed for the food markets. As you can tell by the pictures, they offered many different types of foods. some of them very different than American food. It was a great experience to see how people really live in France.
Day 3:
This is the first night the young people were really immersed in French. They did a very good job. I believe they understood most everything and did a good job making themselves understood. We had about 20 young people attend; at least two of whom do not know the Lord. 
We were very privileged to be able to attend a concert by a tenor and pianist. Bx has been sponsoring these noon concerts once a month for only 5 euros. When the usher found out we were a group of 6 (my group and Alicia and Crystal) he sent us down a side hallway and told us to we would be seated over there as there was more room. The lady in that hall gave us a dirty look until I told her we were sent there. She then rolled her eyes, said "suivez-moi" (follow me), and unlocked a door to the front box seats! Wow! We were not allowed to take pics during the performance, but you can see from the photo of the piano how close we were. (The black shadow at the bottom left of the photo is the edge of our booth.) If you look across the platform to the box right on stage, you can get an idea as to where we were--in the booth just to the right of that one, but on this side of the theatre. We could see the pianist's hands perfectly. She also played a Debussy piano solo. He sang Bethoven, Ravel, and a couple of others which I can't remember at this moment. Both are professional muscians. It was certainly a wonderful experience for all of us. I was THRILLED. The theatre is from the 14th century and the grandeur is phenomenal. And, the most expensive box seats in the house! That was a special gift from the Lord. 
We arrived in Bx. at 6pm where a scrumptious, long-awaited supper, Bible study (Pastor Minnick 20 years ago, translated by Dad), and finally bed awaited us. 
