Praise and Prayer February 2019

Spring has sprung in Saint-Médard.  Daffodils, hyacinth, Japanese quince, camellias and yellow Mimosa are blooming, reminding us of the wisdom and love of our Creator, both of which have not changed over the past few months as these same plants lay dormant through the cold of winter.  Our church family is memorising Romans 8:28-39.  God, in His great love and wisdom, is working for our good through circumstances we cannot understand, and nothing we face in this life can ever separate us from this love.

The building search continues for our church.  Despite our lack of space, God has blessed the work here with progress in several areas. Work on church documents goes forward and our church has legal recognition as a local incorporated entity as of the beginning of February.  Along with other legal protection, this status will also allow us to announce outreaches on outdoor announcement boards around town.  We are thrilled with this prospect as we gear up for our Easter  outreach with two showings of the “Jesus” film.  Along with the flyers we are able to get to mailboxes, there are 50 posters ordered that we will be able to post around town.

Praise for

• the beauty of God’s Creation!
• the progress in organizing as a church, including the forming of a legally incorporated entity opening up the opportunity for us to post announcements for evangelistic outreaches.
• a good annual meeting for our church, for the spirit of love and unity. Praise for the visitors we have had recently, some first time, others returning.
• the completion of the first mailbox campaign in Saint-Aubain-de-Médoc, a neighboring town north of Saint-Médard.
• some good opportunities that Jonathan has had to share the Gospel with his friend A in the Middle East over Skype.
• God’s healing for Caleb after a recent bout with a harsh stomach flu, and for God’s keeping the rest of us from coming down with it.

Pray for

• continued wisdom and guidance for the work on church documents and organizing with membership. Pray too for us as we work with our BMM France team in preparing by-laws to facilitate ministry and help us with legal issues.
• God’s work in the hearts of our people, visitors, children in the English club, friend A in the Middle East, others. 
• the mailbox campaign distributing church flyers to two neighbouring towns to the east of us, Le Taillan and Le Haillan.
• God’s provision of a new building for our church to meet in.
• Cherith to be able to get medical help that will provide needed relief for her respiratory issues.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  We are so thankful that we can confidently say with Samuel of old “Ebenezer! Hitherto hath the Lord helped us!” (I Samuel 7:12) Just as God has so faithfully in the past, He still goes before us into the New Year and promises His help and His presence.  

The Lord greatly blessed our trip to Slovakia over the Christmas break. The purpose of this trip was two-fold, that God would make us a blessing to our missionary friends and to the Slovak church and that He would refresh and renew us by the fellowship and experiences He prepared for us in this time away.  Over the two Sundays that we were there and on New Year’s Eve, I had the opportunity to teach through a workshop on “Worship and the Christian”.  Kristian translated for three of the sessions and the final session was in English with the young people. 

Our children participated in a Christmas concert on Christmas morning.  

Our friends Don, LeAnne and Vivian Waite graciously hosted us and took us around their area to see and experience the beauty and the history of this beautiful country. 

Our hearts break with theirs over the spiritual needs in Slovakia, and for the lack of missionaries (they serve alone in Slovakia with BMM, in one of only a handful of works in the entire country).  The fellowship was precious with this family with whom we have been connected through ministry for more than 40 years. LeAnne’s parents served as missionaries in the CAR from our childhood through our adult ministry there.

LeAnne's parents were "dorm parents" one year at the boarding school where Jonathan  (front, center) and his brothers were sent for school in Kaga Bandoro, CAR.

Praise for

• a profitable trip to Slovakia and for the opportunity to teach and challenge the believers regarding real-life worship and honoring God in our choices.
• the refreshing time our family had with the Waites and for God’s protection and provision for our return home when a snowstorm in the mountains and treacherous road conditions caused us to miss our scheduled flights.  

• improved attention and behaviour for the children (especially the boys!) coming to the English club and for their good attention to the Bible lessons on the 10 Commandments.  

• Caleb beginning a three year allergen-specific immunotherapy (desensitization) treatment this month to help him build immunity for his severe dust mite allergy.  Praise too that our French insurance has accepted to cover the full cost of this costly treatment.
• the good health that God has given us with the full schedule we have had, aside from the asthma issues that Cherith and Caleb have. 

Pray for

• the Waite family serving God in Slovakia and for the people to whom they are ministering and those they are reaching for Christ. Pray for fruit and lasting effect of the seminar we taught there. 
• visitors that have been to church or to the film outreach to return.  Pray that there would be a few that would participate in a Christianity Explored Bible study. PRAY for God to open the door for a new building with more space.
• Caleb’s treatment to be effective and pray for the Lord to give Cherith improvement in her congestion and coughing.
• Pray for safety and provision for Christians in the Central African Republic (CAR) and for stability to return. There is much turmoil again this week in the area where we formerly worked (Bambari).

Merry Christmas! December 20, 2018

We are preparing to leave for Slovakia this evening for two weeks.  This is the first year we will be away from Saint-Médard for Christmas since we arrived in 2012.  We will be with our good friends, Don and LeAnne Waite (BMM) who invited us to come and have a workshop with people in their church on the subject of “Worship and the Christian”.  The Lord has provided help for studying and preparing for the workshop. We are excited for this opportunity to serve the Lord  as well as for being with the Waite family for Christmas.  Our children share cousins with their children as my brother David is married to LeAnne’s sister Becky. 

Praise for

• God’s help for the Christmas program for our English club last Friday evening.  The kids did a great job with their songs and verse and we shared the biblical account of the Savior’s birth. Each child received a bag of goodies and a Christian children’s book.

• good attendance for our Christmas breakfast and service at church, and that the small space we have, worked for the breakfast and the service.  The landlord just added an additional office, taking away half of the entry where we had planned to have the breakfast.  

• the wonderful way God blessed the film outreach, for many unsaved who attended including neighbors and friends, for good interaction with many of them and for all who took books and tracts home with them.

• the opportunity at Christmas to share goodies and Scripture calendars with neighbors. Praise for a good reception by many.

• God’s protection of Adrianna as she attended the annual retreat for missionary kid teens in the Basque region of Spain.  This was her third time to attend and she was greatly blessed by the sessions and interaction with the other kids whose lives are so similar to hers.

• a mother and her two children that have recently begun attending our church. 

Pray for

• safety as we travel to and from Slovakia (December 20 to January 3) and for God to make us channels of His blessing to the Waite family and the Slovak church.  Pray for me as I lead the workshop with translation into a language I have no experience in!
• further contact with those who attended the film outreach.  Pray that some of them would participate in an evangelistic Bible study in January.
• Pray for Caleb’s ongoing treatment for severe asthma.  When he was tested for allergies, a strong allergy to dust mites was discovered.  
• Pray for strength and grace for Cherith as we wait on the Lord to help the specialists to determine the cause of Cherith’s deep cough and sinus congestion so they can find a treatment that works.
• Pray for a new building for our church with room to keep growing!  

Ministry update November 9, 2018

The falling leaves and brisk temperatures indicate Thanksgiving is near.  And while our world teeters with unrest and unthankfulness, we are ever reminded of God’s constant faithfulness and of His daily blessings.  Here are some of the ways that God is blessing us here in Saint-Médard.

One of them was the recent visit of our friends from PA, Jessica and Joel L.  

This sister-brother team poured themselves into various projects and aspects of the ministry here and were a blessing both to us and to others in our church.  Both gifted artistically, they designed and prepared flashcards and posters for our English club Scripture theme this year of the 10 Commandments.  

With servant hearts, they helped distribute church flyers in nearby Saint Aubain, weatherproofed a picnic table, prepared Sunday school material, helped our kids with homework and music practice, and did many other things to help and encourage during their time here. 

We are so grateful for God's blessing of the multi-church retreat at the end of October.

We were thrilled to have the R family join us from Paris again this year.  Another special blessing was getting to see the C family again, a family that we have known since our time in Reims but hadn’t seen in six years.  They just recently returned from Guadeloupe where they have been living these past seven years.  

The theme of the messages was “God and my job”.  The speaker, himself a businessman, had put a lot into his preparation and had some excellent and very practical messages.

Adrianna continues to apply herself to her music studies as well as her school.  She continues with the piano at home and is now in her second year of violin lessons at the local music school.  We try to encourage the children to use their gifts for the Lord and last Sunday, we were blessed with a beautiful offertory that Adrianna played on the keyboard (Nearer, Still Nearer).  

Praise for

• All of the help and encouragement that God gave us through our dear friends, Jessica and Joel.
• The multi-church retreat with edifying messages, warm fellowship and great attendance.  
• The medical help that Caleb is getting for his respiratory difficulties.  He has been diagnosed with severe asthma and the lung specialist is working to alleviate some of the symptoms. 
• God’s help for the children to use music for His glory.  Also, praise God for Adrianna being offered a job of babysitting by a family in our neighborhood.  This is her first job outside the home and is a great opportunity for her life to have a further impact for Christ in this family.

Pray for

• Guidance and wisdom in our various ministries, especially as we prepare for Christmas outreach this year.  
• Our continued mailbox campaign with Church invitations in Saint Aubain.  Pray that God would send more visitors and that He would provide a new building for our church with plenty of room for them!
• The doctors to be able to determine the cause of Cherith’s deep cough.
• The children attending the English club and that God would speak to their hearts as we study the 10 Commandments, one by one.
• Time and wisdom in preparing the seminar on church music and worship to give in Slovakia when we travel there in December.

Praise and Prayer October 15, 2018

(Begun in Algrange, October 9)

I am writing from the Bible Institute in Algrange (in the northeast corner of France) where I am teaching a class on the world of the Old Testament to the first year students this week.  

It is encouraging to see the young people that God has brought here who are serious about deepening their knowledge of His Word and gaining ministry experience.  Getting to rub shoulders with the other professors and the new co-director of studies and his family who arrived in July is another of the blessings I am enjoying this week.

While I hated to leave them, Cherith and the kids stayed home in Saint Medard this year where school and other activities continue at full speed!  The boys are fighting a nasty head cold which we are praying will heal without spreading to the others!  Cherith and Caleb will both be seeing the pulmonologist on October 18 to followup other tests for Cherith, and for a first checkup for Caleb who also struggles with a chronic deep cough.

Praise for

• a very good contact with our neighbors at the neighborhood picnic September 9.
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• a very special time with Cherith’s parents, for their help and encouragement to our family as well as to our church as Mom shared her testimony and Dad preached in our services.  Praise for the profitable time that they had with unsaved family in Holland who they met for the first time this month.

• God’s blessing for our special evangelistic outreach and meetings in September.  There were many contacts with friends and neighbours along with others in this town through personal invitation and witness.  Nearly all of 5,000 flyers were given out.  We were encouraged by the help and ministry of our speaker (a pastor from Paris) and four people from his church who worked tirelessly to help this outreach.  Praise the Lord for bringing out unsaved visitors to each of the meetings and for the excellent evangelistic messages.  Our room was full Sunday morning! 

• some encouragement at our church despite the news that we will be losing one of our core families.  We have had first time visitors several of the past few Sundays.  Praise for all who have heard the Gospel so clearly recently. 
• the arrival of Jessica and Joel, dear friends from PA, and for their encouragement and desire to help during their two week visit.

Pray for

• the Bible Institute ministry, for the students and professors, and that God will continue to call others to train for His service.  
• Continued fruit from the evangelistic meetings and that those who have visited would return.
• The multi-church Retreat at the end of this month (October 26-28).  Pray that each one who attends would be blessed and encouraged in their walk and service for the Lord.
• God’s provision for the building needs of each of our Bordeaux churches.  Besides our church needing a permanent place with more space, the three other churches in the region are also looking to God to provide for their building needs.
• The English club outreach ministry that began a new year on October 5.  Pray for us as we prepare and teach and also for the children to be attentive with open hearts.  Pray for us to be able to reach out to some new families.

• Cherith and Caleb, still seeking medical help as they continue to suffer with chronic coughing.
• Bonnie Bixby as she moves back to the USA and prepares for her retirement.  Pray for those she leaves behind here, including church family and mission family.

• Our family as we prepare for a special ministry opportunity this Christmas break.  I have been invited to give a seminar on church music and worship for the people of the church in Kezmarok, Slovakia where Don and LeAnne Waite serve with BMM.  Pray for guidance in preparation and that God will use our family to be a blessing to the Waites and to their church.