Bonjour!
We hope your Easter Week and April were a refreshing time for you. It was also for us; it has been an incredible whirlwind. For example, I’m writing to you this month on a train (quiet time on the go), and I’m going to meet a friend (blessed!) who used to go to our home Bible Study back in 2003.
Let me begin by filling you in on our Resurrection Week. This year, we tried something different. Rather than fight the cultural habits of the unofficial annual Paris Easter Exodus, we decided to aim our outreach for Palm Sunday, the weekend the city is full! As we spoke about last month, we developed a new outreach idea based on “what does the Bible say about…”, and we went out on Saturday and Sunday. The first day began and ended with prayer over the neighborhood while we sought to talk with people. We had some good contacts on that first day, maybe better quality than the second. The second day was just more fun. We had a better turnout and put together some music that got people smiling. This is a major feat for this city. Songs included Oh Happy Day, and indeed it was! The next, the Resurrection Sunday, was calmer, per usual. But having taken the pressure off of hoping everyone would stay, we had more of a quiet moment filled with sweet conversation. Thank you for your prayers; it was blessed.
Another big moment was when one of our elders stepped down from an active role. This has been a long time in coming, and much of our administration and some ministries have suffered because of his holding on to a position he could no longer fulfill. The good thing is, we were able to walk him through it graciously. In the end, though he was sad, he knew it was the right move and offered to be available if we ever needed his insight. Through the experience, we learned something precious about good leadership and teamwork. Please pray for us as we move forward and look for new leaders to raise up!
As you may know, one immense blessing was watching Becky walk across the graduation stage at Western Seminary last week. This has come after much hard work. She also saw our daughters who live in the States, our granddaughter, and most of her family. She was also blessed to share at Mountlake Church in the Seattle area and meet with friends and supporters there. One thing was clear: we missed her here in France, but we also need to return soon and visit our friends and supporters in the US. Please pray about how we put that together.
There is more to say, but we’ll save it for the bullet points. Thank you for staying with us and supporting us. We pray for you and are so thankful.
For those interested, here is a link to an article I (Mike) wrote for Calvary Chapel: https://calvarychapel.com/posts/when-love-took-shape-how-the-cross-became-the-ultimate-expression-of-beauty/. The article was published in French at Evangile 21.
We hope your month of May is truly blessed. We thank God for you and all your prayers and support!
Love in Jesus
Mike and Becky
Mounir, one of our elders, shares before Communion
The musicians and singers after our outreach
Mike and Michel are hanging out after church
Becky is getting ready for her graduation ceremony
PRAYER REQUESTS
- Please join us in praying for our administration. As we are looking for a mission to cover us, we are also trying to fix years of errors by the elder who stepped down.
- Please pray for our contacts in April and new outreach ideas !!
- Please pray for our friend Pasteur Blaise Bolembo in the RDC, who lives in the Goma region and lost his father in the war. The rebels attacked and gutted their Calvary Church. Our church has been praying for him and will send him a gift to replace some equipment. This is massive for us. Please pray that we will grow in generosity as a church family and in numbers so that we can do more!
- Our website was hacked on its server. As it is a bit old, we lost the website but not its content. Please pray for us on this one. There are a few more urgent needs at the moment, but we will eventually need to replace our website.
- Please also pray for our family’s provision, the power of the Spirit to use us for the Kingdom, and the safety of our children!