Sep 05, 2018 04:58 am
The first Monday in September marks the official end of the summer in France because it is the first day of school. ‘La rentrée’ as we call it.
It was an exciting day but also a weird day. It means we start to see people again, we find out that some friends have moved on from Descartes and all of a sudden everyone has a new rhythm. Ophelia did great with the first few days, though she reported that on day two she nearly fell asleep in class. The new addition this year is a 4 day a week school calendar where kids have Wednesday off from school. This has added and will add some wrinkles into our schedule but we’ll figure it out.
As far as church work goes we wanted to answer some questions that might or might not be in your head!
How was the summer?
The rhythm of life in France is quite different than that of America. Summer is not a good time to start new programs, rather a time for rest, vacation and family. We did, however, continue with our family events in August. We host a snack time with some activities, games and a short discussion or activity about God. For August our event had 26 attendees. This is roughly double the amount that are usually at a Sunday Night Service. Of those 26 folks, 10 were first timers. This is enormous for us and as the event takes a lot of effort and energy it was a great success.
At the end of August we also had our first baptism here in Descartes. It was a great day with a picnic at the river and lots of friends. 30 people at a church service was the most we’ve had here, and that included several from our sister church in Loches and some family members from all over France.
What’s new for you at the church?
We continue with local responsibilities here. Nikki helps with graphic needs and works on worship and preaching planning with another team-member. Greg continues with leading the ministries at both Descartes and Loches.
In January we posted an article asking for your help with financing the church in Descartes. Simply put- we need you! We’ve received very thoughtful gifts that amount to $500, or 10% of our needed goal of $5,000. Take a look at the page marked ‘Descartes’ on our website to see how you can help finance all the hard work here.
What’s new for you in general?
Greg has increased some functions with Kontaktmission in France. He works now to help with KM’s work in France (which at the moment includes 4 missionaries and any future interns). This doesn’t take much time but meant we got to travel to visit the other missionary couple in Besançon, France for a couple of days. It was a true blessing and of course is a wonderful way to remember that it’s always bigger than us.
Nikki has done a few sessions of English help here in Descartes. This is an idea that might be furthered during this school year. Anyway that the local community can be served is always a very good thing.
Ophelia, as we mentioned, started school- the equivalent of 1st grade. This is great but means homework and reading 🙂
As always, please ask away if you have any questions for us. We are looking to line up a visit to the states for the summer of 2019 but will keep you all posted on how that develops.
-Greg
