France's Future Billy Graham

This is our new friend and teammate, Mickaël. You might remember his face in our Spring letter about Free Bible Tables. He has been a great encouragement to us, He challenges us to have wise words and quick responses ready and look for opportunities to point out God's truth to those around us.His wife is named Valerie, she is 8 months pregnant and expecting a little baby girl, Abigail, any time now. Valerie and Mickaël would like your prayer for a healthy delivery.They are BIG believers in prayer and will probably be passing on a number of prayer requests so that you can know how to better pray for them. Since this is their first baby, they are really anxious and perhaps a bit nervous. They are dedicated to raising Abigail with the understanding of a relationship with God.
They have started singing her hymns (even in the womb). They would like Abigail to grow up knowing English, even if this means first learning English themselves. One way they have begun is to learn Bible Verses put to song in English. This way they are learning English and singing to their daughter at the same time. Isn't that just so cute!

Mickaël is the type of guy that is always optimistic. He always has something to share that hea read from the Bible that day. And this makes him a natural "evangelist". He said that for a while he didn't want to share his faith because it scared him. But we met him at the Martin's good news club where he was the guest teacher. He gave his testimony of how he found faith and the kids were really attentive. Together we are exploring culturally appropriate and attractive ways of sharing his faith. (Like passing out free Bibles, everybody likes a free gift!) And we are encouraging each other's growth in talking about our faith with our friends in ways that are pertinent.

Mickaël would also like you to pray for his development of a new association. He has big dreams, stadiums full of French people praising God, churches that reach out to their communities, and a new definition of telling people about God that is attractive and appropriate. Pray for wisdom as the vast idea of this association comes together first in Mickaël's mind. Pray for motivational communication that would draw others alongside this work. Pray for the support of French churches, and willing hearts to commit themselves to make talking about faith a part of their lifestyle. Pray that secret protestants would come out into the open with their faith. Perhaps they will experience persecution, but pray that many would find the path to a loving God through their lives lived in authenticity.

Our Father Knows How to Give Good Gifts

A THANK YOU TO YOU!

Moving took us by surprise this fall. Ironicly, putting faith in God is sometimes easier when the circumstances are so beyond your control, that you know from the start that no amount of stressing and controling can help you. That might sound too simplistic, and life is always full of surprises. Even after the crazy finding an apartment part was over we found ourselves repetedly in a needy state. But God's grace is so big He even sent our way gifts from YOU to help furnish our house. Our friends here say it was the fastest move they've ever seen. We get a chance to reply giving glory to God and thanking you for your goodness on a regular basis. Everytime we open the oven we sing your praises. So here's a little dedication to all of our generous friends who have been the hand of God to us this fall. "Our Father Knows How to Give Good Gifts!" Thank You.

Thanks to our gospel choir friends for this welcome mat that greets our guests outside the door.
Thank you to New Beginnings Church for this wonderful couch.

What? You couldn't see the couch in that photo? hee hee hee. Here's a better one.

Thank you to the Mahan's for the new fridge it helps us prepare dinner every saturday night for our church group. This night it was Thomas' turn to cook.

Thank you to the Sotos and also to Denise Hays for this great freezer. All the freezers here have drawers. Pretty nice eh? And we use it constantly it's already full !!!
A big thank you to Martinsburg for this new bed (frame and mattress) great for piling coats when we have lots of guests. And super storage space underneath!


The closet was assembled by yours truely and Jay and Debbie Hocking. It was made possible by gifts from Pete Fussle, Peggy Walker, and Karen Myers.
The washing machine was also made possible by several gifts from Rob's brother, Arthur Holmes, and Matt & Alkest Allen. It is a great help when we have guests.
The Martins gave us this dinning table, chairs, stove and an oven that made this delicious eggplant gratin for saturday night church group. Thanks guys for your generosity!

God even saw it fit to send a dish washer our way! Our friends Jeremy and Christelle just happened to have two at the time we were moving, so they gave us their old one. Praise God!

France Loves Obama

The other day a friend was over at the house and wanted to share Obama's book with us. So we read a little excerpt together. It turned into a fascinating Bible study. We talked about what it means to be born again in John 3 and then went on to study the book of Philippians.

In his book Obama was supposedly telling the story about how he found faith. But to those of us reading it didn't look like he found a relationship with a living God at all. It looked like he found a social club called a church. Hope I'm wrong about that. My first clue, though, was when my athiest friend turned to me after reading a chapter and said, "I could have written that."

Any way here are some quotes from a country that is very excited about America's new president. Every magazine and newspaper has been talking about Obama for an entire week. They're saying good things about you. America has a great reputation over here right now, and everywhere we go people are congratulating me with, "Felicitations!""One thing is for sure this guarantees that America is irreproachable. No one can say anything bad about America because no matter what else she might do, she has taken a stand for human rights in a way no one else has dared.""America has always had a capacity to take you by surprise. You can't stay mad at her for long because she's always changing and doing what you least expect.""yeah, America!"