So where are we now?
The discipleship classes went full-steam ahead until the end of June when we broke for summer. This gave us a couple of weeks to prepare for our stay in England. 
 

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away… blessed be the name of the Lord… Donna’s job lasted two months after which she was told in a letter that her services were no longer required. This took some time to accept especially as we have been working with the language centre for five years. It was not a nice situation and we had to seriously consider whether we should continue to work with the missionaries at the centre. Before the Lord we felt it right to continue despite this and subsequently many students and staff members encouraged us and praised us for continuing. The Lord seems to have given a new lease of life to the worship ministry at the language centre and we are privileged to still be a part of it. As we said previously if the Lord chooses to supply our needs through giving us jobs well, that’s fine, we’re not averse to having a regular income!! And so in the same vein Mike encountered two or three people in a very short space of time who all encouraged him to apply for a post teaching English part time in the local primary schools. Having said we’re open to work I could hardly say that I wouldn’t put my name forward, so I did. It is now, as far as we are concerned, in the Lord’s hands. Our primary focus is working with Christians in the church, discipling them, training them in worship and the Christian life; if the Lord then wants to provide us with additional work and opportunities, that’s fine as well. We await a response – they will only know their requirements for teachers in October.

And so the school summer holidays were upon us. We left our little home for a holiday for ten days in the Dordogne region of France before continuing on to England. The Lord had provided considerably and we were looking forward to a good holiday. Unfortunately (for us) He knew that this money would be needed to repair our car which developed a chronic problem in the steering which necessitated the replacement of the power steering assembly. It just so happened that a Renault garage was close to our camp site, that they were able to obtain the piece, and had time to fix it during the time we had planned to stay there and we had the money to pay for the work…. God even arranges things that we don’t know need arranging!!

And so to England.
In summary a lot of travelling, many happy hours spent with friends and family and the privilege to share in several different churches something of our vision and the message that God has put on our heart for the Church.
Thank you ever so much Derek and Wanda for your hospitality... to the churches at which we shared: Maidstone Road Baptist Church, Cavendish Community Church, Ipswich International Church, Orchard Baptist Church, St John’s Felixstowe, Ranelagh Road Community Church, Wycliffe Baptist Church,... and to friends and family for hours of fun and free meals!
 
 

At the end of our stay in England we went up to the Grapevine Christian conference as is our usual practice, to recharge our batteries as it were before returning to the fray. The conference was marked for us, Donna and I (Mike), by the collapse of some of the tiered seating during a worship service and the subsequent decision by the leadership there to carry on with the conference. Much had to be changed, it was an organisational nightmare but these people were not deterred from the goal of the conference, which was aptly named “Still Standing”.

Ephesians 6:13
Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

The conference was perhaps even more important for our boys, particularly Luke. He joined teams of teenagers going into Lincoln to do social action projects. It was good for him to find Christians of his own age and he has kept in touch with them to the extent that these new friends are now planning to visit Albertville next month. We would ask you to remember our boys in your prayers because they do not have an easy life and have no Christian friends of their own age in this country.

We beat a hasty return to France and after one day to recover the boys restarted school for the autumn term (in fact Luke started ‘Lycée’, and Jonathan is in 4e at ‘Collège’). Luke now has to travel to a local town for his studies so he leaves the house at 7:15am and gets home about 5:45pm – a long day for a fourteen year old.
We also restarted at the language centre, leading a worship time the same morning and afternoon.

So here we are. Back at work with many e-mails to catch up on – sorry if that includes you. This year we believe that the Lord would have us focus more on the life of the church. In fact it would seem that He is changing things around in His church at the moment taking some away and bringing others in. Some of this movement may well have a bearing on how we recommence the discipleship courses… that is something for later in October because before that Mike will be leaving for his annual work in the vineyards. (27th September – 7th October).
 

Finally, and sadly we would report that Lucie is no longer with us (that’s our cat by the way). She had decided not to remain with her hosts over summer, although the belief is she came back for food every night, a few days after we had returned to France we received a call telling us that she had been found dead on the road, apparently hit by a car. A few tears were shed in our house…. again, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away....

Points for praise:

• Provision and arrangements for the repair of our car.
• A blessed and safe time in England
• Christian friends for the boys in England
• A laptop computer which was such an enormous blessing whilst we were in England. We were able to revise and print off presentations, produce new overheads and even prepare a PowerPoint presentation for use in one of the churches we visited, to say nothing of printing out new prayer cards , bookmarks and leaflets explaining our work. Once again the Lord knew our need before we did.

Points for prayer

• Financial provision – two of our partners over summer have had to stop supporting us due to their own financial situations. (We would like to find other people who can support us and our work, with a small sum each month.)
• Mike on the vendanges (grape picking) and Donna and the boys during this time
• A new kitten as a companion to Mollie (our remaining cat)!!
• A new house – we have a nice flat but it is becoming too small for us. We would like room to put people up and to practice more hospitality, both are difficult where we are.
• That we will be “Still Standing” in our work and witness here in Albertville.