This
was going to be one
of those newsletters where we could wish everyone a merry
Christmas and a happy New Year.
But now we find ourselves already
at the start of February of this New Year, so although the wishes
remain we
guess they are now a bit belated!
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So
what fine
things have kept us so busy that we haven’t written a
newsletter since…
September.. is it really that long already…?
Well
I’ll try
to keep things reasonable chronological in order…..
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View from one of our windows
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| Mike
the architect!!
Mike
continued
his evaluation at a small architectural firm until the end of
September. He got
a good report but they did not have enough work to take him on on a
permanent
basis “Maybe in the New Year”. However at the end
of October he got a call to
say there was a new project they’d just been awarded, can I
do some part time
work for a few weeks up until Christmas. For some of those weeks
part-time
became nearly full-time but the project was finished on time. Again the
possibility of further work for the New Year was mentioned if these
projects
were to go ahead. This would only be decided at the end of January.
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First
Baptism…
But
I’ve already gone too
far… November saw our
first baptism in our new chuch at St Jean, now officially called
“La Source”
(The source, the spring, the stream). Soon after the group started,
Delphine
joined us. She was brought up as a Christian but fell away somewhat.
After only
a few weeks with us she decided that it was time to get serious with
God again.
We had been studying what it means to be a disciple of Christ with her
for a
few months and we were more that happy to baptise her at her request.
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...and marriage
As a follow-up
to that she also asked that we
marry her. Delphine and her husband had been married in the local town
hall two
years earlier but they wanted to take their vows “before
God”. We
therefore spent a lot time in December
and January with them helping them prepare for this both practically
and
spiritually. So, January 16th Mike presided at
our church’s first
wedding. Another first!
Somewhere
in the middle of all
this we had Christmas. I think it was two days
before Christmas that we got a few decorations up in the
flat. And
it wasn’t long after that they came down again because we
needed
the space! |
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More
Banners… and guitar lessons
While Mike was
out working just before
Christmas Donna set to on some new banners to add to our collection.
One for
the baptism, two for the marriage, another large one for Christmas. (If
you
want to see the collection to date click on to the following link www.e-shofar.com/banners/ )
And not only
that, Donna has started giving
guitar lessons and is still leading the women’s prayer group
on Monday
mornings.
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More frequent church services
We are now
having church services on Sunday
mornings twice a month to increase our profile in the town and we
produce a
small journal for all the Christians in the valley to advise them of
all the
(protestant) Christian work in the valley. This enables us to keep in
contact
with other believers in the valley as well.
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Sunday morning service about to
start!
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Teaching in YWAM
seminar
As we said in
our previous newsletter we were
invited to the YWAM base at Le Gault La Forêt to teach a
seminar on “Praise
and
Worship – a lifestyle”, the first in a
series of
seminars on reconciliation. In
fact with our involvement in the marriage and with Mike working before
Christmas we were thankful that his work did not continue immediately
into
January. Again
preparing and teaching a
seminar all in French was another first for us. Even so we had to ask a
dear
friend to help us translate our teaching, as we didn’t have
enough time to do
all of it ourselves.
The seminar was
well received and the teaching
seemed to touch people for which we thank God.
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Jonathan .....injuries
We returned to
St Jean extremely tired on the
Sunday late evening and had to take Jonathan to lycée the
next day at 6.30am.
Jonathan has had some
injury problems recently and because of the sheer amount of activities
he is
committed to he became exhausted. His injuries then did not heal as
quickly as
they should have done and all in all he was not in good shape before
Christmas.
The two weeks before Christmas he spent at home recovering, even so it
was a
slow process. Now three weeks into the new term he finds himself at
home for a
day due to an upset stomach, a dislocated finger and a lightly sprained
wrist.
Rugby, you say – “dangerous sport”
– well, yes it is but these injuries came
during a game of handball and just general playing around with his
friends! So
Jonathan is a major subject for prayer at the moment.
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Luke and Jonathan dressed for the
wedding
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And
Luke?
He is
looking to move to a new flat;
he doesn’t like his university room at all, and we
can’t blame him, it’s not
very nice. We see him less and less, and like all parents we worry
about our
children when they start leading their own independent lives, making
their own
decisions. We just have to trust him and trust that God will be caring
for him
and guiding him. So that is another major subject of prayer for us!
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St Jean de Maurienne
What else can
we say? We continue
to settle in to St Jean. There is a lot of work to do
in our church group and in the valley in general. Spiritually there is
considerable opposition to anything Christian. What few Christians
there are in
the valley are isolated and discouraged. There is a lot of depression
here –
spiritual and physical. So please pray for us. God brought us here for
a
purpose at this time. By ourselves we can do nothing but we want to be
available to God so that he can do his work here at this time.
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And what does
life hold?
For the next
few months? – We really don’t know
what they hold. How is God going to support us financially? Is he going
to give
us jobs or is he going to support us in some other way, we
don’t know but we
remain open to his leading. What is our group “La
Source” going to be doing?
Again, we don’t know but we are already planning prayer times
for the
leadership to find out what God would have us do rather than just
plough ahead
with our own agenda.
The last few
months saw lots of “firsts”, maybe
the next few months will be equally as exciting!
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Thank you
for
your continued prayers and
support….
And we really need to get our blogs going again!
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Now to him who is able to do
immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power
that is at
work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout
all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:20,21
In His
service
God Bless,
Love ‘N’ Stuff,
Mike
and Donna
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General
Information
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NEWSLETTER
SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE and mention "subscribe/unsubscribe" in the
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For more
information about our work in France email to: mike.donna@e-shofar.com
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To view preceding
newsletter click
here
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Financial
Support
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Mike and Donna
are members of Orchard Baptist Church Colchester. They work as
independent missionaries having to raise their own support. Gifts and
donations can be made direct to Mike and Donna, can be routed via
Orchard Baptist church. Alternatively, for tax payers in UK financial
support can be given through "Stewardship" , charity No.234714 which
enables us to reclaim some tax increasing your giving to us by 25% at
no extra cost to yourselves. Please ask for details or see the website http://www.stewardship.org.uk/
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Finally
donations can be made via PAYPAL to Shofar. Refer to link on our web page
www.e-shofar.com/
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©
Copyright 2008, Mike and Donna Spencer. All Rights Reserved.
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