Bonjour !

We hope you are doing well as Spring weather begins to warm the air and bring beauty in the form of flowers and leaves on the trees! You may remember from our last newsletter that we prayed about how we could help in this terrible humanitarian crisis sweeping throughout Europe.  We felt the urge to do something, but what?  

So many lives displaced, so many stories, so much suffering, yet the Lord allowed us, among so many others, to be a small part of the help.  Physical support also brings spiritual benefit to the suffering when accompanied by the Gospel.  One of the first things we did when we found out about this crisis was to contact our friends in Ukraine, offering to house people as needed.  We also asked our church members to consider this prayerfully.  Our first refugee house guest, Tanya, arrived this week.  We are glad to be able to offer a drop of help in this ocean of need.  Today we worked on the paperwork side of things.  Legally she is allowed to be here; though Ukraine is not in the EU, some formalities must be done, which we've begun.

Going back to the time of our last newsletter, we were contacted by The Bridge, a church that wanted to invest through us in bringing help and hope to refugees. After much deliberation, Mike got a ticket to Eastern Germany to join pastor Kurt Ibbotson. During the trip, our church, Calvary Chapel Paris, got behind the project, offering prayer and support for the entire adventure. Once Mike arrived in Leipzig, Kurt and he drove to Krakow and then, every day, filled up the van with as many provisions as could fit in it and brought that to a Refugee Center at the Ukrainian border.  They then would walk around, share with people, humanitarian workers, and refugees, and see who needed to be driven. They then would start the shuttling service of moving people from the Refugee Center to the airport or train station.  

With Mike back home, Tanya safely settled in, and other families in the church hosting refugees, we realize we are not done. One of the more exciting first reactions this Sunday was the idea that missions trips of this nature, possibly to other parts of the world, may be on our horizons. It’s too soon to be sure how this will play out, but the seed has been planted. Please pray that God will lead us.

The Easter outreach is progressing nicely, which is incredible considering everything else!  One team working on tracts and a poster with contact information, one team working on the choir, chocolates for the neighbors, matching outfits… it has been suitable for our little church! We are just a couple of weeks away. Please keep us in your prayers that people will get saved!

The worship band started working with a vocal coach – one of the co-leaders found a Christian who does vocal lessons and happens to have been on the French version of The Voice!  It is such an answer to prayer to be growing in this area!  

Please be in prayer for the Children’s ministry. With all that has been going on – with the pandemic, confinement, and now the war there is always a reason not to bring children to church.  It makes it difficult for the children who come – they want to be with other kids!  Let’s pray in all the kids back and then some!

The women’s group is doing well. This week we are going to enjoy fellowship at a café.  One of the ladies is a student and must work on the weekends. She has been missing church and is sad about it – and we miss her too!  So, we decided to go to her juice bar for fellowship right after she got out at five so that she could join us!  

On a personal note, please pray as Sophie needs braces – so expensive.  We need to get plane tickets soon to go to Mike’s brother’s wedding this July. 

May God bless you this month! 

With love,
Mike and Becky