Hello everyone—and to our American friends, Happy Independence Day weekend!

We hope you are doing well and enjoying this summer season. Here is a little update on what is happening here in Paris. 

We’ve experienced some special times of grace, definitely the honeymoon period of our new progressive merger with the Daumesnil church. All of our last Sunday sermons have become impromptu (excellent) Bible studies on Church Unity and conflict resolution. At a pastoral fellowship, we heard the Elders of Daumesnil express their gratitude for our presence, and we were even more blessed to see that the whole project made the headlines in the Perspectives newsletter! 

It’s exciting to see the Lord put the pieces together in response to the prayers we’ve offered over the years. We all know the days of trials will come, but it is a sweet moment to celebrate what we are experiencing, and we want to thank you for your prayerful participation. 

Another highlight of the month was last week, when we had the Friperie Solidaire (our free thrift store outreach); it was great because not only does it provide a need in the community, but it also provides a relational moment for people to spend time together.  At one point, we went for a walk around the block, inviting people off the street to come in and take a look.  We were surprised at how many came!  It was eye-opening for the whole church; they loved it so much that they asked if we could do it again next week.  

Some may have heard on the news that we had a massive heat wave, with record-breaking temperatures. Becky had a great idea: go to the church during worship practice and set up a Bible stand with cold drinks.  She printed out signs that said “Get refreshment here”; it was such a great moment to minister to people in the neighborhood. People took gospels and tracts, had great conversations, and most likely set the stage for the free thrift store the next day. Now that she no longer teaches class on Saturday mornings, we are going to see if we can’t continue to combine our efforts in this new exciting way. 

Many of you are wondering about a timeline for our return to the States. We’ve been talking about this with Mounir and Perspectives. At this moment, it looks like we will stay until we go back for our daughter Emma’s wedding in November. During all of this, we have been showing our apartment regularly and seeking the Lord about where we are to go next.  The US is not the same place we left, and though we are so thankful to be able to go back and minister to our own people, we are also feeling the loss of leaving this beautiful work we have built. It hasn’t been an easy journey, but it has been fruitful. 

We can feel your prayers; please continue to pray!  It is essential that we navigate this season well, both for the local church in Paris and for where the Lord is calling us to next.  Please also pray for our finances; we have bills that we need to catch up on, and will have moving bills as well. We know this may be a big ask, but please consider supporting us for some time after our transition. Hopefully we can find employment quickly; our goal for Mike is to find a pastorate before we arrive, because we understand we will need to completely start over. We also understand that we don’t have a re-entry program for missionaries returning from the field with Calvary, so we are trying to figure these things out as we go. We have been contacting missionaries who have gone through this process, gleaning from their experience and wisdom.  Thankfully, the Lord has given us many friends and contacts who have encouraged us through this process.

May the Lord bless you this weekend! Thank you for your prayers and support.

In Jesus

Mike and Becky Dente

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

We have been in The Old City, Jerusalem, in Israel for nearly 2 months so far.  Thank you for all of your prayers over our journey here. We live, serve, and have classes in The Old City, and as well have been touring all over Israel. We have been blessed to have toured all over The Old City, Galilee, Capernaum, The Dead Sea, and many other special places where we learned about the significance biblically and historically. We wanted to write up another newsletter sharing our hearts with you all and updating you also on our future plans so you can continue to join us in prayer!

From Ashley:

I was about to leave to come to CCBC Jerusalem, I had few people ask me why I

would go to such a dangerous place and if I was crazy. Being a young girl and leaving the comfort of California to go to a war torn country from an outsiders perspective probably did seem a little crazy. However, something I have been learning since taking a step of faith and coming out to Jerusalem is the importance of the hand of the Lord. One thing I am confident of is that being in the palm of the Lords hand, the place he has called me to be, is the safest place that I could be and is a place where I can fully rest. Jerusalem has been such a blessing to me. I love wandering around the old city and seeing the same people everyday. I love saying good morning to the same old Arab man that sits outside his shop every morning as I go to get groceries. I love that the little children get to walk on their own to school because its so safe for them here. Israel is not only so special because it was the place where Jesus walked but also because of the people here.

When I arrived here at Bible College, I was asked to be the dorm steward for the girls. This has been a super big blessing and privilege to me to be able to practically serve the girls I get to live with for this short time. I had been praying for a while that God would use my experiences and my heart for women to serve the women around me. God has really answered my prayers with being here and having this opportunity as the dorm steward. God has also blessed me with being discipled with the director of the Bible college, Elizabeth. She is not only a mentor but a wonderful friend. Being in  Jerusalem has been such a mountain top experience for me so far and I could definitely write a lot more about my experiences here (send me a message if you want to hear more!). However, some of my highlights have been the touring weeks where we’ve been able to visit a lot of the historic biblical sites such as the Temple mount, Caesarea, the Mount of Olives, the Holy Sepulcher and the Garden Tomb. One  of my most recent highlights was on Easter when all of us students woke up at 4:30 to go to the Garden Tomb (the site believed to be where Jesus rose from the dead) for their easter Sunday sunrise service. The line of people to enter the garden tomb was so long that it took us about an hour and a half to get in but it was

such a great, once in a lifetime experience! 

Thank you friends so much for following along with Cassie & I on our adventures in where the Lord has been leading us. Your prayer means so much to us!

 
From Cassie:

Throughout my time in Israel, God has been teaching me a lot about His word. We have had classes that we have learned so much from teachers that have come from all around the world. But God has been speaking to me, and teaching me the most when I spend time with Him alone in His word. It has been such an amazing experience to be able to read God’s word with an experiential visualization of where Jesus was talking about, and where He was teaching things to His disciples. This has been such a blessing spiritually and just practically to be able to experience this. I think the most special part of my time in Israel so far is when we traveled to Capernaum. It was so beautiful to sit by the Galilee, and to pray. We got to see the house of Peter’s mother in law, and the synagogue, and market place, where Jesus would’ve done most of His ministry. Just being able to imagine healings, and miracles, and even just Jesus being there was super incredible and a very important experience for me. 

Before coming to Israel, and even whilst I’ve been here, I experienced lots of warfare, as to if I was meant to come, and why I was here. I felt unworthy to be where Jesus was, but God has been reminding me that its not about me. That everything God was bringing me through was for His glory, and that me coming here to Israel was for His glory as well. I have learned so much being here, about serving, about myself, and about how the Lord sees me. He has been revealing to me lies that I have been believing that I didn’t even realize. As we have 2 weeks left I have not yet realized everything God has taught me but I am excited to see over time what He has been doing and has done. I don’t know what comes next after Israel but I trust that in time God will reveal that to me. 

 
 
We are really thankful for everyone who is covering us in prayer in this season!

Please pray for:

Direction for both of us to know what God is calling us to in this next season as we go back to California

Financial provision for the remainder of our time in Jerusalem and for some flight expenses

Continued protection physically in Jerusalem, and protection from spiritual warfare 
 

Living in Israel is more expensive than we expected. If you feel lead to give financially to support us, please give on: Venmo:  @CassieBailiff 

Love, Ashley and Cassie 

(Cashley Lol) 
 
“And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Luke 1:45

Bonjour!
We hope your Easter Week and April were a refreshing time for you. It was also for us; it has been an incredible whirlwind. For example, I’m writing to you this month on a train (quiet time on the go), and I’m going to meet a friend (blessed!) who used to go to our home Bible Study back in 2003. 

Let me begin by filling you in on our Resurrection Week. This year, we tried something different. Rather than fight the cultural habits of the unofficial annual Paris Easter Exodus, we decided to aim our outreach for Palm Sunday, the weekend the city is full! As we spoke about last month, we developed a new outreach idea based on “what does the Bible say about…”, and we went out on Saturday and Sunday. The first day began and ended with prayer over the neighborhood while we sought to talk with people. We had some good contacts on that first day, maybe better quality than the second. The second day was just more fun. We had a better turnout and put together some music that got people smiling. This is a major feat for this city. Songs included Oh Happy Day, and indeed it was! The next, the Resurrection Sunday, was calmer, per usual. But having taken the pressure off of hoping everyone would stay, we had more of a quiet moment filled with sweet conversation. Thank you for your prayers; it was blessed. 

Another big moment was when one of our elders stepped down from an active role. This has been a long time in coming, and much of our administration and some ministries have suffered because of his holding on to a position he could no longer fulfill. The good thing is, we were able to walk him through it graciously. In the end, though he was sad, he knew it was the right move and offered to be available if we ever needed his insight. Through the experience, we learned something precious about good leadership and teamwork. Please pray for us as we move forward and look for new leaders to raise up!

As you may know, one immense blessing was watching Becky walk across the graduation stage at Western Seminary last week. This has come after much hard work. She also saw our daughters who live in the States, our granddaughter, and most of her family. She was also blessed to share at Mountlake Church in the Seattle area and meet with friends and supporters there. One thing was clear: we missed her here in France, but we also need to return soon and visit our friends and supporters in the US. Please pray about how we put that together. 

There is more to say, but we’ll save it for the bullet points. Thank you for staying with us and supporting us. We pray for you and are so thankful.

For those interested, here is a link to an article I (Mike) wrote for Calvary Chapel: https://calvarychapel.com/posts/when-love-took-shape-how-the-cross-became-the-ultimate-expression-of-beauty/. The article was published in French at Evangile 21. 

We hope your month of May is truly blessed. We thank God for you and all your prayers and support!

Love in Jesus

Mike and Becky

Mounir, one of our elders, shares before Communion

The musicians and singers after our outreach

Mike and Michel are hanging out after church

Becky is getting ready for her graduation ceremony

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Please join us in praying for our administration. As we are looking for a mission to cover us, we are also trying to fix years of errors by the elder who stepped down.
• Please pray for our contacts in April and new outreach ideas !!
• Please pray for our friend Pasteur Blaise Bolembo in the RDC, who lives in the Goma region and lost his father in the war. The rebels attacked and gutted their Calvary Church. Our church has been praying for him and will send him a gift to replace some equipment. This is massive for us. Please pray that we will grow in generosity as a church family and in numbers so that we can do more!
• Our website was hacked on its server. As it is a bit old, we lost the website but not its content. Please pray for us on this one. There are a few more urgent needs at the moment, but we will eventually need to replace our website.
• Please also pray for our family’s provision, the power of the Spirit to use us for the Kingdom, and the safety of our children! 

Hello Everyone!
We hope you are doing well and that your month of February was blessed. Ours’ was packed, and we’d like to share the highlights and challenges with you. 

We began this month with an outreach based around the Chinese New Year. It turned out to be quite a sweet time. We shared testimonies, great food, and fellowship. The idea was born out of our month of prayer and was pretty much organized by people in the church. We were encouraged by the community effort, and even if we had no non-Christians attend, it became a moment of strengthening, especially for the growing Chinese community in our congregation!

On strengthening, we’ve had some significant moments with the ministry team. Becky is exceptionally gifted in administration, and her schooling has brought this out in some powerful ways. For one of her assignments at Western, she used our team to do some analysis that taught us a few things and identified a few of our challenges that we were aware of but didn’t have words to put to it. Having seen these areas more clearly, we can begin to work through them. This is exciting because this month, we will start addressing some of these issues to reorganize as a team and work more on our strengths rather than our weaknesses. Everything begins this Thursday evening with a meal at our apartment. Please keep us in your prayers. 

Speaking of our weaknesses, our accounting and treasury have become bottlenecks. Thankfully, we discovered that one of our worship leaders holds an MBA and teaches accounting! This could be a game changer because we were much farther behind than we had realized last month. We’d talked to a recommended contact who wanted to charge us 4000€ to fix everything… With the discovery of these new gifts from a person in our congregation, we hope to catch up in the following months at a much more accessible cost. This, however, also requires much prayer; please join with us!.

One of our greatest blessings was the timely visit of an old friend, Brian Campbell. Brian is a worship leader and songwriter who maintains an active home business. He doesn’t always make it out this way, so we jumped at the occasion when he told us he’d pass by! We initially thought of organizing a workshop with our worship team. Unfortunately, we couldn’t gather everyone together in time like we’d hoped. Still, we had instruction, worship, and time praying together, which we can implement in the next few weeks and months.

Perhaps the most unexpected blessing of Brian’s visit was that it coincided with a critical vote with Calvary Chapel France, determining how future and current Calvary Chapels become and maintain membership. Though the vote did not go in the direction we’d hoped for, having a friend to pray with was timely. Ultimately, Mike and our elder Max will step down from the board to allow other members to better represent the organization’s current direction. In the meantime, we need to pray as we look to the future of our local church.  

On a more positive note, we will begin planning our Easter outreach this Sunday. For the past few weeks, we’ve invited all our creatives and organizers to a meeting after church to find out who is available. Typically, Easter is one of our lowest-attended Sundays because it’s a three-day weekend. In the culture of Paris, most people leave town for the weekend because that period of the year has some of the best weather. There is a reason for Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s version of April in Paris. If only we could get the Parisians to stay and evangelize! Easter, like Christmas, is an amazing open door for announcing the gospel. Mike will also begin preparing “the terrain” this year by preaching through Psalms 113-118, the Egyptian Hallel (“Hallel” from the Hebrew verb that gives us “Hallelujah”), and the Psalms traditionally sung during the Passover Seder.  Please pray for our church and city so that we can put together something impactful for our community.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support. We are so thankful for you and hope your month of March is blessed!

In Jesus,
Mike and Becky