First Baptist Church France Team

Home

2007-11-13T00:36:00.000-06:00

Just an FYI that the team arrived home safely in Minneapolis tonight. Thanks for your prayers.

Mark

Arrived in Detroit

2007-11-12T19:43:00.000-06:00

We ended up leaving Paris at 4:00 PM today and just arrived at Detroit. All of us were able to get boarding passes for the same connecting flight to Minneapolis. Here is our flight info:

NW Flight 767 - Depart Detroit @ 10:27 PM (EST), Arrive Minneapolis @ 11:15 PM (CST)

Flight Delayed

2007-11-11T13:43:00.000-06:00

As most of you have already heard, our flight was delayed, and we're stranded in Paris until tomorrow morning.

The airline put us up in a hotel, and gave us vouchers for dinner and breakfast. We are supposed to be back at the airport tomorrow (Monday) morning at 8:00 AM (1:00 AM CST) so that we can attempt to board a flight to Detroit.

While we were waiting at our gate, there was an announcement that said that the airplane engineers were having problems with the hydrolics in the plane and tracked it down to a part that needed to be replaced in the engine. I guess it's good that they're being safe. :)

After we get to Detroit, it's unclear which flight each of us will be on and we will likely not all be together. If I know more and am able to get internet access, I'll post updates as I receive them. Otherwise, we're all going to get some sleep so that we can be ready for a long ride home tomorrow (hopefully).

Mark

Geneva

2007-11-10T14:46:00.000-06:00

Today, we went to Geneva to see the Reformation Museum, the Reformation Wall, and Calvin's Church. On the way back to Annecy, we stopped by Chomonix, Mont Blanc for the afternoon.

Because it was snowing in Geneva today, we had a scenic drive through the mountains.

Here's a photo of our team, outside Calvin's Church in Geneva, Switzerland.

Tomorrow, we leave to return home. Thanks for all your prayers and support.

France Team '07

Thanksgiving Dinner

2007-11-09T20:02:00.000-06:00

Today is the day our team prepared and served an American Thanksgiving meal for French people at the ABBA church in Annecy. Here is the story of today, in photos.

After arriving at ABBA, we could hardly contain our excitement.

Jim, Sandy, and a few helpers prepared the food.

Meantime, others arranged tables, put together place settings, folded napkins, set out decorations, and put the final touches in place.

There were about 100 people that attended.

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, the team scrambled between each course.

Before we sign off, here is one last picture that captured Jay's surprise as he was trying to describe the fact that he had just learned that in France, "there is no French Silk Pie."

"Guys, listen to me, this is serious!"

Overally, the meal went extremely well. Thank you to Jim and Sandy for putting in such a long day and for doing such an marvelous job preparing the meal. Also, both Mandy and Jim did a fabulous job sharing their testimony clearly and genuinely in how God has worked wonders in their lives.

Bon Soir (good night),
Mark, for the team

Half Time

2007-11-08T16:06:00.001-06:00

Today was a day of transit. Matt C. challenged us to use this day to rejuvenate spiritually and physically. In football terms, he called this our "Half Time".

Before leaving Senlis this morning, one small group went to the Kuehl's house to do some final cleaning. The rest of the group prayer-walked with Dan Kuehl through Senlis and spent some time praying right outside the chapel that we've been talking so much about in previous posts. Dan is a great guide, and his knowledge of Senlis, and it's history informed our prayers.

One of the last things we did before departing Senlis was to stop at a pastry shop to get something sweet. Believe us when we say that these were as good as they looked. Evidently, the French know how to do pastries.

After saying goodbye to the Kuehls and Patrice Nevo (assitant pastor to Dan), we boarded a bus to the train station.

The train station was located on the premises of Charles de Gaulle (CDG) International Airport. After boarding the train, we took a 2 hour ride to Lyon, where we boarded a bus that took us the rest of the way to Annecy (2 more hours), where we are now.

After arriving in Annecy, we met Dale and Sherry Anderson at their church (called ABBA) and had a wonderful meal of cheese and pototoes that we enjoyed while fellowshipping with ABBA church members.

Tonight, at our PM team meeting, we agreed that Nehemiah 8:10, "[...] for the joy of the Lord is your strength." was beginning to become the theme of the week for our trip.

Prayer requests:

Please pray about tomorrow's meal. There will be many people at the meal (possibly a majority) that are not Christians. Please pray that God's message is communicated clearly and effectively.
Please pray for physical fatigue among our team. There are a considerable number of people on the team that are feeling very physically tired.
Please pray for the Andersons and their church (ABBA) and the ministry that they have here in Annecy, specifically that they would be encouraged by our visit.
Please pray for the logistics of the event preparation, that the details would come together smoothly.
Please pray for those who received the Bibles in their mailboxes in Senlis yesterday. Pray that their hearts would be softened to hear the gospel message.

Last Full Day of Projects with the Kuehl's

2007-11-07T17:03:00.000-06:00

Today was a day of finishing projects at the Kuehl's. Since we're leaving for Annecy tomorrow (Thursday), we were focused primarily on (A) finishing projects at the Kuehl's home, and (B) distributing as much literature as we could before the end of the day. Here are some photo highlights from today:

Projects. We continued to paint the interior and exterior of the Kuehl's home. The painting crew did an exceptional job.

Peanut Butter Jelly Time. Throughout the day, Jim Hoar kept us entertained by bursting into song: Peanut Butter Jelly Time! Peanut Butter Jelly Time! Definitely a highlight.

Food. Our meals were wonderful, thanks to the kitchen crew. As you can see, the kitchen was extremely packed, and full of fellowship.

"Mmm... what's this?" "In France, we call that a pen."

Literature Distribution. Since the Gospel's of John arrived yesterday, a team of people spent a good portion of the day preparing 6,000 packets of information, that were then partially distributed during the afternoon. The arrival of these gospels was definitely an answer to prayer.

Team Unity. Thanks for praying about this. Our team feels that people have been working together and have been working to make contributions with joyful spirits.

Prayer with/for Kuehl's. Before leaving for the day, our team spent some quality time praying with/for the the Kuehls as well as the Patrice Nevo family (assistant pastor to Dan Kuehl).

Plan for Tomorrow. Tomorrow, we'll finish up a few last items at the Kuehl's (cleaning). Additionally, we'll do a bit more prayer walking through the city. We leave mid-day on a train to Annecy.

Prayer Requests:

Safety during our travel tomorrow.
For individuals to rest up during this middle part of our trip so that they can prepare spiritually and physically for the second portion of our ministry here in France--this time in Annecy.

Prayer Walking and Projects

2007-11-06T18:10:00.000-06:00

Another day of progress. Thanks for all the encouraging comments and notes of prayer. We have continued to read your comments and have been praying for the things going on at First Baptist Church in Minneapolis. Thank you Matt O. for keeping us updated so that we know how to pray. Here are some highlights from our day today:

1. Ministry Projects
2. Literature Distribution
3. Barbarian Grille

Ministry Projects

More teams went prayer-walking today through the streets of Senlis. Particularly, groups made their way across town to pray on the steps of the chapel that the Kuehl's are hoping the church can purchase as their new building.

Concurrently, teams worked on house projects at both the Kuehl's home, and the home of another family in the church. Projects included painting (interior and exterior), drywall, sanding, mudding, plaster work, hanging wallpaper, meal preparation, and fixing broken doors and locks.

Finally, we can't forget, the kitchen team that prepared our wonderful lunch!

Literature Distribution

A team of people folded inserts that will be included along with a Gospel of John to be distributed in target areas within the surrounding area. As you might recall from yesterday's prayer requests, we were praying for these gospels to arrive so that our team could distribute them. Well, God answered our prayers! Although we didn't receive the gospels until late this afternoon, we'll be ready to distribute tomorrow. Praise God for this, and thank you for your prayers on this from back home.

Barbarian Grille

This evening, Dan Kuehl recommended that we go out to eat to experience French culture at a resturant in downtown Senlis: le Gril des Barbares (The Grill of the Barbarians), which is located in the "dungeon" of a building that was constructed around 1200 A.D. It was definitely a neat experience as we spent ~3 hours conversing and enjoying a meal with each other and the Kuehls (including their son Paul, who's a Bear's fan).

Hit the Ground Running

2007-11-05T17:01:00.000-06:00

This morning, at our AM team meeting, Dan Kuehl addressed the team by introducing us to his church-planting ministry here in Senlis. Additionally, Dan gave us some insight into French culture, his short- and long-term vision for church planting, and how French philosophy brings unique challenges to sharing the gospel.

Before I get on with the rest of today's update, I want to encourage our supporters (i.e. you) to continue adding encouraging comment to the blog. Each morning, I read the most recent comments to our team, and they have been extremely encouraged by the words you have already written. Thank you!

Additionally, here are some prayer requests that our team has:

Please pray for the transition in leadership that is going on in Dan's church. The church recently took on an assistant pastor (Patrice). It is Dan's hope that Patrice will take over the congregation, and that the church would plant a new daughter church in an unreached area. Pray for Patrice, and the congregation--with a new pastor, possibly a new building, and the prospect of planting a new church, they are going through a lot of changes.
Unity among our team.
Literature Distribution. Please pray for a shipment of Gospels of John that were scheduled to be here last week, but have been delayed because of a local holiday. If the gospels arrive before we leave, we can use the many people we have with on our trip to efficiently distribute literature about the church, while prayer walking.

After our AM team meeting, we walked about 1 mile to the Kuehl's home and hit the ground running. There were two major ministry activities today:

Prayer walking
Projects on the Kuehl's home

Prayer Walking

Small groups throughout the day went walking through the streets of Senlis, praying at key locations for God to be working there. Additionally, some of the prayer teams walked a little further to see the chapel that the Kuehl's have been hoping to purchase for their new church home (we've written about this here before).

Projects on the Kuehl's home

Other small groups worked on painting (interior and exterior), replacing drywall, and other general repairs around the house. The saying, "lots of hands make little work" was definitely true today. With 22 team members, we were able to make some considerable progress.

Mark (for France Team '07)

Church in Senlis

2007-11-04T16:26:00.001-06:00

This morning, we woke up feeling well-rested. After breakfast, at our AM team meeting, we again gave thanks and praise to God for bringing us to France, and for allowing us to be used in ministry here. Additionally, we prayed specifically against Satan's schemes, and that by our presence in the service with the Kuehls, that we might not be a distraction.

The Kuehl's church meets in a room of the same hotel that we are staying at (Ibis, Senlis). Dan is friends with the owner and has built a friendship with him. Patrice (currently an assistant pastor) delivered the morning message, which had as its theme, the persecuted church. Patrice challenged the congregation to die to the world and live boldly in Christ (although the message was in French, so I don't have much more of a summary than that!).

After the service, many members of our team were able to have meaningful conversations with the church-goers here. Everyone has a story, and we learned of many stories that we can be praying about!

The rest of the day, the team had free time to explore Paris in small groups and learn more about the people and culture of France.

This evening, at our PM team meeting, we prepared for our ministry activities tomorrow, which will include prayer walking, labor projects, and possibly literature distribution.

Thanks for continuing to be in prayer for our team.

Love,
France Team '07

Arrived Safely

2007-11-03T17:33:00.000-05:00

Our team arrived safely at Charles de Gaulle (CDG) International Airport early this morning, without much sleep, but nevertheless, excited to be here. The flight went well overall, and no one lost their luggage.

Dan Kuehl met us at the airport with a bus, and some friends from church (Patrice, Patrice, Francoise, and Zubida). The rest of the day was spent with Dan and company touring interesting parts of Paris:

Sacred Heart Church
Notre Dame
Louvre (only the outside)
Arch de Triumph
Eiffel Tower
River-Boat Tour

Following our excursions, we ended up at our hotel. The team is pretty well exhausted after a day of travel. In fact, there were a number of team members nodding off, even as we were discovering these Parisian landmarks ourselves for the first time--we were really tired! Our goal, however, was to stay awake until at least early evening so that our bodies could get quickly accustomed to the new time zone.

Now, everyone is in their rooms getting a good night of rest so that we can be ready for a big day tomorrow. The main highlight for tomorrow is that we will be attending church with the Kuehl's and meeting their congregation for the first time. Here are some prayer requests from our team for tomorrow:

Pray that we would be an encouragement to the Kuehls and their congregation.
Pray for each of us and our individual devotional time with God--that God would prepare our hearts for ministry this week.
Pray for unity as a group throughout the week.
Pray as our bodies adjust to the new time zone and culture.

I posted a selection of photos from today's journey. The most recent photos should appear at the top of the page, but you can always browse the slideshow here.

Mark (for the team)

Departure

2007-11-02T10:37:00.000-05:00

Today is the day we depart. We'll meet at 2:00 PM at church. Then, our plane leaves around 5:00.

Also, it looks as though we'll have some consistent cool, dry weather.

Commissioning

2007-10-31T21:30:00.000-05:00

The France Team was commissioned on Sunday, October 21st, during the morning service at First Baptist Church. Here's a photo from the balcony:

Team Photo

2007-10-24T21:27:00.000-05:00

Pictured: Mark Benson, Mandy Benson, Jim Olsen, Sandy Olsen, Mitzu Shindo, Frank Shindo, Jay Larson, Carol Wilson, Harriet LaBorde, Ingrid Olson, Erika Clausen, Glenn LaBorde, Mary Dieter, Matt Clausen, Teresa Muelstad, Laura Gangl, Dave Wilson, and Becky Madison.

Not pictured: Jim Hoar, Gretchen Hoar, Troy Madison, and Kathy Gruelich.

Flight Information

2007-10-13T13:25:00.000-05:00

Here is the flight information for our trip:

11/02/07, NW 758, Leave MSP 5:10 PM, Arrive DTW 8:04 PM
11/02/07, NW 50, Leave DTW 9:20 PM, Arrive CDG 10:20 AM

11/11/07, NW 49, Leave CDG 1:55 PM, Arrive DTW 5:05 PM
11/11/07, NW 761, Leave DTW 7:04 PM, Arrive MSP 8:04 PM

Useful Links:

Northwest Flight and Gate Status
Northwest Flight Status Email Notification
Live Flight Trackers

Team Meeting Summary

2007-10-02T17:52:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, we had a team meeting at First Baptist Church. During the meeting, we discussed some important items about our trip, a few of which I'll summarize here.

Flexibility and Vision

As with any missions trip, especially to places with unfamiliar cultures, we need to be flexible with our expectations and rely on God to work out His purposes through us instead of making selfish plans and simply asking God to bless them. This has become recently acutely apparent as we've learned that:

The potential chapel purchase may not go through for the Keuhls, and almost certainly won't be ready by the time we arrive. This means that we will not be able to provide our physical labor towards working on the chapel, but will instead focus on learning about and ministering to the spiritual and emotional needs of the French people and the ministry that the Keuhls have devoted their lives to.
Some of the activities that we'll be participating in while in Senlis have been roughly identified, but the details are still being worked out. Our leaders have urged us to remain flexible. Some of the activities may be:literature handouts, prayer walking, physical projects on missionary homes, and making meals.

Spiritual Darkness

Our French missionaries have told us that we will be facing a spiritually oppressed and emotional depressed people unlike we have seen before. We should remember to be in prayer for the people of France, our missionary families, and for our hearts to be prepared for doing God's will while we are there, especially in light of this spiritual darkness.

The France Mission has a collection of religious statistics, one of which seems appropriate to quote here and illustrates the spiritual void our missionaries face daily:

[...] one quarter [of French people put] their faith in clairvoyants or astrology. An estimated 10 million people pay around £20 billion for occult consultations, three times the amount paid to their family doctors.

Schedule and Photos

Our team leaders have been working to solidify our plans: what we'll do each day, when we'll arrive and depart, etc. Because we are hoping to be flexible and observant of how God may move while we are there, I haven't reproduced the entire detail of the schedule here on this blog. Instead, I've listed (in the right-hand column) a summary of where we'll be each day of the trip. Hopefully this will be helpful not only to our team members, but also to our supporters as they follow along with us on our journey.

Regarding photography, there will be a number of people that have cameras with and will be taking pictures. Also, the group agreed that it would be good to have one person be the "official photographer" so that the photos can be collected and published efficiently. Currently, I'm planning to fill this role, will be bringing a few cameras with on the trip, and will be coordinating the process of getting pictures updated on our blog while we are in France.

The extent to which we are able to update our blog while we are in France will depend heavily on the availability and quality of an internet connection. Our hope is that we will be able to update this blog at least a few times during the trip with both stories and photos.

When we do upload photos, the most recent ones will be displayed at the top of this page in thumbnail form. At any time, you may click the link titled "Slideshow of all photos" to view the entire collection of photos.

Chapel Update

2007-10-02T15:22:00.001-05:00

For those who have been following the Kuehl's potential chapel purchase, I want to relay some updated information about the situation.

Our team leader, Matt, was able to talk with Dan Kuehl recently and learned that although there is still hope that their church-planting ministry will be able to get the chapel, it is highly unlikely that they will get the chapel before our team arrives.

The developer who owns the chapel has plans to turn it in to condominiums. In fact, some of the condominiums have already been sold. This is a significant complication.

Dan, however, still has hope. Evidently Senlis, because of it's narrow streets and limited parking, has a city ordinance that new housing be built along with new parking. Since there are not obvious areas for parking around the chapel as-is, the builder may have to dig underneath the church, which in turn, may bring along costly archaeological fees due to the age of the structure.

I'll relay more as I receive it.

Senlis Mini Tornado

2007-05-22T10:51:00.000-05:00

From: Daniel Kuehl
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 9:16 AM
Subject: Mini tornado hits Senlis!

Dear friends,

We had an eventful day here Sunday! First we had a journalist from a county newspaper come to our church service to write an article about the church. He seemed to be very impressed with the warm atmosphere and the many young families that are a part of our church. He had heard through the grapevine that we are interested in buying the chapel. We had a very interesting conversation after the service where I was able to share the message of the Gospel and what God was doing in our church. Pray that God will direct the writing of the article and that He will use it to further His kingdom in this area. The article was to be published today but it will now be published next Wednesday as it was pre-empted by articles on the mini tornado that hit our area. We were sitting at the dinner table in our neighbor's house when we saw the sky blacken. Then the wind hit with 80 mph gusts. We watched as dozens of ceramic tiles flew off the roof of the house next to us. When it was over there were many trees down and many houses damaged. Power and telephone were out in many parts of town. In Senlis that afternoon there was a half marathon going on. Several runners were injured by falling trees and flying debris. We are very thankful for God's protection on us and our home. When we got back to our house the only damage we found were geranium flowers scattered around the yard.

Continue to pray for the buying of the chapel. The owners are draging their feet in hopes of driving the price up but we are waiting in confidence that God will have the last word if we are meant to have it. We are already amazed at how much our interest in the chapel has raised our visibility in the community.

Please pray for our church weekend. We have over 70 people signed up to go up to the North Atlantic coast of France for a 3 day church weekend on May 26-28. We are praying that this will be a real good time of fellowship and refreshment for our church.

Thank you once again for your partnership in our ministry,

Dan Kuehl

Chapel Update

2007-04-26T14:56:00.000-05:00

Hello friends. Here are a number of updates from the Kuehl's regarding their potential chapel purchase.

From: Daniel Kuehl
Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2006 5:10 AM
Subject: Special prayer request!

Dear Friends,
I would like to share with you two items of importance:

#1. Chapel for sale in Senlis!
That is right! On November 27th our county is selling a large group of buildings that used to be a hospital. Since the 50s the county has been using them to store their archives. All of their archives have now been regrouped at the county seat in Beauvais. The buildings in Senlis are now empty and will be sold as a lot to the highest bidder. There is a beautiful chapel being sold with the lot (see attached pictures). It is quite large and was completely restored in 1982. It has several other rooms that go with it. We have been in contact with one man who is a developer very interested in the sale. He has told us that the chapel holds no interest for developers and would most likely be resold very quickly. Please pray with us that if this is God's solution for a building for our church that the right person would win the bid. Pray that he would be open to finding a workable solution so that we could buy it.

#2.
Many of you have heard but not all of you got the news of Margaret's mom's death. She was transported into the presence of her loving Lord on October 15th. Margaret writes the following:

You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Psalm 16:11

This was my Mom's favorite verse. Since Sunday morning, October 15th, my Mom has been experiencing fully the truth of this Psalm. She is rejoicing in the presence of her Saviour. God allowed me to arrive at my Mom's bedside in Maine Saturday morning while she was still conscious. My sister, Ruth, and I were still at her side when she passed away. God also blessed us with the presence of almost the whole family (which is very spread out) for the funeral. Pray for my Dad. They were married for 58 years and the separation is hard. I am so thankful for the loving care of my sister and her family who live right next door to him. "Blessed be the name of the Lord."

Margaret Kuehl

Thanks for your partnership, your prayers are precious to us,
Dan

From: Daniel Kuehl
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 8:18 AM
Subject: Quick update on Chapel purchase

Subject: Quick update on Chapel purchase
Dear friends,
I have been waiting in order to get more precise information but I thought it would be good to send a quick update to all of you who have been praying. The total hospital complex that contains the chapel we are interested in was sold to a large building contractor in Paris. They paid a fairly high price for it (3,300,000 [euros]). They will most likely transform it into an apartment complex. We are still waiting until the sale is finalized to contact the buyers to see if they will sell us the chapel. The chapel is the only part that doesn't need any major work on it in order to be used right away as it was totally restored in 1982.
Keep praying! We would have preferred that someone we knew locally had bought it but God knows all of this. Our local contacts and politicians really want us to have this building. They have also reassured us that a building contractor would have no use for the chapel.
Thanks again for your prayers. I will definitely keep you posted as to future developments.
Dan Kuehl

From: Daniel Kuehl
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 12:31 PM
Subject: Chapel update

Dear friends,
We have finally been able to contact the new owners of the old hospital complex that contains the chapel. They admitted they had no specific plans for the chapel and seem very open to working with us on this project. I and some men in the church will visit it for the first time next Tuesday. Please be in prayer for us that God will give us wisdom to know how to proceed on this. There has been no talk of price yet so we are just trusting God that they will propose a workable financial package. Thanks so much for your prayers, there is so much more we could do to reach this city with the gospel if we had a larger, more central building like this one to work with.
All for the glory of the Lamb,
Dan

From: Daniel Kuehl
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 11:51 AM
Subject: Quick chapel update

Dear friends,
Our entire church council was able to visit the chapel this week so I'll write a quick note to let you know where things stand. We all came away thinking, yes, the main auditorium needs clean-up and decoration but otherwise would work excellently for our church. The more important question is, where could we have toilets, kitchen and Sunday School space? If you look at the picture of the transept you will see a glass door directly behind me. That door leads to a beautiful room that communicates with a hallway that contains toilets and three meeting rooms all ready to go! (They are on the ground floor of the right wing of the building that you see in the outside picture) We couldn't believe it when we saw them! We are now waiting for the notary to finish his assessment of the value of the chapel so that we can enter into negotiations. Pray that the owners will be open to finding a workable solution. Everything is so expensive in Senlis so we have no idea at this point whether this will all be do-able. We really need God to intervene in hearts. Thanks again for your prayers. We'll keep you posted.
God's richest blessings,
Dan

From: Daniel Kuehl
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 4:24 PM
Subject: Chapel update

Dear friends,
Just a quick note to keep you up to date on the latest developments. Negotiations are slowly moving ahead on the Chapel. We as a church council have decided that the chapel building by itself would not be adequate for our needs. What is amazing, though, is all the space that we need is already there if the contractor that bought it is willing to sell it to us. Attached to the chapel is a wing that contains a good size all-purpose room of 300 sq. feet and 4 classrooms! We have made an offer to buy these rooms at the going price if they would be willing to donate the chapel to the church. The buyers have now submitted our offer to their architects to see if this can be integrated into their overall plans and if it meets safety standards. We hope to have an answer by early March. Humanly speaking, our offer would seem unrealistic in the high finance world of today but we are just praying that God will work in hearts to make this project happen. Thank you for your partnership in this.
Have a great Lord's day,
Dan

P.S. I am attaching the plans of the chapel project showing the parts we want to buy encircled in green. The measurements are indicated in sq. meters.

From: Daniel Kuehl
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Subject: chapel update

Dear prayer partners,

Negotiations have moved forward on buying the chapel. The owner's starting price was 700,000 euros for the chapel and the extra rooms. Our initial offer was exactly half of that at 350,000 euros. After much discussion and telephone conversations we are making a firm offer of 430,000 euros. The officially signed letter went out this morning. The owners have promised to give it serious consideration and will give us a response by the beginning of next week. The church council feels that this is as high as we can go on the price. In offering 430,000 euros, we are trusting the Lord to bring in $100,000 in one-time gifts. This is a big step of faith for our young church. So far God has prepared the way before us and has opened many doors in this project. He has even provided a first unsollicited gift of $5,000 towards the building! Please pray for this final step in this project. Pray that God's will be confirmed in all hearts concerned. Finally, if we do move ahead on this project, pray that God would "do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power... to Him be the glory in the church"!

Thank you so much for your partnership in this,

Dan Kuehl

May Meeting Postponed

2007-04-02T11:14:00.000-05:00

Note that our May meeting has been changed to May 19th (9:30 - 11:30 at FBC) due to a planning trip that our leaders will be doing in early or mid-May. Postponing our team meeting until after our leaders return will allow us to have many more details about the trip available to us when we meet.

Welcome

2007-03-14T00:00:00.001-05:00

Thanks for being interested in the 2007 First Baptist Church inter-generational missions trip to Senlis and Annecy France. We are very excited about the opportunity that God has given us to serve in the following locations:

Senlis with the Kuehls
Annecy with the Andersons

The Kuehls work primarily with church-planting opportunities in France and live in the town of Senlis, which is located about an hour from Paris. You can see some information about the Kuehl's church-planting work at http://www.e-epes.com/.

The Andersons also work with church planting and live in the town of Annecy which is located just about 3 hours from Senlis.

First Baptist Church has been supporting the work of these missionaries for some time now and we are very excited that they have invited us to partner with them for a week this November.

Ministry Team Activities
While in France, serving the Kuehls and the Andersons, we will have the following ministry opportunities:

Local outreach projects with both the Kuehls and the Andersons.
Work projects associated with the Kuehls and their possibly purchase of a chapel.
Thanksgiving dinner for the Anderson's church in Annecy.

Vision
The vision for the trip is to use short-term missions to grow and develop servants of God, wherever God is calling them either at home or abroad, short-term or long-term.

Mission
The mission for this trip is to disciple our First Baptist Church team while partnering with missionaries in the field through worship, service, and evangelism.

Intergenerational Emphasis
We have chosen to emphasize the inter-generational outreach team because we believe that the different generations in our church have something to offer each other. It is our hope that lasting friendships will be built across generational lines that serve to strengthen our church.