Newsletter

Vaux-sur-Seine, October 2023, Letter no. 5

Dear family and friends,

If you are receiving this fourth "Newsletter", it is because you are either part of our family, or one of our friends and acquaintances. This Newsletter has a complementary objective to our website, to which we will return later, to allow you to follow us better in our spiritual, professional and family journey. On the menu of this fourth edition: a look back at the past year to begin with, then a review of the activities and challenges for the coming year, and to finish, a more detailed presentation of our website, preceded by a list of prayer topics.

Three years! Yes, it has been three years since we moved to the Yvelines and Marc started his theology studies. Three years full of joys, with our three children, Marc's degree and Maggie starting her psychology studies! But also three years full of challenges, times of sadness, difficulties, prayers, chronic fatigue and repeated illnesses. In short, three very busy years of life. In concrete terms, 2023-2024 will be our last year at Vaux-sur-Seine, since next summer we will be moving to an as-yet-unknown location for our church internship. For Marc, then, there are still 2 years of studies left (Master's in Research), including 1 year in which he will have to combine his research time with a pastoral internship, after which he will take up a pastoral post. All in all, another two years of social and financial instability, since Maggie, who is in the process of completing her first year of her Bachelor's degree, still has to go on to do her Master's II before she can practise as a psychologist.

Our three children are growing very well. Talitha has started the Grande-Section (last preschool year). She's very happy, but also very concentrated and loves discovering everything she doesn't know yet. She is very attentive to her little sister and brother. She is continuing her second year of piano lessons (although because of the riots at the end of June, she won't be able to start until November, as the municipal premises were burnt down), and also her second year of judo, with her sights set on obtaining her 2-stripe yellow belt! Noëlie, for her part, has returned to Petite Section (first preschool year), but will be in a double class in Moyenne Section (with 4 other PS). After a year of musical initiation, she will also be taking up the piano (also from November). As for Nolan, he's just beginning to understand that standing up and walking is great! For his part, he started going to a nanny three days a week two weeks ago.

This year will be punctuated by several dates. Firstly, as part of his studies, Marc will be taking part in 6 seminars this year. In practical terms, a seminar is equivalent to 24 hours of lectures and presentations in one subject. Depending on the course and the subject chosen for the dissertation, there may be more or less work. In short, the student will 'only' have 6x3 days of classes a year. A much more flexible weekly schedule, but no less busy! From November, he'll be writing Théo Hebdo again, so you'll be able to follow what he's working on. As for Maggie, she has to hand in an assignment and complete a module every 10 weeks or so. The children's timetable remains in line with that of the school holidays.

"And given that this is your last year at Vaux-sur-Seine, what are you doing afterwards and where are you going?" That's probably the question many of you are asking yourselves. The first thing to clarify is that the only thing that will change in our activities is the fact that Marc will also be on pastoral training for 1 year (in 2024/2025). He will only have 4 seminars next year and will still be working hard to finish his dissertation before entering full pastoral ministry the following year (in 2025/2026). Maggie and the children's activities will remain the same. What about the location? The location is still uncertain, although a number of possibilities are already emerging (one in particular). The fact remains that it will be a three-way discussion, between the Ministries Commission of our Union of Churches (UEEL), the local church that would welcome us (especially the Council and the pastor), and the trainee, Marc in this case! All this to say that we will know a lot more by the end of November, and that we will probably be able to make it official by January.

This brings us to the financial side of things. Because it is thanks to you, our donors, that we are able to survive on a day-to-day basis and enable Marc to study. We would like to say a special thank you to our donors. They are, or have been, 17 regular and monthly donors, not forgetting the 12 occasional donors. Until August 2022, we received unemployment benefit, which still represented 60% of our monthly budget. From August 2022, therefore, we started a new funding cycle. The UEEL support covers around 15% of our budget and is therefore insufficient to make up for the loss of unemployment benefit. All this to say that, for the next two years, we are almost 30% short of our budget, which until now we have made up through occasional donations, our savings, but above all through the RSA (a state help). Unfortunately, the RSA is very uncertain, because we've just been suspended (a few days ago), and we have no idea whether we will still be entitled to it or not. With this in mind, we are looking for around fifteen partners who would be ready to support us to the amount of €50 each for the next two years, starting in November 2023, if possible. We've already set aside our last three years so that Marc can train for the pastoral ministry, and now he only has two more years of full-time work left. A huge thank you to you! Because it's you who are enabling Marc to devote 150% of his time and energy to his training.

In short, here are some prayer topics, in no particular order:

• The financial support for the next 2 years (including the current year). Our target for November 2023 is fifteen or so partners supporting us to the amount of €50/month!

• Marc's academic year in theology is shaping up to be another busy one, with 6 seminars (and assignments for each of them) plus, of course, his research work for his dissertation (more on this soon in Théo Hebdo).

• The academic year in psychology continues for Maggie! An exciting challenge, but one that also demands a lot of time and organisation.

• For Talitha and Noëlie's school year: may they continue to flourish.

• For Nolan: that his year between home and nanny will enable him to grow up well.

• We lost a box of screws and instructions for several pieces of furniture that we had not been able to assemble in our current flat, and this is really problematic.

Many people already regularly visit our website to follow our adventures, but there are also many who from time to time 'discover' what we've been up to when they could have been reading about it! So don't hesitate! On the home page, you'll find the latest blog posts. Then on the menu, at the top, you'll first see a presentation of our little family, followed by a page on our project and how to support us; then comes the blog, followed by Documents where you'll find Marc's theological works (only those from his first year for the moment, the others will come this summer), and finally, a contact page. A new page will then be added containing links to interesting sites. The mobile version of our site will also be improved. On the "Our project / Support us" page, you'll find all the information you need about this ministry project for the Church, as well as graphs showing whether our monthly (or rather annual) needs are being met or not. You'll also find all our bank details (RIB and Paypal) as well as a form you can fill in if you want to support us regularly.

Thank you for your careful reading. But above all, thank you for your support, be it spiritual, material or financial; it is so precious to know that we are carried in this way!

"Grace and peace be yours in abundance." (The Bible, 1 Peter 1.2)