Summer Newsletter

Vaux-sur-Seine, June 2023, Newsletter no. 4

Dear family, dear 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.

This third year at Vaux-sur-Seine has been similar to the first two, but with its own special features.

Marc is still passionately committed to his theology studies. It's still a huge amount of work, with reading, assignments and exams. What's more, Marc has become president of the students' association and is responsible for organising student life in collaboration with the Faculty management. As far as sport is concerned, futsal on Tuesday evenings has always been one of his favourite times of the week. Both semesters went well (pending the final grades). The classes finished at the end of May and he has just one more assignment to hand in before going on holiday, a dogmatic essay on the ecclesiological status of the union of churches. So, after three years of hard work and a very successful final exam in biblical theology, the licence has been obtained. Now there's one last piece of work to hand in, but it's due by mid-September: his Master's dissertation project, which must consist of an announcement of the research project and the methodology to be used, a detailed plan, a statement of the 700 pages read and an initial bibliography, all in a maximum of 10 pages.

Maggie is also passionate about her Psychology studies, which she started last autumn. She still is at the beginning, but already doing really well! As for sport, she does it three times a week with a friend, and the menu includes fitness and yoga. Talitha continues to do well at school, to the praise of her teachers. She has also become her coach's favourite judoka, and passed her first piano exam with flying colours. Noëlie spends her mornings at school, in the Toute Petite Section, and continues to learn, autonomy being perhaps her strongest point! Nolan is now 1 year old, and his progress has obviously been impressive. He's starting to walk with the help of his little trolley! But of course, there have also been more difficult periods and events this year. Marc fell ill several times, and at the wrong moments. Maggie had a lot of chronic fatigue. Talitha had an operation on her ENT (ear, nose and throat) because of ear infections that were accumulating and reducing her hearing, but everything's fine now. Noëlie has had a lot of regular tummy aches and is being monitored by specialists because of her small stature. And finally, Nolan recently had to go to Necker, a famous children's hospital, for emergency tests on his liver, but in the end it was a false alarm and all is well! All this to say that everyday life is full of ups and downs!

The month and a half of holidays ahead promises to be restful, but it will also involve a lot of travelling (as usual, you might say). The programme hasn't been finalised yet, but we'll be going to Germany to visit Maggie's family, Alsace to visit Marc's brother, perhaps to prepare for his parents' move there, Burgundy, the Basque Country (where we'll be going on holiday at the end of August) and Béarn to visit Marc's 96-year-old granny.

What's next? Shall we take another trip to Vaux-sur-Seine? Yes! As we told you at the beginning of the year, Marc will be continuing his theology studies with a Masters in New Testament Research. In practical terms, we'll be staying in Vaux-sur-Seine next year. Marc will be dividing his time between working on his dissertation and a few seminars over a few days each month. The year after that, on the other hand, we'll normally be moving to the place where Marc will be doing his one-year pastoral internship, which is part of the training programme run by the Union des Eglises Evangéliques Libres. We'll certainly know more about this place next autumn. In practical terms, that year will be divided between the internship, writing the dissertation and some seminars and other academic work.

That 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 train. We'd like to say a special word of thanks to our donors. There are 15 regular and monthly donors, the 11 one-off donors not to forget. Until August 2022, we benefitted from the unemployment allowance, which represented 60% of our monthly budget. And from August 2022 onwards, we had started a new cycle. The UEEL support covers 15% of our budget and is therefore insufficient to compensate for the loss of the unemployment benefit. In fact, this means that 30% of our budget are still missing.

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

• The last two assignments that Marc has to finish, he's reaching saturation point and is very tired, but he still has to get them done!

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

• For Talitha, Noëlie and Nolan: may this summer do them good!

• Financial support for the next 2 years (2 years of the Masters)

• 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)