In a couple of weeks all the cemeteries in France will bloom with chrysanthemums to celebrate this Catholic holiday. For us this year, it marks the beginning of our house renovation, so we are really looking forward to it! I used the holiday as an excuse to honor the little known saints in our lives here in a newsletter five years ago and it’s time to do it again – The Comforter came through for me since my last missive to continue healing my relational summer slump.
The church council meetings that I was running from have changed for the better. Why? Because David encouraged our leadership to purchase Paul Manwaring’s Apostolic Strategic Planning Tool Kit to start clarifying our church vision, mission and culture. How refreshing to listen to an anointed speaker and plan the future together as a team. This looks very different from previous meetings where we were all hanging on by a thread in our separate ministry areas, just covering the urgent and having no time for relationship. Our efforts seem to be having an impact on our church already, even though we are only halfway through it: We have finally found 2 saints who are contracted to work full-time towards making headway on our building in the next several months and we are welcoming more new healthy families attracted to the school and church than we ever have.
Now that the council is feeling a lot more "phileo," it was such a strange comfort to have them meeting at our house at the very hour that Chester, our cat of 11 yrs, went into death throes after suddenly going downhill the previous 24 hrs. I was a mess, spoiling the pastor’s wife’s birthday blessing moment. After everyone prayed for her while passing me Kleenex, she in turn prayed for me. Chester was a saint in his own right, the friendliest cat in the neighborhood that everyone had nicknamed "Garfield." Because he oozed the love of God by welcoming tummy rubs and small talk from pedestrians while lounging on the windowsill, we called him our "covert evangelist" (but we will not be placing chrysanthemums on his unmarked grave.) Here he is at his favorite outdoor spot posing as the parking lot mascot.
You may recall St. Rusty and St. Janet, who have waited 2 yrs. for a response from the government for their visa request to reside here to no avail. So they are here now to pack up their belongings and let go of their dream. They are the ones that sowed the Bethel revival culture into our church, as well as Anabaptist and Mennonite healing in our region and we will never be the same! Having Janet back in town has been a big boost – she is such a good listener, encourages my writing as a published author and is giving me sozos in hopes of getting to the root of my physical issues! Here we are celebrating her birthday…
L to R: us, Alana (our American youth pastor/worship leader), Janet and Rusty standing, Jocelyn and Vito (council members), and Nadine (Sozo and Healing rooms director and elder.)
God sent two other women to me this fall for quality time that 
was much appreciated. St. Anne has been an American missionary/ intercessor and quilter in Toulouse for the last 30 years. This summer, out of the blue, she invited me to the big annual fall European quilting expo in our region that I’ve always wanted to attend. Until I recently inherited a wheelchair from my friend, St. Helen (when she got an upgrade,) an all-day-on-your-feet event was impossible for me. Now I could sit and stare at every stitch without my body screaming at me. The long drive gave us a good opportunity to compare notes in the same season of life.
St. Linda and her husband arrived a couple of weeks later. She also had written me unexpectedly to let me know that her YWAM autobiography was published, remembering that we had wanted a copy when we heard it was in the works. As an American Midwesterner with a lifelong call to France and Switzerland, who is a worshiper living with chronic illness, I realized that we had a lot in common and she was ten yrs ahead of me! So I asked for some time and they graciously came to our doorstep while traveling through Alsace. She started the French worship ministry branch of YWAM in the early days of the 70s that has had a huge impact on the Church here by providing the modern songbook that French-speaking churches (who were done with hymnals) adopted worldwide. I see the numerous tattered volumes lying around in every church I’ve ever visited here. Although she has slowed down, her younger husband Tom continues to lead evangelistic outreaches in Paris and Alpha groups in Lausanne and they are now Swiss citizens – My heroes!
Till next month,
Angela