New arrivals in september

In September the church will be welcoming three new members to the family: One student from the Paris University of Theology, a Russian student and a Franco-Algerian student. Esther is in her final year at the University of Theology training to be a pastor. She is from Cameroon and lives in Sarcelles in the suburbs of Paris, the mother of a family and has a degree in Human Rights from Cotonou University in Bénin. She’ll be working closely with Gilles on a part-time basis. At first she’ll be finding out and learning how things are run in the church but she’ll become progressively more and more involved in church activities, including playing a part in the church council. Because Esther lives not far from the church and has a family to look after, she won’t be staying in the church apartment. Instead there will be two female students living there, Cathy from Russia and Kahina from Algeria. The story of how Kahina came about finding herself in this position is incredible. During the last church council meeting the issue of finding a second student to accompany Cathy was discussed and no solution was found and it wasn’t clear how they were going to find one. After the meeting, Christine, a member of the church, arrived with her Algerian friend who had wanted to have a look at Christine’s church. After having seen the building, Christine, Kahina and the church council members went across the street for a coffee and to just generally have a chat. Kahina told her testimony and explained that she had been forced to flee Algeria because of her faith and that she was having real trouble finding anywhere to live in Paris and even more trouble being able to afford it. Gilles and the other members of the council looked and each other in amazement. Gilles said to Kahina that they had just been trying to solve the issue of finding someone to live in the apartment here in the church. She said, ‘Oh ok, but how much would the rent be?’ ‘It’s free!’ was the reply! She was staggered! How amazing! Only half an hour earlier they had been at a loss as to know how to solve the problem and here was the perfect person to live in the apartment and who would benefit so much from it! God is good! Please pray for these three women who will be joining the church in September; that they can make all the preparations they need, that they feel welcomed and can easily fit into the life of the church, and that they can use their own gifts and ideas to the service of the Lord in this community.