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The Ounate-Lare’s May 2015 Prayer Letter www.crosslinks.org Dear Friends Greetings from Oxford. We hope you are all well. We have plenty of news to update you on since our last prayer letter. We are all fine and preparing for our move to France in August. The Internationals ministry at St Aldates is going well and Sena is preparing to hand over in July. He is also persevering to finish his dissertation. VISIT TO TOGO: We thank God that in December last year we were able to return to Togo for a few weeks. It was a precious time of visiting and encouraging the churches in Dapaong, catching up with friends and seeing Sena’s family again. The churches in Dapaong joined together for worship on the Sunday and it was a wonderful time of celebration and fellowship. Overall the Churches are flourishing. We praise God for the church in Tantoatre which is experiencing exciting growth and we pray for the church in Tantigou which is struggling at the moment. This Easter the churches had a joined Baptism where 30 people were baptised. We thank God for what he continues to do through the Churches in Dapaong. Please pray for Aimé from a muslim background who came to Christ at the beginning of our ministry in Dapaong and is now training to become a pastor. FAMILY VISIT TO NORMANDY: During the Easter holidays we spent 10 days in Normandy meeting with the church “La Source” in Lisieux as well as visiting schools and looking at houses. It was great to involve the children in this process as much as possible and was a very positive time and a step forward for each of them in their emotional journeys of uprooting and starting somewhere new. Please pray for them as they face the changes ahead trusting in God’s care and provision. By God’s grace we found places for the children in the schools we preferred and a house which is within walking distance from the schools and from the church. We joined the children’s programme on Wednesday afternoon at “Café connect”, a community café where Jane will be helping in the future. Sena, Joshua & Johan enjoyed a football match with the children from the estate. This gave a flavour of some of the things we will be involved in. We connected well with the leadership of “La Source” and we are looking forward to working together. Please pray for the nation of France and that people would respond to God’s love and turn their heart towards him. Pray also for the leadership of “La Source” especially for Francis and Diane Dognon the main leaders. 1 VISION FOR NORMANDY Our vision is to see God’s kingdom advance powerfully in Normandy and many lives transformed as people come to know or grow in their knowledge of Jesus. Like much of the rest of France the spiritual needs of Normandy are many and profound. There are few Christians and churches and most pastors are discouraged. We are planning to be in Lisieux for a couple of years to help to lead and support the local Church there “La Source” which has 30-40 members. We would like to see the church grow and impact the community around it. It will be an opportunity for us to settle again into French culture and to gradually prepare and discern God’s way forward for a Church plant in Caen. Our long term vision is to plant a church in the city centre of Caen and have an opportunity to reach out to the thousands of people studying there. Caen is a University City at 23 miles east of Lisieux, 20 minutes by train. It is a vibrant city of 200 000 people (including suburbs) with about 25 000 students. There are less than 10 evangelical churches and in April the Christian Student Union (GBU) was composed of only 11 people. We are encouraged that the GBU students are keen for us to come and support them. We are looking forward to moving to Normandy and are excited in anticipation of what God is going to do there. St Aldates will be praying for us and commissioning us on Sunday 5th July at the 10.30am service. Please let us know if you will be able to come. SPIRITUAL AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT We do need your prayers as we embark on this mission and as we step into the things God is calling us to in Normandy. Please pray for us as family as we prepare to go. We also need financial support to be able to go in August. We are extremely grateful to those churches and individuals who have already decided to partner with us for this ministry and have pledged to support us financially through Crosslinks. We have reached over 65% of our three year budget. Together with Crosslinks we think that it will be necessary to raise the remaining amount by 5th June in order to be ready to go this summer. It is a challenge but God is able. Please pray for God’s provision in the coming weeks. If you have any questions or would like to support us financially for this mission in Normandy please get in touch with us directly or our sending mission CROSSLINKS. Sena and Jane: [email protected] / 01865 201041 CROSSLINKS: [email protected] / 020 8691 6111 May the Lord bless you and keep you in his Grace Love from Sena, Jane, Joshua, Eloïse & Johan 2