Baby Steps for a Baby Church!
First Service - March 29, 2009

We are so very thankful to all of you who have prayed, asked, thought, hoped and crossed your fingers with us. Honestly, I didn't want to put too much significance into this first service, but let's be honest, it wasn't easy. Despite the obvious work, money, planning, preparation that went into the last few weeks...
Despite the years of preparation (money spent, language and culture absorption etc) I didn't want to get too caught up in one service. Again, it wasn't easy.
The truly important thing was that God be glorified in our efforts. I believe that it happened. The team did a fantastic job:
*the musicians were professional and played for the Lord.
*Stephane led the worship and did a great job of weaving the Good News throughout everything we did.
*And I, well I'm still not happy with how I preach in French, but I did my best to share the miraculous hope that Jesus Christ brings into a dark world.
*Once the musical portion of the worship was over, Amy took the kids into the adjacent room. From what she tells me, things went very well.
My best guesstimate has 45 people there. We had a good number of folks who came from other churches, just to be a blessing to us. I'd say about 55-60% were in this case. The rest were folks who fit into one of two categories: A. Christians who live in the community who are very interested in a church plant project.
B. Invitees who came either out of curiosity or to be polite. It's safe to say that some of these sweet people are searching and we are thrilled that God has brought them across the path of this baby church plant.
Again, thanks to those of you who could come and did so. Your presence was a blessing. Thanks to all of you who prayed with and for this amazing group of people that have committed to seeing a church started here in Val d'Europe France.

Here are a couple shots from the back, right before we started.

 

I regret not getting any photos of the children’s' church, in the adjacent room.
Here is a view from the front, right before we started...

 

Stephane leads the worship.
 

We sang primarily in French of course, but we did experiment with a couple of verses in English, to see how it would go over. I happened to snap this during one of those verses.
Thanks again for your interest and prayers! We are very excited about our upcoming 2nd service in just a few weeks!
Yours for souls in France
Lance Auterson

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