Dauner News Update March 26, 2008
Easter Sunday at Fuveau Chapel
Sunday is my favorite day all year long, but some Lord’s Day assemblies bring particularly memorable spiritual refreshment. Easter Sunday, 2008, was one such experience.
We expected some visitors, not only because it was Easter but also because one of the girls of the youth group — Claire — had invited friends to attend her baptism on that day. (Baptisms are an important public event in France and represent a rare opportunity to welcome the unchurched to a Sunday morning service.) In fact, there were some 30 visitors, out of a total attendance of over 90. The special two-hour service featured, as is our custom in Marseilles, a sermon on the resurrection and the reading of the resurrection accounts from the Gospels.
The morning assembly ended with the announcement of the engagement of two of our young adults: Jacob and Sabrina, who are to be married in October.
A full chapel, a baptism, a wedding engagement and above all… a risen Christ!
Chorale Harmonie Concert Tour: April 5-11
The Harmony Choral’s traditional spring concert tour will take us this year from Marseilles to Lyon, France; Lausanne, Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland; and to Bucharest, Romania. The singers, all from the local church, are not professionals by a long shot, but thanks to a talented choral director (Kathy Young) and lyricist (Prisca) our concerts have proven to be an effective means of communicating the gospel. This will be our first foray into an Eastern European country.
Philippe as “Unofficial” French Army Chaplain
Philippe’s ministry at the neighboring Army hospital has lead to his being asked to serve “unofficially” as an assistant chaplain at the neighborhood fire station. (Contrary to the rest of France, Marseilles’ fire department is directed and manned by the French army. Firemen are called marins pompiers: naval firemen.) His post will be unofficial because our church does not belong to the Federation of Protestant Churches. But that was not an insurmountable obstacle, as the officers in charge know Philippe and appreciate his work.
I have been immersed these past few weeks in John 6, a surprisingly deep text which ushers us directly into the presence and the mind of the Christ, the Bread of Life come down from Heaven. How could anybody not want this to be true?? Peter had it right: To whom else would we go? May God grant us to find in this Bread daily nourishment for our souls.
Max and Prisca