Oct. 12, 2016
As our time here draws to an end, I thought I would give an overview/update on what we have actually been doing here in Troyes.
Most of our time here has been loving on our Missionary family, and being an extra set of hands to help them with daily routines and chores. I don't know how well we have done, but we hope it has been a help to them. We have loved playing with the children, taking them to the park, playing games and listening to their stories and jokes. We have thoroughly enjoyed listening to the piano music as they practice, and helping (as much as we could) with school work. It has been a looooonnnnggg time since I have had to do chemistry, math, science and the other subjects these children are learning. The eldest goes for PSAT tests this weekend in Paris. They all are doing great in all their studies, thanks to the hard work and home schooling by their parents.
Our other time has been at the Ministry Center, where our Ed has been helping with the video taping of sermons and study/daily devotional films for distribution in France and around the world.
At the center, Peggy (my able bodied assistant) and I have removed wallpaper, and re-papered the chapel area where Franck Alexandre, the evangelist and Ministry founder, is holding services for local Christians/Pastors to come and seek the power available to us all through the Holy Spirit. There have been healings, and deliverances through these services and Franck want to continue them. In France, the local churches believe that once you accept Christ and are saved, that is all there is to being a Christian, But we know that in order to live an overcoming and fruitful life, there must be discipleship and training. That is a huge part of Franck's Ministry as he is a prolific, annointed writer and teacher and his training videos and books are a tremendous tool for the French churches.
We also have done some painting and minor repairs that were needed at the Center. I was able to hange 8 lights in a new studio, so that more videos and training can be conducted. Franck told us today that we can watch in a few weeks on his web site, the new videos he will be doing in the new studio. Franck is a fire-ball of energy, preaching or teaching all over France and the world. His vision for ministry and how his ministry has been born and the miracle of the beginning is one that is only God directed. In fact, he was called and asked to provide TV shows for broadcast not having any resources or finances. But in four days, he was able to put a team together, buy cameras and equipment and begin production, a miracle in action. All because he saw the need and said yes, he can do it with God's help. Here is a link to his website, although in French, you can get a glimpse of the ministry. https://www.gospelvision-international.com/
Last night we were blessed with a meal at Franck and Liliana's home, and had a wonderful time with them and the Missionary family.
Today, we asked Franck to tell us of his salvation story and how he came to be the Evangelist and Director of this Ministry..It is truly a miracle.
Briefly, he came from a home were finances were not available, due to his father not having work and his mother became a spiritualist and a witch who dealt in the occult. It engulfed his whole family, including an older brother and younger sister. Franck was only 16 and and one night he saw how this lifestyle was killing his family, and himself, as an evil spirit told him one night if he wanted to escape this hell all he had to do was commit suicide. As he stood at his open window, about to jump, a voice told him if he jumped, he would live forever in the hell he was experiencing. He realized this was a voice of help, and he fell to his knees, praying, "If I can be saved from this, please save me."
He left his home that night and wandered the street till the next day, when he met a group of young people who gave him a tract about the life of Nicki Cruz, who was saved from a similar lifestyle. He attended a meeting that night and God miraculously saved him and called him into the Ministry. He went home and shared with his family the good news, and his entire family was saved and delivered from the occult lifestyle.
This is a brief summary, but we have 6 of his books, describing in detail what I have tried to share in a brief paragraph. Anyone wishing to read it, contact us when we get home and we will send you a copy.
Anyway, we leave next Wednsday for Texas to see Michelle and Robert and Justin, then back to Florida to get ready for our next MAPS project. Pray as we travel next week and for guidance on our next project.
God has been so good to us with blessed good health, productive work, new friends and lives we have encountered and a wonderful time with our dear Missionary Family.
Please continue to pray for the Ministry Center and all our missionaries around the world. You can never imagine what they face daily, just as we do, but without the support of close family nearby.
Love Peggy and Ken
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Saturday, September 17, 2016
France Continues
September 17, 2016
We spent Monday thru Wednesday working on the doors of the offices upstairs & downstairs.
Wednesday we prepared the chapel for the first meeting of Franck's desire to have the churches in the area join together in prayer and the first sermon was on: "The Holy Spirit Burns Within Me".
Thursday evening there were 35 people from the area churches and we had to bring in chairs. Praise
the Lord !! In this service Franck had special times of prayer for areas in the lives of the people.
Several people received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that evening. The presence of the LORD was
so real & strong and others were healed & hearts were touched.
Alot of the churches in France only preach salvation and there is not discipleship taught or how to
live the Christian life thru Christ. Therefore Franck has a great desire & calling to teach/train these
people in other areas of Christianity and growth. He has written "many" books and video series
to equip the churches. We can see a hunger from Thursday night in the people already.
Ken had his first experience of putting up French wallpaper in a small area of the print shop for
practice. Monday we will start the two walls in the chapel, removing the old paper and installing
the new wallpaper. Pray for us...... lol Here in France they do not texture the walls instead they
wallpaper with textured standared white paper & paint the wallpaper.
Below are some pictures of this week. We both find it really enjoyable & fun to work with Franck
as he is the "worker bee" !!!! Anytime you see him he is in FULL RUN !!!! I told Franck I sure
want to watch Ken keep up with you. As all of you know how methodical, calm and easy going
Ken is and Franck is running full force....... :) Gotta see it to understand !
We spent Monday thru Wednesday working on the doors of the offices upstairs & downstairs.
Wednesday we prepared the chapel for the first meeting of Franck's desire to have the churches in the area join together in prayer and the first sermon was on: "The Holy Spirit Burns Within Me".
Thursday evening there were 35 people from the area churches and we had to bring in chairs. Praise
the Lord !! In this service Franck had special times of prayer for areas in the lives of the people.
Several people received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that evening. The presence of the LORD was
so real & strong and others were healed & hearts were touched.
Alot of the churches in France only preach salvation and there is not discipleship taught or how to
live the Christian life thru Christ. Therefore Franck has a great desire & calling to teach/train these
people in other areas of Christianity and growth. He has written "many" books and video series
to equip the churches. We can see a hunger from Thursday night in the people already.
Ken had his first experience of putting up French wallpaper in a small area of the print shop for
practice. Monday we will start the two walls in the chapel, removing the old paper and installing
the new wallpaper. Pray for us...... lol Here in France they do not texture the walls instead they
wallpaper with textured standared white paper & paint the wallpaper.
Below are some pictures of this week. We both find it really enjoyable & fun to work with Franck
as he is the "worker bee" !!!! Anytime you see him he is in FULL RUN !!!! I told Franck I sure
want to watch Ken keep up with you. As all of you know how methodical, calm and easy going
Ken is and Franck is running full force....... :) Gotta see it to understand !
Ken putting together a stand for Fracnk
Lillianna (Franck's wife ) showing him the toilet seat she wants installed
LOOOOK at Franck and his funny face !! He likes to "pose" lol
Picture of Azuza Street Revival
Sign Franck has displayed about the series: Holy Spirit Burn in me
Praying for the people that came forward to reeive the Holy Spirit !!
Monday, September 12, 2016
Ministry center work day
September 12, 2016
We had a wonderful day of worship, communion, and working with the children on Sunday.
What a great day we had today as we painted the 8 doors upstairs in the ministry center.
Start the day with prayer, work, lunch and work. Then Ed took us to 2 different grocery stores
here and it was really nice to see them both oh and a store like office depot.
Tomorrow we will start the downstairs doors and then next wk we will work on the chapel with the
wallpaper.
Our time is going fast here and the Buck Family is sooo gracious and accomodating with us.
Now we will post a few pictures of our week-end and work.
God Bless & Thank you all for the prayers,
Peggy
Ken :)
We had a wonderful day of worship, communion, and working with the children on Sunday.
What a great day we had today as we painted the 8 doors upstairs in the ministry center.
Start the day with prayer, work, lunch and work. Then Ed took us to 2 different grocery stores
here and it was really nice to see them both oh and a store like office depot.
Tomorrow we will start the downstairs doors and then next wk we will work on the chapel with the
wallpaper.
Our time is going fast here and the Buck Family is sooo gracious and accomodating with us.
Now we will post a few pictures of our week-end and work.
God Bless & Thank you all for the prayers,
Peggy
Ken :)
Marlene' showing model of Ze Bus used for ministry
Recording studio for teaching and ministry
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Troyes old city tour
September 3, 2016
Toured the old city today before heading to Normandy tomorrow evening. Saw some magnificent cathedrals, cafe's, and city life. Will definately return to do more touring. Below are a few of the sites we saw.
Tomb stone in cathedral, people wanted to be buried in cathedral to be in church when Jesus returns
Toured the old city today before heading to Normandy tomorrow evening. Saw some magnificent cathedrals, cafe's, and city life. Will definately return to do more touring. Below are a few of the sites we saw.
City sights
St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral
Old style house
One of many "leaning houses" due to settling
Bones of a Saint, can now be an official relic of the church
Another "leaning house"
"Lady with Big Hat" sculpture
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Ministry Center
September 1, 2016
And Peggy continues her blog.!
HaPpY September !!!
Today we had the most wonderful day !! Went to the ministry center for prayer at 9 am then a tour of the ministry center in Troyes. This center was founded by a French Pastor/Evangelist to reach out to the French churches and other churches around the world. He is a prolific writer and his name is: Franck Alexandre and his wife's name is Liliana.
As he has preached in churches around the world, especially France, he saw that there was a great need for training/educational training materials for the church. So as the Holy Spirit annointed him he began to write and has written & published over 100 books. The ministry center does all in-house printing and publishing of the materials including the production of the books he has written.
In addition, the center produces TV and internet programs and thought for the day devotional for France.
Should the Lord lay it on your hearts, volunteers are welcomed to come and work at the center.
The ministry center also has a great bus/evangelism ministry which is allowed to go to surrounding cities to offer coffee and talk to the people about the Lord. Then they show them a video of people on the streets responding to the question, "Who do you say Jesus is?" Since the bus is registered as an RV, it has easy access to enter a city and park on the streets and reach people with the Living Word of God.
Ken will be doing alot of work in the center to update and remodel some of the rooms. Also the recording studios and doors will get a facelift.
Below are some pictures of our experience today of the tour.
Then Ken & I were escorted to the local grocery by Jeanne (middle child) to pick up a few items and we were overwhelmed by her ability to HELP us in the store with the food items and her French with the cashier. It truly was a great experience.
Spent the evening playing FuN games with the children and we had a blast with them !!! Great kids
And Peggy continues her blog.!
HaPpY September !!!
Today we had the most wonderful day !! Went to the ministry center for prayer at 9 am then a tour of the ministry center in Troyes. This center was founded by a French Pastor/Evangelist to reach out to the French churches and other churches around the world. He is a prolific writer and his name is: Franck Alexandre and his wife's name is Liliana.
As he has preached in churches around the world, especially France, he saw that there was a great need for training/educational training materials for the church. So as the Holy Spirit annointed him he began to write and has written & published over 100 books. The ministry center does all in-house printing and publishing of the materials including the production of the books he has written.
In addition, the center produces TV and internet programs and thought for the day devotional for France.
Should the Lord lay it on your hearts, volunteers are welcomed to come and work at the center.
The ministry center also has a great bus/evangelism ministry which is allowed to go to surrounding cities to offer coffee and talk to the people about the Lord. Then they show them a video of people on the streets responding to the question, "Who do you say Jesus is?" Since the bus is registered as an RV, it has easy access to enter a city and park on the streets and reach people with the Living Word of God.
Ken will be doing alot of work in the center to update and remodel some of the rooms. Also the recording studios and doors will get a facelift.
Below are some pictures of our experience today of the tour.
Then Ken & I were escorted to the local grocery by Jeanne (middle child) to pick up a few items and we were overwhelmed by her ability to HELP us in the store with the food items and her French with the cashier. It truly was a great experience.
Spent the evening playing FuN games with the children and we had a blast with them !!! Great kids
Liliana in publishing center
Franck and Liliana with us at the coffee house bus
Ken checking out the tool room
Franck (Evangelist) and Ed Buck (Missionary) in TV studio
Discussing renovations for the chapel
Franck recording another episode in the studio
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Haarlem Adventure
Saturday 28, 2016
We took the bus from Schipol to Haarlem this morning to tour the
CORRIE TEN BOOM HOUSE
The Ten Boom family dedicated their lives in Christian service to fellow men. During the Second World War the home became a refuge, a Hiding Place for people sought by the enemy
The book is called: THE HIDING PLACE
While there at the end of the tour the guide asked for someone to read a poem and Peggy read it
and here are the words:
The city of Haarlem was such a quaint village. We sure enjoyed the entire area with huge
churches, cathedrals, and a town market going on with every kind of sales.
I must say the Europeans do not go to the TOILETS (THEIR WORD) like we do..... lol
We spent half the day hunting the toilet and spent most of our money on the toilets.
Each toilet has an attendant and you must pay to get in. None of the departments stores
or small stores have toilets and neither do the places to eat. Of course McDonalds had one to use
for the public and one coffee shop we heard about. This is so foreign to us. LOL
Some things Peggy has noticed here that are so "different" from our customs:
Of course no toilets to public acessible
All the bicycles, all shapes, sizes and ages of the people riding them, from kids with
training wheels to Grandma & Grandpa's....... if not riding they walk !
Bicycles have the right of way at all times..... there are lanes just for the bikes and bus
The coffee/pastry shops on every corner and the smell going thru the air makes one want to stop at each one, which we almost have ...... LOL
All the canals with every kind of yacht and boat one can imagine
We do not see them with bottles of water while riding, or walking
Overall we have found Amseterdam to be really helpful and MOST FRIENDLY !!
One lady on one of our bus rides was such a talker and Peggy asked if we could take her picture and she hesitated but finally said YES ...... then she proceded to take out a tape measure and measure her
smile and asked us how big was it ...... then she just laughed.
Yesterday we went to Zaanse Schans..... the land of wind mills and of course they had the cheese shop and chocolate shop !!! Y U M M Y to say the least !
Most post cards have these pictures:
Bicycles, cows, cheese factories, windmills, & Dutch chocolate & of course the Dutch clogs.
This blog is brought to you by Peggy,,,as you can tell by all the YIPPEES And YUMMYS!!!! AND A LOT OF CAPS!!
We took the bus from Schipol to Haarlem this morning to tour the
CORRIE TEN BOOM HOUSE
The Ten Boom family dedicated their lives in Christian service to fellow men. During the Second World War the home became a refuge, a Hiding Place for people sought by the enemy
The book is called: THE HIDING PLACE
While there at the end of the tour the guide asked for someone to read a poem and Peggy read it
and here are the words:
The city of Haarlem was such a quaint village. We sure enjoyed the entire area with huge
churches, cathedrals, and a town market going on with every kind of sales.
I must say the Europeans do not go to the TOILETS (THEIR WORD) like we do..... lol
We spent half the day hunting the toilet and spent most of our money on the toilets.
Each toilet has an attendant and you must pay to get in. None of the departments stores
or small stores have toilets and neither do the places to eat. Of course McDonalds had one to use
for the public and one coffee shop we heard about. This is so foreign to us. LOL
Some things Peggy has noticed here that are so "different" from our customs:
Of course no toilets to public acessible
All the bicycles, all shapes, sizes and ages of the people riding them, from kids with
training wheels to Grandma & Grandpa's....... if not riding they walk !
Bicycles have the right of way at all times..... there are lanes just for the bikes and bus
The coffee/pastry shops on every corner and the smell going thru the air makes one want to stop at each one, which we almost have ...... LOL
All the canals with every kind of yacht and boat one can imagine
We do not see them with bottles of water while riding, or walking
Overall we have found Amseterdam to be really helpful and MOST FRIENDLY !!
One lady on one of our bus rides was such a talker and Peggy asked if we could take her picture and she hesitated but finally said YES ...... then she proceded to take out a tape measure and measure her
smile and asked us how big was it ...... then she just laughed.
Yesterday we went to Zaanse Schans..... the land of wind mills and of course they had the cheese shop and chocolate shop !!! Y U M M Y to say the least !
Most post cards have these pictures:
Bicycles, cows, cheese factories, windmills, & Dutch chocolate & of course the Dutch clogs.
This blog is brought to you by Peggy,,,as you can tell by all the YIPPEES And YUMMYS!!!! AND A LOT OF CAPS!!
Thursday, August 25, 2016
In the beginning
Friday 26, 2016
Good morning to all. It is a HOT day in the Netherlands, just like the last 4. Very unusual for this time of the year but the locals are loving it. It is the first tropical weather they have had this summer and the sad part is the kids are all back in school.
Lots of water activities here, boats and skiing are very popular and swimming also.
Let me tell you how we arrived at where we are.
A few years ago, while on a project in Florida, we met the most wonderful family of missionaries who were in the states itenerating. We mentioned we would like to come to France some day. Well, they are back in France and around April we made contact and asked if there was any work we could do for them if we visited for a while. We were so happy when they replied, of course, and then we set our sights on coming some time this year. As it worked out, there will not be a lot of work (not like our usual projects) but some things they would like to be done that we can do.
We will be doing some renovation in the local church they attend and then they have invited us to go with them to Marseille later in October to help a single missionary lady work with street children and gypsy children for a week long VBS. Peggy is excited because she had just said to me a week before knowing this, " I am so sad I cannot work with children this year", So God knew her heart.
We decided, since this will be our only chance to be in Europe, to try to connect with a friend we had met in Las Palmas on the Africal Mercy Ship a few years ago. I contacted him and he said of course he would love to see us and we have been able to visit for 2 days with him and his lovely family. We had a great time and we got to see Dutch life in their village.
Today we celebrate 44 years of marriage, I am blessed, Don't have anything special planned, maybe a cruise around Amsterdam and just being together.
Keep us in your prayers as we travel to France on Monday. Pray we fit in and can learn a little of the language and culture so we don't appear as rude Americans.
Here are few pictures of Amsterdam and our sweet friends in Zuidland.
Good morning to all. It is a HOT day in the Netherlands, just like the last 4. Very unusual for this time of the year but the locals are loving it. It is the first tropical weather they have had this summer and the sad part is the kids are all back in school.
Lots of water activities here, boats and skiing are very popular and swimming also.
Let me tell you how we arrived at where we are.
A few years ago, while on a project in Florida, we met the most wonderful family of missionaries who were in the states itenerating. We mentioned we would like to come to France some day. Well, they are back in France and around April we made contact and asked if there was any work we could do for them if we visited for a while. We were so happy when they replied, of course, and then we set our sights on coming some time this year. As it worked out, there will not be a lot of work (not like our usual projects) but some things they would like to be done that we can do.
We will be doing some renovation in the local church they attend and then they have invited us to go with them to Marseille later in October to help a single missionary lady work with street children and gypsy children for a week long VBS. Peggy is excited because she had just said to me a week before knowing this, " I am so sad I cannot work with children this year", So God knew her heart.
We decided, since this will be our only chance to be in Europe, to try to connect with a friend we had met in Las Palmas on the Africal Mercy Ship a few years ago. I contacted him and he said of course he would love to see us and we have been able to visit for 2 days with him and his lovely family. We had a great time and we got to see Dutch life in their village.
Today we celebrate 44 years of marriage, I am blessed, Don't have anything special planned, maybe a cruise around Amsterdam and just being together.
Keep us in your prayers as we travel to France on Monday. Pray we fit in and can learn a little of the language and culture so we don't appear as rude Americans.
Here are few pictures of Amsterdam and our sweet friends in Zuidland.
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