Philippe & Dolores DAUNER Marseille France

Mission: Marseille October 2005 edition

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Family News This time, we’ll start with family news… In fact, we just started the family itself! We got married last month, on September 10th. The wedding was wonderful, about 150 people attended (there goes the missionary reflex again, counting people all the time!). Dolores’ whole family came down to Marseille from Belgium, and it was truly a beautiful day God gave us all. You work together, you’re in misOur one-week honeymoon was in Greece, and sions together, you pray together, walking in Paul’s footsteps, and visiting Athens, so… might as well get married ! Corinth, and other archeological sites was a treat for us, since we love history. We just moved in an appartment building not far from the church (a 5 minutes walk). We still have a few details to work out, yet you are all welcome to come and stay with us. Anybody who ever stayed with Philippe and his roommates will see the change – what, no pasta ? Thank you for all your prayers for us !

The French connection

Paris

Ardèche Aix Marseille

Philippe is the full-time evangelist of the « Chapelle de Fuveau » Church of Christ in Marseille, France. He teaches in the Christians On Mission (CEM) Bible internship and at the University of theology (FLTR) in Aix. Dolores is the secretary for the church, CEM, and the Bonnefoi Center (Ardèche region). Both of us take care of youth ministries, direct camps and retreats, and, in general, love bringing God’s Word to the French.

Marseille News CEM summer session 2005 (July) This was the 10th year of our one week internship. About 50 people attended this ‘demo’ of our year Christians On Mission (CEM), from all horizons. We were blessed this year with more teens than ever, and a group from Germany, and lots of God-induced One week to discover how to diversity. reach out to the French people — The week was toped with two concerts with the CEM summer session ! chorus and Bible skits that the group prepared during the week. Around 150 people attended the concert at Chapelle de Fuveau, mostly people from the neighborhood. If you are interested in attending this incredible experience, please do contact us so we can send you information (The Bible studies are in French and English).

The musical the children presented in the village church. The villagers were encouraged that so many young people knew about Jesus, and carried on the faith.

Camp Harmony 2005 (July) Our two-week summer camp was also 10 years old this year, and we had over 100 kids from all over France and Switzerland. This ministry is really fruitful, since almost half the kids are from nonchristian families. The theme this year was « Mission imPossible » (nothing is impossible for God), with a whole day centered on finding and neutralizing a sin bomb! Philippe and Dolores directed the camp for the 7-12 year olds, while Pascale Guillot and Greg Young directed the teen camp. We are already preparing next year, since there are more campers every year since 1996, especially since the camp moved to the Ardèche region two years ago (2003).

CEM 2004 internship (august and september) The 2004 class of CEM left Marseille to visit two churches in August ; in Lille, France and in Antwerp/Gent, Belgium. Serving these congregations gives them an opportunity to discouver new ways of serving the Lord in a European context. Then the 2004 CEM year came to an end a week before the wedding (talk about tight scheldules!). Canden and Stephanie left us for Mauritius to help the church there, and Emi has decided to study here in Marseille, and is active with the youth group here.

CEM 2005 October 9th, our 8th year of CEM started with « CEMists » Ketty Gauthierot, Rachel Mievilly, Jordan Smith, and Katherine Linske. The first two are from the church of Christ in Lyon, France. Jordan, from Lausanne, Switzerland, has been preparing this year for a long time. Katherine is from Michigan, USA. The year started with an orientation time (at camp Bonnefoi), where we prepare the year in prayer. They‘ve already had two weeks of classes, and helped in the teen retreat end of October.

The CEMists with their traditional « Welcome cake »

A generational vision The next big event for the church is the Gospel concert by our a cappella chorus and presentation of The Tale of the Three Trees by our children‘s chorus on November 5. This is the same program we presented in our own chapel and at a neighboring catholic parish this spring. We have been invited to do it again in a LARGE church which is also an annex of the city hall. This means the city will pay for and send out invitations to hundreds of people in the neighborhood. One of the parents of our Club Cool kids organized this for us. Our children‘s outreach, especially Club Cool, seems to be growing faster than we can keep up with it. The very first session filled our fellowship hall (about 30 kids and many parents). The teen, pre-teen and young adult groups also got off to a good start. The great majority of these young people are unchurched and probably have no other exposure to the gospel. This is why we do not take our responsibility lightly and devote so much of ourselves to this ministry. Prayer requests :

The Teen group of the Marseille church.

• Dolores’ family and the difficult time they are going through. • One of our teen’s mother has advanced cancer, Aline. • For the new CEM students, that this year can be an encouragement to serve God their whole life. • For all our visitors and contacts this month. • For the gospel concert that will take place on the 5th of november.

Bonnefoi News Three main events took place at our Bonnefoi center since the summer camp (we missed the first two since we were on our honeymoon) : Senior citizen retreat (M Dauner) Our third annual senior citizen spiritual retreat is still one of the best kept secrets of the French church. It is one of my favorite activities of the year. Because we are still relatively few in number, we are able to spend a lot of time and grow together. This year, Justin (19) replaced Philippe on the teaching program. His topic was « Fathers and Mothers for the Church: Titus 2 ».

Father-Son retreat (Max Dauner) The first annual Father-Son retreat, although small in number, was a complete success if you ask the men and boys who attended. At first, I was a bit skeptical (another retreat?), but that shows how short-sighted I can be. Men are outnumbered 3 to 1 in the Marseilles church, and since I know that God is not prejudiced against men, it may be that we need to manifest the manliness of the gospel in a clearer way. I trust and pray that this will be a help toward that end.

French Teen Spiritual Retreat We had 28 teens stay for four days up at the Bonnefoi Center at the end of October. Many teens with no church or little spiritual support where they live see this retreat as an oasis in the desert. 11 teens came from the Marseille Church.

New family, new newsletter This newsletter replaces both Dolores‘ « Les Roses », and Philippe’s « Marseille Messenger ». From now on, you will get news from both our ministries. If you prefer to receive it by e-mail (pdf format), just let us know at [email protected]. We both want to thank you for your spiritual and financial support these last five years. Both of us hope to continue working together with you in the upcoming years, and we thank all of you who have decided to continue or start a financial commitment to our ministries. God bless all of you ! Philippe and Dolores Dauner