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| Sunday, July
8th Summary Posted Sunday at 9:23 p.m. France time (2:23 p.m. central time) Our second day in France began at David
Dodeler's church, Eglise Baptiste de Mantes, in the city of Mantes La
Ville (Pronounce it: Monts la Vill-AY). The storefront church is in a
shopping mall in the heart of the town. Mantes La Ville along with Mantes
La Jolie and Bernard Dodeler's home town of Limay have a population
slightly larger than Green Bay's, about 150,000. The service began in French. We tried to pick out the few words we could understand, but mostly rejoiced in seeing believers of any nationality celebrate their love for God through song and prayer. Our group, all fourteen of us, sang for the congregation at Eglise Baptiste de Mantes. We sang How Great Thou Art and Amazing Grace. After the songs, Pastor Bender preached a
message from Luke 12:16-21. The message was translated by Bernard Dodeler,
who normally preaches at a church in Vernon (Pronounce it: Vair-NO), but
was able to join us because an evangelist was there for the day. All of us
were reminded of the need to give God the glory for everything we have and
all that we do, and not to take credit or store riches for ourselves.
Everything have or will have belongs to God, and we should not hesitate to
use it in After church we shared with the Dodeler family a wonderful lunch of seafood, grilled chicken and sausages and, of course French bread. The Dodelers have been a wonderful blessing for the entire group, sharing their house, their food and their fellowship with all of us. Following lunch we divided into four groups and went into Mantes la Jolie and distributed more than 500 tracts. This has been an important effort for the Dodelers' churches. The people of France have Bibles, but they do not read them. Telling them of the Gospel and where they can hear it preached and learn to serve God is a vital ministry here. The groups spent about three hours distributing the tracts and taking time to talk with some of the French people we met. The group enjoyed the opportunity to bring God's word to the French. "While my group and I were passing out
tracts, the people were very kind, and almost all of them accepted it.
This one lady was walking with her husband, and I handed the lady a tract.
She took it, looked at it, and shoved it back at me and said something in
French, and walked quickly down the street. Her husband looked at her like
she was crazy, then smiled at me. It w Fortunately, others were more receptive. From Sarah Beise: "We handed an older man a gospel tract, and Armand, the man my group was with, talked to him for about 15 minutes. The Lord works in wonderful ways that are amazing and awesome. I say hello to my family and friends back in the U.S." The tracts were placed in mailboxes or given directly to residents. They include the gospel, an invitation to send for an audio tape presenting the gospel and, if someone shows an interest, a copy of the book of Jean (John). In addition to being able to do God's work,
we are truly blessed to be in a country that is rich with history. There
is a bridge across the Seine River between Limay and Mantes la Jolie that
is missing its middle portion, and n We continue to pray and seek God's will during this trip. We ask for your continued prayers as we are here. All is well, and we love you all. (Written by Steve Bruss, 7/8/01) |
Copyright © Bay City Baptist Church • 1840 Bond Street • Green Bay, WI 54303 • 920-499-5561
his
service. It reinforced in all of the mission group that this trip, and the
time, effort and money spent on it is for God's glory.
as
really fun and interesting," Tiffany Behnke said.
ow
stands as a memorial. American soldiers destroyed the middle section of
the bridge during World War II to prevent the Germans from moving across
it and back into Limay. The soldiers for Christ that you helped send to
Europe were able to see this remnant of a time nearly 60 years ago when
other soldiers were here fighting to preserve our freedom.