A driftwood cross from Eastbourne beach at the heart of the Dieppe prayer room

Thanks for praying for us during the month of April. Dave’s visit to Colorado Springs went well and Sharon had a good time with her family in Nottingham and we both met up again in Eastbourne!

We also had a good time in Dieppe over Easter and had visits from friends and family members.
Here’s some things we would value your prayers for during May:

1. Pray that the finishing touches to the prayer room will come together, i.e. French language banners, and for creativity as we fill up the final spaces on the walls. Most of all though, please pray for God’s presence as we and others enter the place, and also that something is ‘caught’ about praying for France and its people.

2. We have someone visiting soon who will be helping us to work out various routes for prayer walking. Pray that their time here will be beneficial for them, and that together we may sense where and how we should pray as we go.

3. After the first week of May we have people staying for the rest of the month. Please ask God to bless all who come and that they will sense His presence and purpose in their lives.

4 reasons to pray a blessing for others

4. We have decided to be bold and are asking some of our neighbours if they would be interested in joining us for some combined English/French conversational evenings. Please pray that we may receive some positive responses.

5. We’re going to be writing about our vision for prayer, community and France this month. Sitting down and doing this often helps refine the ideas. Pray that we will be hearing from God as we do this.

Thank you again for joining with us in prayer for this venture. It’s encouraging and comforting to know that others are talking to God on our behalf. May you know His blessing in your lives and flowing out to others.

Prayer Points – April 2012

We’d like to start by giving thanks for all the people who’ve visited us in the last couple of weeks; some friends we already knew and some who have now become friends. It’ s great to see something you’ve been dreaming and praying about start to become a reality.

We’ve just had an enjoyable weekend with some students and their leaders from The Bridge looking at John 15 – Jesus the Vine and ourselves as the branches. We ate, cried, laughed and prayed together and it was good.

So, once again we’re thankful to everyone who supports us through prayer and other ways, and below are our prayer points for this month:

1. As the weather gets warmer and we’re outside more, it’s easier to meet our neighbours and people in the immediate locality. Please pray that we will be able to build friendships with some of these people and others in the locality

2. We’re both away for 10 days in April. Sharon is visiting family in Nottingham and Dave is taking part in a conference in Colorado Springs about mission and children. Please pray for safe travel and good times with various family members.

3. We are obviously still getting to know and discover things about the town of Dieppe, and we’d be glad of prayer for wisdom to understand the needs and areas where the various prayer walking routes we are planning will go. This will enable us and our visitors to pray for the town in an active way.

4. We are really enjoying being part of a local church here and looking forward to having a meal with the pastor and his wife this month. Please pray that this relationship will deepen and be fruitful in many ways.

5. We’re increasingly aware that everything we do needs to come out of being with God and learning to live consciously aware of His presence all of the time and in whatever we’re doing. Pray that this might become more of a reality – for all of us.

Thank you.
Dave and Sharon

Our friend Penny is here for a few days and is the first non family member to visit us here in Dieppe. Lots of conversation, prayer and food so far!

Our friend Penny

The prayer room is nearly ready – here is a sneak peek. With 3 more sets of visitors over the next 10 days we’re working hard to have everything ready.

Paris is a key prayer focus

The prayer blackboard wall

Our soon-to-be prayer idea boards

Plenty of prayer reading....

it's a big country!

Thanks for your prayers last month. We really appreciate knowing that we are being supported in this way.

The prayer room isn’t quite finished but the spare room is! See photo below and also underneath prayer points.

Found a use for some old shutters

Here’s our prayer points for March:

1. Please continue to pray as we put the prayer room together. We are working with our French friends so that most of the information will be in French and English.

2. We are looking to meet up with others in Normandy who are working on similar missional projects. Please pray for good relationships to develop as we look at ways that we can support and bless one another.

3. We are at The Bridge later on this month where Dave will be speaking. Ask God for ongoing favour as we seek to share real life giving wisdom from the word.

4. Please pray for opportunities to interact with our neighbours and for friendships to develop; for boldness to use the language we’ve learned and not worry too much about getting everything right before we speak!

5. We have the first of our guests arriving towards the end of this month. Please pray that people will sense God’s presence, enjoy hospitality and discover more about prayer and France during their urban retreat.

Don’t forget to let us know how we might pray for you and also check out the calendar page and come and visit!

Not finished without cushions!

Bathroom bargain

Singles or couples welcome

En suite!

Find more photos of our new retreat in Dieppe here.

This is the prayer room 'before' picture. Check back next month for the 'after' picture

Many thanks to those of you who read this and pray for us – here’s our February offering:

1.  We leave France tomorrow for the Children’s Ministry conference in Eastbourne. Over 1000 will gather and we’ll be part of the exhibition and the main celebration team.

2.  We have just about finished painting and preparing all the rooms in the flat and now, this month, we will concentrate on getting the prayer room ready. Please pray that we will have creativity and insight as we do this. Also, that through our connections with the local church here, we may have the information displayed in both English and French.

3.  Please pray for a new flat-mate for our son Ben. Renting out our property helps support us being here, so it would be good to get a new tenant asap.

4.  We would appreciate your prayers for our relationships to grow with the people at our church. Some of them speak English, but we are mainly relying on our limited French, so prayers that this will continue to develop would be good too. (We are finding that being more immersed in a French town/church is already helping with this.)

5.  Please pray for our families back in England – that they will know God’s love in tangible ways.

Please feel free to e-mail if we can pray for you in any way.

Blessings from Dieppe

Dave & Sharon

Widely travelled chicken

Thanks to all who have prayed for us over the last couple of months. Our move went well and we’re grateful to our friends at The Bridge who helped with this. Carrying heavy boxes of books over cobblestones and up a flight of stairs has to be a true expression of friendship!

Here’s our latest requests for prayer:

1.  Please pray for us as we get the place ready (painting rooms, etc) and prepare the prayer room. We are hoping to complete this process by the end of February and will keep you posted.

2.  We’ve met some of our neighbours, but would be glad of your prayers that we’ll get to know them more over the coming months.

3.  We are joining the Apostolic church here in Dieppe and would appreciate your prayers that we will settle in and find ways to serve, and build relationships with people.

4. Pray that our grasp of the language will increase and that our conversation classes will go well. There is an opportunity for friendship building here too.

5.  We’re going to Prague later in the month to teach and minister to mission activists from as many as 25 nations. We sense this is a very strategic gathering, Please pray for us as we share. We’ll also be back at The Bridge in Paris for our regular monthly teaching time in the Sunday gathering. We value your prayers for all of these opportunities to share about the extent and reality of salvation through Jesus.

Once again, thanks so much for praying for us and if you have a moment, send us an e-mail about how we can pray for you as well.

Dave & Sharon

As you may have heard/read, we have a few changes coming up. We’re moving to Dieppe to deepen our involvement in French life, culture and church. We’d value your prayers for the following:

1. Please pray that we’ll see God in the details of our move; in the packing/transition process in Paris and the same (unpacking) in Dieppe.

2. We would value your prayers as we make new connections and friendships in Dieppe, and Normandy generally. We already have a few fledgling friendships there – pray that they will grow and develop.

3. We will be joining a French church (with a bilingual pastor). Pray that we may continue to learn the language well as we are more immersed in the culture.

4. We will still be involved at The Bridge (once a month). Please ask God for continued growth, both in people’s relationship with Him and also numerically.

5. We believe that our new home in Dieppe will be a place where people catch a vision for prayer and mission. Pray that people will come and find God at work in us and in them for His glory.

We really do appreciate your support and hope that we can pray for you too. Let us know if there are any specific needs.

We have incorporated 2 months of prayer requests as we’re a bit late getting the information out. We’ll be back in January. We hope you all have a Christmas that is full of joy.

Dave and Sharon

Visited a church in Paris where they meet in a coffee shop!

Many thanks to those of you who pray for us; it’s a real encouragement to know that you are part of what we are doing, through prayer. It can work both ways, so please keep in touch as to how we can be joining with you in the things you are talking to God about.

Here’s some prayer starters for this month: (bonus sixth request this time!)

• We had a good time at our Dinner with Friends group in September. Please pray that our gathering this month will be a time of enjoying good food and conversation together, and that we might be aware of God’s blessing and presence as we eat, talk and listen.
• Our weekly quiz night has started up again. Please pray for the ongoing relationships with those we go with and those we meet there. Resisting the temptation to ask for prayers that we might win!
• It would be good to remember The Jesus Lifestyle course we are hosting and helping the leader with. We meet once a week for a meal (food again!) and then watch the DVD and it’s opened up for discussion after. It’s a follow-up to Alpha based on the Sermon on the Mount.
• It’s easy to be busy doing the stuff, so we would value your prayers for time to ‘waste’ with God and to make sure that we are giving out from a place of fullness, rather than running on empty.
• Dave continues to preach at The Bridge and Sharon is helping encourage prayer. The numbers are growing past the 100 mark and include a wide variety of people from many nations. They include several exploring Christianity for the first time or returning to Jesus.
• Dave is at a strategic missions conference in early October about reaching the 2.1 billion children of the world with the message of Jesus. 100 people are gathering from around the world. Pray for a really fruitful 6 days.

Thank you for your support

Dave & Sharon

Cley - part of our Norfolk trip in August

We trust that you have all had some time for rest and relaxation over the summer. We had a good and enjoyable time back in England and received fantastic hospitality from many of our friends at Living Stones and elsewhere.

We also enjoyed a few days away in the New Forest, and Dave led the main sessions at a weekend family event in Norwich.

Back in France, Dave recently preached on the prodigal son at The Bridge. We were very encouraged as we prayed after the service with a ‘returning prodigal’.

Here’s our 5 prayer points for September:

1. Please pray for the two new life groups we are involved with; one we are leading, called Dinner with Friends. We are hoping this will be a relaxed gathering around the dinner table where conversation and friendship will take place. We are also helping to lead another group called The Jesus Lifestyle, which is a follow up to the Alpha Course. We’re believing that God will be at work in these two settings and that all of our lives will be transformed.

2. Please pray that the ‘tent-making’ work will continue to come in so that we can help support what we are doing here.

3. Our quiz night returns later this month. Please pray for ongoing relationships to grow and new ones to form. The owner has now started to introduce us to people who come in and enquire about an international church, and one person, along with his family has been along to The Bridge!

4. It would be good to pray that The Bridge will continue to grow and flourish and, as team members return home after their short term mission, new people will continue to step into the gap that this inevitably leaves.

5. We would value your prayers for our family back in the U.K. Please pray that God would be their strength and source of life.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers – we really appreciate your support in this way and are aware that it underpins everything we do. Pleased contact us if we can pray for you in any way.

Found at the Merci store here in Paris

Here’s a picture from a shop we visited called Merci. The wealthy owners donate all the profit from this shop to children’s work in Madagascar as their way of saying thanks. We’re trying to be a thankful couple and indeed Sharon is writing about it once or twice a week.

We have much to give thanks for as we have had visits from family and friends, been involved in preaching here in Paris and have helped lead two prayer walks in the area where we live. The book that Dave wrote with Roy Godwin was recently No 1 in the UK Christian Book Charts and sneaked into the Amazon top 500. There is now also a video of Dave talking to 500 leaders in Budapest about the priority of mission to children – scroll down to view that.

Sharon’s brother was baptised in Spain and it was great to support him on the day and take part in the actual baptism.

So, here are our prayer requests for the next 2 months:

1. We would appreciate your prayers for this coming Saturday, 9th July, as we are involved in a ‘Grace Outpouring’ conference with Roy Godwin in London. Please pray that all the details will work out smoothly on the day.

2. For the ongoing friendships with people in our town, i.e. neighbours, people running businesses, such as tea rooms, restaurants, etc.

3. A good time with family visiting towards the end of July.

4. In August we are participating in a Bible Week in Norwich. We would appreciate your prayers that this event will be helpful to the many families who attend.

5. Dave is creating a new global magazine about mission to children. It will launch later this year but much of the work will be done over the summer. Please pray that he will know wisdom, insight and creativity as he seeks to equip others for mission.

How can we pray for you? Please let us know.

If anyone would like more specific information about any of the above, please get in touch at dave@tahilla.com

Thanks for all your support – hope you have a great summer.

Thanks