July 2, 2006

Dear Fellow laborers,

No doubt many of you are aware of the book and movie “The Da Vinci Code”. We have neither read the book nor seen the movie, but we doubt that those who wrote and produced these works were interested in glorifying God. Nevertheless, God rules! The Bible is filled with case histories of men doing things for their own motives and God using them for His glory and the advancement of His kingdom. This seems to have been the case in the past few weeks here. We have had several opportunities to share God’s Word through conversations that began as people asked questions about the “The Da Vinci Code”.

The Lord continues to open many doors for us to witness. A couple of weeks ago Judy saw a couple that lives a few doors from us at the grocery store. They asked if we would be interested in helping them plan a neighborhood dinner. You may remember that this was a means that God used to help us get started here in Tournefeuille. We have been interested in promoting such a dinner again but wanted to work with some other neighbors so that it did not look like a foreign thing. As it is, all of the neighbors that we met at the first get-together six years ago have since moved away. Judy told Marc and Valerie, the neighbor couple, that we would be interested. They asked us down to their house for a snack time to plan the block dinner. So, it is on for the end of this summer. Pray for this gathering and especially for Marc. He has shown an interest in spiritual matters in the past. He said he would like to study the Bible with us but never started.

This past Saturday night we were invited to Joachim and Angela’s house to celebrate her birthday. You may remember that Joachim was the first person to ask for baptism here. Angela wanted us to be able to meet their friends and neighbors. They had a crowd and it was another open door. Angela and Joachim are quite an encouragement to us. They are now helping in Sunday school with the children and growing in the Lord. They began coming after Amanda, our daughter in law, met Angela at a children’s play group.

Yesterday, we were invited to another birthday party by a lady who studied the Bible with us for over three years. She had also invited a number of neighbors, friends and family. We had an excellent opportunity to share the gospel. One young man, who is about 21 years old, seemed to be very interested. Everyone listened as I answered his questions. These conversations usually start when someone asks us why we are in France. Our answer to this question is usually followed by a question about what we believe. One lady yesterday was rather antagonistic, but this simply gave us the opportunity to re-emphasize the truth.

Judy finished her year of donating time to teach English each week in the public school. The teachers and students gave her gifts, pictures and a lot of thank you notes. This has been an excellent way to make friends in our community with the goal of giving them the Gospel.

We had yet another family come to Sunday service a week ago as a result of the Vacation Bible School that we had for the children in May. We are thinking about having a regular mid-week meeting for children during the coming school year. You can pray for God to give us wisdom about this.

So, we continue to share the news trying to keep our eyes open to see each opportunity that the Lord provides. God uses your gifts to enable us to be here to proclaim the Good News. Thanks for your prayers and gifts. May God give you opportunities to proclaim the Good News where you are.

Serving Christ in France,

John and Judy Hatcher