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(Written by Barbara Springer)

November 1

We had milder temperatures and rain today as we got ready to go to church with our missionaries.  This church in the city of Anthony, which is adjacent to Paris.  Gregg Powell, IMB missionary,  presided over the service this morning and did a great job.  We all participated in communion together and heard a great message from Ecclesiastes given by Antoine, the French pastor.  Although five of our team do not understand French, they were able to hear a translated summary of the message.

For lunch today we all headed into Paris to eat at an Italian restaurant on the Champs Elysees at the recommendation of Angela Powell.  Even though eating in a nice restaurant in Paris on the Champs Elysees is quite expensive (my chef salad cost about $18.50), the food was excellent with very generous servings.  It is interesting to note that the night before we ate a fabulous African meal provided by the poorest of people living in Paris, a meal that cost us nothing monetarily and today we ate on the Champs Elysees where the richest people reside and paid very high prices for it.

We returned to the apartment building where we did a service project among the  West African immigrants.  We were all invited to the meeting of the building association so that they could tell us how we might consider helping them.  This association is made up of African men who all come from the same village in Senegal.  There are between 300 and 400 of them living in France and Italy.  They all came to Europe to find paying jobs in order to send money back to their village.  These men have chosen to live as frugally as possible in order to send as much money as possible back to their village to help with three major needs:  a dependable water source for the village (population: 15,000 to 20,000), schools for the children and health care for the population.  This association of Africans have been personally responsible for building the health clinic for the village, helping to build two schools and providing the funds to keep the water pump running.  The one pump for the village is currently not working so the villagers are having to walk to the well, draw the water up in buckets and carry it back to their homes.  Water in this part of the world is such a precious commodity as it only rains three months out of the year.  Agriculture is the sole source of livelihood for the people.  They raise cereals, peanuts and beans but most of the crops are for feeding the people and not to make a profit.  All of this was shared in the meeting today with a request for us to consider how we might be able to help them with meeting these needs of their people in their home village in Senegal.  We listened respectfully, asked questions for clarification and Steve told them very politely that we could not make any promises or commitments to them at this time. We did promise these men that we would pray for them and for the people in their village.

Tomorrow we will be prayer walking in the city of Paris.  We would ask for you to continue to pray for the seeds that have been planted among the West African Muslim men as well as all the people of France where less than 1% of the population of some 60+ million people are Evangelical Christians.

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October 31

The ministry project at the apartment building where the West African Muslim men live went marvelously well.  The African leadership in the building helped greatly with the crowd control and we were able to offer a dental hygiene kit, reading glasses, a hand-knitted winter cap and a Jesus DVD to 409 Muslim men (there is not one Christian yet in this huge building!  The missionary couple with whom we have been working told us that this was the best service project yet, with more men reached in a very organized way.

The dental hygiene demonstration was presented to groups of five to seven men.   We had three stations set up for the reading glasses.  With the use of some simple eye charts, we saw every man individually as we helped each one find the correct reading glasses.  How thrilling to see their faces as they were able to read the eye chart with the use of a good pair of reading glasses!

After each man heard the dental hygiene presentation, received a tooth brush and toothpaste and came to the reading glasses station, he then went to the table to choose a hand-knitted hat and a Jesus DVD with a brief explanation about the video.  The Muslim men can watch the video, based on the Gospel of Luke, each in his respective mother tongue.

The African leadership of the building prepared a delicious African meal for us after we had completed the project.  Three African ladies prepared a meal of seasoned rice with cooked vegetables and fish called Tcheb, a very popular Senegalese dish.  At the end of the meal, the leader of the African association of the building expressed deep appreciation for our coming to do the service project.

Tomorrow afternoon the leaders of the building want to meet with Steve and Greg to discuss future projects.  Please be praying for this meeting, for Steve and Greg to have the wisdom from the Father as they meet with the African leaders.  We are deeply grateful for the prayer support of everyone!

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October 30

As I related to you all in my first update, we went to the area where there were two mosques and prayed as the Muslims were having their Friday prayers.  What an overwhelming sight to see hundreds of men side by side in the streets and on the sidewalks near the mosque (full to overflowing) for an entire block in 2 directions!  We had the opportunity to pray as well for the handful of women as they exited the mosque from a side door when the prayers had ended.  Our team of seven was dispersed in pairs across the street from where the mosques were located as we prayed that these followers of Islam would encounter the living Lord in dreams and visions, that their hearts would be open to wanting to know personally our Savior, that the Lord would open doors for them to hear the Gospel, and that they would experience personally the redeeming love of Jesus.

We then traveled to one of the apartment buildings where A., a “man of peace”, lives.  The medical mission team will go to his village in Senegal in January 2010.  He wanted to meet our team as well as discuss some of the plans for the trip in January.  All of us crowded into a small dormitory-like room that would sleep two university students in the States.  Five men live in this room on a regular basis.  While there, A. and his African brothers offered us a delicious African dish of rice, peanut sauce and grilled chicken.  We ate in African style…with our right hands.  Although all of the team members tasted the dish, I must confess that I was the last to quit eating for this is my very favorite African meal.  Our visit of about 2.5 hours ended in prayer. A. and the other African men present, who are not yet believers but are “men of peace,” were very receptive to our praying for them and for the medical project that will take place in January 2010.