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Last modification: June 5, 2008.
“God has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.” (2 Timothy 1:9; NIV)
Greetings!
Welcome to our family website! The main purpose of this website is to inform our parents, friends, and partners about the developments in our African adventure. We hope that you will find something that interests you.
Please, send us your questions and comments.
Modifications made lately on this website:
Soon on the road to RFIS, Cameroon!
 The preparation of our coming trip to Yaoundé, Cameroon, to settle Jonathan and Joël for the next school year, is well on its way. Courses will start on August 5 (yes, that early!) and all the family will travel to Yaoundé between August 1 and 8 to help them with the transition. Until then, Jonathan and Nicolas must complete their current school year (Joël is already finished), we must deal with some formalities (shots, visas, plane tickets), and we will try to have some good family time.
More to come…
An updated prayer card
 We have updated our prayer card. You will notice that the boys have grown… again… and that Brenda is now the shortest of the family (to the great joy of the boys!) :-)
To download the card, click here.
(On the picture, from left to right: Jonathan, Brenda, Simon, Joël and Nicolas.)
Checking the Gospel of Mark in Mbochi
 From May 12 to 21, Simon continued the exegetical checking of the Gospel of Mark in Mbochi with the translation team. We were hoping to finish the work, but unfortunately we still have chapters 14 to 16 to check. Please, pray that we will find a way to complete this task before September. The Mbochi team plans on recording that Gospel and publishing a booklet to go with the cassette.
(On the picture: A portion of the display window of Paratext, a computer program that Simon uses doing his ministry.)
Paratext training seminar
 From April 14 to 18, Simon and his colleague Thaliane (computer technician of the missionary center) gave a training seminar to two partners from Kinshasa. César Massanga and Marius Tabuku, from The Word for the World (click here to visit their website), needed to know the basics of Paratext, a computer program from the Universal Bible Society designed to assist Bible translation (click here to visit Paratext website).
(On the picture, from left to right: César, Thaliane (back), Marius and Simon.)
EMI Team
 At the end of March, a team from the organization EMI (Engineering Ministries International; click here to visit their website) visited us in Brazzaville. This group of architects and civil engineers worked at designing the needed infrastructure to rebuild houses in the village of Makana, near the capital city (click here to visit the project website). Many houses in that village have been destroyed by the war and by the construction of the highway linking Brazzaville to Pointe-Noire. The members of the team also took the opportunity to encourage the local Christians and missionaries (including us!).
(On the picture, from left to right: Allison, Dirk, Franky (CAN), David, Sam, John, Gary, Connie (CAN), Brenda and Simon.)
Pray God with us!
“Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” (Philippians 4:6; New Living Translation)
Praise items:
- Everyone is in good health and we enjoy a good family atmosphere.
- All the boys’ perseverance with their school work and the acceptation of Jonathan and Joel at Rain Forest International School in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
- The Lord is providing in different ways to pay for Jonathan and Joel’s school year at RFIS.
- The exegetical checking of the Gospel of Mark in Mboshi is almost finished.
- God’s grace sustains us all day after day.
Prayer requests:
- Good health for everybody.
- Wisdom for our involvement at different levels (family, work, church).
- Grace and guidance during the transition that the family will go through with Jonathan and Joel studying in Yaoundé for the coming school year.
- The preparation of our trip to Yaoundé to have the boys settled in their new environment.
- Southwest Teke Program: revision of the Gospel of Mark; translation and checking of the Gospel of Luke; promotion of the book of Ruth; preparation of a transition primer.
- Mboshi Program: follow-up and completion of exegetical checking of the Gospel of Mark (ch. 14 to 16).
- Some activities in which Simon will be involved during the next few months:
- Teaching of a course on Pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) at a Bible school in Pointe-Noire (Institut Biblique de l’Alliance Chrétienne – IBAC; May 26 to June 13);
- Attendance to a training seminar for translation consultants in UK (June 30 to July 11).
Financial support
The pledges to support our ministry in Brazzaville went down below 80%. After 5 months in 2008, we received 70% of the amount that we need to live in Congo.
RFIS Project: For Jonathan and Joël to go to school in Cameroon, it will cost 6500$ per year (tuition, room and board) for each one of them, plus transportation fees between Brazzaville and Yaoundé (air fares: 500$ per person), three to five times a year. Please note that those amounts ARE NOT INCLUDED in our financial goal for 2008 mentioned in the paragraph above.
Newsletters in printing format (PDF)
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