July - October 2018 in pictures

 It's amazing how the time has flown by since our last news!

We started the summer with the Football World Cup, following the French team as a family and celebrating at the end our World Champions.

Mid-July, we visited some friends and ministry partners in the East of France and near Switzerland.

We enjoyed discovering the Geneva area and Lake Geneva.

Anna accidentally had a swim in the lake as she slipped on a rock. She got a fright but wasn't hurt, thankfully.

The view on Lake Geneva from the hills was really beautiful!

End of July, we were in Switzerland for Agape Europe Family Gathering, with 1200 colleagues and volunteers from all over Western Europe.

The programme included worship, casting vision for the future, workshops...

Here, our European director reminds us about our raison d'etre and why we partner with other organisations and churches in each of our countries: "Together we can make Jesus known".

As the sessions were in English, we helped translating into French for our colleagues who don't understand English.

Julie, Anna and Claire had their own programme with other children from all over Europe. As they understand English, they joined an English-speaking group. A great opportunity to practise their English!

David met up with his European colleagues who recently finished the Agape Europe NextGen training for young leaders. And he received a certificate :-) .

Our brave Swiss colleagues even organised a day out in a train and a boat for 1200 people. That was impressive!

We travelled along some wonderful scenery on Lake Lucerne to reach the historical place of Rütli, where Switzerland was born as three men from Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden cantons swore an oath to the Swiss Confederation on August 1, 1291.

A symbolic place to renew Agape Europe's unity in order to make Jesus known together on our continent.

After Agape Europe's gathering, we started our family holidays at the Rhine Falls, the largest waterfall in Europe.

Then we settled down in Germany for some holidays by the Lake Constance. Back where we met 16 years ago!

Given the heat, we made the most of the lake.

And again, we really enjoyed the beautiful views, both from German and Austrian sides.

We also enjoyed long walks.

And of course, it wouldn't be proper holidays without ice cream! :-)

We were blessed to be able to see (just the two of us) the Carmen opera in Bregenz (Autsria), with a stage above the lake.

We are grateful for all these joyful family times...

... and the opportunities to try new games.

We ended our journey with another very joyful event: The wedding of Anna's godmother.

End of August, David was first to go back to work as he went to Agapé Campus’ start of year conference.

Aaron, Agapé Campus National Director, leading us in the Bible.

Francis, Agapé France National Director, sharing wholeheartedly how he rediscovered God's unconditional love during his recent sabbatical.

Group work session.

Just before the start of the school year, we met up with our Agapé Rennes colleagues and their families for a day at the beach, to reconnect after the summer.

This year, our colleague Stéphanie organised a sand castle competition, with compulsory themes. Children and parents were very creative.

As school started, David also started again to take Julie, Anna and Claire out, each in turn, for one-to-one fun activities and discussions. Those times are always longed-for and appreciated.

On Septembre 21st, Julie celebrated her 11th birthday. She is now in "collège" (secondary school) in "6ème" (Year 7).

In September, our North Rennes Church organised a weekend away all together, to welcome newcomers, get to know each other better and present our history and our vision.

Despite the wet weather, we managed to have a walk on the coast.

End of September, David took part in HackMyBible in Paris, a hackathon organised by the French Biblical Alliance. The goal was to create tomorrow's media-Bible, by gathering people with different skills together over a weekend.

David and his team worked on a voice assistant (Google Home) which would answer different questions using Bible verses (verse of the day, verse from a reference, verse depending on our mood). 

Then David spent a couple of days near Paris with other team leaders with Agapé France to work and collaborate together.

On October 7th, our church helped the organisation Un Coeur Pour Le Monde (A Heart For The World) to welcome to Rennes over 200 international students, with a free meal, a time of presentation and some games.

The whole family helped joyfully to serve the meals and we really enjoyed being able to bless those students, who are far away from their home.

Finally, we'd like to thank Jesus for everything He is doing in our life and for the wonderful scenery in Brittany (see below), that He has put just one hour away from our door.