Benin Bulletin #5
“En Français S'il Vous Plaît”
October 17, 2016
Prayer
Requests
1)
John & Diane Visit – Praise that John and Diane Davidson (Kathleen’s
parents) were able to visit us in July.
They were curious to see the school campus and where we were living so
they came up from New Brunswick to see us.
2)
Missionprep – Praise that we were able to attend Missionprep in
July. We learned a lot during the month
that we were there. Pray that the
material will stick with us and come in handy when we arrive in Benin. Praise also that we were able to meet a lot
of new missionary friends through the course and visit some in the Toronto area
(The Jones’ and the Tings).
3)
Granny Crawford’s Funeral – This might seem like a strange praise to
share, but praise that Graham was able to attend his Grandmother’s
funeral. Graham’s Dad’s mother (Florence
Crawford) passed away in August just as Missionprep was coming to an end (She
was 98 years old). Graham was able to
fly from Ontario to Alberta to be with the family and even gave the eulogy at
the funeral. Kathleen was able to stay
with friends in the Toronto area while Graham was away which was a real
blessing.
4)
French Classes – Classes began in September which is kind of a mixed
praise/prayer request. Praise that the
language learning is going well for both of us.
Continue praying for us though because it is a lot of work!
5)
New friends – Praise that we have made some new friends in Québec
through the language school. It has been
awesome to share missionary experiences with people going through a similar
journey to ourselves. Pray that we would
be an encouragement to each other during our year in school together.
6)
Church – Pray that both of us would be able to get involved in some of
the ministries in the church. Kathleen
is wanting to be involved with the children’s program and Graham would like to
be involved with the worship team.
Getting involved has been harder than we thought it would be. Pray that we would be able to get the
necessary things in place so both of us can get active in the church’s
ministries.
7)
Maison Impact – We have both become involved in a weekly ministry
focused on reaching unreached university students for Christ. Basically they host a free meal and invite
any university students to come and attend. We have both had opportunities to
have meaningful conversations with some of the students from the different
universities in the city. Pray that these
students would reach out and embrace Christ as their Lord and saviour.
8)
Week off – Praise that Kathleen and I have survived the first 6 weeks of
French school! We now have 1 week off to
re-cooperate before the next wave of assignments and tests. Pray that it will be a relaxing week spent
with family here in New Brunswick.
Introduction
Greetings all from Geary, New
Brunswick! Yep, we actually aren’t in
Québec at the moment. We have been given
a week off to re-cooperate after 6 weeks of French language study. We decided it would be a good idea to head to
New Brunswick to visit Kathleen’s parents and our friends here in the Geary
area. So, since we have a week off we
thought it would be good to get an update out to all of you. I don’t think we’ve sent out an update since
July so there’s lots to tell so I’ll get right to it.
John
& Diane Davidson Visit
John and Diane Davidson (Kathleen’s
parents) came to visit us in July. They
were curious to see the school and where we were living so they came to have a
look. We had a great weekend together and
did some fun activities while there were up.
It was an honour to have them as our first official house guests!
Missionprep
In the middle of July we headed out to
Toronto, Ontario for Missionprep.
Missionprep is a Christian organization that helps prepare missionaries
for the challenges they are about to face by living in a different country and
culture. There is a lot of difficult
things people deal with when they venture out like that so it’s good to go over
some of the pitfalls that people have faced in the past. Graham already did the course once before in
2004 as a young single man but it was great to get a refresher and be able to
concentrate on the things that couples face as they head out. It was a very intensive 4-week course but we
did find time to have some fun. We
became good friends with a number of missionaries that we met at the course and
did some activities together with them. We
were able to see some Toronto Blue Jays baseball games, visited Niagara Falls
twice, and escaped from an “Escape Room” (visit http://www.riddleroom.ca/ if you aren’t
sure what an escape room is). We also
had a chance to visit some of Graham’s friends that live in the Toronto
area. We were able to connect with Glyn
and Susan Jones, former missionaries to Botswana who Graham has known for a
number of years. They hosted a meal and
had us stay the night at their place which was great. A fellow collegue of Graham’s, Tina Kort,
also joined us for dinner. We had a
great time laughing and reminiscing about our time in Botswana. It was also a good time for them to meet
Kathleen for the first time. We were
also able to head out to Guelph to visit Gabriel and Karen Ting. Graham has been good friends with Gabriel
since high school and they always try to make time to see each other when they
are able. This also the first time
Kathleen was able to meet them and Graham’s first time meeting their 2
daughters. We went to church together
and had lunch together and even got to watch some of the Summer Olympics before
we parted ways. All in all, it was a
great month spent in Toronto!
 |
| The Missionprep Gang |
 |
| Enjoying the Blue Jays game with our new friends Matt & Kui |
Granny
Crawford’s Funeral
After such a great month spent in Toronto
we were saddened to hear the news that Graham’s grandmother had passed
away. Granny Crawford (Florence) was 98
years old. She had lived a very full
life and had committed her life to Christ so as sad as it was to see her go we
have hope that we will see her again one day in eternity. It was actually very good timing for us
because we got the news right around the time the mission training had
ended. Graham was able to fly from
Toronto to Edmonton to be with family and attend the funeral. Graham was even asked for the honour of doing
the eulogy. Kathleen was able to spend
more time with our good friends the Jones so considering the circumstances
things actually worked out really well.
It was a very short and unexpected visit so Graham wasn’t able to do
much visiting while in Alberta but was happy to have some time with his
family.
French
School
So, after a very busy summer travelling
around and such it was time to get even more busy! We started French classes at Parole de Vie Béthel
(Word of Life Bethel) in September. The
school assessed both of us and decided to put Graham in the beginner class
(good call) and Kathleen in the advanced class (also a good call). From day one we have been spending lots of
time either talking or listening to French.
Both of us are doing very well in our respective classes. Graham would like to be having “richer”
conversations but a language cannot be learned in a mere 6 weeks. Please pray for patience, perseverance and humility
as learning any new language is a difficult task. We have made a lot of new friends since
starting school. There are a number of
missionary families taking classes together with us. Almost all of us are planning to serve as
missionaries in West Africa so there is a lot of commonality in our life journeys
at the moment so it is bonding us all together well. It’s encouraging to talk to people who just “get”
the struggles you are facing. Pray that
we would be able to encourage each other through this task of mastering the
French language.
Ministry
Involvement
We have been attending a local church here
in Sherbrooke called “Axe21” (visit http://axe21.org/
if you want more info on the church.
Warning: the website is exclusively
in French). The church is difficult to
describe. The word I want to use is “trendy”
but I’m not sure that’s correct. The church
meets in a theatre which is a little different if you are used to meeting in a
church building. The theatre is located
right in the heart of downtown Sherbrooke.
When you walk in the lights are low and there is a smoke machine on, it
actually felt a little bizarre when we first went. The reasons for these things is to have
church in this theatre you have to follow certain rules. So the lights, the smoke all of it is required
to have a “meeting” in the theatre. As gimmicky
as all of this may sound the church is excellent. Graham hears very little of the messages but
Kathleen has told him that they are fantastic.
The worship music is stellar, like Hillsong good. Our desire has been to become active in the church
but its been a little bit more difficult than we thought to do that. Kathleen has wanted to volunteer in the
childrens ministry but there is a lot of red tape as far as police checks and
such. It looks like Kathleen has finally
made it through all the hoops though and should be starting to work with the
childrens program soon. Graham has tried
to sign up to play the drums with the worship team but hasn’t really had any
luck. He has been told that he would be
invited to a practice one week but so far that hasn’t happened. We are hopeful that this has just been a
simple oversight and that Graham can become part of this ministry soon.
Maison
Impact
One ministry we have been involved with on
a weekly basis has been “Maison Impact” (House Impact). We found out about this ministry through Axe21
church. The ministry is an outreach to
university students. Basically, every
Wednesday they host a free supper of some sort (BBQ, chili, curry and rice,
etc) and invite students from the various universities in town. Once they arrive we chat and hopefully have
opportunities to share our faith with people.
We have both really enjoyed it and have had meaningful conversations
with a number of students. Please pray
that we would see people come to Christ through this ministry.
Thanksgiving
In October we were able to travel to Québec
City to meet up with Kathleen’s parents and some friends for Thanksgiving. We were able to find a 3 bedroom house to
rent for a few nights which was great because we were all able to stay together. We did a lot of walking around Old Québec and
saw some incredible architecture. It was
great to spend time with family and friends for thanksgiving. I was also very thankful for finding
something I lost during the weekend. Kathleen’s
parents brought two cheques for us that they had received in the mail. One was a cheque from our travel insurance to
cover the expenses we incurred during our honeymoon when the airline lost our
luggage. The other cheque was a good
will gift from Air Canada to apologize for losing our luggage. I put both cheques in my back pocket with the
idea that I’ll cash them as soon as I see an ATM. Well, I went all day and never saw a bank
machine. So, the next day I went to
ensure I still had my cheques in my pocket so I could cash them when we got
back to Sherbrooke…but they weren’t in my pants! We searched high and low in the house and I
couldn’t find them. I finally had the
idea that I may have dropped them when we went for an evening walk. Well, before long I found the Air Canada
cheque in the middle of the road. It had
been driven over a few times but still seemed in good shape. Kathleen and her father came out to help me
look and found the other one on the other side of the road. It seems like a small thing but I was
thankful to the Lord that we found them and that we were able to put that money
into our bank account without a big hassle.
 |
| Thanksgiving weekend in Québec City |
Conclusion
Well, I think that is about all we have to
update you on for the moment. Thank you
so much for your prayers and your generous giving. We are looking forward to visiting with some
of you in Alberta during Christmas holidays.
We will be in Edmonton from December 17th-January 8th
during school holidays. We’d love to
travel more and see the rest of you but time simply doesn’t allow for it at the
moment. Maybe once school is done we’ll
have a chance to see more of you then.
Until next time!
Blessings,
Graham & Kathleen <><
SIM Contact Info:
SIM Canada
10 Huntingdale Blvd.
Scarborough, Ontario
M1W 2S5
Canada
Tel: 1-800-294-6918
E-mail: info@sim.ca
(Our missionary number is 024460)
The opinions expressed in this letter are our
own opinions. They are not necessarily the opinions or views of Serving
In Mission (SIM).
