Chad & Kim and their baby!

See below for a message from Chad and Kim Deakyne:

Dear friends and family,

On August 15, 2007, Pavel Alan Deakyne was born! It seems already as if he has been a part of our family for years…

Pavel has changed and developed enormously in his first four months! He rolls himself over occasionally, he reaches for his toys regularly, and he offers smiles freely. He has brought great joy to our little flat! Margot the cat, however, has grown restless with jealousy…she is currently biting at the wires beneath the desk where I type.

L’Abri has also changed and developed so much in the last four months! The “launch team” has been meeting twice a week for planning and prayer, our new small group designed as an introduction to the Christian faith is growing, and we have been holding worship services once a month since September! Tell us what you think of the new website for the church at: www.labri-sqy.org .

Culte d’Inauguration: Beginning on Sunday, January 27, 2008, l’Abri will hold public worship services once a month! We have been preparing for this step for months and now everything is falling into place: the room where we will be holding the service is ready, the various responsibilities have been divided up amongst the members of the team, and we have friends who are eager to participate. As you can imagine, the team has had some lively discussions about these upcoming worship services; conversations about the style of music, the liturgy, the sermon, the “look” of the room, etc. We are currently working through the final list of tasks to accomplish before the big day in January: design invitations for our friends, decorate the sanctuary (plants and paintings), prepare Sunday School for the children, etc. If time remains, we plan to gather the guys from the youth group in Magny-les-Hameaux in order to build a pulpit together.

Les 7 Soirées: As we mentioned in our last letter, we have started a new small group that serves as an introduction to the essentials of the Christian faith. In order to vary the teaching style, we have integrated into our study various examples, both classic and popular, of the seven art forms. We have already completed three of the seven sessions and the group is growing. Kimberly and I hosted the first session and used a poem of Victor Hugo and a few works of Michelangelo in order to deepen our understanding of the Genesis account of Creation. Our teammates, Baptiste and Emilie Margaillan hosted the second evening on the Fall and did a wonderful job leading the discussion into the wee hours of the night. And finally, just last week, the group returned to our flat for the third session on Redemption. While I was a bit disappointed with my presentation, the essential was communicated and the response was positive. The high point of the evening was probably the discussion on a particular scene from Schindler’s List… Pray that this group would join us for worship on January 27th and would become the core group of the church.

Special need:
L’Abri would like to purchase a video projector and is now starting to gather the resources to do so. We have been able to borrow a projector from France V.I.E. (World Team France) up to this point, but because five different churches share the projector, it is becoming increasingly difficult to “reserve” when needed most. With the additional activities that we have started since September and the worship services beginning in January, we feel as though it is time to make this purchase.

Would you consider helping us with this investement? We are presently looking at a model that costs around 650 €uros (about $930 with the weak dollar). If you or your church is interested in making a "special financial gift" for the purchase of a video projector, please let Kimberly and I know. Financial gifts can be sent to World Team with a note explaining that they are to be used by Chad and Kimberly Deakyne for the purchase of a projector. While we plan to use the projector for the activities at l’Abri (worship services, Les 7 Soirées, film discussion nights), the projector would also be used for certain activities at the church in Magny-les-Hameaux.

2008 Paris Prayer Conference:
Our annual conference is designed as a short-term mission trip for those interested in partnering with France V.I.E. in prayer. Please contact us should your family or your church desire to participate in the 2008 conference (June 7-14). Now that we have helped to organize a few conferences in a row, we can confirm that there is no better way to understand and participate in our ministry, no better way to encourage the French Christians that welcomed us into their country. Look for the brochure that describes the conference attached to this e-mail…

Christmas and New Years:
Kimberly, Pavel, and I will be back in the States for the holidays…one week in Fort Wayne, IN, and one week in Philadelphia, PA! This short trip will give us the opportunity to present Pavel to those in the family who have not yet met him. Pray with us that the time change does not throw him off for the entirety of the trip!

Baptiste and Emilie Margaillan have recently finished a short video in order present their ministry and help them through the support raising process. If you would like to see their video (in English), follow the link on the right hand side of their web page: http://2coeurspourservir.free.fr .

Joyeux Noël et bonne année!
Chad, Kimberly, & Pavel Deakyne

Here's a montage of pictures:

An Update from the Deakynes

Below is a nicely detailed letter about what the Deakynes are up to in France. Please read through and pray with me about their work.

Dear friends and family,

Should any of you desire to receive our newsletters by e-mail, please drop us a line (chad.deakyne@worldteam.org) and we will make sure that this happens.

Bien fraternellement,

Chad & Kimberly Deakyne

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The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge (abri); my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. ~ Psalm 18.2 ~
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What does a successful life look like?

In February, ten of our friends gathered together to watch the film Fauteuils d’Orchestre at a local café. This was one of the questions we discussed during the discussion afterward. In many ways, the film itself asks this question and its characters search desperately for answers. The main characters, all of whom are celebrities in the arts, are looking for their place in the world. Imagine a concert hall filling up with people just minutes before the curtain opens. Where is the best seat in the house? It is certainly not off in the back, far removed from the action…but it is not necessarily up front either, among the orchestra seats where you have to strain just to see the action.

Kimberly and I continue to plan events like this ciné-débat in order to meet the people of our town and develop friendships. We continue to participate in the various cultural events organized by the Forum and help out with an English discussion group each month.

Association Protestante Evangélique de Saint Quentin Centre – “l’Abri”

Voilà the name of our church plant in Saint Quentin Centre! In late December, our sub-team held our Assemblée Générale Constitutive and officially created the association. The word “l’Abri” means “refuge” or “shelter” and is taken from the theme verse for the church: Psalms 18.2. It is our desire that the church be a place of refuge, a shelter where we may go and be reminded that in the Lord we find security and salvation.

Kimberly and I feel as though we have been running since early January…but the race is good! We have had some excellent opportunities to teach both in Magny and in Saint Quentin. In mid February, I team-taught a workshop on worship with our teammate Baptiste Margaillan. There are a few couples in the church plant in Magny who have recently started leading worship on a rotating basis and they needed to be trained. Baptiste, who is an excellent musician, and I recognized the need and worked together to offer them a vision for worship, an introduction to the elements of the liturgy, and some practical hints and tools. As I was preparing for the workshop, I thought to myself, “In the States, each of our supporting churches has a worship leader. If I were in the States, I would probably never teach a workshop on worship!” The workshop was a success and the participants were grateful for the training.

Family Section
Kimberly is four months pregnant! That’s right...welcome to the first installment of the family section of our newsletter! Mother and child are both healthy and are both growing as the months progress. The doctor that Kimberly has been seeing is great. Kimberly is comfortable with him, his office is within walking distance from our flat, and he is patiently walking us through the details of the French health system. I am sure we will be flooding you with pictures after August 25, 2007!

France Challenge Project
France V.I.E. (World Team France) continues to partner with various missions and unions of churches to work toward the creation of 1 local church for every 10,000 inhabitants of France. We continue to pursue three main avenues in order to achieve this goal.

1. 2. 3. Key Areas of Activity
1. To establish new churches through multi-cultural teams
A. There are six people on our church planting subteam: Jerry & Carolyn Moyer, Baptiste & Emilie Margaillan, Chad & Kimberly Deakyne. We are currently working on two separate church plants in two separate locations: the church in Magny-les-Hameaux which is well under way and the church plant in Saint Quentin Centre (l’Abri) which is just beginning.
B. We are ready at any moment to bring in three or four new team members to open a third church plant in the area. These team members could be missionaries from overseas, they could be French church planters, or they could be lay persons ready to help out with the project.
2. To encourage churches to plant daughter churches (networking)
A. With only 11 evangelical churches for the 500,000 people in our area, we are desperate for new partners.
B. Through the network of local evangelical churches, we are hoping to organize a conference on church multiplication. The goal of this conference would be to formulate a common vision for the southern portion of our county (Yvelines). Pray that God would work through the different denominations and unions of churches that are present so that the existing churches of the area would multiply.
3. To train French nationals in pioneer church planting
A. Baptiste will be joining France V.I.E. as a full time church planter in September. This will be the completion (and in some ways the beginning) of his training. We are now looking for a young pastoral intern for the church in Magny. We need to begin to train someone who can meet the pastoral needs of the community.
B. As a result of our recruitment efforts here in France, we have recently made contact with three students who are interested in the vision of France V.I.E.

To the praise of His glory,
Chad & Kimberly Deakyne

21, boulevard Vauban
l’Ascot
78180 Montigny-le-Bretonneux
France

World Team
1431 Stuckert Road
Warrington, PA 18976
800.967.7109
www.worldteam.org

A Quick word from Chad & Kim

Our newest missionaries, Chad and Kim, are back in France. Chad sent me a quick note recently, a portion of which is below:

hello mark...

long time no see...! not sure we ever really gave each other a final answer regarding vonage. go ahead and cancel that for us...if its not already done. skype is working well for us...and we connect using that. we have also started with skype out for those who don't have skype themeselves. it has worked well.

thanks so much for providing vonage for us for so long! that was a huge help to know that we could be connected with our families in that way.

how are things for you guys? overall, furlough was great...very tiring and very encouraging. i must say that we are thrilled to be back home...living out of a suitcase was more difficult than we thought. [...]

we made some new connections [on our visit to the states] with some churches that truly fit kimberly and i...i was happy about that.

did you receive a missions packet from us before we left the states...that would be late september?

say hello to the [pvc] family for me!

chad

They are back serving in a church on the outskirts of Paris. Please pray for them as they continue their ministry there.