VAUGHN NEWS UPDATE
(News for prayer from the Vaughn family near Aix-en-Provence, France, July 4, 2024)
We have found a new rental facility for our church and have been in it for several weeks now. It is in the town of Gardanne, the biggest of the 4 adjacent towns which we have been targeting in this church plant. It has been a communist town for decades and though a couple evangelical churches have tried to plant a church here in the past, none have succeeded. Our new rental facility in Gardanne is the best facility we have had for a church plant so far in France. We are very happy with it. It can seat about 75 people in the “sanctuary” and there is a room for Sunday School. It is very well located in the town. It used to be a furniture store and is in a commercial center where lots of people come. Thanks for your prayers for this. On Saturday, July 20 several of us are going out on our first evangelistic outreach in Gardanne since moving into this new facility. We will be distributing tracts, gospels of John and speaking to people in the parks and other public places about the
Lord. Please pray for this outreach. Beginning in the Autumn our plan is to make this a monthly evangelistic outreach.
Our last Discovering Christianity Bible Study for non-Christians was held on June 28. This was our 4th session with this group. It dealt with the resurrection of Jesus. We had previously had sessions about who Jesus is, why He came (the doctrine of sin) and why He died on the Cross. This was a small group to start out with and the group had dwindled down from 4 non-Christians at the beginning to 2 at the 3rd session. But after the 3rd session, F asked if he could bring his wife the next time. This was both encouraging and surprising.
Encouraging because we realized that F must be getting something out of this bible study since he wanted his wife to come. Surprising because during the first 3 sessions F had hardly said a word, even though the sessions are held in a discussion format encouraging participants to speak. So on June 28
F showed up with his wife C . Once again, he was very quiet, as was she, during the session. At the end Nicky invited them to come to our church’s Sunday worship service, having learned that they lived not far from our church’s new rental facility. And on Sunday they were indeed there at the service. At the beginning of the service during the announcements I indicated that we would have a church meal next Sunday. Immediately after the service was over F said to us, “What shall we bring to the church meal next Sunday, a savory dish or a dessert?” as if it were the most natural thing for them to be coming next Sunday and joining the church meal afterwards. It is a huge step for French people to actually come to a Protestant worship service so we are thrilled that F and C came so readily to the service and had no hesitation in wanting to come back this Sunday again. We commit them to your prayers. The other participant in the Discovering Christianity Study, an archaeology student at the university, asked us at the end of the 4th session last Friday night if she also could bring her boyfriend to the next session. Maybe they will both show up at the church worship service too? Pray for A and her boyfriend as well!
Nicky is continuing to give private English lessons to two groups of French people, 7 adults in all. They love her and the English classes she gives them. Pray for gospel opportunities to arise from this. One of the couples who attend the classes have invited us to eat supper with them on Friday night, July 20. We have been praying for opportunities to develop friendships with them and share the gospel with them.
The Ukrainian mom and boy (Nadiia and Bohdan) who have lived with us for the last two years left us 3 weeks ago to go join a family member living in Sweden and try to start a new life there. Adjusting to the French language and culture proved too hard for them. Unfortunately, the French have not been very welcoming to Ukrainian refugees in terms of providing real opportunity to find work and lodging in order to try to make a new start in the country. In the last few months Nicky was able to do part of an Exploring Christianity course with Nadiia, the mom, with the help of video and written materials subtitled and/or written in Ukrainian. Nadiia would use a Ukrainian bible which Nicky had gotten for her and Nicky would read the same passages in her French bible.
As they did the studies, Nicky learned that Nadiia had a grandmother who had often read the bible with her and taken her to church when she was young. Though Nadiia never attended church after that, she was left with a conviction of God’s existence and a sense of her need of forgiveness. She told Nicky that she prayed every night that God would forgive her for her sins. As Nicky read different gospel stories with her Nadiia would often say that she remembered her grandmother reading that bible story. When Nicky did the third session in which Jesus’ atonement on the Cross was explained this came as a totally new idea for Nadiia and she seemed to be surprised and touched by what she was hearing. At the end of the study, she suddenly stood up from the kitchen table and said to Nicky very solemnly, “Nicky, I want to thank you for doing this study with me. This is very important to me!” Seeing them off at the bus station last week was a tearful event for us and our home seems very empty now after two years of their living with us. We will continue to be in touch with them and continue to pray for Nadiia’s and Bohdan’s conversion.
We continue to enjoy wonderful fellowship and collaboration with the gypsy church in Marseille. They baptized 9 adults three Sundays ago. Conversions continue to take place among them. It is very encouraging. I preached at a Friday night evangelistic meeting there about 5 weeks ago and there must have been close to 100 people at the meeting. I continue to do a course on hermeneutics with the church leaders. We should finish this in the autumn and move on to a pastoral theology course which will address things like counseling, pastoral visits, etc.
Please pray for our Summer Camp which will take place from Monday, July 29 to Friday August 2. We have a record attendance in line this year with 200 people registered. The evening messages will be evangelistic and oriented toward the many unconverted young people and children who will be present. During the mornings the children and young people will have their special sessions with teaching and games while the adults will hear messages on The Holiness of God, Spiritual Friendships as a Means of Grace, Augustine: Pastor and Theologian of Grace, and How Should Christians Understand Spiritual Warfare? Please pray that the Lord would work in converting and sanctifying power among us!
After 3 bouts of pericarditis during the last two years, lasting 6 months each, I have been free of it since last autumn. I have been diagnosed as having Long Covid by doctors in the States and have been under treatment by these doctors since the end of October. They do consultations with me by Zoom and send prescription medicines from the USA to France. (France is very behind and does not yet recognize Long Covid as a sickness even though over 2 million people in the country are suffering from it.). The U.S. medical treatment has enabled me to recover a good measure of health but the treatment of long covid is a long-term project. My last two blood tests from March gave readings of 764 and 733. To give some context, a reading of 31 or above on this French blood test means you have tested positive for Covid. Though these readings indicate that I have what is called Long Covid I am happy with readings in the 700’s because before I started the treatment from the USA my reading on this test was up to 25,000. To come down all the way to the 700’s is already significant. We are thankful for the help of a sister Reformed Baptist church which has generously taken care of my medical costs for this treatment. Please join us in praying that the Lord would bless this treatment and touch my body to give me fully restored health. Pray also that as long as the sickness lasts it would be a sanctifying trial to me, purifying my faith and drawing me closer to the Savior.
With great thanks for your partnership in the gospel, David Vaughn