Update June 03

1st June.

I, Chris, leave today for France and Spain.

France: I will be stopping over 3 nights in Lauris and hoping to help Mark with some Cyberporte business as well as advance with the PfS site. We hope to launch it with the Search Engines. A second issue is the Spanish translation of the Carrelet web authoring system, which is now much improved on the originalversion, which you can still see on the previous home page. It is a really simple, yet inclusive system for non-specialists who wish to get their message on the web without either expensive programs or expensive programmers (and the associated delays)! Write it, click on Modify and it's there!! I hope it will prove as successful with the Spanish churches as it seems to be becoming with the French. (c.f. for example: www.alliance-evangelique.org/ )

Spain: after a stop-over in Palamos, where we have a building project, I travel to Madrid, where -as well as more humdrum admin. business- I hope to meet with Spanish church leaders and talk about PfS, Carrelet and future evangelistic ministry. It's a tall order in the time I will probably get with them!
On to Córdoba, where I will be planning an Easter campaign for next year (sign up now!) and back via Extremadura and Palma, where more paperwork needs to be done, plus my Dad's 84th birthday.
Back to CH in time to go off for a week's holiday, including an anniversary celebration.

Meanwhile, Hilde...

is busy at the SGM clinic. She has come home alternately with great encouragements and depression to beat that of the patients... but is getting over the learning curve now and can see that she is indeed privileged to be able to have input into the lives of some needy people. The 'real world' turns out to be a bit different to her previous experience in a big hospital. This is small and she is often alone with the 20 patients. A far cry from the close team work which she enjoyed in the past, but at least they see each other from time to time. The work load is subsequently also hard and more varied than the average nurse's duties, but bearable at this stage and she looks forward to being able to cope better as time goes on. Please keep praying for her in this key ministry. She is the only married nurse and there are apparently some women with marriage problems, just one example of the (side?) issues which come up when they arrive on the ward. Obviously it's the psychiatrists who are the main counsellors, but the nurses have -occasionally- more time to spend with the women. (There are some men too!) As I write, Hilde is leading a service for the patients.

Future

Looking ahead, it is still unclear whether this is a long-term commitment or a time to reassess and recapitulate before moving on. Pray with us as we look to the Lord for His direction for the future.

Thanks again for all you are doing for us!