Our trial year with the Colmar Baptist Church in the region of Alsace in eastern France finished at the end of September 2009. We came here in October 2008 with much fear and trembling, not knowing what to expect as we embarked upon a new venture of service for the Lord. However, in face of the uncertainty, we took comfort knowing that God was going to be with us, and that we would continue to benefit from the prayers of many Irish Baptists.

The year had its fair share of ups and downs. Adapting to a pastoral, as opposed to a church-planting, ministry was in itself very difficult. Much of our time in Château-Thierry had been spent building up relationships with non-Christians. Since we've been in Colmar, the bulk of our time has been taken up with ministry to Christians, whose needs are many and varied.

Another major challenge was adapting to living in a very different region of France. The first impression of many foreign visitors to this beautiful region is that they are in Germany! The place, street and family names, by and large, bear no resemblance to what you find in the rest of France. Lots of people speak the regional language, a dialect of German, among themselves (even some in the church!). Having said all this, the Alsatians are very proud to be French, and are deeply hurt when outsiders refer to them as Germans.

So, these factors contributed to us feeling the kind of culture shock we hadn't experienced since coming to France in 1988.

It took us a long time to become convinced we should consider staying at Colmar and exercise a pastoral ministry in an established church. The church welcomed us warmly but cautiously, understandably so, for the church has experienced turbulent times in recent years, and throughout its existence, there has been a history of short-lived or difficult pastorates. Our desire has been to minister in such a way as to help bring stability, and here we were feeling very destabilized ourselves!

Nevertheless, by the beginning of September 2009, we felt it was right to tell the church we would like to continue in Colmar knowing, of course, that the members still had to vote on the matter.

The meeting to decide this was on Saturday, 26 September. Friends from various Christian backgrounds & denominations were praying for us, including many from Baptist Missions & various Baptist churches that have supported us faithfully over the years. Phone conversations with several pastors brought great encouragement, making us feel really privileged to have such concerned supporters behind us. Your prayers were a source of immense blessing to us and carried us through this important period in our lives.

At the meeting, I was able to explain what I felt should be my role in the church i.e. a "pastor-teacher" (Ephesians 4) with particular emphasis on the ministry of God's Word, and also set out my involvement with the other elders (pastors) in the general task of shepherding the church.

By God's grace, the majority count was largely favourable to the confirmation of our ministry in the church.

There are many, many challenges ahead. We truly believe there is a sense in which the Colmar church, like Zion of old, needs rebuilding, restoring, renewing. We cannot do this. Only God can. I've been emphasizing how important it is for our folks to rely on God, and not put pastors on a pedestal, otherwise they will be disappointed.

Please keep on praying, and particularly ask God to bring about genuine revival in our midst at Colmar, so that the name of Jesus will be greatly honoured, and that our lives together as a fellowship will be characterized by the fear of the Lord and permeated by the divine grace that the Holy Spirit alone can pour into our hearts.

With our grateful love,

Andrew & Delwynne**

**We are delighted to be able to announce that Andrew & Delwynne have been appointed as Affiliate BM Workers, thus enabling them, although directly employed by the Colmar church, to continue contributing to Missionline and help us keep an ongoing focus on the very needy country of France. Gordon Darragh (Baptist Missions Director)