Missions Around the World
|
|
|
Dear Dixie, Every year Communitas, our mission organization, has a special Giving Day to help us in our year-end fundraising efforts. This year, Giving Day is on Thursday 20th October! For Giving Day, each year we ask you to pray with us to reach a specific goal. As you know, at Parfums de Vie there is a LOT happening and the NEEDS continue to grow as the number of children and families we are serving continues to grow. In addition, France, like the whole world, is being impacted by significant inflation. Our cleaning products here in France have increased by 40% in the past months, the same is true for many other essential items. We are doing our best to limit expenses, but as you know there are many costs required to keep all of our programs going. We currently have needs in three distinct areas:
Our Parfums de Vie General Fund covers the ongoing operational costs to help ensure the daily running of the ministry, specifically our Homework Club, Youth Group, Kids Club and Camps. This includes any equipment, activities, salaries for teachers & staff, vehicles, rents, ministry center maintenance, insurance, utilities etc. Monthly committed giving does not cover monthly expenses and we are therefore highly dependent on one-time giving which comes predominantly at year-end. Our specific prayer for Giving Day 2022 is to raise $20,000 towards our General Fund needs.
As you know, Parfums de Vie is sponsoring four of our students through University. We are so incredibly proud of Narjes, Laith, Simon and Mahdi and are so encouraged by their growing vision and maturity. We are committed to paying tuition, transport, food and lodgings for all four kids. Our specific prayer for Giving Day 2022 is to raise $20,000 towards the Scholarships Fund.
In addition, we need to replace our big white 7 seater equipment van (see photos). Parfums de Vie purchased this van, second hand, in 2012; it was our first vehicle and it's now almost 20 years old!!!!! We use it every day and it's truly essential for the ministry. Although we have maintained it very well, it has broken down on several occasions in the past couple of years and is no longer reliable. We hope to sell it for $10,000, and the price of a new one is $51,400. Our specific prayer for Giving Day 2022 is to raise $41,400 to secure the purchase of the new van. ANY gift of ANY amount on Giving Day will be such a huge help and blessing for Parfums de Vie! If you would like for your Giving Day gift to be used specifically towards College Scholarships or the New Van, then please put a note with your donation. If more than enough funds are raised for those needs we will use the excess for general Parfums de Vie operations. Alternatively, it is also extremely helpful if you simply make a donation on Giving Day to the Parfums de Vie General Fund - then the funds can be used for Scholarships, the van, camps, homework club etc. With the guidance of our board, we will ensure that the funds are appropriately stewarded towards the specific ministries as needed. If you would like to PLEDGE to give on Giving Day, you can do that TODAY by responding to this email! I will send an update and reminder before Giving Day. We are so thankful for your love, friendship, prayers and generosity! Thanks to your partnership with us, many lives are being changed forever through Parfums de Vie! with love, Nicole & Vincent parfumsdevie.com How to give on GIVING DAY? Online - just click the link https://my.simplegive.com/App/Form/73abf99d-e719-4531-ba78-d3535501f7c6 *****Please include a note saying "Giving Day", or if you would like to SPECIFICALLY designate your gift "College Scholarships" or "New Van"***** Phone: 888-242-5930You can make donations over the phone if you prefer. Lynette in the office is amazing and super helpful. Stock donations are also possible, ask Lynette for more details! Post: PLEASE NOTE NEW ADDRESS Communitas International PO Box 60543 City of Industry, CA 91716-0543 USA Email: [email protected] You can email the Communitas office for any enquiries about setting up donations. *****If you are donating by post or over the phone, please EMAIL us on Giving Day so we can count it toward the total and please remember to specify that your gift is for Parfums de Vie Côte d'Azur Project #70350***** Dear Dixie, As you know, we work with our Parfums de Vie kids everyday. On Wednesdays, the Elementary age kids come all day (from 9am until 4pm) and we have plenty of time, not just for homework, but for games, crafts, food, prayer and time in the Word. One of the games that the kids LOVE is "Just Dance". I'm sure you know this game, basically, they just dance! Anyway, the kids were playing and dancing and having a ball, but Norane (pronounced Noor-anne) all of a sudden stopped dancing and asked Vincent for a Bible. He wondered why, as it wasn't time for the Bible story. She said that she wanted to read it, so he gave her the Sally Lloyd Jones Kids Story Book Bible which we read with them every week. She sat down in a corner all by herself and read for a while - she's in 3rd Grade. Then she came to Vincent and said, "Can I please read the Bible Story today? I have planned the story that I want us to read and talk about!" Of course she was given permission and did a wonderful job reading the story she had chosen, "When Heaven Breaks Through", about John the Baptist - and then this spirited 8 year old initiated a discussion about how John came to tell the people that God was sending Jesus to rescue them! She wanted to encourage everyone to turn to Jesus for help! I wanted to share this story with you because on so many levels it is a beautiful illustration of how God is at work through Parfums de Vie. Not only has Norane become a confident reader (and on track to becoming a great student) but reading the Bible, learning about Jesus and teaching her peers to do the same has become part of Norane's "normal". Norane has two older brothers and her parents are strict Muslims. Her family life and home circumstances aren't easy - that's why Norane loves the stories of Jesus, she is already far too familiar with being in scary places and loves knowing that she can find help from Jesus in the midst of it. She knows He is rescuing her too! Over the many years that we have known this family (since before Norane was born!) their Mother, Amena, has often literally cried in my arms, sharing the hardships of her life and the disappointments of her toxic marriage. Amena is an intelligent woman, but like so many of the Moms we know, she is uneducated and feels sad and frustrated that she didn't have an opportunity to get a High School education and now feels trapped in difficult circumstances. More than anything, she wants her beautiful, creative daughter to succeed! Of course we can't know what God has in store for Norane's life, but we hope and pray that her effervescent curiosity for life and learning will pave the way for her to grow into an influential leader who will in turn, like John the Baptist, impact many others for the Kingdom. Thank you so much for partnering with us and helping to provide a safe space for so many children and teens to grow and learn in the love and presence of Jesus. with love, Nicole and Vincent Mike & Fiona, We hope and pray you are doing well. Mom keeps us up to date on what's all happening at Christ Episcopal and with you both. We have you all in our prayers and we wanted to let you know that we so appreciate you praying for us and the ministry in Honduras. We wanted to share with you a video where we as a family speak about what's going on down here, and to thank the church for their continued love and support. We look forward to seeing you both in December when we visit! God bless, For His Glory; In His Love, Ryan & Kelly [email protected] psalms963.weebly.com "Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all people" - Psalm 96:3 Update and Prayer Requests: September 2022
Valerie and Nicasio Martinez Translating God's Word with and for the people who speak Quiatoni Zapotec September seems to have been consumed with preparations! --Preparations to fly to the US to participate in a missions conference hosted by one of our supporting churches and preparations for our participation in it. (I flew to the US on Sept. 22, Nicasio on the 26th. Nicasio’s visa did arrive in good time. Thank you for praying.) I’m so late in sending this out, I can tell you that the conference started yesterday; we’ve been busy and having fun! --Preparations to visit people in the area where the missions conference will be held. (We’ve seen quite a few people and hope to see more in the next few days!) --Preparations for a presentation for UNESCO. The university that Nicasio has been teaching in and coordinating classes for asked him to do the presentation about the Master’s programs that have to do with indigenous languages. Nicasio received the invitation about 10 days before the presentation date. His presentation went very well! He is encouraged by all the nice comments people have made about it. Friends that invited us for dinner two days before the presentation said afterwards that they couldn’t believe that the man making a presentation to UNESCO had had dinner with them! Meanwhile, Beto is in a workshop about translating Proverbs, which he’s been working on translating. We haven’t heard much from him but I heard from a friend that some in the class have gotten food poisoning. We’d appreciate your prayers for them to get it over it soon and for protection and lots of learning during the remaining two weeks of the workshop. We are thankful for the wonderful co-worker we have in Beto. While we are in the US, he will take care of the Zapotec church service. Two weeks after we get home, we’ll be driving to another conference a little north of Mexico City. This four day conference (Oct 25-28) will be all in Spanish and is on reaching people with the Gospel through diverse media. Nicasio will be making a presentation on Indigenous Identity and the Use of Digital Strategies. He appreciates your prayers as he finishes his presentation. Beto and Candy will be attending, too, and driving there with us. We appreciate your prayers for safety for the trip and that we learn a lot. Rusty had his tests for his year and a half check-up after his testicular cancer surgery. We rejoice that there is no evidence of cancer. We thank God for that and we thank you for your prayers for him. Mike, Tara and Royan will be coming to the missions conference today! And we will stop to see them on the way from the missions conference to Rusty’s home. They’ve done a lot of improvements on their house and we look forward to seeing that as well as visiting with them. Nicasio’s parents decided that they wanted to move home to Quiatoni so their daughter who lives in Quiatoni came for them the day before I flew to the US. Their daughter who lives in Mexico City had planned on coming to stay with them while we are gone, so she went to Quiatoni to be with them there. Nicasio’s dad’s health is not very good; we are hoping the change will be good for him. Thank you for praying for them. As always, we thank you for your interest and support of our ministry of the Quiatoni Zapotec translation, for us, and for our family. God has blessed us with you on our team! love, Valerie and Nicasio www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez |
MissionariesPeriodic Updates Archives
April 2024
Categories |
RSS Feed
