Vicar Thomas

Last week, Thomas was officially welcomed as a vicar by our local church here in Poitou. In case you're wondering, vicar is a fancy way of saying intern pastor. He's the one in the funny shirt in the picture. No, no, the one on the RIGHT in the funny shirt in the picture. On the left is Marc, our current pastor who will be retiring in April. Actually, not only do they have the same shirt, but they realized they shop at the same places, as they have exactly the same suit. That's what I call walking in the footsteps of your predecessor.

We were very encouraged by the service and by the fellowship time afterward. There were several extra people in attendence including a reformed pastor Thomas has known for a long time who came to show his support and two sisters who come occasionally with their children. This is, of course, an important milestone for us and for our ministry here. God has been good in providing the finances for Thomas to be in ministry full-time, at least for now. There may even be a way, since he has been unemployed, that the unemployment service might pay him and pay the church to train him for three months! We're definitely looking into that option.

On another note, Marc, our pastor, has just learned that he will need an operation. He'll be operated on, Lord willing, December 17. This will effectively put him out of commission for Christmas. This will give Thomas a lot of extra work, so we'd appreciate your prayers for us as well as for Marc and his family.