From Burgundy to Geneva

Hello. Christian and I have four children: Naomi (18), Rose (13), Jade (8), and David (5). Up until August 2024, and for the previous 14 years, we’d been living in a small town called Clamecy in Burgundy. Christian is French and is a joiner by trade. He’s from this area and I’m originally from Dromore, County Down, in Northern Ireland.

I did my degree in French Studies at Queen’s University Belfast and then did my teacher-training year afterwards to become a modern language teacher. During the third year of my degree, I worked as an English-language assistant in France and the high school that I worked in was in Clamecy! The town has 3456 inhabitants, and the closest evangelical church is in Avallon, 38 km away. We don’t know of any other evangelical families in Clamecy. As Rémi Marat mentioned in the previous issue of France Mission Perspectives, 50% of the population live in small towns or villages in France. We were part of that 50%.

So why the move to Bible college? Christian sensed a calling from God to go into some form of ministry. We gave this much prayer and discussed it with pastor David Shutes from the Perspectives church in Auxerre and Ernest Strupler, overseeing pastor in the Perspectives church in Avallon. Both David and Ernest are lecturers at the Geneva Bible Institute (IBG) and highly recommended this course to us. We were already involved in the evangelical cub scout ministry (EEF) in Auxerre with David. We were getting more involved in helping in the church in Avallon under Ernest’s guidance and were on weekly Bible studies by David on Zoom. We felt a desire to keep learning more about God’s Word and to get trained up so that we could serve Him in some form of ministry according to His will.

Our applications to do the certificate at the IBG were accepted in June 2023 but we stayed in Clamecy for another year so that Naomi could finish her last year of the baccalaureate. We finished the renovation work to our bungalow in Clamecy, found caring owners for the children’s pet rabbit, two dogs, and eight hens, put our furniture into storage in the garage of our very kind English friends who lived nearby, and put our house on the rental market with a local agency. Then we packed up the Toyota Yaris and Fiat Punto to come to live at the IBG for a year so that Christian and I could undertake the Certificate in Theological Studies. Naomi started her first year at university in Dijon; David, Jade, and Rose all began their studies at the bilingual (English/French) Christian school which happens to be on the IBG campus. The children are very happy at their new school and living here this year. We have a nice apartment at college and are settling well into the local church that we attend (which is actually in France but only 15minutes away).

Christian and I are enjoying our studies with a really nice group of 31 other students. My late dad had worked for many years as a cook at Belfast Bible college, so I found it easy to fit into college life as I’d been used to a similar atmosphere and always enjoyed spending time with the students. The ethos at IBG is to combine practice and theory. So, we have lessons each weekday and also practical projects that we choose ourselves from a list (Salvation Army, hospital chaplain, Sunday school, evangelisation at the bookstand, etc.), as well as other small practical tasks to help around the college.

We’d appreciate your prayers as we all continue to adapt to our new life. Please pray for the Lord’s guidance and leading for whatever lies ahead. Thank you very much!