Thanksgiving celebration

Two days after arriving "home" from the Istanbul consultation (below) I traveled up to Belgium to celebrate the American tradition of Thanksgiving. I was warmly invited by my friends the Fisks who I have known for many years (in the Congo). This is a good time to be with family and friends.

Istanbul conference and visits

Nov 11-14 found Mosaics colleagues and friends together in Istanbul for a consultation about sharing faith with in the Mosaics focus group. It was a consultation attended by over 100 participants working in countires from Afganistan to the US. We were encouraged and challenged by the materials and testimonies.

After the conference we were able to connect with friends in the city, one of whom I met during my French class this past summer. They helped us to see Turkey from an insiders point of view, and we had some great food as well.

The next day we visited the Blue Mosque and Saint Sophia, two of the most famous sites of the city.

Our hotel was well placed amidst many carpet shops,. The name of the hotel was "Hali" which means "carpet." And the breakfast terrace gave way to a beautiful view of the famous Mosques and the Bosphorus, the water way linking the Mediterranean with the Black sea.

Visit to Bosnia

This summer while I was attending a retreat I was invited and encouraged to visit two teams working in Bosnia. As I wrote email messages about this possibility it became more clear that this would be a good idea. I first visited the town of Mostar, which was devastated during the war. Many areas have been rebuilt, but there are still many destroyed building and signs warning of land mines.

The town of Mostar is divided in half by a river. One side of the river is populated mostly by Bosniacs and the other by Croatians.

The second town I visited was Travnik. It is a smaller town than Mostar and is mostly Bosniac. I was hosted by a team that has a vision for encouraging a faith community which is culturally relevant to the local people. They were a great encouragement to me and to our project as they seek to spread the Good News in this way.

Church Retreat

Each year the local churches have a "kick off" to the new school year with a retreat, called the "rentre'." We left from church in private vehicles and spent the day together in the country at a members vacation spot. It was nice to be together outside of the big city of Marseille. We had a service, lunch, hike and spent the afternoon talking and singing. It was a small group for our church but it was good to be together.

I was able to invite two friends, one from Algerian background and one a colleague visiting from Cameroon (in the hat and glasses).

French Class

French studies and visits

These weeks I am involved in a "refresher course" in French in the city of Aix en Provence, just a little ways outside of Marseille. Many people have asked,"you already speak French, why are you take a French course?" But as I use to say to our staff in Africa, language learning starts when you get off the plane in your country, and it ends when you leave. I am grateful to have some time to focus on language skills, and I am learning a great deal. The course runs July 17-Aug 4.

Just before the course started I had a visit from my colleagues Francisco and Stephanie Ramos. It was great to have then in Marseille to see a bit of what I do and what my suroundings are like. Here we are at the Pharo park looking over the old port.

At the end of July I had another trip to Belgium to connect with our colleague Karen Benson who was on her way back to Africa after a short visit in the US. Steve and Barb Swanson gratiously hosted us, and we did a day trip to the Holland coast.

Coffee break

Ministry options in Belgium

I have just returned from a 7 day trip to Belgium. The purpose of the trip was to explore some ministry possibilities along with a Covenant colleague. We were hosted by the Swansons and visited a number of ministry sites in Amtwerp, Ekeren and Ghent.


We also visited a Congolese church in Waterloo. They have connections with the CEUM church in Congo and are looking for ways to reachout to their Belgian neighbors. We had a great worship time.

Don and Martha

One good thing about having visitors, is that you tend to do things that you normally would not take the time for.

We visited the oldest part of Marseille know as the "panier."

There is even an attempt to copy that famous American coffee company.

Covenant colleagues

It was fun to have a visit from Covenant colleagues serving in Thailand. They were able to experience a little of life and ministry in Marseille

Birmingham consultation

Through the efforts of good friend in Tulsa OK, we were able to arrange a ministry consultation. Our consultant brought with him years of ministry experience and a heart to reach out to lost people. The goal of his visit to the UK was to encourage and stimulate the various organizations working there.



Birmingham is a large industrial center in England, with a rich ethnic mix of South Asians, Arabs, Jamaicans and Slavic peoples.



These are colleagues from the EFCA who hosted us and organized the meetings.



We visited one South Asian center to hear of the needs of the community.



We were able to have two larger meeting and connect with people from many organizations.



At the end of our time, we were able to gather around the table for exceptional South Asian cooking.

Outing with the Marhaba center

This is one of the groups that I work with when I am in Marseille. Their center focuses on tutoring immigrant children and also offers French classes for women. Once a year they have an outing to a nearby center which is in walking distance from the beach. It was a beautiful day.

Easter Monday-Picnic

Our church here in Marseille organized a picnic in an area close to the city. It was very informal, we all brought our own lunch with a few things to share. We took a hike in the hills, eat together and even played a goup game.

Meeting with the French Union of Free churches

This is the full group of French leaders, Curt Peterson our World Mission leader, Donn Engebretson, and our Covenant missionaries in France.



Donn Engebretson, Claude Baty, pastor of the Alesia church in Paris, Curt Peterson, and Claude Piaget, Vice-president of the UEEL



Many of the discussions revolved around how we can better work together, creating a vision for shared partnerships in mission, study and evaluation.



Francisco and Stephanie Ramos, our missionaries based in Paris

2006 Euro-Retreat, Barcelona

I just returned home from our annual Covenant EURO-RETREAT. This meeting gathers all of the Covenant staff serving in Europe. It also invities others from the Covenant who happen to find themselves in Europe at this time. Many hours were spent catching with old and new friends.



We had good food and times of worship.





We also had times of strategic ministry planning for our regions and countries.

FREJUS

This past weekend, there was a get together of a number of North African believers and supporters. It was a great celebration of faith, singing and food. It was held in a town near Canne, so it was about a 2 hour drive from Marseille. For lunch we had a wonderful Couscous. You could either eat with a common plate among 5-6 people as it is normally done in North Africa, or you could have your own plate. It was an important time of sharing and being together. A singing group from Paris came and led us in a number of Arabic and Berber songs.

BANGKOK 2006

From March 10-20, I was in Bangkok for a week of Biblical studies and ministry dialog. This is an annual workshop organized by former Inter Varsity personnel. It focuses on manuscript studies done in groups of 15-20 people per group. I was with people from Indonesia, Phillipines, and Bangladesh. We were using English as the language of greater communication, but each had significant things to add as they looked at the text thru the eyes of their culture and experience. It was a rich time. We focused on the first half of Mark's gospel.

Saturday Book Table

Hi all, I just got home from my Saturday morning activitiy. I am helping out with a group who have an outreach near the town center. We have a book table and give out New Testaments, Jesus films and other material. It is a good time to be with the public and share words of faith. You can see a bit the mix of people in the area.

News Feb 2006

Dear Friends, Thank you so much for your support during these last few months. I especially want to say thanks for all of your concern for me as my Mom went to be with the Lord. I felt privileged to be with her during her last weeks. We were even able to celebrate Christmas together at my brother’s. She passed away on Jan 20 and the services were held on the 24th. I will miss her very much.




Since I have been back in Marseille, I have started to get involved in a number of ministries. My coordination commitments to the Mosaics project require me to travel quite a bit, but when I am in town I want to be of help where I can. These photos are from the Marhaban center in town. I go there on Wednesday morning for their coffee drop-in time. I also attend a fellowship on Thursday evenings and help out at a book table on Saturday mornings.





The newest discovery for me is an area know as “Les Calanques.” I visited here with some friends and found it fascinating. There are great hikes and beaches in a spectacular setting. One of the best aspects is that these areas are available by city bus, which is great since I don’t have a car.





Please pray for my involvement in local ministries: Marhaban center, Thursday evening group and Saturday book table. Pray also for up coming meetings:March 10-17 ministry conference in Bangkok, ThailandApril 6-12 Covenant Mission retreat near BarcelonaThanks again for all your love and support. Blessings Ken S