Last month...

Last month when I wrote the prayer bulletin, we'd not yet sprung the surprise on Olivia that I was going to Ireland and that she was coming along - so, I didn't ask you to pray about it so as to keep the secret.  God, of course, was faithful and gave us a great Dad-daughter time.  The trip was an intercession trip with Operation Capitals of Europe so our agenda was almost completely planned out for us.  That's nice in the sense that we didn't have a lot of decisions to make and were able to take advantage of group rates for things, etc. 

There is, of course, much to see and do in Ireland that we didn't even touch on and one just doesn't go to Ireland in January for a tourist visit (not exactly the best of weather generally - and not for us either!).  So we're ready to go for another visit and even then, I'm sure we'll need to keep going back! I intend to blog about it but until then, you can at least check out some pictures on our gallery.

IT work at school continues to advance significantly.  I can really see new levels of effectiveness in what we're able to accomplish with technology in the school both in teaching and administration.  We've a LONG way to go (and much of that is because I'm only one person) but I'm really excited by the advances we've made recently.  So, many thanks for your prayers in that area.

This month...

• Christian Education Conference - This is my only prayer request this month.  Why?  Because we still don't have a venue! The conference will attract about 300 people who will be descending into our Alsatian valley the weekend of the 24th-26th of February.  How did we get to this point?  Well, this conference has been hosted many times here and those who request the municipal hall did what they had always done and received the same affirmative response as always that we could have the hall.  Then in December the local mayor's office said "no", the hall was booked and all of the sudden this looked like this was shaping up to be an "open-air" meeting in February! 
  
  Our pastor's wife has been looking at all the surrounding communities and we even considered our church building but nothing has worked out.  So she decided to go back to the mayor's office and press the issue of why they said "yes" and then "no".  She had an interesting conversation with an assistant and then was able to schedule a meeting with the mayor.  The mayor promised that they would discuss it this coming Monday night (Feb 6th - morning in the States).
  
  What is interesting is that this is a different local government administration from the last time that this conference was held here. There was a good relationship with the last administration, but the relationship seems to be non-existent with this new mayor.  Curiously, one of the themes of this year's conference is how our Christian Schools can be of service to their respective communities.  Personally, I think God's up to something here to bring this school into a new level of connection with the community and I believe that the devil is none to excited about that.
  
  The organizers here have peace about a solution for the venue problem - even though we don't see it yet.  Still, I believe it would wise to:
  
  1. Pray for this meeting Monday and for favor with the city council
  2. Pray for and bless the authorities of Guebwiller, France
  3. Pray for God's provision for the venue for this conference
  4. Pray for God's blessing on the conference at the end of this month

Until next month!

David