Dearest Friends,

We hope that you are doing well. How we would love to sit down with you over a good French meal to fellowship together! May the Lord allow that to happen soon—in the United States or in France.

Our time in France this summer fed the flame of our desire to again minister in Francis’ homeland. Francis experienced great joy at being able to preach again in French, and we both loved visiting with people in whose lives we were involved during our church-planting ministry in Lyon. One young woman who came regularly to our home and to the church in Lyon made a point to come to hear Francis preach this summer so that she could have the opportunity to thank us for our role in pointing her to Christ throughout her formative years. She is now a medical doctor who loves the Lord-- a rare thing in France. A couple who became Christians through the church plant presented a little speech to us as we got together with them, to thank us for being God’s instruments to turn their lives around. Among others whom we enjoyed seeing were the parents of one of the former students of the American School of Lyon (which Francis created as part of the Lyon church-planting strategy). He came to the school as an MK (Missionary Kid) who was a troubled boy, a spiritual and academic disaster in the French school system; today he is walking with the Lord and is about to graduate from Wheaton College. His parents said that the American School of Lyon was God’s gift to them for the salvation of their son. Hearing news this summer of another former student, the son of a Scandinavian businessman in Lyon, was also a great encouragement. Now in college in his country, this young man is corresponding with one of his former teachers from our school, and is asking searching questions about Christianity. He recently wrote, “I will never forget the Christianity that I saw in my teachers at the American School of Lyon.”

These and other testimonies filled our hearts with gratefulness to God and strengthened our desire to be used by Him as tools for revival and reformation in the future in the land of Calvin. Our stay in the USA these last three years has played the role of a much-needed sabbatical for Francis after 28 years of French church-planting ministry. He has been refreshed and deepened by God to such an extent that he feels like a new man, and he is eager to move forward to the next step of ministry.

As you probably remember, we returned from France to the U.S. in 2005 for a long-overdue furlough, and then decided to stay here longer than our one-year deputation period. We wanted to accompany our third-culture, college-age children as their minds were being trained and as they were making career and marriage decisions. We are grateful to see the growth from God in their lives through their studies at New Saint Andrews College, and we are delighted to have been a part of the courtships, engagements, and weddings of Deborah last year and Daniel this summer.

We are now transitioning into a return to ministry to the French. Before leaving Lyon, Francis had his eye on one of the fastest-growing regions of the country in which there are several mid-sized cities that have not one evangelical Reformed church. Our country home is located in the center of this area that forms a crescent between Lyon and Geneva, Switzerland. Not long before our return to the States, we were at our country home on a Sunday. We set out to look for a church to attend; we drove from town to town, and could not find one Protestant church of any kind that was open. We would like for that to change!

Towards that end, we will be using our country home as a base for training and mentoring a team of Franco/American church-planters to plant 3 churches in this thriving area of France. Francis has known this region from his childhood on up, which will help him with contact-making and strategic location analysis. As he builds the team of church-planters, he will be giving training on evangelism/apologetics, worship, and family life—to whomever is interested, through Ministerial Conferences modeled after the ones sponsored by Christ Church and Doug Wilson in Moscow, Idaho. Francis will be teaching, but will also be bringing in other men to teach as well, some through translation.

We are now in Phase I of our return to ministry to the French. This means raising $2,500 a month of support so that Francis can be free to work part-time to prepare and put in place the strategy of the ministry in France; this will also allow him to recruit church-planters and to pursue support-raising. Phase I also includes the process of selling the restaurant (www.westofparis.com) that Francis opened to support our family while we have lived in the United States, or of finding and hiring a Christian chef to whom Francis would transfer his salary. We invested our retirement funds in the restaurant; we hope to get back at least some of it. The restaurant, West of Paris, has been a success; it has given us a good income, has given our sons a job that is paying for their college education, has provided invaluable experience in the business world and community, and has been a natural means for building bridges for sharing the Gospel. The support that a few of you currently send has helped Francis to pull away from the restaurant somewhat already to develop Huguenot Heritage, Inc., our sending agency. A group of godly men serves on the Board of Directors of this organization that was created to be an instrument of Reformation and Revival in France. You will hear more about them (Dr. Matt Rice, Mr. Mark Wintz, Dr. Kjell Christophersen, and Mr. Daniel Foucachon) and Huguenot Heritage in a brochure to be sent next month.

Phase II of our ministry will begin once the restaurant is taken care of through selling it or hiring someone. At that time, we will begin raising full-time support.

We are eager to move forward towards the full-time ministry of Huguenot Heritage for which we have had a vision for many years. The urgent need is for $2,500 of monthly support. If you would like to participate, please fill out the enclosed card and return it to us. We would be grateful indeed!

One with you in our Lord Jesus Christ, 

Francis and Donna Foucachon
David and Valerie (the 2 of our 5 who are still at home.)