September has felt quite different for us here in Lyon as we are no longer effectively the lone rangers of the church plant! All the others from Paris who were hoping to move here to join us, now have! Thus, things are getting under way!

William and Hannah Perrier, of course, moved at the end of July. He is working for the same employer, but from home which is great for them both. Rémi and Pauline Gomez moved three weeks ago and he has started work in a local social centre in a high need and highly multi-racial area of Lyon. Anne-Cécile Argaud stayed three weeks with us before moving last Thursday into her apartment the other side of the Rhône. She is working for the Ministry of Agriculture in statistics.

We have just had an excellent weekend away together in a large gîte about 100 km west of Lyon in the hills of the Massif Central. It is an absolutely stunning spot and the gîte was perfect for us all, as was the weather! Basically, we had a lot of fun together, cooking together, playing pétanque and, of course, worshipping God. I was able to give three introductory talks on what I believe God is calling us as a church to be and to do here in Lyon: to be a house where God lives by his Spirit, to be a house built on the rock of God's word and to be a house in which and from which God's glory shines.

A dear African couple managed to get to the weekend too although they got badly lost trying to find it! Having said that, we took three hours to get there on Friday evening, most of which was simply trying to get out of Lyon. It rather reminded us of one of Paris' worst points!

It was really good too to have Lucy Doggett with us. She is based in Cape Town and now here in Lyon for a year and it so happens that her uncle, Mark, was my house group leader when I was her age (24/25 !).

It was wonderful having children too at the weekend (we had four under the age of two years!)

Gill has wonderfully discovered a treasure trove of opportunities to get to know people, both French and internationals, through an association whose base is literally 100 metres from our apartment. She is, therefore, investigating a local choir, a French cookery class and a conversation group. 

I have started my work as an English teacher in local companies; so far I have five individual students and five groups of between two and three people in three different companies all based near the confluence of the two rivers (a five km cycle ride down the Rhône).

I am training for the Lyon half marathon which is on 6 October and am glad it will soon be over! The route takes the runners along both rivers and into the very lovely Parc de la Tête d'Or.

This weekend Gill and I are holding our house warming party on Friday evening and then, on Saturday, we are driving over to Grenoble to spend the day with a couple we met at Rendezvous in July.

Next week Gill and I are in the UK for the training, prayer and fasting days organised by Dave Holden's New Ground team. We are so looking forward to that. We are excited also to be able to see Philip and Libby in London and my mother in Bishop's Stortford.

Then, on our return, we have a day when we will go out onto the streets to offer to pray for those we meet who are sick. We are praying that God will stretch out his powerful hand and perform wonders through us. After all, a very simple reading of the Acts of the Apostles leaves you in no doubt that in those days churches were planted through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus and through the Holy Spirit confirming the gospel by acts of power. If God has not changed, which he hasn't, then surely....!