Hi there,

I have a request for those of you who carry a particular burden for ministry in France in your hearts. Please look at the attached letter and respond accordingly. I'm writing on behalf of Cédric LEFEBVRE, a young man I've known since he was a teenager; I participated in his wedding in 2007 and have followed his life closely since. He is a talented 3D animation artist (recent work was on the Disney film "John Carter From Mars") with a burden to see his talent used for the Gospel here in France and in other French-speaking countries. He has joined forces with a half-dozen other young, innovative French Christians in a project to use 3D animation as an outreach tool.

Again, there is no obligation, this is simply a letter to inform you of an innovative outreach project that I think deserves your attention.

Yours and His,
Gary

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Dear Friend,

I'm writing you to inform you of an innovative "outreach" project.

Adapted from the comic books of faith-based artist Alain Auderset (Suisse), ID is a collection of 30 sec to 2-minute clips of 3D CGI animation. Built to be entertaining and funny with an underlying message, ID looks at the social problems of life that are taboo and difficult to talk about. Yet, each issue is revealed in an innocent and comical nature that can bring deep, meaningful issues forward.

Alain Auderset has been doing this for years. He's sold comics in the hundreds of thousands with one goal in mind; inspire people to ask the question "who am I in this world?" After two years of development and hard work, ID is almost ready to be distributed worldwide via the internet.

With the professional assistance of MOONDOG Animation Studio, ID is ready for full production, and to do that properly they need funds. For the production of the first five episodes they need a total of $99,999. There are 100 episodes of ID in development and the first 5 episodes are a stepping-stone to the production of the entire series of 100 episodes.

In order to facilitate giving, MOONDOG Animation Studio has started a 30-day funding campaign at kickstarter. Through this website people from any country, in any currency can give as little or as much as they want. Please visit the following links for further information on ID and the Kickstarter.com campaign :

Teaser (youtube)

Project page (kickstarter)

Whether you are able to help with funding this project or not I ask for your support in prayer as they move forward with this funding campaign and subsequent work on ID.

Thank you in advance for your support,
Yours faithfully,
Gary GOODGE on behalf of Cédric LEFEBVRE

Dear Busy Friends,

I address you that way because I know that you are indeed busy and, like Janet and I, wonder if it will ever slow down? Thanks for taking the time out of you schedule to read this letter.

Well, it is Spring and a lot has happened since our "Winter 2011" letter. We were in the States briefly for the wedding of our middle-daughter and last child to marry, Lauren; she is now the wife of Andrew Frye. I was pleased to be able to participate in that ceremony and believe me it was just beautiful. They live and work in the Chattanooga area.

Back in March I was privileged to return to the country of my youth, the island of Anguilla in the West Indies, and participate in the commemoration of the 50 years of Baptist ministry on that island. It was 50 years ago that my father and my mother left the States with their 5 children to minister there. Needless to say it was a wonderful week of meetings and fellowship. Again I thank those of you who gave so generously and unexpectedly to allow me to participate.

Back here in France we had our annual mini-ski camp for our youth and once again I came back alive from that event!. I can't say enough about the uncontrollable influence of gravity when you are at the top of a ski-slope! You have to remember that I was born in Florida, grew up in the West Indies and ministered in South America to really appreciate my skiing abilities.

While in the States for our daughter's wedding we were able to visit three supporting churches. We are so appreciative of the warmth of welcome and the kindnesses shown to us. A couple from one of the churches gave a gift to allow us to purchase Janet a dish-washer; I'm going into retirement! It really is a nice gift to her, she exercises liberally her gift of hospitality in our home, often twice a week (as in this week).

We have also been enjoying incredible opportunities in ministry recently. For our Easter service the church was full including several lost adults. The cell group we lead is faithfully continuing to meet. We are having "growing pains" in our church here both materially and spiritually for which we are grateful. Thank you for your prayers as we make decisions as a body for future ministry; often deciding between which ministry opportunities, to follow through on.

Friends,

Allow me just to share two items of recent news with you of "happenings" in our lives.

We just returned to France on this past Tuesday from a whirlwind visit to the States to attend and participate in the wedding ceremony of our second daughter, Lauren to Andrew (Drew) Frye. The wedding took place this past Saturday and was just beautiful in all aspects: couple, weather, friends and family, etc.. Of course having our kids and 4 grand kids together for a couple of days was a great "treat". I'm enclosing a photo of the "principal players" in this union and we invite you to rejoice with us.

The second item of news has to do with the upcoming Anguilla trip. I had been asked to participate in the week-long conference commemorating my dad's arrival to that island 50 years ago (photo circa mid-1960's). That was not going to be possible financially, but Janet felt that it was important enough to inform our supporters and make the need known to those who might consider it as a "worthy" project. We were completely overwhelmed at the response and are pleased to inform you that we have the funds to go and the ticket has been purchased for me to fly to Anguilla on the 15th of March for that conference. Now here's the "kicker" we received more than was necessary and will use the excess to replace the clutch of our car here in France; as you see, the funds will still be used for "travel" expenses!

Oh yea, we're off this Monday on a ski retreat with a bunch of young people. How should you pray? I'm from Florida, grew up in the West Indies and ministered most of our lives in South America...how's that for a hint!

Our hearts are full of gratitude towards our faithful God and towards you, our faithful friends.

Yours and His,
Gary and Janet


GOODGE/FRYE WEDDING


GOODGE FAMILY 1965

Christmas Greetings from the Goodges

We, like you, are in full swing of the variety of special activities celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus, and somewhere in the middle of all the planning, repetitions and performances we all set aside some time to send special greetings to friends and family.

Our church in France financed a brief trip to the states between October and November. The trip was made for two specific reasons. The "lease/purchase contract" on our house in Indiana fell through when the buyer quit making payments and I had to get over there to "repair, repaint and replace" to get the house ready for the market; it is back on the housing market now. Please continue to pray for it to sell! The other reason, and a much more pleasant one was being in Tennessee for the birth of Trent and Emily's first baby; our 4th grandchild, Ophelia Mae. A wonderful "extra" event of our stay was to join our daughter, Lauren and her fiancé, Drew in announcing their engagement and future wedding. We were able to see and spend time with all the kids and grandkids! What a blessing!

While in the States we were invited to participate in the Missions Conference of Southside Baptist Church in Warner-Robbins, Ga.. We were, for lack of a better term, spoiled by those kind and generous people. Thank you Southside! We join to our Christmas greetings a heartfelt word of "Thanks" to those of you who support and sustain us by your generous financial gifts as well as your time spent in intercession for us, our family and our ministry.

Your and His,
Gary and Janet

Dear Friends,

Janet and I want to inform you of an upcoming visit to the States which was unscheduled but now seems to be necessary. The plan we had to sell our house in the States through a "lease with option to buy" contract has fallen through. The young family that intended to purchase the house has had unforeseen financial difficulties and can no longer afford the payment. We have tried to work with them, however with them now owing us more than $4000 in past rent and no way or plan to repay that amount, we have agreed to annul the contract and they are leaving the house next week. We have seen our less than considerable savings dwindle down as we have been required to make the house payment. Janet and I will be flying to the States on October 11th and will stay for a month. The principle reason for this trip is to get the house in shape with the intention of leaving it with a property management agency.

A second reason for this trip to seek other financial partners in our unique Franco-American ministry. The exchange rate has not been kind to us and Janet was not able to be rehired to teach English by the Regional French School Board. We have contacted several "new" churches in view of this need. For the obvious economic reasons there in the States, raising additional funds, even in churches where we are fairly well known is not an easy endeavor. We will be in the States for the Sundays of October 16, 23,30 and November 6.

That we will be in the States in late October now means that we'll get to be there when our 4th grand-baby is born. Emily is due on October 22 and all is going well for her and the baby. Janet had planned to be there alone, but now I'll get to be with Trenton and Emily as well.

An encouraging note we would share with you concerning this trip is the church here in France has offered to purchase the airline tickets for us. We are deeply touched by their concern for our situation as well as their desire to have us work alongside them in the different ministries of discipleship and outreach.

Summer Greetings to You All, Is is summer yet? That's that question we've been asking ourselves since this past July. From the perspective of the weather (the reason we call this season "summer") and not the dates one would have to wonder. Last night, after our weekly prayer meeting, the temperature was in the mid 60's, something extremely unusual in the south of France. We have also had more rain in the past two months than usual. Life is sort of like that too, we assume that certain patterns will necessarily be repeated, then some event breaks the pattern and we are reminded that the only constant reality in our world is our Lord.

Speaking of summer, it is usually subject to the academic year and schools don't start back until the first week of September. So, we are in the summer "mode" of ministry. That simply means that while some ministries are on hold, other ministries take off. Janet and I did spend the first two weeks of July at a youth camp teaching Bible; Janet to the 8-10 year-olds and me to the 11-13s Janet managed to get through those sessions in spite of suffering from severe back pain. We just recently participated in the wedding of a young lady from our church (have one more to go this month) and have a camping trip with the youth coming up this weekend. Since we aren't going on vacation so to speak, we are taking daytrips here and there to get out and visit sites that aren't too far away.

Thanks for your prayers as we are in the planning process for the areas of ministry for next year which include both evangelism and edification in and through the church. We have a church-wide weekend retreat planned for the second week in September to this effect. There are a number of individuals in our inner circles who do not know the Lord and we are anxiously awaiting their regeneration. We also have an unusual number of church members suffering from physical difficulties at this time, and some of them are pretty serious situations.

We certainly want to testify to our Lord's faithful provision on our behalf. The economic situation in the world is far from reassuring at this time, so we offer our thanks to many of you who consider our ministry an investment worthy of your resources. The Lord said that, "For where your treasure is there your heart will be also", and we know that we share a piece of your heart here in France!

Yours and His,
Gary and Janet

Greetings from Southern France, We are right on the edge of Summer, literally and it is beginning to feel like it here. We've heard the same from many of you, looks like it's going to be a hot one. Janet and I help out in a summer camp the first two weeks of July (schools are still not out here) as Bible teachers. As any of you who have been involved in summer camp ministry know, no one is limited to doing just what their title suggests. Keeps us young, at least of heart!

We are pleased with our first year here even if not everything was as we thought it would be. That's not necessarily a bad thing, we have learned that some of our plans either did not correspond to the needs at this time or they were simply too unrealistic to accomplish in the time limit we'd assigned to them. Our desire is that we don't want our time spent here to be in any way "unfruitful". We try to live each day intentionally and as a result have a pretty long list of friends and acquaintances for whom we pray in regards to their spiritual needs. One of my favorite outreach activities has been mountain biking, it has also been my most "painful". Anyone got a good mountain bike sitting in your garage getting dusty, send it to me, I'll take it through its paces. I've already destroyed the bike someone gave to me when we arrived; it was already 10 years old and on its last leg. Janet walks/hikes with a couple of friends each week and that is probably her favorite outreach activity.

From our point of view we have been "hanging by a thread" financially (Janet not re-hired by the schools here and the exchange rate refuses to cooperate). Having said this, I know that from our Lord's point of view we are "hanging by an unbreakable cable"! We thank so many of you who sacrifice for this ministry; thanks also for your time spent in prayer. We are also immensely grateful to the French church here, our partners in ministry as well, for they faithfully provide the funds that pay our rent.

From a family point of view, we celebrated Father's Day yesterday for the first time without any of our kids present. Not a lot of fun! However we did get to speak by phone or skype with each of them and we are pleased to report to you that all are well; just really miss them, their spouses and their kids!

We know that for many of you guys in the States things probably haven't gone as you'd planned either, unemployment, incredibly bad weather, serious family and ministry issues, ...please know that we also pray for you when we learn of such things.

Yours and His,
Gary and Janet

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