Live For Others speaks to Hélène Garagnon, the managing director of Alpha France…

Bless: Introduce yourself…

Hélène: I’m 50 years old and have been married to Benoit for 22 years, we have 4 children and we’ve lived in Normandy for 18 years. We’re part of ‘Chemin Neuf’, a community of catholic congregations, with a heart for working ecumenically. With the support of this community and the churches involved, Benoit and I have been able to launch the Alpha course in Normandy. Benoit was regional co-ordinator and a member of the Alpha board and when he told me they were looking for a managing director, I felt called to apply. Having been managing director for a couple of large organisations, I wanted to invest my talents into serving a worthwhile mission. That’s how I arrived at Alpha in 2009. It’s such a pleasure to do God’s work alongside such a fantastic team.

Bless: What are you up to at the moment?

Hélène: I’m currently running Alpha in France, which has two primary missions: to proclaim the Good News through a 10 week course which is open to anyone and to transform society through courses for couples and parents. We work to promote these courses, as well as to train up the church teams to be able to run them.

Bless: What might a time2bless placement look like with Alpha Paris?

Hélène: A student who came to work for Alpha Paris would participate fully in the life of the organisation through meetings, eating together (every lunchtime) and prayer times. They would help out with training (we have already trained up 3,000 people in 20 different locations in France), events like Worship Central and presenting the courses to the churches.

Bless: What are your dreams for the next 12 months (or so)?

Hélène: My dreams are to see young disciples emerging who will inspire and train up other young people to enable 14-25 year olds to meet with Christ and to build lively and growing churches.

Bless: What can we pray for?

Hélène: We’d be grateful if you could pray for the development of our Youth Alpha course and our youth festivals in Hautecombe this August, as well as for the training weekend in Lisieux on the 10th and 11th of November this year.

If you’d like to read the original FRENCH transcript of this interveiw please email vikki@blessnet.eu

Blessmail Interviews Alpha Course Paris France

Bless: Introduce yourself…

Ella: My name is Ella. I’m 19, I come from Bristol and I like elephants and Ella Fitzgerald.

Bless: What are you up to at the moment?

Ella: I am spending a week in Bethanie, where I am training to go to Freiburg, Germany. Each day I get to join in with the morning prayer meeting and then I usually do some Bible study. I have also had a chance to look around the nearby city, Caen and drink chocolat chaud (with marshmallows!)

Bless: Why are you moving to Germany?

Ella: I am going to work with a church there for three months. I am hoping to get
closer to God through my experience and also to bless the church in Freiburg.

Bless: How does Bless fit into your story?

Ella: I found out about Bless through someone at my church and I was very excited to find that Bless did placements in Germany. I did German for A level and so I had been looking to do some sort of short term mission work in Germany. The placement in Freiburg seemed like an answer to prayer.

Bless: What are your dreams for the next 12 months (or so)?

Ella: I would love to be changed by my experience in Germany and to learn to trust completely in God. I would also like to improve my German and get to know the community in the church and in Freiburg.

Bless: What can we pray for?

Ella: I’d really appreciate prayer that I’d settle in quickly and that I’d be brave enough to try and speak German, as often as possible, even if it means embarrassing myself! I’d also like prayer that I would be able to use my gifts to serve the church and that through my time there I would learn more about God and get to know Him better

Interviews INTERN time2bless Blessmail

Bless: Introduce yourself…
Jon: I’m Jon, I’m 22, I’m engaged and I like to draw.

Bless: What are you up to at the moment?
Jon: I have just moved to Bethanie till the summer as a Bless intern. I like to draw and paint and bless are giving me the space to develop those gifts which is great. I’m also wanting to fit into the rhythm of life here with the Bless team, working on the land and joining the community in their daily rhythm of prayer and shared meals.

Bless: Why have you moved to France?
Jon: I’ve moved to France because it’s great and I felt like I needed to get away and have some space from the somewhat noisy and chaotic life I was living in England and to try and get some perspective and vision for what is next. I also have been to bethanie a few times for go2bless mission training and loved the place and the people.

Bless: How does Bless fit into your story?
Jon: Like a glove.

Bless: What are your dreams for the next 12 months (or so)?
Jon: To create a lot. To learn French. To get married and to travel and perhaps go to art college.

Bless: What can we pray for?
Jon: Pray that my time at Bethanie would be inspired, fruitful and freeing. Pray that I’d get some kind of understanding about what the next step is after these few months.

check out Jon’s drawings at jonwhitedraws.com

Blessmail Interviews INTERN

TIM & VIKKI: We live and work at Bethanie, and have recently become parents to the lovely Ethan. We’ve been here since last September and before that we spent 6 months in Brazil working with in a favela near Rio de Janeiro. Up until then, Tim had worked as a youth leader in a church in Loughton, Essex and Vikki was a French and RE teacher.

BLESS: What are you up to at the moment?

TIM & VIKKI: We are loving settling into life at Bethanie, as we’ve just joined the Bless team out in France. Tim tries to fix some of the broken things around the place and Vikki is trying to get the team speaking more French. We are also both working hard at getting our son to giggle.

BLESS: Why have you moved to Bethanie, France?

TIM & VIKKI: We moved to France because we visited Bethanie and immediately felt a connection to the place, the people and what Bless is doing with young people around Europe.

BLESS: How does Bless fit into your story?

BLESS: What are your dreams for the next 12 months (or so)?

TIM & VIKKI: We’d love to get to know people in our little rural community out in France and get involved with local stuff. We’re really keen to get fully stuck in at Bethanie - developing the buildings, learning to cook more recipes slow-style, speaking more French among ourselves and filling up our programmes with a whole bunch of diverse young people. Vikki dreams of delving deeper in her relationship with God and being the best mum she can be. Tim is dreaming of pursuing God and being awesome.

BLESS: What can we pray for? 

TIM & VIKKI:

Pray for us to develop better relationships, rhythm and rule at Bethanie.

Pray for Ethan to continue to be healthy and lovely.

Blessmail Interviews

Bless: Introduce yourself…

We are Iris and Justin. Last October we moved from Amsterdam to Rotterdam; Holland’s second largest city and known for the huge seaport. Iris works as a teacher, training young people in the area of physiology and anatomy. Justin works as a logistics coordinator for a fruit and vegetables trading company. We both really enjoy our work, we like to hang out, to organize, we do sports, Iris plays guitar and Justin loves to make bonfires. 

Bless: How does Bless fit into your story?

Iris was the first to get involved first with Bless. She was part of a mission trip to Croatia. After that experience Justin was introduced to the Bless family. We led a short term mission trip to Bosnia in 2010 and have helped on PRAYERhouse teams during Spring Harvest and attended lots of Heart to Bless prayer weekends.

Bless is important to us because it feels like family and we feel really connected in the beliefs we share. We love the fact that Bless doesn’t want to be exclusive, instead their drive is to include as many people as possible by offering them space to learn more about themselves and God in a missional context.

Bless: What are you up to at the moment?

At the moment we are running our first Bless event in Holland. We have been given the opportunity to run a few prayer stations at a Navigators (Dutch student) festival called Focus. Check out focusweekend.nl for more info.

Bless: What are your dreams for the next 12 months (or so)?

Our dream is that we find opportunities in Holland where Bless can fit in. We are dreaming of finding churches to connect with the Bless ethos of creative prayer and training young leaders through mission. We also hope to connect to those people in Holland who are searching for what Bless has to offer.

Bless: What can we pray for?

Pray for us as we lead people in prayer at the Focus conference.

Pray for loads of energy and time; as a lot of our work for Bless we do in our own time.

Pray for connections with people, organisations and churches in Rotterdam.

Blessings to all of you who support Bless and believe what God is doing through Bless! 

Interviews Blessmail

Bless: Introduce yourself…

Gem: I’m Gemma. I’m just 23 and originally from Surrey. I recently graduated as a Human Geographer from Exeter University, but studied in Falmouth, Cornwall. This generally confuses people, I still don’t know why. Aside from sporadic bouts of colouring-in and the odd lecture my days were largely spent either on the beach, at Cornish cider festivals or serving coffee to locals. There’s so much to love about Falmouth but the one thing I really miss is its coastline. Whatever the time and whatever the weather, the sea offers a perspective on life that I think should be experienced daily.    

Bless: What are you up to at the moment?

Gem: After a hectic 8 months of dissertation, essays and exams I spent the summer with my family, reconnecting with old friends and my home church. It was really good to take some time out and re-learn what normal life is all about! In September I moved to Stourbridge, a large town just south of Birmingham, and started work for Bless in their UK office. The wonderful Knight family have let me make their house my home and i’m slowly settling in to life in the Black Country. I’ve been attending Chawn Hill church where i’ve met some great people and I seem to spend most weekends up on Clent Hills either running, walking the dogs, dancing with sparklers or drinking mulled wine. Life is good!

Bless: Why have you moved to Stourbridge?

Gem: Bless is an organisation that places huge emphasis on community and relationship, infact, I think it would cease to exist without them. The team I work alongside are so active and creative that to not be working, and in many ways living, alongside eachother (even within the chaos) would defeat the values that lie at the heart of Bless! Although my official role is in administration, I have found myself doing any number of things, with many experiences and opportunities given to me to learn and grow. In the four months that I have worked for Bless I have seen and experienced a different way of living. Priorities and values held by society are turned on their head and whilst the learning curve is steep and initially frustrating I have been totally drawn to the Bless way of doing…’life’. 

Bless: How does Bless fit into your story?

Gem: In 2008 I spent 3 months in Brazil and Peru on a short-term mission trip with Latin Link. My time there really anchored my faith and established solid foundations based upon active and overseas evangelism. Since then, whether volunteering for Bless in Europe, providing Tea and Toast outside clubs at 2am, prayer walking around Stourbridge or serving Shepherds Pie to the homeless I have found that I connect with and experience God when I’m actively serving Him. I just flipping love it! Nothing gets me more passionate and excited. Working for Bless has allowed me to not only do these things myself but to facilitate others as they learn, through Bless, to serve and connect with God in a way that I don’t feel is readily available and accessible within many churches today. After reading The Irresistable Revolution and Jesus for President, both by a guy called Shane Claiborne, I have wanted to experience a different way of life that experiences community, relationship, mission and prayer as an everyday necessity. Bless and its ‘community base’ in the form of Bethanie is a tangible connection and for me, it just makes sense. Sure, it isn’t perfect and i’m still settling in but whether I continue working with Bless for many years or move on to new things, it has given me a solid base and a platfom to dream big and see God in every single aspect of life.

Bless: What are your dreams for the next 12 months (or so)?

Gem: I have a feeling that the next 12 months are going to be exciting. I think there’ll be all sorts happening and never a dull moment to be had! One big dream I have is that an ‘expression of Bless’ will be established in the UK. Similar to Bethanie, I’d absolutely love to be in a position to live sustainably in community and to serve the local area both practically and spiritually, wherever that may be. 

I’m also super excited for our summer mission trips and i’m really praying that the amazing ideas and plans we have for our other porgrammes become fully established and that they are fruitful. 

Personally, i’d like to be in a position where I can support myself financially whilst working for Bless, whatever that may entail. And I just want a bigger heart and bigger vision for what God has got planned.

Bless: What can we pray for?

Me: A slight barrier that i’m facing at the moment is with transport. Without a car i’m finding that the process of getting stuff done can be quite slow and there’s some things that I just can’t do without mechanical wheels! I volunteer for Bless and have quite limited financial resources so I’m really asking for a bit of a miracle if this is to be sorted out. 

Them: Pray also that we connect with more students and young people and that they have the opportunities and resources to join us on one of our many programmes and that they have a deep and impactful experience of God.

Us: It would be great if people could pray for the development of Bless and Bethanie as I believe 2012 is going to be quite a crucial year. Inparticular, part of my job is to fundraise £300,000 by this time next year so that we can own Bethanie and secure it as a place of missional training. This undertaking seems huge and really quite daunting so any prayer would be much appreciated!

Blessmail Interviews