Banana Boat Update

May 2017

Tiffne and Joel Whitley              Strasbourg, France

On June 10^th our Action Quartier group is inviting the children from the immigrant neighborhood to the grounds of the French Baptist Church for a “block party.”  Please be praying as we continue to build relationships with our neighborhood friends.

______________________________________________________

Molly’s Story

The first time we met “Molly” she told us how the police often stop by to ask to see her papers to make sure that she is old enough to be working on the streets.  It is legal for ladies to work on the streets in France, but they must be at least 18 years old.  Molly is 18, but she looks much younger.  We have been visiting with Molly for many months now.  She has told us how she has had to call the police when clients are dangerous.  One has threatened to kill her on several occasions.  We have also assisted her with contacting the police for her protection. 

Molly keeps her passport in her boot to protect it from men who have tried to take it from her.  Many traffickers take the passports or identity documents of their victims in order to keep them under their control.

Molly has also told us that she would like to return to her country and find different work.  Just before she was scheduled to make a visit back to her home country, Molly told us that she is planning to apply for law school and the police academy in her country.  We encouraged her that she would then be able to help women just like herself who had been working on the streets and needed help.  Before Molly left France we were able to give her a letter from a Christian lady from the capital city of her country who is a friend to ladies who have worked on the streets.  This friend works to help these women find a new life.  Please pray for Molly as she returns to her country; for her friendship with this mutual friend, and for her application to law school and/or the police academy.

Tiffne and Joel Whitley

Strasbourg, France

April 2017

Action Quartier:  An immigrant neighborhood kids club through the Baptist Church in Strasbourg.  One of the leaders of this ministry says that in all her 12 years of service in this ministry,

they have only been rained out three times!

American Football in Strasbourg:  One of the youth from our UNIQUE group plays on a local football team.  This was a game played in Strasbourg and it was an experience to watch. 

Cade and Dylan cannot wait to play next year.

Prayer for the students of the UNIQUE group:

- Thank you for praying!  The “Disciple Challenge” that was held on April 10^th-11^th was a time that hearts were open and the youth deepened their relationship with Christ.

Finding a common language 

through smiles and hugs!

One evening the Outreach Team met a woman who desperately wanted to communicate, but only spoke Bulgarian.  During this meeting, though no verbal conversation was able to take place, a sense of connection was felt through smiles and hugs that demonstrated to this woman that she was not forgotten.

Attending the initial Outreach Team training the next week was a woman from Russian who wanted to volunteer with the Ladies-in-Waiting ministry.  Through conversation, this woman told Tiffne, “I don’t speak Bulgarian, but most Bulgarians understand Russian.”  That Friday, only one week from the first meeting, it was a joy to be able to have an Outreach Team member who could speak in Russian and be understood by our new Bulgarian friend.  What began as hugs and smiles of compassion turned into real conversation as God provided a way for His message of hope and restoration in the life of this lady.

Prayer for the Ladies-in-Waiting ministry:

- Please pray with us as we give each lady an MP3 player 
with the New Testament in their own language.

We are thankful for God’s provision through our financial partnership team and your prayers.  God’s provision for good weather, football for our boys, and communicating to those who need to hear about His love.

Missions Together with Unique…

Engaging Youth on Mission in their Community and Beyond!

Unique is an international youth group made up of various churches in the Strasbourg area.  In November we sent off balloons with a note of thanksgiving with a website where the people who receive them can respond with their own note of thanksgiving.  We also began preparing gift bags for prisoners.  Our co-workers in Paris will give out over one thousand Christmas gift bags to prisoners this year.  Unique prepared one hundred bags to send to prisoners in the Paris area.  The Unique teenagers also prepared Christmas gift bags to give to ladies-in-waiting through the ministry here in Strasbourg.  The ladies-in-waiting ministry outreach team visited ladies on the street and gave them the gift bags along with the Christmas story in their own language.  We love watching God do missions together through Unique, Ladies-in-waiting, and the prison ministry!

Christmas bag prep

for Ladies-in-Waiting

Attaching messages

of Thanksgiving to the balloons

Youth putting together the prisoner’s Christmas bags.

Here is a YouTube link to a video created by one of the youth from our very first UNIQUE youth group meeting.  https://youtu.be/bP3oJnJJ4Gc

Ladies-in-Waiting Ministry

Jillian’s* story

On our last blog we mentioned our new lady-in-waiting friend, Jillian.  When we first met Jillian she told us she “didn’t have a friend.”  We were very touched by this and began looking for her each time we went out so that we could build a friendship with her, but for several weeks we did not see her at her regular spot.  Then one night we met another lady and she said, “Jillian is around the corner and she wants to see you, Tiffne.”  So we quickly went to see her.  We were so excited to have found her again.  She told us that night that she would like to find other work and stop working on the streets.  So we have begun working with her and another lady to work through this process together.  One day when we met together I asked her how she arrived in Europe and she told us her story of leaving her country in Africa and walking across the Sahara desert for about month, until she reached Morocco.  In Morocco she finally got on a boat and headed to Spain.  After the approximate 3 day perilous journey across the ocean in a small boat with many people in which she said they had no food or water, they were rescued and landed in Algeciras, Spain.  Jillian lived in Spain several years before traveling to France to try to find work when there was no more work in Spain.

We hear many stories similar to Jillian’s story.  Thank you for praying for us as we reach out to immigrants in France.  

Please pray for the ladies-in-waiting ministry.  
Please pray for several ladies who want to find different work.  
Please pray for the ministry teams as we seek to work with these ladies to find solutions that will lead to a new life.                                   *Not her real name

Beloved Community among the Global Church

We have had the privilege to serve with Christians in France and Spain; working with Baptist associations and other churches and Christians in both countries.  Recently, when we were in Spain for meetings we found out that one of our favorite pastor’s sons, who is now serving as a pastor with the Spanish Baptist union as well, and his wife had just had a baby.  What a great joy it was for us to have the opportunity to travel to Cuenca, an amazing small town in Spain, to visit our friends and their new baby.  When we attended their wedding years ago, I would never have thought that we would get to see their first child only days after she was born. 

City of Cuenca, Spain

Holding a 1 month old baby at our 

French Baptist church

Over the past few months we have had the privilege to serve and worship with many congregations where we have sought to be an encouragement while being renewed ourselves.

Worship together after a Thanksgiving celebration

 with French partners

Trinity International Church Retreat

 Missions Together with Cade and Dylan…

August 20, 2016 – International Geo Caching day…What started as a fun family adventure turned into something more.  Here is Cade and Dylan sharing how finding ministry opportunities in your community is as simple as…Geocaching!

(Interview)

Tiffne: What is geocaching?

Cade:  Geocaching is basically the world’s largest treasure hunt.  How it works is: you get an app on your phone that works like a compass and leads you straight to the treasure.

Tiffne: How did geocaching lead to doing missions together?    

Dylan:  On International Geocaching Day, we were looking for one underneath a bridge, and when we went there we found a squatters village.  So we stopped looking and started talking to them.  In the past few months, we started giving them food; for example soup and Christmas cookies and in return they gave us flowers for our Mother.

Ladies in Waiting Ministry…

Human trafficking is the slavery of our time.  Women who have been trafficked often times have been subjected to profound trauma both physically and mentally.  They also face social rejection, discrimination, and humiliation both in their own society and the one for which they are forced to work.  In our communities, there is the urgent need and often time great opportunities to provide these women with various forms of assistance.  It may be just a smile or small gift to let them know they are not forgotten, or it can take the form of health care, occupational training, or emotional support. 

Hands that make a difference, as they prepare small gifts

for the “ladies in waiting”

In Strasbourg, France a group of internationals from local churches have joined together through the “Ladies in Waiting” ministry.  This group aims to reach out and minister to the prostitutes who work the streets in holistic and meaningful ways.  This “Ladies in Waiting” ministry has already made an impact in the lives of over 30 prostitutes coming from the countries of Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, France, Ghana, and Nigeria. 

One outreach the group recently did was to hold a picnic in the park one evening before the women had to work.  The team printed invitations and made all the arrangements to have a nice finger food, potluck style meal at a local park.  While out on the street handing out the invitations, Tiffne met one particular Lady in Waiting who quickly accepted the invitation.  Tiffne asked if she would like another invitation so that she could invite one of her friends and the lady responded, “I don’t have a friend.”  Tiffne answered this response by saying, “now you do and we would love for you to join us at the picnic.”

On the evening of the picnic, everything was set.  As the hour of the picnic came and went, no “Ladies in Waiting” showed up.  Sonia, a member of an outreach team, had arranged to pick up some of the ladies in her car so they would not have to walk to the park for the picnic.  However, when she arrived to get the ladies, they said their “controllers” were making them begin work early as a way to prevent them from joining the picnic event.  The outreach teams were disappointed but not discouraged and spent time sharing about their experiences in this “Ladies in Waiting” ministry and prayed for each of the women they had invited by name.  

After a time of prayer, Sonia shared another story with the group as they began packing “to go boxes” of food to deliver to the Ladies in Waiting who were unable to attend the picnic. Sonia said that on her first visit to Ladies in Waiting she met a beautiful young lady (Rose) and that during following visits and conversations, she asked Rose if she wanted to do something else with her life.  Rose said she wanted to get another job, but lacked the encouragement to try. Sonia continued to encourage Rose to try to find something different and prayed that God would open up a clear opportunity. Then, one night as Sonia was making visits, she looked for Rose but was told by other Ladies in Waiting that Rose was enrolled in school and had found another job!

Please pray for this “Ladies in Waiting” ministry, specifically for the prostitutes who have found themselves trafficked or trapped in this profession and for the women working to make a difference through this ministry. This month we are praying specifically for Gift, Joy, Aude, and Julia to understand about a personal relationship with Jesus.  These ladies are showing an openness to discuss spiritual matters.

Specific “Ladies in Waiting” Partnership Opportunity:

On November 6^th we will be having a prayer walk for the Ladies in Waiting ministry here in Strasbourg.  We will walk and pray on the very streets where these ladies work and where our outreach teams go to visit with them.  We would like to invite you and your church groups to join us in a “virtual prayer walk” on this day.  We will be praying for Gift, Joy, Tressi, Rosie, Layla, Pauli, Claudia, Favor, Julia, Sophia, Sarah, Aude, Laurissa, Lorena, Mikaela, Simona, and other ladies along the streets of Strasbourg.  We will be walking and praying on the following streets: Avenue du Rhin, Plan de Bouche, Boulevard du Nancy, Boulevard d’Anvers, and the Rue du Port du Rhin.  If you would like to join us for this virtual prayer walk opportunity, please let us know and we can send you a Prayer Team Training PowerPoint slide show to help guide your time of prayer with us!

Tiffne Whitley - Strasbourg, France                                               E-mail - twhitley@cbf.net