We have had some ups and downs!

Several new enthusiasts have joined the throng, but inevitably we have lost a few - the general life span of our congregation oblige - by the sheer fact of members returning home or moving on farther afield; the one person who remains faithfully in touch wherever he may be is : Tony (and sometimes Shân). At present there are 21 potential letter writers on my list. Here I should say that Stephen is the first chaplain to encourage this activity at St Marc's and, indeed, to set the example by writing letters himself, thank you.

Contacts with the British have been sporadic: the Newlands gave us a tremendous boost at Christmas & we joined their plan to send greetings to our favourite jailbirds all over the world (some of them Christians - to the others we just sent Season's Greetings & wrote we were thinking of them). Since then, nothing, in spite of continual e-mail prompts. BUT Craig has received an answer from a Christian detained in Egypt!

So we continue to use the ACAT-France documents, translating as/when appropriate; these arrive in alarmingly quick succession, but are rapidly dealt with. I suppose there must be two or three cases a week. After translation (except for obvious countries like the Congo) the initial letter is posted & documents passed on. After that, I don't know, some of them do the rounds before the date limit. It is not necessary for me to be informed.

Since the beginning of the school year we have sent letters to many different countries, China, Colombia & Nepal being a few of the most frequent. We buy packets of envelopes with printed stamps, as these come quite significantly cheaper, and always send copies to the embassies in Paris, because the French postal system is a great deal more efficient than in some other countries (including Italy!)

Twice we attempted to get together to investigate more efficient ways of writing & sharing, but there always seems to be something else in the offing, a meal or a youth meeting - and since the eager writers are inevitably involved in other activities, this has not been very fruitful. I should personally like a slot somewhere to lift up our (what? clients? sufferers?) in prayer but at present this seems something of a pipe dream in the busy life of our church. Shan't give up, though!

PS Latest! New material discovered (and sent out) on internet: for English speakers, try http://ww2.fiacat.org/en/