16 years ago in May 1991, I was baptised in the Munich Church of Christ and 3 weeks later my boyfriend, Richard Raemy, was baptised too. The 1^st of  January 1993, we got married in Munich. Several months later, Brian Scanlon asked us to move to Paris in order to be trained and plant the Geneva Church of Christ in Switzerland. What we did with great enthusiasm!

After 8 years working full time for the Church in Paris, Marseille and Geneva, Richard felt exhausted, had a lot of back problems and didn’t feel able anymore to take care of his brothers and sisters the way he wanted to. We started to consider the idea to stop working for the Church. It was a hard decision to take because we loved being in the Ministry. After a lot of talks and prayers, we finally took the decision. Some months later, God blessed both of us with great jobs in Geneva. We felt really encouraged and loved!

In 2003, the European Churches went through a hard time, a lot of conflicts arose between staff and non-staff people. Richard, was very affected by all these dilemmas and hurts between brothers and sisters, he started to doubt, to question God and finally decided to leave God and the Church.

It was very hard for me. During the 3 first weeks after his decision, I was overwhelmed with fears: fears that Richard would never come back to God, fears that he would go back to his past sins, fears that he would be unfaithful to me, fears that our couple would not overcome this trial and fears that our 2 children would never become Christians.

But thanks to the support and love of God and of my brothers and sisters, I decided to concentrate on my relationship with God, to go on loving my husband, to take responsibility for the spiritual health of our children and to go on serving the Church as well as I could. And above all, I decided to give up my husband to God. God supported me in a tremendous way and took care of Richard powerfully. During this time, Richard felt unconditionally loved by his brothers and sisters in Europe, by his children and above all by God. All this love and the blessings he got during this time softened his heart. After a 2 years’ break he came back to God and decided to serve the Church again. Alleluia!!

As his wife, I can testify that for the last 16 years, he has never been as strong and inspiring spiritually as he has been since he came back.

Lately God put on our heart to take responsibility for the children ministry in the Geneva Church. We have started to teach classes to the parents about children education and we feel responsible for the pre-teens ministry. Thanks to the support of the IMS, we were able to attend the International Conference of Youth Ministries in Boston with Thierry and Isabelle Fender. That was such an inspiring time for us! Moreover we had the privilege to stay at the McAnulty’s home during the Conference; we received so much love from David, his wife and his children. David patiently answered our numerous questions about children education and all kind of topics. Finally, it was a real joy to spend an evening with Brian and Adrienne Scanlon who did so much for the European Churches.

We came back to Geneva with the renewed vision that our daughter, Elena who is 12 and our son, Matthieu, who is 10 and all the Geneva and European children can become Christians, marry Christian brothers and sisters and build Christian families! We felt blessed, honoured and inspired! Many thanks to the IMS and to God be the Glory!