Transformed Lives

Coucou - hello there!

This past week has been another full, busy week with many events, coffee dates, meetings, and to-do lists. God continues to provide for us physically, emotionally, and relationally as we work with Him to the praise of His glory and the expansion of His Kingdom here in France. Our Lord is in the business of radical transformation, and He continues to be hard at work. I would love to share just a few stories with you that I have heard this last week or so.

Last Thursday I met with my discipler Lindsey at a cozy little café called Kalysthé that I had visited once or twice before. Lindsey, a missionary with Pioneers, shared with me how she had come to know the café's owners Nanou and Jean-Louis. After she moved in across the street, she brought them some cupcakes as a neighborly housewarming-type gift. She got to know them better over the course of the following months, and invited both owners and the whole staff to the outreach Thanksgiving dinner her and her team were putting together. Jean-Louis was the only one who came, but he was very touched by the hospitality and kindness he experienced at the dinner. He was also exposed to the truth of the Gospel, which God used to draw him to Himself. He accepted Christ shortly afterwards and started going to a Bible study for new Christians with his non-believing wife. Nanou talked to Lindsey and asked if they could meet up every other week or so because she had so many questions she wanted to ask Lindsey. She kept going to Bible study and meeting with Lindsey for several months, and finally in February called Lindsey up to tell her that they didn't need to meet up anymore - all her questions had been answered by the Holy Spirit coming into her heart and her life! Both Nanou and Jean-Louis are now members at our church, and Nanou has been taking classes through the church to learn more about the Bible. Their staff and many of their regulars have remarked on the change they have seen in both of them since they committed their lives to Christ. 

This past Friday, I was working Chez Théo (the lovely not-for-profit café run by a partnership of four Protestant churches and Agapé) when a lovely young woman named Anisa came in. Anisa was meeting with Richard, a pastor at La Clé (one of the partnership churches), about getting baptized. Before they went upstairs to talk, Richard asked her if she'd like to share her story with us. I'll just share the highlights here. Anisa comes from a family of North African immigrants, and grew up Muslim. After starting her studies in Montpellier, God brought Christians into her life and orchestrated encounters as only He can. She was able to meet other women with Muslim families and pasts who have come to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, and through their prayers and witness she started going to church with them. God broke down the walls around her heart and brought her to a knowledge of the truth in Christ Jesus. After her conversion, God gave her a burden for her other family members who are still Muslim. She told us that she would spread their photos out on her bed and spend hours in prayer, interceding for them. When she first told her mom that she had become a Christian, she was outraged and felt betrayed. Anisa kept praying for her, and introduced her to some of the formerly Islamic Christians she had met. Now her mom is coming to see the truth found only in Jesus, and is close to making a decision to follow Him herself. She will also be coming to Anisa's baptism.

Nanou and Jean-Louis' story gives me such hope, and is a great reminder that God can (and does!) save older, set-in-their-ways, atheistic French people. Anisa's story helps me to persevere in prayer and hope for our Muslim friends. God can break through darkness and lies with His truth. He is mighty to save - no one is impossible or too far gone! There are so many more stories of God's power transforming lives, but I just don't have space for all of them. Instead, I'll leave you with these verses that I hope encourage you. Thank you for your continued prayers for me and my team! Please pray that our lives would become brighter and more beautiful as we become like God, and that the Lord would remove the veil of blindness stopping our non-believing friends from truly seeing Him.

Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. (2 Corinthians 3:16-18 MSG)

My pleasant boundary lines

Bon dimanche tout le monde! (Happy Sunday everyone!)

This past week was another busy one, full to the brim with good gifts and blessings from the Lord. Every night we had a different event, in addition to our meetings, campus time, and time spent with friends. Monday, as usual, was English Club at FitzPatrick's. We still have quite a crowd coming, and a whole new group of "regulars" who seem committed to continuing to come. I got to spend some time with our favorite Indian doctoral students (Hindu friends of our good friend Girish - a Christian Indian student in their same program). They recently moved into an apartment, and during the course of the night (I think we were discussing good Indian restaurants here in Montpellier) they invited us over to be their first dinner guests! They hosted us last night for dinner - which turned out to be a full cultural experience! We ate traditional food, (though they told us they cut the normal spice amount in half...I was still at my limit of spice tolerance!) in the traditional way (they showed us how to eat with our hand - Megan and Kim had pretty good technique), accompanied by a traditional drink of sweetened almond milk. It was delicious!

Tuesday was the first Parcours Alpha (or Alpha Course) meeting. The Alpha Course is a seeker Bible study developed for churches to help teach the basics of Christianity and create space for dialogue and exchange. I participated last year with a Muslim friend Doaha, but she was very busy and so we didn't go to all of the sessions. This year, Richard (a pastor from La Clé - another Protestant church here in Montpellier) is leading an Alpha Course specifically for students! We invited our friend Aline (see previous posts) who has already showed an interest in spiritual things, and she told Jeanette afterwards that she really enjoyed it. She said it wasn't at all preachy or boring like she thought it might be, instead she had a really good time and is excited to come back!

Wednesday was a game night instead of our normal Agapé meeting - and we had a ton of new faces! Kimberly introduced us to the perfect opening game for a game night called "Over the mountain." We all sat in chairs in a big circle, with one chair-less person in the middle who asked us to cross over the mountain if...and then picked a possible descriptor like "if you wear glasses" or "if you are a student." If their statement is true of you, you have to get up and try to find a new seat before they are all taken, and the last person standing gets to share their name and the next "over the mountain" statement It was a ton of fun, and a great way to get people talking to each other and decrease any initial feelings of awkwardness. My personal favorite was "Cross over the mountain if you have violently run into one of your neighbors during the course of this game." There were very few people left seated! My favorite part of the night was meeting Judith, a non-Christian friend of our non-Christian friend Israel. It meant so much to me to see our non-Christian friends inviting their friends - what a testimony to see that they trust us that much!

Thursday night we had our second groupe de serviteurs (servant leaders) meeting at our house. Four out of our five student leaders were able to come, have dinner with us (cooked by my lovely and talented roomie Kimberly), and talk together about the upcoming Agapé weekend in November. It was a lovely night, and such an encouragement to us to see how God is growing this group to really be a movement, and a movement after His own heart.

Friday night we had dinner with our dear Priscilla - a sweet Swiss girl who came to Montpellier for two weeks with her class, and wanted to stay with a Christian host family. Little did we know that responding to Daniel (a pastor at the Pompignanne church) and volunteering to house her made us a French host family! The irony was not lost on Megan or myself as we picked her up two weeks ago, surrounded by French families, at the bus stop. We are not a traditional family, nor are we French, but we had a wonderful time together! It was so much fun for us, and such a blessing, to be able to host Priscilla. She wanted to cook for us before she left, so we ate a delicious meal together before exchanging small gifts and notes, and accompanying her to her bus. It was very sad to see her go! She did tell us that we are welcome to visit her anytime we are in Switzerland, so maybe we will see each other again.

In the middle of all of this crazy busyness, I realized that I needed to take some extra time with the Lord. After meeting with my coach/discipler Lindsey on Thursday and talking with her about my spiritual and emotional state in the midst of a very full week, she shared some insights with me that really pushed me to reflect. I took Friday morning off and headed to my favorite coffee shop with my Bible and journal. I poured my heart out to the Lord, and He gently brought sin issues to light and helped me to bring them before Him and to confess my dependence. Over and over, I kept coming back to the phrase "I need you." As someone who is often competent, fairly responsible, and gifted in several areas, it is easy to depend on myself - on my own talents, capabilities, and strengths. God lovingly reminded me that my relationship with Him is one of dependence, that I truly need Him every minute of every day for everything! He led me to several passages in Psalm 16 that really challenged me to think about where I have been finding my joy, purpose, identity, and value outside of the Lord. After bringing those different idols to Him, I reread this Psalm and was reminded of who God is - that He is worthy of my trust and dependence! I'd love to share just a few insights that God gave me in reading this passage.

"I said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.'" (Psalm 16:2) God is the giver of good gifts, so everything good comes from God, and without Him I don't receive anything good. In another sense, even the good gifts He gives are not good apart from Him - when I separate them from God and He is not in them, they become idols in my life and separate me from Him. Unless He is in it, nothing is good.

"Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance." (Psalm 16:5-6) The Lord is my provider - He is the One who knows me best, who knows exactly what I need, and He is able and willing to provide for me. There is never a reason to be discontented, the Lord gives all that I need. Not necessarily all that I want, or even all that I think I need, but I always have what I truly need when I come to Him to provide for me. God is the One who defines my boundaries, and He makes them fall in pleasant places. When I am stretched too thin or exhausted by my commitments, how often is it because I have not asked God to show me the boundaries He has defined for me, or because I didn't listen when He told me? As in everything else, I need God's wisdom to know when to say yes, and when to say no, as well as where - and with whom - I should invest myself. And He promises that the boundary lines He will draw for me are pleasant. In all this, I know that my ultimate joy comes from my eternal inheritance. God has provided for me in a big way, and as His child I can claim Heaven as my inheritance.

"You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand." (Psalm 16:11) Lastly, joy, life, and true pleasure comes from following God - and I need Him for every step of the way. He is the one who showed me the path of life, and enables me to live for Him. He is also the one who fills me with joy and gives me His eternal, lasting pleasures. Like any good gift, I cannot expect to find it apart from God. No wonder my vain idols failed to bring me joy, life, and pleasure! These things can only really be found in God. I need to be near to Him, in His presence, to be able to truly listen to His guidance, to receive His provision, and to live joyfully. Anything else this world can offer is not a lasting, eternal pleasure, but instead an earthly, temporal one.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support! This journey is not an easy one, and it is never fun to be confronted by my own insufficiency and idols, but I know that God is continuing the good work He began in me, and I know that the eternal pleasure and joy I experience in Him is worth all of the growing pains. Please continue to pray that God would work in my life, my teammates' lives, and the lives of our students to sanctify us and help us reflect Jesus Christ more and more each day. Merci beaucoup!

Pas de foi / Steps of Faith

Coucou! / Hey there!

I hope you are doing well and enjoying some lovely Fall weather! (I'm still waiting over here...I can't complain about the sunshine, but I sure would love to see some fall colors!) This past week has been, like the weeks before it, very full of blessings and God working in exciting ways. I just want to take some time to highlight a few ways our students and friends are taking "des pas de foi" - steps of faith.

STUDENT-LED MOVEMENTS
For some time now, it has been the vision of Agapé Campus Europe and our national leadership to see students catching the vision, stepping up, and taking ownership of their own movements to be a part of God transforming their campuses in radical ways. We want our role as staff to be simply about being there for students, to ask them "How can we help you or be a resource for you?" instead of asking students to help us with "our projects." Last year in Montpellier, we tried to begin implementing several student leadership teams with the goal of getting students more involved and invested. We had some successes, but it was difficult to maintain and communication was a nightmare. This year, as I've mentioned before, we have one student leadership group made up of a core of truly committed, faithful students. We have been praying, hoping, and waiting to see how this new system would work. This last Wednesday at our weekly Bible study, we saw the first fruits of what God has been doing. One of our student leaders, Lucille, is a Messianic Jew and a recent convert to Christianity. Jeanette challenged her to share her testimony (the story of her faith journey) in front of the group Wednesday night, and she gladly accepted. Lucille got up in front of the whole group (almost 30 people - praise God for growth!) and shared her story. It was touching, easy to relate to, coherent, and interesting - everything you could ask for in a testimony! - and many people were deeply impacted by what she had the courage to share. Next, Loïc, another of our student leaders, got up in front of the group to explain the concept and the content of what we will be doing this semester for our Bible studies as a group. After his brief but very clear introduction, he had us divide into guys and girls, and he and Agnès (who he has asked to help him out) directed our smaller groups through the study and the questions. They both did a fantastic job listening, asking questions, directing, and adding their own insights. It was so much fun to be a participant in this study, and we were so proud of our students for stepping up in such a big way, and doing such a wonderful job!

DISCIPLESHIP
This past week has also seen many different people taking steps of faith in discipleship. I was able to meet with Alice, who came to Christ last fall, and challenge her to grow in her faith with me through a study of the book of Ephesians. God was so clearly guiding our whole conversation, and even the area of study! She said the thing she wants to learn about the most this year is how to receive and better understand the love God has for her, even though she doesn't deserve it. What better book to study than Ephesians? This past week when we met, we talked about her identity in Christ - how her value is received from God and not something she has to (or even can) achieve herself. It was exactly what she needed to hear from the Lord, and I know that I needed the reminder as well! Yesterday, my teammate Kimberly met with Christie, a friend of our mutual friend Grace and a medical student. They met up for lunch, and ended up talking about baptism, since Grace is going to be baptized on Sunday at church. Christie shared with Kimberly some of her doubts and fears about getting baptized, and said she didn't feel ready to get baptized because she knows she still sins. Kimberly was able to share with her that getting baptized represents a commitment to God and to living for Him, but doesn't mean that you no longer sin. She asked Christie at the end of their time together if she would like to meet up again to continue exploring what the Bible says about this and other topics, and Christie said yes! Kimberly will meet with her again next week and hopefully will continue to have opportunities to pray with her, to pour into her, to share truth with her, and to encourage her. Hooray for discipleship! Lastly, my friend Isabelle contacted me yesterday about coming to Parcours Alpha (more on that later!) last night, but I explained to her that it's geared more towards people who are not yet Christians. I asked her if she would be interested in studying the Bible outside of our weekly Agapé meetings, and she said yes! I will be meeting with her later today to talk to her about what discipleship is, and to ask her if she would like to continue growing and learning alongside me this year.

Please pray for me and for my teammates (Megan, Kimberly, Jeanette, and Joëlle) as we continue to challenge and encourage students to take steps of faith in leadership and discipleship. Pray for courage for us as well as we take our own steps of faith! 

I still have so much to share, but I'll have to save it for next time! Thank you very sincerely for your thoughts, prayers, and support! God is so good, and He is definitely at work here! Bisous, et à la prochaine!