Travels in SC, IL, SC and NC

Our journeys in the last few weeks have taken us from South Carolina, up to Illinois, back to South Carolina and a little ways up into North Carolina. We now have more than 223,000 miles on our van! By God's grace, we have not had any mechanical problems so far.

On Wednesday, April 15, we had a meeting at Westgate Baptist Church, right here in Spartanburg. Pastor Bill Bethea and the people of WBC were very kind and generous to us. We were blessed to get to know more believers right in our own town.



Two days later we packed up and headed up to Illinois. We had scheduled this service nearly a year ago, hoping to schedule other churches in the area for the same trip, but in the end those plans never materialized. Our time with Harmony Baptist Church of Galesburg, Ill., was well worth the trip, however. Pastor and Mrs. Bob Eshleman hosted us for supper on Saturday night, and we enjoyed participating in all the Sunday services, including their "Snack 'N Yack" after the evening service.



After leaving Galesburg, we drove three hours north-east to visit with my brother and family, Bob, Jennie, Patience and Corban Bixby in Rockford, Ill. Though we weren't able to hang around for a service at their church, we did enjoy the family time. We are sad that we won't get to see them again before we leave for France.



We weren't there for long before we had to leave and head back to South Carolina for a service on Wednesday night, Aprill 22, at Heritage Bible Church in Greer, S.C. Following our presentation, Pastor Dan Brooks had the whole congregation divide up into pairs and pray specifically for our needs. What a blessing that was for us, especially with our present concern over our visas. Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures, so I had to steal one off their website! We give thanks to God for this body of believers and for their generosity to us.



This past Sunday, April 26, we drove up to Ramseur, N.C., for a meeting at Faith Baptist Church. Here we remembered to take a picture of the building, but forgot to get one of Pastor and Mrs. Gary Moger! We enjoyed our time with the people of FBC as well as our time with Pastor and Mrs. Moger at Zaxby's following the evening service. Pastor Moger has nearly successfully convinced me that I need to buy the Logos Bible program! We drove home that night, getting back just after midnight.



We will be in our own church this Wednesday, then we pack up to leave again on Friday--this time headed for New York!

Visa Update: Possible Breakthrough

This morning I talked with my dad in France. He had spoken personally with the president of the Evangelical Federation of France. This federation is different, and obviously more theologically conservative, than the Protestant Federation to which I was originally sent by the consulate. The president of the Evangelical Federation was very kind and showed a willingness to issue a letter of recognition for us to use with the consulate. He stated that of all the consulates in the U.S., he thinks the one in Atlanta is the hardest to deal with. I have some information I have to fill out and send in to him before receiving the letter of invitation from him.

We are additionally trying to secure another invitation from the Evangelical Baptist Mission of France with which my parents are associated. Once we receive these two endorsements, we plan to send them into the consulate in Atlanta in hopes that they will be sufficient for them to grant us our desired visas.

Thank you for your prayers. We will keep you posted!

Visa update: Request for Invitation Denied

As some of you know, when we applied for visas in Atlanta, the man who met with us said that since we were going to France for "religious purposes," we had to have an official invitation from either the Catholic Church or the Protestant Federation. Since he could tell we weren't Roman Catholics, he gave me a form and said that it had to be signed and stamped by the Protestant Federation in France. This seems to be something brand new or just sporadically enforced. I think it is an effort on the part of the French government to keep cults from infiltrating the country. Anyway, I filled out the form and then faxed it to the Federation asking if they could sign and stamp it.

Though things at first sounded hopeful, we were informed that since the church we will be working with in Bordeaux is not an official member of the Protestant Federation, they cannot help us. They did inform us that there is no law requiring their invitation.

Now we have to come up with "Plan B." We will probably seek an invitation from another source that could serve as a "replacement" for the one we could not obtain from the Protestant Federation.

Thank you for your prayers!

Paradigms in Conflict: 10 Key Questions in Christian Missions Today

Author: David J. Hesselgrave
Publisher: Kregel (2005)
Number of pages: 368




As his titles suggests, Hesselgrave’s desire is to compare and contrast ten (sometimes complementing, but always conflicting to various degrees) approaches to missiological issues. They are as follows:

• Sovereignty and Free Will: An Impossible Mix or a Perfect Match?
• Restrictivism and Inclusivism: Is This Missions Trip Really Necessary?
• Common Ground and Enemy Territory: How Should We Approach Adherents of Other Faiths?
• Holism and Prioritism: For Whom Is the Gospel Good News?
• Incarnationalism and Representationalism: Who Is Our Missionary Model—Jesus or Paul?
• Power Encounter and Truth Encounter: What Is Essential in Spiritual Warfare?
• Amateurization and Professionalization: A Call for Missionaries or a Divine Calling?
• Form and Meaning: How Does the Inspiration of Scripture “In-form” Contextualization and Make It “Meaning-full”?
• Countdowns and Prophetic Alerts: If We Go in Force, Will He Come in Haste?
• The Kingdom of God and the Church of Christ: What on Earth is God Building—Here and Now?

These are individually written chapters and while they overlap, they do not necessarily build on each other. This makes the writing style, ease of understanding, and level of interest a bit uneven. I found his sovereignty/free will chapter to be the least helpful, but most of the others were very helpful and insightful.

Creating Common Ground
In the chapter on common ground/enemy territory, he discusses “problematic, plausible, and positive” approaches to establishing common ground. Among the “positive approaches,” he suggests engaging in Biblical theology (“communicating that larger story and not just fragments of it or lessons growing out of it,” 109) and missional theology in which the missionary discovers how biblical concepts function within the beliefs and practices of the non-Christian respondents -- i.e. how are they receiving what I teach and interpreting it? In this vain, he calls on missionaries “to take an untiring and genuine interest in the religion, the ideas, the sentiments, the institutions of the people among whom they work. It is that kind of ‘close-up’ indigenous understandings and practices that the missionary must take into consideration if the gospel is to be contextualized effectively” (110). The last of the positive approaches to seeking common ground is what gets the most emphasis: “If there is any one key that unlocks the door to common ground it is ‘missionary self-exposure’ ” (111). “Clearly, what is common to all of us is our sinful state before a holy God” (ibid).

Waiting for His Coming
Another very helpful discussion (found in the chapter on countdowns/prophetic alerts) was Hesselgrave’s analysis of Christ’s perspective on His second Coming as described in Matthew 24:43-25:13. There are, he says, three parts to the answer.

First, Christ's followers should be watchful, Matthew 24:43-44. The Householder did not know when the break-in would occur, so he was not “on the alert” (v. 42).

Second, no one who knows that the Master is coming should presume that he will not come now, Matthew 24:45-51. Here the servant who has been put in charge of the affairs of a large estate while the owner goes on an extended trip presumes on his long absence and is thus unprepared for his return.

Third, no one should make decisions on a presumption that Christ must come right away, Matthew 25:1-13. In this story, five bridesmaids are caught without oil for their lamps precisely because they expected him to come shortly and were not prepared for his long delay. “Their mistake was the opposite of the servant’s when he thought the master would never return, but it had a similar result” (301). Hesselgrave applies this to missionaries who “are so sure the time is short that they go half-prepared. And they are so busy on the field that they do not take time to nurture mind or spirit. The months pass; perhaps even years. Sooner or later, they have 'run out of oil.’ Some return to school to 'buy more oil.’ But for others it is simply too late. The opportunity to prepare and remain prepared to meet the challenges of missionary service has passed.”

He concludes this section, “It is right to look for Christ’s coming. But it is wrong to make important decisions on the basis of calculations as to the exact time of his coming. Someone has said, we should act as though he is coming today, but we should plan as though he is not coming for a thousand years. There is a tension there, but, rightly understood, that must be close to what Jesus meant” (ibid. italics original).

I don’t have room to draw from his other discussion, but this gives you a taste of what I found to be a very helpful and insightful book on missions.

Visa update

This morning (4/16) I called the Protestant Federation's office in Paris to see if they had received the fax I sent yesterday. They had, and I was put on hold to speak to a gentleman about it. He was very gracious and kind toward me, even complimented me on my good French! However, he made it clear that an invitation would not be issued automatically. While he assured me that they had good will toward all the Protestant denominations, from the historical denominations to the Pentecostals, Charismatics, and even the Evangelical Baptists, they could not issue an invitation on the part of an organization or church that was not an official member of the Federation. I asked if I could become an individual member. He said no, because it was a federation of churches, not individuals.

I asked him what I could do to solicit an invitation on their part. He said he could not give me any official advice on the part of the Federation. I suggested, and he agreed, that a personal phone call from my father to the president of the Federation would be of help. That is where we have left things for now. I'm hoping to have my dad call the office in the morning. The only problem is that my parents are presently in Germany (where my dad is speaking at a BMM missionary conference) and don't have internet access! I called the hostel where they are staying and left a message with a German girl that I hope will reach them.

This morning I read in Proverbs, "Many seek the ruler's favor, But justice for man comes from the LORD" (29:26, NASB). It reminded me that I need to run first to God in matters such as these. Thanks for praying.

Visit to the Consulate

The Lord gave us a remarkably calm morning. Since all our paperwork was together and we didn't have to pack for a long trip, there wasn't much to do. We ate a big breakfast so that we wouldn't have to buy lunch, then headed out of Spartanburg about 10:15 a.m.

We arrived in Atlanta a couple hours early and sat in a Kroger Grocery's parking lot snacking on granola bars, using the store's free WiFi and watching two men dangle from ropes as they cleaned the windows on a skyscraper nearby. We arrived on the 18th floor of the Marsh Building (where the consulate office is located) at 2:30 p.m., 15 minutes early. It was a very small office with practically no ventilation. At one corner of the room was a solid glass window with a small slot through which to pass papers and a microphone/speaker with which to speak to the person on the other side.

There were two men waiting to be helped in front of us. I was called up at 3:10, and we finished up around 4 p.m. We were expecting to be ushered into a separate room for an "interview," but everything was done through the window. Since the website had said regarding the applications we were supposed to fill out "one per adult," we did not fill out visa applications for the children. When the man asked for the children's applications and we didn't have them, he said with a touch of curtness, "Well, they are human beings aren't they?" I wanted to respond that while they didn't all ways act the part, my children most certainly are human beings, and it was misleading information on his website that had caused this mistake! I didn't.

"There was a misunderstanding, and I'm really sorry."

He asked me if we had passport-sized pictures of the children, which we did. He then gave me two applications and told us to fill them out ,and he would attach the photos for us. By then we were so rattled that we made several mistakes on their applications and had to ask for new forms to start over! He gave us some whiteout instead, and we made the appropriate corrections. Then he made the needed photocopies of the forms for us even though there was a note on the wall that said the consulate could not make photocopies for any reason, but that you must go to the post office across the street. I pointed to it and said quietly to Ruth, "We've already been shown grace."

Our friend-behind-the-window then read in my documentation that I spoke French so he switched to that language to check me out. We stuck to French the rest of the time, and things seemed to go more smoothly after that. When he found out that Ruth spoke some French, he called her to the window so she could speak a sentence or two in French through the microphone as well.

It is my observation that in the American culture there is an inherent compulsion to make someone feel at ease. The exception might be when you're arrested (never been, by the way), but even in a governmental office, there is an effort to make some small talk and communicate on a friendly level. It may not be genuine, but some level of friendliness is typically to be expected in America. That same compulsion does not exist in many other cultures where the the difference between the one in authority and the one under authority is more pronounced. In those cultures, it is not a matter of being impolite or rude. It is simply a matter of being the one in authority. That's the way it was with our friend-behind-the-window. He wasn't rude or unkind. He was matter-of-fact. There was no "How are you?," no talk of the weather or how far we had to drive. Just, "Why do you want to go to France?" and "Your children are human beings aren't they?" To be more personal would have been inappropriate. Cultures are all different, and they don't all have to become American.

Our friend-behind-the-window didn't say anything about the rest of our paperwork, so we assume we had what was required. The biggest hurdle (yet to be overcome) came at the end. He pulled out a form and gave it to me, telling me that since we were going to France for religious purposes, there was a new requirement which demanded that we get an official (signed and stamped) invitation from the Protestant Federation of France. I know practically nothing about this federation except that I've heard they are a very liberal group. The churches of which I was a part in France were never associated with the Protestant Federation. All of a sudden, I'm told I have to be invited by a group which I doubt looks very kindly at the word "evangelical," much less "Baptist." But how do I explain that through the microphone in French so that my friend-behind-the-window will understand? I decide not to try, but just to say OK. Once/if I get the needed signature and stamp, I have to mail it into the consulate. I was told I should expect it to take a month for the applications to be processed. We paid the non-refundable $132 fee for each visa application ($132 per human being that is), said good day and left. We enjoyed a nice supper in the Atlanta area with some of Ruth's relatives, Larry and Kristen Everson, before heading back to Spartanburg. We got home just after 11 p.m.

This morning (4/15) I filled out the required form and faxed it to the Protestant Federation office, along with additional letters explaining who I was and what I hope to do in France. Thank you so much for your prayers concerning yesterday's visit. Will you now please pray that God will give us favor with the Protestant office in Paris and that they will return the needed form with the crucial signature and stamp?

Resurrection Sunday

It was our first Sunday back in our home church in 2009! We were so grateful to be back with many of the people we know and love. It was a very good resurrection celebration. We worked with the Musselman family and Donna Bixby to host a church-wide Easter breakfast. Pastor Ken had asked me to give an Easter meditation during the Sunday school hour, and it was my privilege to be able to meditate on and minister the hope that the resurrection brings. Here are just a few pictures to help us remember the day.

Today we are heading off to Atlanta to meet with the French Consulate and officially apply for visas to France. We'll get back with you later to let you know how it went!

Trip to Ohio, Spring 2009

God blessed us with a very enjoyable and safe two-week trip to Ohio. We were primarily in the northeastern corner near Cleveland and then down near Columbus. We were shown much kindness and love. We are thankful for the friends that we have made. Here is a brief pictorial summary.

Click here to view in larger format.

Book Review: Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong

Title: Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong (Why We Love France But Not the French)
Author: Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barrow
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc. (Naperville, IL)

As we began gearing up for deputation well more than a year ago, Tim and I were also becoming increasingly interested in beefing up on our knowledge of the French culture and thought. This book is the first of several we have been reading/have purchased to read in an attempt to better prepare ourselves for future life and ministry in France. Mom and Dad Bixby gave us this book as a gift for our seventh anniversary, and I have been reading it aloud to Tim little by little on long road trips. We have learned a lot from this book—in fact, more than I could ever convey here. It has also been confirming to find many of the same concepts reinforced through other reading that we had been doing concurrently with it (Au Contraire! and The French Way). The book really is as interesting as the title would lead one to believe, though honestly it plumbs such depths that I still don’t feel as if I have begun to grasp all of its implications. But it has provided us with a helpful framework to begin to understand how the French are different from us as Americans, and why we can’t begin to understand their thinking and perceptions by analyzing them through our “American glasses”.

The French Spirit
Written by a Canadian duo, Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow, which spent two years living in and studying France, the book is divided into three main sections: spirit, structure and change. In the first section on the French spirit, the authors undertake the task of explaining some of the intricacies of French culture and how so much of France’s modern orientation and worldview is derived from her long history. How her passion for the land and her sense of nobility go all the way back to the days of feudalism (when, I might add, no one but some Indians were running around in North America).The authors relate how attached the French are to rhetoric and how much they value the process of developing thoughts more than the ultimate goal of getting to a solution. In a chapter titled “Private Space,” the authors describe the French notion of public versus private, including what sorts of things the French would consider acceptable for public conversation (e.g. politics) and what topics would be considered completely taboo (e.g. religion) to their way of thinking. The authors also dealt with World War II and the Algerian Conflict and explored the many ways in which those major events have defined more recent French culture and thought.

The French Structure
The second division of the book identified the basic governmental and sociological structures upon which modern France is built. This section was especially helpful to my understanding of how France operates. Though it may seem paradoxical when one considers the significance of the French Revolution, the authors recount that the French have kept an undeniable attachment to absolutism. “The French, it seems, can’t resist making kings” (p. 118). The authors also observe how, unlike North Americans who build entire platforms around the notion of keeping the government out of their business, “the French look to the State for answers to everything” (p. 127). This section contained descriptions of the French judicial system, educational system, and their view of their own language. (“Anglo-Americans consider language a tool, but the French regard it as an accomplishment, even a work of art. … It’s their national monument” (p.162).) As a future immigrant to France, I found the topic of assimilation to be especially interesting. The authors explain that because the French are so committed to the concept of the State (l’Etat), they are consciously committed to ignoring facts like one’s ethnic origin or religious affiliation. “Once you’re French, you’re nothing else. This attitude means the State doesn’t give—or really permit—anyone to have any other identity” (p. 139). Of course, where the rub comes in is in the fact that if one’s devotion to one’s ethnic origin or religious affiliation is perceived to be stronger than one’s commitment to the State, then you may be perceived to be at odds with the State, which necessarily puts you at odds with the common good of the entire French people.

Future Change
The final section summarizes the French worldview as presented in previous chapters. Here are some highlights (taken from pp. 283-85):

• Because of their centuries-old attachment to the land, restriction is their second nature, not expansion.
• The French glorify what’s elevated and grand, not what’s common and accessible.
• They value form as much as content.
• The French don’t just glorify their élite; French society needs a clearly identified élite.
• They affirm the State’s role in virtually everything—culture, language, welfare, and the economy.
• The French have learned to live with the idea that they are neither the biggest, nor the strongest, power on earth. But they still believe they are the best.

The authors conclude by showing that the French are becoming more flexible than they used to be, recognizing the necessity of change in order to accommodate relationships with the European community and the world at large.

“One thing is certain: France is not what it used to be. France has never been what it used to be, and it never will. So we might as well enjoy it while it lasts” (p. 343).

Family Time at the Park

Yesterday the kids were needing some outdoor time, and the weather was just perfect for it! Our hosts here in Mentor, Ohio, recommended Penitentiary Glen Reservation to us, and we made the most of it. We had a wonderful, relaxing time making memories together as a family, and thought we'd share a few of our pictures with you.