May/June Prayer Update

Dear Friends and Ministry Partners,

This is, D.V., our last general update from this side of the ocean for at least the rest of the year, and we have many reasons to give thanks to God as we look back over the year.

Transportation
Before we began traveling in early 2008, we prayed that God would supply us with a van for deputation. We already had a 1994 Dodge Caravan that a family in our church had graciously given to us. But with 150,000 miles, we didn’t think it would be reliable enough for all our traveling. However, as each new trip approached without another vehicle becoming available, we continued to use the Caravan. We faithfully carried the title with us, so that if it ever broke down, we could just get rid of the van and rent a car to get home. We were told it would definitely not be worth fixing! (I remember when our hearts nearly stopped when the van died on us in El Paso, Texas. The joke turned out to be on us. It was only out of gas!) That van has taken us to southern Florida, northern Maine, Arizona, Minnesota, three Canadian provinces and many points in between. We have just returned from New York (our last major trip) and with 226,829 miles to its credit, the Caravan still hasn’t had any major mechanical issues! God, in an unexpected way, answered our prayer for a vehicle, and we give praise to Him.

Support
We began 2009 with 29% of our support needs met. Having already visited 70 churches and with nearly a year of travels already behind us, we wondered how long the deputation trail would stretch out before us. Today, by God’s undeserved kindness, we have reached 70% of our goal and have plans to move to France next month. God has so overwhelmed us with kindness, we almost feel ashamed. Now we are praying that the remainder of our support will come in so that we do not have to leave our place of ministry in 2010 to continue traveling in the United States. We know that God is able, and we look forward to seeing how He will provide. We are in the exciting position of not knowing when, how or from where God’s provision will come. It does keep us rather keyed up every time we go to check our email or answer the phone!

Visas
One of the ways God has recently reminded us of the fragility of both us and our ministry is by causing a snag in our visa application process. I won’t give all the details (more are available on our blog), but we visited the French Consulate on April 14 with a high degree of confidence that we had all our ducks in a row and that it would only be a short amount of time (1 to 2 weeks, according to others’ recent experiences) before we held our visas in hand. It didn’t happen that way! After the Protestant Federation of France denied to issue us the invitation the consulate said we were required to have, we jumped through multiple hoops to secure two other invitations that we prayed would be accepted as replacements. We received a phone call last week from the representative of the consulate who chided us for not returning the required form. After kindly trying to explain to him our predicament, he told me that he would make an “exception” that “could not be repeated” and accept the replacement invitations we had sent in as sufficient. We were overjoyed at the news. However, more than a month after first requesting the visas, we still do not have them in hand, and we cannot purchase plane tickets until we do. Would you please pray that God would move the proper authorities to send us our needed visas? We rejoice in a God who sovereignly controls nations (and their consulates!) according to His will.

We will try to keep you posted with news of our visas and move on our blog as it unfolds. We hope to fly to France on June 24. Please pray for the much-needed wisdom about how/what/when to pack. It is difficult to leave the country not knowing if this is a permanent move or just a six-month deployment. The task of going through nine years of accumulated … uh … “treasures” is daunting. We just discovered yesterday that my nice gas grill was stolen while we were away on our last trip. After indulging in thoughts of finding and grilling whoever stole it, I was able to rejoice that my life doesn’t consist in the accumulation of things I possess, and in the fact that there is now one less thing we have to figure out what to do with before we leave!

May God be with you all,

Tim for the family

Itinerary
May 3 (am) — Albany, NY
May 3 (pm) — Mohawk, NY
May 6 — Queensbury, NY
May 10 — Jamesville, NY
May 13 — Weare, NH
May 17 — Cohoes, NY
May 23 — Wedding of Ruth’s sister in Raleigh, NC
May 24 (pm) — Burlington, NC
June 14 — Apex, NC
June 21 — Sendoff service at CPBC in Spartanburg, SC
June 24 — Planned departure for France!

Jim and Rachel's Wedding

Last weekend we spent in Raleigh to participate in the marriage of Rachel Joy Pahnke (Ruth's younger sister) to James Daniel Small. I was honored to be the officiating minister and Ruth to be the pianist. It was a very happy occasion, not only to see God's grace to Jim and Rachel in giving them to each other but to be able to visit with so many family members and friends. After their honeymoon, Jim and Rachel will be settling in the Raleigh area. Please pray for them as they begin their new life as a married couple.

Sunday morning we attended Friendship Baptist Church with the Pahnke family. In the afternoon we drove down to Burlington, NC where we were able to update the members of Beacon Baptist Church on our latest news and I was privileged to preach. We are thankful for the support we receive from both these churches.

The last few days back here in Spartanburg have been spent pitching and packing. We decided to start with the basement and work our way up. So far, we are still in the basement.

As to our visas, we still haven't heard any news. Please keep praying with us that they will arrive soon.

Tim

Trip to New York (with a little excursion into New England)

It is hard to believe that we have returned from our final big trip before leaving for France next month! We had a wonderful time in New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. God gave us more friends and prayer partners and we hope that more financial partners will come as a result of this trip as well. Here are some pictures from the trip.

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Looking ahead:
Thursday (5-21) we leave town for Raleigh, North Carolina. Ruth's younger sister, Rachel will be marrying Jim Small at Friendship Baptist Church on Saturday. We look forward to a good time of reunion with the Pahnke clan and celebration of this new marriage.

Prayer request:
Our visas still have not arrived and we cannot purchase plane tickets until they do. Please pray that they will arrive shortly!

Celebrating our Heritage: Church History Sites in New England

New England is rich in American Church history sites, and we try to take in a few more each time we visit. Here are several we saw on our most recent trip.

Mission Park, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Mission Park is the location of the famous "haystack prayer meeting" which gave birth to the foreign missions movement of the United States. In August 1806, five Williams College students gathered in a field to discuss the spiritual welfare of the people of Asia. A sudden storm forced them to seek shelter under a nearby haystack. Within four years of that gathering, some of its members established the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). In 1812 it sent forth its first missionaries to India.

The monument contains a relief of a haystack and is crowned on top by a globe. As 21st century American missionaries, we consider ourselves spiritual descendants of these young men and this event. It was a special time for us as a family to pray together in the park and ask God to carry on the work for which many have already given their lives.



Northfield, Massachusetts

Leaving Williamstown, we drove east through the beautiful countryside of western Massachusetts to Northfield. D. L. Moody was born here (top middle and right photos below). He also built, among other things, a conference center (bottom, left) in this town where he would bring prominent preachers in to speak. The campus is today deserted (it's up for sale) so it took a good while before we found Moody's grave. Someone called security to report that there were people walking around looking through the windows (that would be us). When the security officer caught up with us, he kindly pointed us to "Little Round Top" (bottom in middle) where Mr. and Mrs. Moody are buried side by side (bottom, right). It turned out to be less than 100 feet from the house where he was born! We read a report of the funeral which was conducted by C. I. Scofield and R. A. Torrey.



Old South Church, Newburyport, Massachusetts

George Whitefield died in the parsonage of Old South Presbyterian Church in Newburyport, Mass., on September 30, 1770. At his own request, he was buried beneath the pulpit of the nearby church he had helped to found. Brian and Johanna Hanson made all the arrangements for this visit and Bill Deans, a member of the church, proved to be a delightful tour guide. The pictures below, clockwise from top left are: the Hanson and Bixby men standing in the pulpit; with our guide in front of the parsonage; the crypt; a hymn Whitefield wrote; the outside of the church building; Whitefield's tomb in the crypt below the pulpit; nails from Whitefield's coffin; signing the guestbook down in the crypt.



Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Stockbridge (western Massachusetts) is the site where the family of Jonathan Edwards served as missionaries among the native Americans following his pastorate in Northampton. His family was still living here when they received word that Jonathan Edwards had died of a small pox vaccination while in Princeton, N.J. We didn't have long, but we did find the grave of the Indian chief who invited the missionaries to come and preach the gospel to his tribe (top, left); a tower which marks the original meeting place of the believers in the town (bottom, left); a monument in honor of Jonathan Edwards (middle); and the family home (bottom right).

Visa Update: Approval Granted!

Just a little while ago, we received a phone call from our interviewer in Atlanta. He wanted to know if he had indeed given us the form to be filled out by the Protestant Federation, and if so, why we had not returned it to him. (He had received the documents we had mailed.) Tim carefully explained why we had been unable to get the Protestant Federation to fill out the form, and how we had instead obtained the other invitations in hopes that they would serve as replacements. Tim tried to politely communicate the fact that while we are Protestant, that doesn't mean that the Protestant Federation is the only Protestant group out there. Our "friend behind the window" said that he understood that, but that this is a new measure that must be implemented, and the Federation must learn that they are going to have to work with the government in this. The end of the story is that he said he would allow us to receive an exception since we had applied so long ago, but he made it clear that we needed to understand that we are receiving an exception. We are rejoicing in the fact that the king's heart really is in the hand of the Lord, and as Johanna Hanson prayed while we were giving thanks to God, our friend could not make a decision that was out of the will of God, no matter what his personal will was.

All that said, it will still be a comfort when we actually have received the passports and visas in hand. They should be fed-exed to us, and so could arrive as early as Friday. Of course, this also makes us very aware of the fact that it could be even more difficult for the Coles to obtain their visas because of this "measure", and so we need to be carefully considering over the next months what steps we should be taking to pave the way for them.

Thank you to all who have prayed about this. We will let you know when we actually have the visas in hand!

Congratulations, Dr. Cole!!

We are so proud and thankful to be able to announce that Michael Cole was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy from Bob Jones University last week. Michael and Liz Cole and their daughter Viviane are our teammates in ministry to France, and we thank the Lord for them.

Dr. Cole wrote his dissertation on "The Relationship between the Great Commission and the Great Commandment." It tackles the question of how Christ's command to love our neighbor as ourselves interacts with, and affects, the command to make disciples of all the nations. This degree is the fruit of many years of dedication and labor on both Michael's and Liz's parts. Congratulations to both of you! We love you and are honored to be your teammates.

"Getting Kids to Smile Sweetly in the Sun"

We visited Albany, NY's Washington Park this week. Albany is preparing for its annual Tulip Festival which will be held this coming weekend. We decided to beat the crowds (we won't be here for the festival anyway) and enjoy the beauty. It was the perfect photo op. The only problem: it was one of those days that was actually overcast but the UV rays were hard on the eyes. Let me interject here that in nearly all the Bixby family photos that still exist from when I was a kid, Timmy is either squinting or holding his hand over his eyes. However, I was convinced I could do better with my kids than my parents did with me. But before I held my first "Getting Kids to Smile Sweetly in the Sun" seminar, I decided to produce a few examples to use as teaching aids. Here's what I got.

First, you lie to the children, telling them the sun
isn't really that bright, they just think it is.










If that doesn't work, you isolate the children. Peer pressure tends to work against a good photo shoot. If you can get the children alone, you can normally convince them that the sun is really not bright.











If that doesn't work, bring in the children's mother. Mothers are a natural calming influence on the children and if they don't believe you when you say the sun is really not bright, they're much more likely to believe their mother.








If that doesn't work, tell the children that their mother is actually there to provide shade for their eyes. At this point, you acknowledge that the sun could be a problem, but insist that the shade provided by the mother more than compensates for any brightness in the sun.







If that doesn't work, there is always the option of forgetting about the children and focusing on the mother. She is normally willing to produce a beautiful smile, and I have found from my vast experience that the mother's smile fills the children with such joy (even in the presence of bright sunlight) that they irresistibly smile themselves. However, the results are often short-lived so the photographer must be quick to catch the candid moment.


Finally, if that doesn't work, there is the ultimate "look-up-with-your-eyes-closed-until-I-count-to-three" technique. (Boy, I wish I had known about this one when I was a kid!) To effectively use this technique, you must teach the children to pose facing the camera, yet with their eyes closed. Tell them that on the count of three, they are to open their eyes, allowing you to snap the picture. Assure them that the whole process will be over before they know it. Warning: with some children you will have to specify that both eyes are to open on the count of three, and with others that the head is to remain facing the camera. If you can master this technique, you are guaranteed a picture worth posting on the internet.


Oh, I almost forgot. If a complete stranger walks by and offers to take a family photo, jump at the opportunity. Kids, oddly enough, tend to smile better for total strangers.

Visa update: Documents in the Mail

This morning I went down to a post office here in the capitol of New York state, and mailed several documents to the Consulate in Atlanta. We are not sending them exactly what they asked for. I was told by the consulate that I had to receive an invitation from the Protestant Federation. The Protestant Federation declined to issue the invitation because the church I plan to work with initially in France is not an official member of that federation.

However, the Evangelical Baptist Mission of France (basically the French arm of Baptist Mid Missions) was gracious enough to issue me an official-looking invitation to come and work in France. (It helps that my dad is the vice-president!) We then contacted the Evangelical Federation of France (my parents doing most of the footwork), and they kindly produced a letter attesting to the validity of the Evangelical Baptist Mission of France and adding their own stamp of approval to our plan to come to France.

Those are the two documents I sent off this morning. Here is our prayer request:
Please pray that these documents will be accepted without challenge and that we will be issued visas soon so that we can continue with our plans to fly to France on June 24.

It is comforting to know that our God reigns!