New blog address

To all (or should I say both?) of our friends who are following this blog via a blog reader, we want you to know that we are now using a different blog.

We have recently updated our ministry website and that has necessitated the change.

If you put http://www.hopeforfrance.org/bixby-news/ into your rss feed service (bloglines, etc.), you should receive notifications of our future posts.

By the way, for the Coles it is: http://www.hopeforfrance.org/cole-news/.

A genuine thanks to those of you who use this tool as a reminder to pray for us and the success of the Gospel in our own hearts and others through us.

The distance between our gate and garage door...

... is just right!!

Trip to Northern France, part 2

I was honored to be invited by missionary Kim Fox and l’Eglise Biblique Baptiste de Rouen to speak for their annual church retreat. The two-day retreat was held at a small conference center about an hour out of Rouen and halfway between that city and Paris in a little village called Corny. (Thankfully, the town did not live up to its name.) We spent a delightful time with the small group of Christians, mainly students, that came to the retreat. I spoke four times, once each from the writings of John, Moses, Job and Paul.

The retreat ended on Saturday evening at 5pm. Instead of heading right back to Bordeaux, we drove into Rouen where we were given a tour of the city where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, where Monet painted several of his famous paintings, and where Richard the Lionhearted is buried. We then spent the night in the home of missionary Kristi Colas. We greatly enjoyed our time with her and were blessed by her love for the Lord and enthusiasm for ministry. Sunday morning we attended the service at the church in Rouen pastored by Kim Fox. This was our first trip out of Bordeaux since being in France and it was a blessing to see God at work in other ministries. The Foxes have faithfully labored in that city for about 15 years, I believe, and God has raised up what seemed to us to be an enthusiastic group of believers. We enjoyed lunch at the Fox home before heading home in the afternoon. We were blessed by their humility (no pretensions) and whole-hearted service.

The 80-mile-an-hour speed limit on the highway was appreciated as we headed home; the $80 in tolls was not. We arrived home Sunday night about 10:30pm: exhausted, a lot of new information to sort through, discuss, etc., and grateful to be in God’s service.

The next morning when I woke Miriam up out of deep sleep to get her ready for school I asked her, “Do you know where you are?” She looked around. “Yes, we're back in France.” I guess that pretty well confirms that, at least to Miriam, "France" = home.

TimBix

Trip to Northern France, part 1

We made a last-minute decision to leave a day early on our trip to Rouen and headed to Paris last Tuesday evening to see the city. To our children, Paris meant the Eiffel Tower--nothing more, nothing less. Ruth had only ever seen a couple of sites in Paris during a short layover on a train trip we took back in 2000. The children had never been outside of the airport.

We saw what we wanted to see: the Eiffel Tower. The children were quite impressed with the size. We found a good place to park a little over a mile away, and we ate a sandwich while we waited in line to head up the tower. We only went to the second floor of three. It was cheaper that way and saved us from having to wait another 45 minutes in the line for the second elevator that carries you from the second to the third landing. What we saw was beautiful. On the way home we drove around the Arc de Triomphe, down the Champs Elysées, passed the Notre Dame and a few other landmarks. We were surprised to find Paris didn’t feel as foreign and strange as we had expected. We figure we must be getting used to living in France. That said, Paris certainly is in a class of its own and worthy to be among the great cities of the world.

Check back again soon for more news about the rest of our trip.

Pictures of our home in France

Well, it's not yet ready for Southern Living magazine, but we are mostly installed in our new home, and so I thought I'd share some pictures of the interior for those of you who might be interested to see it. There are still some finishing touches to do (aren't there always?), but it really does feel like home now.

(click here to view full-screen slideshow)

Easter Sunday

The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Easter Sunday. We had an encouraging celebration of the Resurrection during the morning service. Following the service, we had 11 people in our home for lunch. Ruth-Renée did a whole lot of work in preparation. (My entertaining Zacharie while peeling the carrots was only a small contribution.) Another family in the church co-hosted with us and helped quite a lot as well. We enjoyed a nice long meal and then a time of Bible study and sharing before we dug into Ruth's cheesecake (an American specialty which was unusual for the French, but appreciated).

We were especially pleased that Ruth's former classmate (and now mine) from Japan (seen holding Zacharie) came with her boyfriend from China. It was their first time to a Sunday service and they said they would like to start coming back regularly. Before we ate, I asked David (white shirt on left) to give his testimony. I spoke openly, saying that everyone there would call themselves disciples of Jesus Christ except for our two friends and that I thought it would be especially helpful for them to hear. Stating the obvious seemed to make them more comfortable. As they were leaving, our friend from China told me, "I'm not yet very believing or religious--whatever you say, but I would like to start reading the Bible and we will start coming regularly to church." Obviously, we were very encouraged and excited. Please pray for God to continue His work of drawing them to Christ.

Tomorrow (Easter Monday) is a national holiday in France, so we don't have school. On Wednesday after class we are leaving as a family to travel to Rouen to attend the church retreat of the Baptist Church in that city. I will be preaching four times at the retreat. We then plan to spend the Lord's day with them before heading back Sunday afternoon in time for school on Monday. It's more than a 6-hour drive, and will be the first time out of town for Zacharie.

Enjoying spring with family

Though it has rained, rained, and rained, we have enjoyed moments of sunshine that remind us that spring has truly arrived. Last evening the sun came out for a bit and we enjoyed a few minutes in the park. Here are a few pictures we took during that time. They give you a glimpse into our family outing.

We are looking forward to a busy, yet joyful Rusurrection celebration this Sunday. We will be hosting 10-12 people in our home for dinner. Two friends of Ruth from her last semester in language school have promised to come and perhaps a third.

We are praying for the growth of God's Kingdom wherever the King is proclaimed.

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Le Carnaval!

One exciting French school event that we have recently learned about is the annual carnaval. The title "carnival" may sound like a huge event, but really it is quite simple. It's just a time for the kids to dress up and throw confetti, and for the parents to come watch them parade around in their costumes and visit with one another. Both of our kids' recently had their carnivals: Micaiah's being at the end of February, and Miriam'sjust last Friday. The theme for Miriam's carnival was "les animaux" (animals, in case you couldn't figure that out). I asked her what animal she wanted to be, and she immediately said, "un cheval", sans hesitation. I tried to convince her that it might be a little easier for her mommy to come up with a costume for her if she would just be a cat, but she was pretty set on being a horse. So this mommy is very thankful for the Internet which gave me the idea of how to make a horse costume out of a box, something that we have in great supply around here these days following our recent move across the ocean.

With Micaiah's carnaval being in February just after our move and the same day as the Repas Agape, I'm afraid it snuck up on us rather suddenly, and we had to do some quick work of pulling together anything we could find. Grandma Bixby came to the rescue with some props she had stored away for various skits over the years.True to form, Michée (Micaiah's name in French) posed as a good 'ol American cowboy. Believe it or not, he wasn't the only American cowboy at the carnaval, but I think he might have been the only truly American, American cowboy. :)

One great benefit to both of these occasions is that they have provided yet another opportunity for us to make friends with the other families at the kids' schools. In fact, one mom that I just met last week has invited me over for tea, and wants to give me some baby clothes for Zacharie. I'll be visiting with her in her home tomorrow. Thank you for your continued prayers with these opportunities.

Miscellaneous news

Spring is on its way, as we were able to observe recently in watching a large flock of geese (in the course of about 30 minutes' time, we saw literally hundreds!) heading north over our home here in Pessac, France. Our official spring prayer letter is yet forthcoming, but I thought I'd take a few minutes now to post here some of our recent goings-on in order to let all of you, our supporters and prayer warriors, know that we are still alive and kicking!

First, getting settled into our new home in between the regular church and school routine has taken a lot of concentration. We have lived at 48 rue Auguste Renoir now for six weeks (we spent our first night in our new home on February 1), and are finally beginning to feel like it is our home. It has taken quite of lot of energy to get to this point. As with any move, there have been the normal things to do--unpacking of boxes, finding a place for everything, etc., but there have also been a lot of "extras" connected to the fact that we are setting up house in a foreign country for the first time. There were quite a few furniture items that we have had/are having to purchase and set up. In addition, homes in France don't normally come with things like appliances and light fixtures, so we have been doing a lot of shopping and installing of those essential items as well. One advantage that we saw when God provided this home was that the kitchen was already equipped with the basic appliances, though they were quite old. We were told that it would be our responsibility to replace the appliances with our own if/when the old ones were to quit working. Well, within the first few weeks it became apparent that all of the kitchen appliances except the refrigerator would need to be replaced. So in the past two weeks, we have replaced the oven (we found a very nice, slightly used one at an excellent price), the hood over the stove, and the dishwasher (found both of those items new, but on sale), and are just about beginning to shop for a new stove top, since the repairman has told us the current one is leaking gas. Our God has well supplied our needs, however, and we have been able to make all of these purchases with the funds that many of you helped to provide before we came to France last June. We are still in the process of hanging pictures, putting together some additional furniture items like bookshelves, and eventually hope to re-organize the leftover rubbermaid boxes in the garage, but all-in-all we are now functioning normally and contentedly in our cozy little French home. :) We have even been able to begin a bit of hosting.

At the left is a picture of Miriam with Sara, a little girl from her school, "having tea". We enjoyed a good time of visiting and relationship-building with Sara and her family (Abdul and Isabelle, Ali, Sara and Neal) at a meal in our home a week ago.

Having Tim's parents back at the helm at Eglise Baptiste de Pessac is providing us with some occasional opportunities to venture out into other churches in France, enabling us to get to know some other French ministries. Yesterday we took the tram into downtown Bordeaux where Tim was able preach at a sister church there. We had a brief, but encouraging time, visiting with Christian, the pastor of the small assembly who is pictured in the collage below with Zacharie, and the others' of Eglise Evangelique Baptiste. We are looking forward to traveling up to Rouen, France (near Normandy) to get to know another church there. The missionary pastor of the Rouen church, Kim Fox, has invited Tim to speak at their church retreat April 8-10. Some of you may know of this work through missionary Kristi Colas, who serves in the same ministry.

And, of course, French school is still a regular part of life for three of our five family members, though we all profited greatly from the extra time to work on the house stuff which we were afforded through a two-week winter break at the end of February. Now that Tim and the kids are back to the books, Tim is continuing to enjoy all that he is learning in his French literature and civilization classes, as well as the grammar help is gaining in his studies at the university. Also, we have been encouraged to see Micaiah and Miriam becoming more bold in their French speaking skills. To close, I'll post a little video clip of Micaiah reading some of his French homework to his grandparents.

Repas Agape, 2010

The Eglise Baptiste de Pessac held its 18th annual Repas Agape on February 19, 2010. This event is a special outreach banquet for students. This year, as in 2006 when we visited, I (Tim) was able to preach. With the Winter Olympics in progress, we chose as our theme "Je cours vers le but... le prix céleste" ("I run towards the goal ... the heavenly prize") from Philippians 3:14.

One of the families in the church loaned us their Wii with the winter olympic games and each country (table) chose a representative to race down the mountain on skis for the gold. Not wanting it to get too competitive, each table represented a country that was real, but barely known. Though it was a smaller crowd than in the past, we had a good percentage of visitors, including one young lady for the same township as the church, and one young man from as far away as Vietnam.

Special Music weekend

On the third weekend in January, Kristi (in France, Jeanne) Colas, American missionary in Rouen, France, came for a visit. The Lord has gifted her in the area of church music and her desire was to help the young people (and others) in the Bordeaux area improve their talents for the Lord's glory. Kristi gave free individual music lessons to all who signed up (including Micaiah and Miriam!) and led a four-hour piano accompaniment seminar/workshop on Saturday.

On Sunday, in addition to playing for our services, she helped host a special afternoon sacred concert for the three sister churches in the Bordeaux region. It was a wonderful opportunity for the young people who had participated in the events of the weekend to use their talents on sacred pieces that would not be appreciated in the secular context.

We enjoyed our time of fellowship with Kristi and her enthusiasm for evangelism. We should see her again in April when we travel as a family up to take part in the church retreat of the Baptist Church of Rouen.

Miriam turns 5!!

Five years ago today, God blessed with a beautiful girl: Miriam Ruth Bixby. We love her dearly and find it hard to believe she is five years old.

Here she is a few days ago with the cake her mommy made for her to take to her birthday celebration at school. She now has a two-week winter vacation from school which she is excited about.

May God raise up the next generation to be lovers of God and proclaimers of truth.

Reunited

We are grateful to have Tim's parents back on this side of the ocean, and they were grateful to meet their newest grandchild. We have now moved into our new home. (Read: we are now sleeping and functioning in the new house, if not yet totally unpacked. :) We hope to post more of our news and some pictures of our new environment here in the not-too-distant future.

God's Provisions

We thank God for the recent provision of both a van and a home to live in.

After being in contact with the owners of this van for about a month, we purchased the 2002 Chrysler Voyager just one week after Zacharie’s birth. We find it a bit humorous that we are driving an American car in France. There are not very many of those around here. However, I doubt there many manual-transmission, diesel-engine Voyagers in the States. It has very low mileage for its age, and we bought it from the original owners. It is only the second vehicle we have purchased in our married life and the first big purchase we have made in France.

We have learned a lot and spent a lot of time in lines and with people, switching the car papers into our name, getting new tags for the van (you are given the number and you have to go pay to have them made in a shop), getting insurance, and getting our South Carolina drivers’ licenses switched over. We are very thankful that we did not have to retake the driver’s test here in France. However, we did have to give up our S.C. licenses since we are not allowed to keep both. After four trips into the region’s “Prefecture,” I’m hoping that only one more trip will be needed (to pick the licenses up next month).

God has also provided us with a house. We have looked at more than a dozen houses or apartments. The one God gave us is only about 500 yards from the church and my parents’ home. The house is the end house in a row of houses, 968 square feet (not an American dream home) and costs around $1300/month (depending on the rate of the dollar--sometimes more, sometimes less), not exactly a dream price. However, it is ideally suited to our situation, being so close to the church that we can walk, in the same school district that the children are already in, and near to public transportation via bus and tram. We are even already acquainted with the family across the street because they have children that go to the same school as our children.

The way the Lord provided the house is an amazing story in itself. We first saw the house on the internet on December 1 and made an appointment to visit it the same week. We received a call the day before the scheduled visit to tell us that the house had already been rented and so the visit was canceled. We were disappointed. The next week, however, the agent called us back to say the family had backed out and it was again available for rent. We went and saw it and really liked it. It was the cheapest three-bedroom house we had seen and so well situated. (For the curious, you can see pictures here.) However, as a couple we have a mutual agreement that we will not make major financial decisions on the spot. (That saved me from buying a Kirby vacuum cleaner once!) We told the realtor that we were very interested, and would call her back the next day. We did, but only to find out that the family that had visited it after us had reserved it. Once again, the house had “died.” And once again we were (really) disappointed. We talked about how God was a sovereign and good God—even over the details --and that He was deliberately controling these events for our good. For the next three weeks nothing happened. (To the house, that is. We had a baby during that time so we were rather taken up with other things.) The house was still up on the website as for rent, but the couple of times I called, the agent told me that it was already rented and that she was just waiting for paperwork to go through before taking it off the Internet. We began to wonder if she was fibbing because she didn’t want to rent it to us. I had, after all, told her exactly who we were, what church we were associated with and why we were in France. Perhaps we were being persecuted for the Gospel! Unfortunately for us, that didn’t give us any Biblical alternative but to rejoice. I was felt so strongly about this possibility that I even shared my suspicions with several in the church. They agreed it might be possible. Then I worked up the nerve to call her again. How could I remind her we were still looking without making her angry because we were hounding her? I decided to call about another house the agency had for rent, ask for details, and while on the phone “casually” ask about the house we had already visited. She said, “Oh yes, the family that had taken was not transferred by their job as they expected to be. They’ve backed out of the contract.” By this time, we had had plenty of time to consider our options and we were ready to rent the house. The suspense had not completely ended yet, as it was still was more than a week before we heard that our paperwork had been approved by the agency’s insurance company and we were finally able to rent the house. God does all things well, in His perfect time.

We get the keys to the house tomorrow.

posted by TimBix

Grandparents' visit

We had the privilege of hosting Ruth’s parents (Rick and Judie Pahnke) and her grandmother (Maggie Bell Pahnke) for a week over the New Year. It was a slower week on the ministry end which made it nice for visiting and enjoying baby Zacharie.

However, we did have our Watchnight Service to bring in the new year, in which they jumped right in and participated. We didn’t make any long trips because of the newborn, but we got to take them into Bordeaux to see the city, out to the beautiful village of St. Emilion (on a very cold and windy New Year’s Day), and of course, shopping. We even had a snow day to enjoy together!

"Me-Ma," "Papa," and "Oma" Pahnke were the first relatives Zacharie has met beyond his parents and siblings. I think he enjoyed the fact that he was nearly always being held by someone.

We thank God for our family.

Watchnight Service at Eglise Baptiste de Pessac

Visiting with Papa, Me-Ma and Oma Pahnke