I Have No Medicine For You

I've been thinking a lot lately about who is worthy of salvation.  No... not from God's eyes.  I mean from a business stand-point.  Wise business people talk a lot about Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA), to weigh the total anticipated cost against the total anticipated benefit.  There's merit in these types of assessments, because prudent thinking does not typically spend loads of money on something that will not have tangible (read: $$) results.　

As we have been sharing our vision for the ministry that we will have in France, the proverbial "elephant in the room" was finally spoken out loud the other day.  It was good that they had the courage to say what some others might be thinking.  Greatly paraphrased, the thought was that "your monthly support is difficult to justify, when there are many other places in the world that someone could send a mere fraction of that money and it would be much more cost-effective and better stewardship of God's money in regard to people getting saved."  This was spoken in utmost love, and I appreciate the courage that it must have taken to share the thought.　

That conversation, and others like it, reminded me of an exercise I had seen on TV many years ago.  Down in the depths of my basement, I've been saving an old VHS tape which I was able to convert to a digital format.  I believe it was around 2002 when Dr. Phil McGraw was still doing his weekly visits on Tuesdays on the Oprah show.  It shows a clip of a show where heused a now controversial 'game' called "I Have No Medicine for You".

For years, I've thought about this episode because it just reminded me how every day we make choices about who we are going to give Christ’s ‘medicine’ to.  Frankly, as witnessing Christians, we have THE most powerful medicine available known to man, and we either make the choice to offer the medicine saying, "I have medicine for you", or we, through our inaction, silently say, "I have no medicine for you".  I suppose that sometimes, we also are forced to make very tough decisions about who we will send the medicine to around the world through missions.  Unfortunately, there are areas of the world, however dark and needing of the ultimate antidote they are, that we conscientiously make the incredibly difficult choice to say, "I have no medicine for you", because the ministry cost seems too great in relation to other areas of the world.　

We don't take our cues from Dr. Phil or Oprah, but as he says in the clip, the good news is that THIS exercise is only a game.  I suppose what is missing from his "Get Real Challenge" is any sense that the REAL exercise is about taking the REAL antidote to every tongue, every tribe, every nation, and every people group so that there can begin a movement of disciples who can then work at evangelizing their entire people. We feel passionate about the work in Lyon, France, but the mandate is global.  Hey world!  We have medicine for you.

Brick by Brick, Stone by Stone

God has been working from the beginning of time building His Kingdom.  Even though we don’t deserve His love and forgiveness, He still showers us with his grace and mercy.  Then He allows us the privilege of joining Him in what He is doing around the world… how humbling! 

During the late 1700’s when the United States was establishing freedom of religion, France was establishing freedom of religion in 1789, which actually really began the process of freedom from religion.  French philosophy has become the dominant thought for the French people.  The core of this philosophy makes the concept of absolute truth foreign and inconceivable to the highly educated population.  Although the city of Lyon, as well as the country of France, has chosen to turn their backs on God, we believe the God has not yet given up on these beautiful people.  Their hearts are cold, hurt, confused, and without even knowing it, they are desperately searching for something to fill the void in their lives.  The church is asleep in all of Europe and God is working through this hard and desolate land to wake up the church and bring a new generation who have never heard of God’s love and forgiveness to believe in Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.

While visiting Lyon recently, we had the privilege of hearing a few testimonies from French believers of how God worked in their lives to draw them to Him.  The first gentleman shared how, even during his childhood years, he had a yearning for spiritual things.  In his search, he spent his early years as an altar boy in the Catholic Church.  As a young man he decided it was probably good to pursue the priesthood.  During this time he began reading the Bible on his own for the first time.  He was amazed at what he was reading; the priests had not taught much of what the Bible was saying.  It caused him to search further for the Truth.  At university he began talking with a Christian and began learning about Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.  He finally understood and believed after years of the Spirit’s prodding amidst all that was taught to the contrary.  He has such a testimony of God’s blessing on his life!

The second young Frenchman also shared about a yearning in his heart that he kept pursuing to find the Truth, though he didn’t know what it meant.  When he met his wife, who was a Christian, and began learning about Christ’s death and resurrection, he realized that was what he was longing for and chose to follow Christ.

How encouraging it was for us to hear these testimonies.  Even with more than 200 years of denouncing God, His Spirit is still working in the hearts and lives.  We are simply asked to join God where He is already working and be there to share about His gift of salvation to those who He is preparing.  With such a small role in His plan, we are guaranteed to not take any credit but, instead, to give God all the glory and power for what He is doing!!! 

Paul puts it so well in Ephesians 2:

“It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose His temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, He embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on His own, with no help from us! Then He picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

Now God has us where He wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all His idea, and all His work. All we do is trust Him enough to let Him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join Him in the work He does, the good work He has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

But don't take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God's ways had no idea of any of this, didn't know the first thing about the way God works, hadn't the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God's covenants and promises in Israel, hadn't a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.

The Messiah has made things up between us so that we're now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then He started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, He created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.

Christ brought us together through His death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through Him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.

That's plain enough, isn't it? You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what He is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now He's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.”  Ephesians 2 (The Message)

May God continue to work in the French people living in Lyon, and may we be ready to share the truth of the Gospel when He brings them across our path!  To God be all the glory!

The two hills of Lyon...

We're half way through our vision trip and soaking in as much as we can about this beautiful, but utterly lost city of Lyon.  The first weekend we were whisked off to a chateau about one hour north of Lyon.  Beautiful setting surrounded us.  It felt as if we were in the wine country in California (or in the movie, Mama Mia!).  After just 24 hours in the country, a couple of the kids were already waffling on their desire to move here, but the weekend with some of the wonderful people who attend International Christian Community of Lyon (ICCL) was like a weekend away with family and won their hearts.

The past two days have been filled with lots and lots of walking.  Getting out of bed this morning was quite painful - blisters on the bottom of my feet and leg muscles aching with every move.  (I guess I should have continued after week 3 on the 10-week exercise plan at MapleTronics!)  We all know what we'll be involved with when we get back home - a walking program!

Lyon has two hills on the north side of the city that are affectionately called "the working hill" and "the praying hill".  We walked through the working hill on Monday afternoon, Croix Rousse.  This area of 100,000 people has no evangelical church presence.  Tuesday we visited Forviere, the praying hill, where the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourviere is set beautifully on the hill.

Viewing the Basilica on "the praying hill" from "the working hill"

The basilica was built to honor the virgin Mary, the mother of God.  They prayed to her on two separate occasions to save their city, once from the plague and once from the the Prussian invasion.  Both times the city was saved and they now worship her for saving them.  They began building it in 1872 and finished it in 1884.  It was built to look as a fortress from the outside and majestic from the inside.  Throughout the inside the walls are adorned with ornate murals of stories from their view of history and the virgin Mary.  As is common within the catholic churches, there was no of evidence of Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, throughout the entire structure.  What a sad concept to realize so much emphasis is placed on the mother of Christ, but no understanding of how close to the source of life-giving hope they could experience through Jesus Christ.

Here are a few pictures (again from my phone) of the Basilica.  We will post great pictures that Morgan took later on our Facebook group, Par-Lay-Voo.

The front entrance (top half) of the Basilica

Inside view from the back of the Basilica

The ceiling work in the Basilica

One of the murals on the inside wall of the Basilica

View from the Basilica, "the praying hill" of Croix Rousse, "the working hill"

Looking over the city (this is just the left angle from the top of the hill) was breathtaking.  Yet, how can such a beautiful city of 1.5 million people be so far removed from the love of Jesus Christ?  There is believed to be only 3,500 evangelical Christians in this city; that's only .2%!  Such a needy people who currently don't think they are in need of anything but their own intelligence.  What a challenge AND an opportunity to share Christ's love with them!

Why now?

For many years, missions was a "later" plan of ours (after the kids ________; fill in the blank).  Many times it was easy to mix up the desire to want the best of our kids with the desire to want God's best for them.  Oftentimes our "ideal" is limited by our own past experiences and wishes for the future.  The reality is we don't really know what is "ideal" - especially from God's perspective - for our lives or our children's lives.

On a separate issue, dealing with long-term health issues brought about a resignation on my (Chris) part to ever be able to consider overseas ministry in the future.  But, the God we serve is bigger than our own plans, hopes or dreams.  As is stated so well in Isaiah 55:9, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

God worked in and through us to bring us to a place that we surrendered everything - our family, our things, our plans, our lives - to do whatever it is He would have us do whenever He would choose to use us.  We waited... we prayed... we seeked... and the Lord showed us where we could now join Him in His work in Lyon. 

Now, we are blessed, humbled and excited to serve!

Why France?

As we began considering ReachGlobal, we contacted our long-time friend Mike, who is the Area Leader for ReachGlobal Europe.  With a great Skype conversation, we mentioned that we thought it may be good to consider serving in an English-speaking country since we doubted our language learning skills and our kids are teens.  He, in turn, shared about various city teams throughout Western Europe that may fit well with our gifts & strengths so we could consider various locations of ministry.  The first city he mentioned was Lyon, France because of their English-speaking church, International Christian Community of Lyon, and the need for a worship pastor within the next year. 

As Mike shared about a number of cities and their ministries, our hearts were still intrigued with Lyon.  We had never thought of France, but now we were interested in learning more.  With his help, we connected with another Mike, the Lyon City Team Leader, via Skype.  What a great time of sharing we had with Mike!  The Lyon City Team's vision for ministry was so exciting and we could see specific areas where we could "fit"!

Over the months, we have continued learning more about Lyon, French culture and the post-Christian atheism and materialism.  Yet, this emptiness has created a spiritual hunger that has grown rapidly in recent years.  We were reminded at a dinner with David, another ReachGlobal Area Leader through a vision that he had that the church in Europe is not dead; she is just sleeping.  It is exciting to consider serving in France and be able to witness first hand God's touch as He wakes up the church!

Why missions?

Before we were married, I (Chris) served as a full-time missionary with OMS International, first in their headquarters in Greenwood, Indiana, then in their regional office in Azusa, California, while attending APU.  My plans were to get my bachelor's degree in business with cross cultural emphasis, get some Biblical training and then head overseas someplace with OMS.  Well, God directed my plans otherwise.  Steve and I met, fell in love, married and began working stateside in church ministry.

For the first 15 years of our marriage, we served in worship ministry positions in various local churches.  God blessed, stretched, humbled, and used us in wonderful ways.  Then, God chose to throw us a few challenges that over the long-term expanded our faith, but for the short-term caused us to doubt our usefulness to God’s service.  The MS diagnosis that Chris received during this time was re-diagnosed and classified to “in remission”, which once again allows the release to serve.  We have learned that God always has a better plan than our limited vision allows!  Praise God!  With this, He also reignited our desire to serve Him wherever He could and would use us.  We had no idea what that path would look like, but began to venture out in faith – praying, searching, praying again, seeking advice, and praying some more. 

The "wherever" took a bit of time for each of us to fully appreciate.  We first considered local ministry, then nationwide.  While we prayed and searched, God continued to burden us more for ministry but didn't open any doors.  With each step we took, we realized that God was calling us to be available to serve, even if it was some place far beyond our own ideas/agendas/plans.  We finally came to this realization and were totally open to considering overseas missions as an option. 

Now, a couple of years later and after a long and exhaustive application process to become missionaries through the EFCA ReachGlobal (RG), we are excited beyond belief to announce that we have been accepted as long-term missionaries with the plan to serve in Lyon, France!