The Hardest Part

If you were to ask me what the hardest part of our trip has been up to this point, the answer would have to be that while we are here, we are not part of a regular church community. While we work closely with a large group of faithful followers of Christ, and are in that sense a temporary church, all of our true home churches are far from here. For us, due to our recent move, we are currently without a home church and even when we return home, it will take some time to find the community God calls us to join. As God has made clear to us the joy of being in a strong community over the past few years, I pray that He would work in our lives to quickly plant us where He wants us, so that He may increase our faith and glorify Himself more fully through us. Indeed, this is a prayer that is needed for all believers, regardless of where they are.

Sadly, attending a church service is an obligation for many. Yet, being away from a church home during our time here has made it even clearer to us that the Bible’s instruction to regularly meet with other believers to worship and disciple one another is a genuine gift from God. Without this instruction, many would attempt to follow Christ on their own and not only miss the grace of Christ shown through the actions of others, but also miss the encouragement and discipline of a church community. Serving here has been a blessing, but it also means that we have few opportunities to worship communally due to our duties, and even when we can, we are on a staff overseeing groups of youth or families in much different places and situations than ourselves. For family camp, this has been made amplified by the fact that all teaching and worship is in a language different than my own.

I can see that the French families here are truly finding peace and joy in the company of their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and I thank God for the ministry done at Camp des Cimes to allow them to follow God’s loving instruction to be connected to other believers. Indeed, their evident joy is large part of my recent longing to get back to the states and get plugged into a new church home. Only two more weeks!

As far as camp goes, everything is going very well. I have been working with the 11-13 year olds every day and we have already made one short, simple video mirroring Jesus’s parable of the two sons (Matthew 21:28-32). They had fun filming it and had even more fun watching it today. As always, I plan to post this video along with the others upon our return.

Currently, Chelsea is in the kitchen making a meal the French families rarely see – fried chicken and biscuits. Last night, Chelsea and her kitchen team (Caleb and Deborah) prepared another meal they rarely see - enchiladas with green pumpkin seed mole. The families enjoyed it so much they asked Chelsea to come out in front of everyone and explain to them what was in the meal, followed by a round of applause!

Tomorrow we will be shooting another short video – pray that I would be given the creativity to make it work as well as the last. 11-13 year olds are not always the easiest to keep focused. ; )

That’s all for now. Keep your prayers coming. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

God bless,
David