What's happening in France?...God is working!!

This is one of the recent newsletters that we received from our friends, David and Kathryn, who are serving as missionaries in France.  It is very encouraging to see how God is working there.  We can't wait to be a part of what He is doing!...


                        
                                   My friend, Lambert in Ault, France 2004

"Thank you for praying these past 9 years for Lambert.  He passed away last Friday morning.  He just celebrated his 89th birthday in May.  I miss him already.  I went to see Lambert almost once a week since we arrived in Méru so many years ago now.  And all those years I preached the Gospel to this man, and you, along with many hundreds more from around the world, prayed for his salvation.  On my Outlook calendar, at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday the 30th of March, and marked in bright purple to emphasize a very extra/ordinary event, are these words: “Lambert, reconciled to God!”  I didn’t really feel like visiting Lambert in his assisted living facility that day, but there I was, once again, leaning in close, pleading with my dying friend to open his heart to the love of God and to receive His free gift of life in Christ before it was too late.
Why that day? Why not in 2004? I don’t know, and I guess it doesn’t really matter.  What matters most is that on that eventful day, 2 months before his death, Lambert understood something that he had never understood before.  His lifelong efforts to be moral, kind and good would not impress God nor would it earn him the right to eternal life with the Father in heaven.  I offered to pray a prayer to God on his behalf and suggested, if he was sincere, that he repeat the prayer after me, out loud, to God.  He said he would, and he did! It was a simple prayer of faith, an invitation for Christ to come into his life and to save him from sin’s awful salary: eternal death and separation from God.  He stared at me intently as we prayed together.  He had tears in his eyes; I had tears of gratitude
running down my face.  Three different times he said to me, as I guided his wheel chair to his table in the dining room, “maintenant je suis heureux, je suis heureux maintenant”. “Now I’m happy, I’m
happy now.”  I call it an extra/ordinary event because it involves God’s “extra” and my “ordinary”.  You and I are just the messengers, faithfully doing what God has commissioned us and enabled us to do – ordinary!  Only the Word of God, empowered by the Spirit of God, can break down the barriers in a man’s heart,
save him and restore him to fellowship with the Father – extra!
Do you ever wonder if it’s really worth persevering in prayer? Is it worth the astronomical expense of sending missionaries to another part of the globe to tell people that through Christ they can be
reconciled to God?  Do you ever wonder if you’re making any difference for the Kingdom of God on this planet, or how you “measure” success when it comes to planting churches in a foreign land?  I have, and I do!  But… it’s on days like this, when my friend Lambert dies and steps into the joy of his salvation, that I sense the power of Christ on me, that my faith in God and in the saving power of the Gospel is renewed, that I’m grateful for each one of you who has sacrificed financially to keep us here in such
trying times as these, that I encounter, first hand, the victory of persevering prayer!  A very heart-felt thanks for your partnership in bringing Lambert to faith in Christ!  I’m sure he’ll want to thank you personally one day! 

Changing the landscape of eternity one person at a time,
David (4Kathryn2)"

Letter # 3

Waiting for the service to begin at our church in Beauvais, Église Protestante Évangélique

David and Kathryn Lohnes, serving in France with World Team  for over 25 years

Dear Reader,
In our previous letter, we explained the dire spiritual need that exists among the French. You remember that currently there are not enough active, Bible-teaching churches to reach the population in France. So what is being done about it? World Team’s vision is to plant 50 churches in France over 20 years! When you consider the average French church takes around fifteen years to be firmly established, this is a God-sized dream. And that is exactly the type of vision that we want to be a part of! We’d like to take a moment to introduce you to World Team and how we fit into this plan to reach the French.
Defining Characteristics: World Team is an interdenominational organization with a long history and over 350 members serving in 28 different countries. The organization emphasizes teamwork (within World Team as well as with other organizations and national leaders) and the humility it requires, believing that God produces greater results when we combine our efforts, gifts, and talents with one another. They emphasize discipleship, going beyond conversions and intentionally pursuing and cultivating growing relationships with God resulting in the development of national leaders. And the goal is always reproduction and multiplication of believers and churches, so that the work of reconciling the lost to God continues gaining momentum and influence for the glory of God. This is the only way that a goal of 50 churches in 20 years can be reached!
“World Team exists to glorify God by working together to establish reproducing churches focusing on the unreached peoples of the world.” The goal of this agency is to glorify the Lord, specifically by preaching the Gospel to the lost of all cultures so that people of every tribe, tongue, and nation will one day be found worshipping Jesus Christ. We appreciate World Team’s specific focus on church planting because we know that in God’s wisdom, He chose the church, the community of believers, to further His kingdom to the ends of the earth. Paul talks about Christ loving the church by “giving himself up for her to make her holy,” and he calls the church the “pillar and foundation of the truth” in our world today (Eph 5:25-26; 1 Tim 3:15). It becomes obvious that starting new churches should be a focus in our mission, especially in places where so few exist.
A Great Fit: We first encountered the work of World Team while living in France in 2004-05. It was during this time that we witnessed firsthand what “church planting” and being a “career missionary” would look like and we hungered to know more. We were given the chance to walk alongside our new World Team missionary friends, David and Kathryn Lohnes, who in turn introduced us to the rest of the France team and they definitely made an impression on us. It was obvious that God had gifted the France team, but what impressed us the most was their passion for the Lord, for reaching the French people, as well as their fondness for World Team. Additionally, we deeply appreciated the Biblical philosophies and beliefs that were driving their ministry and mission. 
As you may know, our situation is a little unique being that we are members of a Southern Baptist Church and are eligible to apply to go as missionaries with the International Mission Board, the Southern Baptist missionary sending agency.  Nonetheless, through our relationship with the Lohnes family, our interaction with the France team as well as World Team as a whole, God has affirmed to us again and again what we already felt from the beginning... World Team was the best fit for our family.
A Proper Perspective: But beyond being a great fit for us, we appreciate that World Team is centered on the Gospel and having a dependency on God through prayer. World Team recognizes that no amount of strategy and effort can change the hearts of men and women apart from the hand of God. This fact is emphasized among the various teams as well as in the lives of the individual missionaries that represent Jesus to the people around them everyday. For example, the France team demonstrates their dependency on God by holding their annual prayer conference. Each year they invite people to travel to France for the main purpose of prayer, both during the week and beyond. We simply cannot underestimate the promises of God which declare that when we humbly seek Him, He will respond! We are honored, humbled, and excited to be a part of World Team. We are eager to join in the church planting work taking place in France.
Until Next Time!
Brandon and Michelle Burch