For the first time in a couple of weeks, we were home for the weekend and it felt good, not only because we didn’t have to do and subsequently undo suitcases & garment bags, but also because we got to be in our home church with our 10+ kids!

Whoa! Wait a minute… did you say 10+ kids???

Yep… lemme explain.

Team France

If you have been following our blog or following our life… you’ll know that we spent the first 10 days of July in France with a team of young people. Twelve of us were from MissionPoint in Saint John and one was from Capital Community Church in Fredericton, NB. We spent time primarily in the cities of Châtellerault, Bordeaux and Melun, ministering in services, handing out invitations to church and prayer walking city streets.

Here you see the team standing on the bank of the Vienne River, in front of the Henri IV bridge.

Presenting…

This past Sunday night, members of the team addressed the local church, sharing their experiences in a service that was entirely dedicated to the involvement of young people in missions during the summer of 2014.

Not only did this team head to France, but we also had one young lady, from Mission Point, spend the month of July in Ghana, West Africa with missionaries Nick & Pam Sisco.

Here are a few highlights of that evening…

“God opened the door and you (the local church) made it possible for us to go. Thank you! It was truly life Changing.”
Trisha Shephard

“My time in France began 9 years ago when Bro. Long took me on my first trip there. One service, then, impacted me incredibly, so going back just felt like home.”
Ryan Shephard

“On other mission trips I’d taken, it was always with people that I mostly didn’t know. It was so great to go with a group from my own home church. I will be forever changed from my time there.”
  Jayne Taylor

“It was during one of our FX (France Extravaganza) nights that, as I began to talk about my expectations for the trip, that I could barely speak and God placed an incredible burden on me for France and our time there. It was so heavy, all I could do was weep. Just talking about it makes me miss France all over again.”
  Erin Taylor

“There were people from our church that I got to know in a totally new way during this trip. I thought I knew them – or, at least, I had my impression of them – but I got to know them much better and we had a blast together.”
  Nick Cannon

AIMKid Sophie speaks

One speaker in particular holds an extra-special place in our hearts… our daughter Sophie, the only one of our three #AIMKids to make this trip. She highlighted the fact that she enjoyed getting to see the church and meet the church family there, but when she talked about the other kids in the church, it touched us greatly:

“One thing I noticed was that, with the 12 or so kids that are in the church over there… they’re all boys. I’ve got some work to do.”

Her implication wasn’t so much that she’d need to straighten out all those boys, but rather that she’d have to do her best to make friends with and see some young girls come to the Lord.

*Thank you Lord for speaking to and through our kids… putting a desire in them to be missionaries… soul-winning Christians*

Thank you!

This trip would not have been possible without:

• The whole-hearted support of Pastor Brent Carter of MissionPoint in Saint John, our home church.
• The financial and prayer support of the church family at MissionPoint.
• The collaborative planning by the Brochu & Nowacki missionary families in France, Pastor & Sis. Majdling of Bordeaux and the youth leadership in both Bordeaux & Melun.
• A great group of young people who formed the team!

As we criss-crossed the country – planning meals, drives, rest-stops, sightseeing, etc., we gained the nicknames “mom” and “dad” (hence the comment about our 10+ kids at the outset of this post).

Mom & Dad were proud of you kids Sunday night!

Take a Missions Trip

I highly recommend planning a missions trip of some kind in and for your local church… whether for youth or for a wider age-bracket. There will be some cost involved, both in terms of time, finances and energy, but the payoff will be well worth it.

• You will see a greater sense of cohesion amongst team members
• New talents and abilities will be uncovered that will bless your church
• Team members will gain confidence about stepping out in faith and letting themselves be used of God in either familiar or new ways

Missions involvement… there’s nothing like it!