Monthly Archives: January 2015

AIMKids MM6 – Bike Race

January 31, 2015 By in AIMKids Missionary Moments Tags: 2 Comments
AIMKids MM6 – Bike Race

AIMKids Missionary Moments are designed to be a resource for Sunday School Teachers / Youth leaders, to help kids relate to the life of an MK (Missionary Kid). They’re intentionally short because we know you already have a lot of material to cover.

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The Tour de France is a test of…

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  1. Endurance: The race is 23 days long, but racers spend 21-days on their bikes
  2. Distance:  In those 21 days they cover 3,500 Kilometers (France uses the metric system) or 2,200 miles.
  3. Flexibility: Cyclists have to be good on flat ground (9 days), hilly ground (5 days), mountain roadways (6 days), and high altitude roadways (5 days). 

And it leads to…

A Great Finish: No matter where the race takes them in France, the finish line is ALWAYS on the Champs Elysées in Paris. They cross the finish line and get a reward to the cheers of thousands of spectators.

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Prayer Focus:

Pray that we (you in your church and us in France) will be like racers in the Tour de France:

  1. Endurance: That even though it might get uncomfortable at times… we will stick with it to the end!
  2. Distance: We never know where God’s will will take us… we can go far and do great things for God.
  3. Flexibility: That we will stay faithful to God in all circumstance: good times or bad, easy days or tough.

 

Even the Bible compares the Christian life to a race and gives us the key to finishing well!

Hebrews 12:1-2:

1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;

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  • If your students have specific questions, please done hesitate to email us and we’d be happy to respond specifically.
  • Please let your kids know that by praying for us regularly, THEY TOO are part of taking Jesus’ love to France… they’re part of missions!

AIMKids MM5 – Eiffel Tower

January 28, 2015 By in AIMKids Missionary Moments Tags: 6 Comments

AIMKids Missionary Moments are designed to be a resource for Sunday School Teachers / Youth leaders, to help kids relate to the life of an MK (Missionary Kid). They’re intentionally short because we know you already have a lot of material to cover.

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5 Fun Facts about the Eiffel Tower

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  1. Originally just a big gate: It was intended as a temporary gate for the 1889 World’s Fair, but people liked it so much… it’s still up today!
  2. Tons of Paint!  Every 7 years, maintenance workers apply 50-60 tons of paint to the Eiffel Tower to protect the metal tower from rusting.
  3. A Big Radio & TV Antenna: Several radio & TV stations broadcast their signals from the top of the Eiffel Tower, the tallest building in Paris (81 stories) which is taller than the Washington Monument & St. Louis Gateway Arch (see below).
  4. People people & more people! Since it’s construction in 1889, over 250 million people have visited the tower (6 million alone in 2012).
  5. Hungry? If you get really hungry while on the tower, there is a restaurant on the 2nd floor…. but beware, the cost is between $120 and $300 per person!  WOW!

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Prayer Focus:

Praye that we (you in your church and us in France) will be like the Eiffel Tower:

  1. Gate: that through us, people will see and come to know Jesus.
  2. Protected: That we will take care of our “outside appearance” to protect the “core” of who we are.
  3. Antenna: That we will send “signals” that communicate Jesus’ love to others.
  4. People: That God will bring us into contact with lots of people…
  5. Feeding people: …lots of hungry people that we can nourish with the love of God.

 

Want a neat kids activity?  

– Online games & trivia about the Eiffel Tower
– Paper cut-out Eiffel Tower craft  (image credit: papertoys.com)

Compare the Eiffel Tower and the St. Louis Gateway Arch.
(image credit: The Peoria Chronicle)
Eiffel Tower & St. Louis Arch comparison

  • If your students have specific questions, please done hesitate to email us and we’d be happy to respond specifically.
  • Please let your kids know that by praying for us regularly, THEY TOO are part of taking Jesus’ love to France… they’re part of missions!

Departure…

January 25, 2015 By in Events, Process Tags: , 5 Comments

Had someone been walking along the Saint John waterfront, they may have heard nothing at all, they might have heard a faint, far-off, yet indistinguishable sound, or then again they might have heard a 12 year-old boy, as his car crested the Harbour Bridge, yell from his open window…. “Goodbyyyyyyyyee Saint John!”

Those very words were shouted on Friday morning at roughly 8:40am as we drove out of the city where I was born, where our kids were all born and where Liz had made her home for the previous 19 years… the trip had begun. Weeks of saying goodbye had come to an end and we began the long road to Montreal.

Saying Goodbye

Below are some VIPs (very important people); some are from church, some are business connections or service providers and others have been friends for a long time.  It’s impossible to post pictures of each of you and in some cases, when we got together to say goodbye, we forgot to get a photo, but each of you are important to us. You are a gift from God to us. You have contributed to who we are.

saying goodbye

Final notes:

  • Departure: Friday we drove Saint John – Montreal, but today we leave Montreal for France.  It’s a big day and we are so excited.
  • Finances: Two days before our departure, we received a call from someone who made a $200/month PIM commitment for the first year of our stay. What an encouragement that is… bringing our total commitment to date up to 83% or just over $99,000 of the $120,000 required for a full 2-year stay.
  • Car: the car is now sold and a pastor friend of ours now has an awesome second car!
  • House: Incredible news… the night before our departure from Saint John we had an initial offer on our house. The negotiating process ran it’s course and as of yesterday morning, we have accepted an offer on it. THAT is IN-CREDIBLE timing. We thank the Lord for another open door!
  • Luggage: We ended up not being able to stuff everything into suitcases as we hoped to so we shipped 3 totes and 2 suitcases via Air Canada Cargo. There was a 110kg limit before you moved to another fee-structure and, without even trying, our total came to 109kg!  PHEW!  …again, the hand of the Lord.  As you can see… the car was FILLED with the remaining suitcases (and the picture was taken BEFORE the guitar went in!).

2015_01_luggage

Prayer Request

The next time I write to you, I will be writing from France… how exciting is that!?

Please pray that things go smoothly at customs upon our arrival in France. It will not be a problem to bring in any of the suitcases that traveled with us, but pray that there are no hiccups at cargo (no extra import fees, duty, etc.).

Thank you for your support, God bless you as you gather to worship Him today!!

Supporting MKs & AIMKids

January 21, 2015 By in Blog, Process Tags: , Leave a comment

Recently, while looking for something to do with how to be an encouragement to MKs (or in our case, AIMKids), I came across this information from the UPCI’s MK Ministries. It’s wonderful so I thought I’d share… Check out their website to get a whole bunch more information on ways to support & encourage MKs – they are a unique bunch of kids… far from home because of the call of God on their parents’ lives.

Below is a chart on how Ladies’ groups can help. It’s size has been reduced but you can click on the orange links below for full-sized versions of the pages customized for:

Thanks for being interested in MKs / AIMKids and seeking how to be a help and an encouragement to them! You can change a life through this interest!

MK Ministries, UPwithMKs, UPCI

 

 Moving Day

Finally… please keep us in your prayers –

  • Today is moving day… lots to do
  • Thursday… clean-up the empty house, oil change on the car & last supper with my mom (keep her in your prayers as well… it’ll be tough for gramma to have the grand-babies so far off!)
  • Friday we leave for Montreal… we’ll drive up and catch our flight to Paris on Sunday

But that’s getting into the weekend and Saturday I’ll give you a run-down on how today went…

AIMKids MM4 – Buildings

January 17, 2015 By in AIMKids Missionary Moments Tags: Leave a comment

AIMKids Missionary Moments are designed to be a resource for Sunday School Teachers / Youth leaders, to help kids relate to the life of an MK (Missionary Kid). They’re intentionally short because we know you already have a lot of material to cover.

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Famous Buildings in France

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  1. Eiffel Tower: Perhaps one of the most well-known buildings in France. It was intended as a temporary gate for the 1889 World’s Fair, but people liked it so much… it’s still up today!
  2. Castles: There are over 1,000 castles in France: a couple hundred are within a 2-hour drive of our house and one is within a 10-min drive. How cool is that?
  3. Cathedrals: France has some of the most impressive cathedrals in Europe… Catholic Churches built hundreds of years ago (Notre Dame Church in Paris is over 800 years old!). Many are mostly tourist attractions now with very few people who attend services.

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Prayer Focus:

Buildings are beautiful to look at and explore, but the greatest building in ALL the WORLD is us & you too!  The Bible says that we are being built into a spiritual house, where Jesus is worshiped. That makes you SPECIAL!

– Pray that we can share that with others and you too!

(1 Peter 2.5 – You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.)

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  • If your students have specific questions, please done hesitate to email us and we’d be happy to respond specifically.
  • Please let your kids know that by praying for us regularly, THEY TOO are part of taking Jesus’ love to France… they’re part of missions!

“Send-off Sunday”

January 14, 2015 By in Events Tags: , 2 Comments

Of late I’ve typically been posting the AIMKid Missionary Moments on Wednesdays, but today, in addition to the latest one, I’m also posting some photos from, and telling you about, our send-off services. Mission Point pulled out all the stops in bidding us a fond farewell and for that I must first and foremost thank Pastor & Mrs Brent Carter who spearheaded the day.

Rev. Brent E. Carter, Mission Point Church, UPCI Atlantic District

“We’ve worked together hand & glove”

I give honour to this ministry family. They have taught me a great deal both by their instruction and their example. If I am any kind of leader at all, I am better because of time spent under their leadership. I am greatly indebted to them and am thankful to God for bringing them into our life.

 

Sunday Morning

Mission Point Church, Saint John NB

In the morning service I talked about Disciples with Distinction, from 1 Peter 2.1-9.  Not having grown up in Pentecost, I shared with the church the great things I saw in them when I first began frequenting the church and how that drew me in. They were examples to me in the following 6 areas:

  1. Worship
  2. Study
  3. Pastoral authority & respect
  4. Prayer
  5. Holiness
  6. Doctrine

It was what I consistently saw in the lives of the Christians in this church that “made me stick.”  Thank you Mission Point for being Disciples with Distinction.

Sunday Evening

It was during the evening service that all the stops got pulled out. It was a bit longer than normal, but no one seemed to mind… here are a few photos of that night:

ML speakers kids2 family

After the time of worship, Pastor had Liz & the kids join us on the platform for what would be a combination “tribute” and “roast“ (oh yes! They did go there!). Other speakers not pictured include: Neil Josselyn, Ben Cannon, Maggie Stewart, Youth Pastor Nick Graham and Assistant to the Pastor Mark Robertson.

Jayne Taylor (Kids’ Ministries Director) spoke on behalf of Sunday School and presented our kids with Travel Buddies, tangible reminders that kids back home are praying for them. They’ll take pictures of themselves, with their travel buddy, in cool locations and you’ll be able to follow their adventures using the AIMKids tag on this blog.

Pastor Carter added 5 new “mini-mantles” to the Mantle Ministry. This means that there will be a family in our church praying not only for Pastor & Sis Carter but also for us: 30-min each day, for God’s power, provision and protection.

Troy McAllister and the worship team did a special rendition of recently deceased Andre Crouch’s Through it all. Wow!

Maggie Stewart & Ben Cannon paid tribute to the kids as they are great great friends.

Special Gifts

There were a few gifts given through the evening. Liz got some beautiful flowers & I got a couple of books as well as a wall hanging. A couple of things stand out in particular however.Pastor Carter & MissionPoint Youth, MPYouthEach of the kids were given a #ShopInFrance certificate of appreciation. Space will be limited as we travel over so they thought the kids could go on their very first “mini shopping spree” in France on behalf of the church. So each of them received 100 euros in cash.  Thank you Mission Point!

Peugeot 407 Station Wagon

For the whole family, MissionPoint purchased a used 2007 Peugeot 407 Station Wagon for us. (formerly belonging to missionaries Samuel & Patricia Balca who retired in late 2013). It’s in great shape and has low mileage.
Thank you Mission Point!

My 2-cents Worth

My message (Romans 8:14-15) emphasized the idea of adoption: the act of bringing together as family individuals who were not naturally part of a given family.

In the broadest sense… the entire service was based on that: Many friends were there to honour us, because they’d allowed us to become part of their family & we’d allowed them to become part of ours. Similarly, God has allowed us to be part of His family… through the grace and mercy of Jesus.

“Adoption” provides the legal framework within which relationship can happen, but it doesn’t guarantee relationship… Relationship only happens when each party allows the other unlimited access. Hence the words in Rom. 8.14-15: “If you’re led by the Spirit of God, you’re his children… and the Spirit of adoption allows you to cry ‘Abba Father’.”  We’ve all got to let him LEAD!

Good eats…

French Pastry, Baked goods

Following the service, a TON of fine, fine cuisine awaited those who stayed for the reception. A special THANKS to each one who brought in food as well as to April Sayeau, Erma Shephard, Ryan & Trisha Shephard who coordinated that aspect…

I also know enough to know that Mark Robertson had his hand all over Sunday’s event. Thank you!  Mission Point has a great Assistant to the Pastor!

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We have THE most AWESOME home church EVER!
We love you Mission Point. Thank you for “adopting” us over 18 years ago!

Mission Point Church, AIMLong, Mike & Liz Long

AIMKids MM3 – School

January 14, 2015 By in AIMKids Missionary Moments Tags: Leave a comment

AIMKids Missionary Moments are designed to be a resource for Sunday School Teachers / Youth leaders, to help kids relate to the life of an MK (Missionary Kid). They’re intentionally short because we know you already have a lot of material to cover.

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School on the Mission Field

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School happens a bit differently here than it typically does at home. We are all homeschooled, which means that we do all of our school right at home.  It’s not up to our mom to teach us everything though, we (the two older ones) have DVDs that we watch from Pensacola Christian Academy in Pensacola, Florida, then mom just has to help us with tests & stuff!

Why?

One of the reasons for this has to do with language. If we went to public school, it would be completely in French. Imagine, from one day to the next… you have to do school in another language! That would be tough. We speak some French already, but probably not enough to keep up with other students in public school. Also, we have always been homeschooled, even in Canada… so by doing it this way, it was one less big change in our life.

Do all Missionary Kids Homeschool?

A lot of MKs are homeschooled, but in some countries there are also international schools where everything takes place in English; often because there are other missionaries or lots of international workers in that place. That’s not the case where we are…

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Prayer Focus:

– Pray that God would help us with our schoolwork.
   (after all, the better we learn, the better we’ll be able to serve Him later)
– Pray that God would help our mom as she helps us.

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  • If your students have specific questions, please done hesitate to email us and we’d be happy to respond specifically.
  • Please let your kids know that by praying for us regularly, THEY TOO are part of taking Jesus’ love to France… they’re part of missions!

Paris est Charlie

January 10, 2015 By in Events Tags: Leave a comment
Soldier & Eiffel Tower, #JeSuisCharlie

Photo: CBC.ca

Two images stood out for me yesterday as I followed the news coverage out of France. The first one is above and depicts a soldier standing guard with the Eiffel Tower in the background. The second, immediately below, shows Paris’ city hall dressed in the black banners of mourning: “Paris is Charlie” and “We are Charlie”.

Deux images m’ont frappé hier alors que je suivais les reportages sur la situation en France. La première se voit ci-dessus et montre un soldat qui monte la garde avec la Tour Eiffel en arrière plan. La deuxième se voit immédiatement en dessous; c’est l’Hôtel de Ville de Paris habillé en deuil avec des banières noires: “Paris est Charlie” et “Nous sommes Charlie”.

I’ve crossed the Pont d’Iéna many times as I approached, always with the same sense of awe, the great lady which stands watch over the city, but it was pretty much always with a “blue sky” mentality and a care-free manner… never with the weight of anxiety as had gripped the city for three days.  I can’t say that I’ve been to Paris’ city hall as many times as the Eiffel Tower, but to see this magnificent building dressed in black was an incredible thing.

Combien de fois j’ai eu l’occasion de traverser le Pont d’Iéna, m’approchant tout doucement l’un des quatre piliers de la grande dame… mais toujours sous un “ciel bleu”… jamais sous le poids de la crainte tel que souligné par la présence des soldats dans l’image. Je n’ai pas été aussi souvent à l’Hôtel de Ville de Paris, mais voir ce grand bâtiment habillé en noir n’en est pas moins impressionnant.
Paris, Hôtel de Ville, JeSuisCharlie, NousSommesCharlie

Photo: Jacky Naegelen, Reuters

 

I am 5,000 km away, yet it has impacted me. Perhaps because it was only a couple of months ago that a lone gunman shot an unarmed soldier in my nation’s capital and stormed our national parliament… it was a gamechanger moment.

Bien que je sois à 5,000 km de là, ça m’a touché. Peut-être est-ce parce qu’il y a à peine quelques mois un seul fou armé a tué un soldat non-armé à Ottawa, avant d’entrer dans le parliement national canadien. C’est un de ces moments qui changent tout.

This being said… in two weeks, I will be there as well. I’ll be there for the long haul… and I can’t wait!  I come representing One who, time and again began teaching the people with the words “Fear not.”

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Thanks for stopping by again this morning!  I wanted to try my hand at a bilingual post, but for the time being, getting the HTML code right for the tables involved is a bit tricky and slow-going. I’ll have to get better at it (or get a better way) before trying it again.

God bless you today!

Ceci dit, dans deux semaines, je serai là avec vous. Je ne serai pas simplement de passage, mais compte rester un bon moment… et j’y ai fort hâte! Je viens en tant que représentant de quelqu’un qui, à maintes reprises, commença son enseignement au peuple avec les mots
“Ne craignez point.”

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Merci de me lire ce matin!  Je voulais tenter de faire un article bilingue, mais pour l’instant c’est beaucoup de travail pour bien manier le code HTML requis pour les “tables”… faudrait que je m’y habitue un peu plus avant de ressayer cela de nouveau.

Dieu vous bénisse aujourd’hui!

France in mourning…

January 8, 2015 By in Events Tags: Leave a comment

Today is a national day of mourning in France, and the nation is hurting.
It is also resilient and resolute.

Many of you will likely have heard on the news yesterday, about the gruesome attack in Paris, killing twelve but leaving millions asking why. The hashtag #JeSuisCharlie has popped up everywhere… a reference to the name of the weekly satirical newspaper targeted by the assassins; Charlie Hebdo. The publication was definitely left-leaning and irreverent in its tone, but that irreverence was shown equally toward Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities. Not my cup of tea, for sure, however yesterday’s events were senseless.

JeSuisCharlie, Charlie Hebdo

All over France last night, vigils were held, town squares were filled and people banded together in an attempt to both seek comfort in community and show united determination. Below is a short video (1:45) by Thomas Blanc at TV Tours, of people gathered together in Tours, France (about 45min from Châtellerault). Kudos, M. Blanc, for a wonderful depiction of French solidarity in the face of adversity!

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Note also that another hashtag popping up in the Instagram, Twitter and Facebook worlds is #PrayforParis. Rather incredible… a largely secular society is asking for prayer for its national capital and, by extension, for the nation.

Let’s give them what they’re asking for:
Pray for Paris, and for France on this, their national day of mourning.

 

AIMKids MM2 – Five Changes

January 7, 2015 By in AIMKids Missionary Moments Tags: Leave a comment

AIMKids Missionary Moments are designed to be a resource for Sunday School Teachers / Youth leaders, to help kids relate to the life of an MK (Missionary Kid). They’re intentionally short because we know you already have a lot of material to cover.

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5 Things that will change or have changed for us?

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  1. House: Until our arrival in France, we will have lived in the same house for our whole life and had never moved. Soon we will be living in the missionaries’ house, so we have to be extra careful, because it’ll mostly all be their furniture & stuff.
  2. Church: Our church at home is about 300+ people, with about 40 youth and 100-110 in Sunday School usually. When we arrive, our new church will have 25-30 people (depending on the Sunday), 8-10 kids (including us) and NO GIRLS (besides Sophie).
  3. Friends: All of our good friends will still be at home in Canada. We’ll be able to text back & forth and sometimes FaceTime them, but it’s not the same and sometimes we’ll get lonely. The next nearest church is 2.5 hours away so it’ll be hard to get to another youth group sometimes to have more church friends.
  4. Neighborhood: At home we lived in the city and knew our neighbors for our whole life and there were friends who lived close. We could walk to the donut shop and grocery store but in France we’ll be a little farther from downtown and we’re not so familiar so usually mom & dad will have to take us.
  5. Language: This is a biggie!  Everyone speaks English at home, but in France pretty much everyone only speaks French. We speak some French because our mom & dad spoke it at home, but sometimes it’ll be tiring to always try to understand.

Prayer Focus:

– Pray that our church grows so more people & more kids know Jesus.
– Pray that we make some friends in our city.
– Pray that God helps us to improve in our French.

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  • If your students have specific questions, please done hesitate to email us and we’d be happy to respond specifically.
  • Please let your kids know that by praying for us regularly, THEY TOO are part of taking Jesus’ love to France… they’re part of missions!