Category Archives: Places

Small City… Big Heart, DeQuincy LA

June 28, 2014 By in People, Places Tags: , , 1 Comment

After leaving Pensacola, Florida… our next major destination was to be Dallas, Texas. We knew that we’d have to stop and spend a night somewhere in between but we just planned on driving until we felt like stopping, and finding a hotel there… (wherever “there” was).

One thing we knew we wanted to do however, was make a quick stop in DeQuincy, LA… 15-20 minutes or so, to run a quick errand at The Pentecostal Church.

Thanks… and thanks again!

Back in March, when we sent out our information packets, TPC’s pastor, Bro. Neyland took us on as a partner… without following up with or ever having met or spoken with us. He was the first to formally take us on, outside of our home district.  This expression of “blind trust” in us meant and means a great deal to me, so I wanted to stop by in person and express my thanks. Little did I know that he would give us many more reasons to say “Thank you!”

picstitchBro. Neyland’s church has a double-wide mobile home that is used for visiting ministers which he graciously invited us to make use of. Later, we had supper together and the kids were able to play on the trampoline – entertained by the pastor’s son – before capping the evening off with a bowl of Blue Bell ice cream (oh my word, that’s good ice cream!!).

The next morning Liz was able to do a bit of laundry and the kids could do some school at a table… instead of in the car, before we all went for lunch at Bartrella’s Uptown Café (it was their last day in business).

map_LA

 

Living up to their mottos

The title for this post is no accident, it is the motto of the city of DeQuincy and features prominently on the city’s website… Small City… Big Heart: With a population of roughly 3,500-4,000 it is indeed a small city but oh what a heart!  Similarly… the motto for the Neylands church is Loving God, Loving People and again, they certainly lived up to that motto.

When I think of Bro. Neyland and his church, the words of Paul in Galations 4.14-15 come to mind…

you… received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus… I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.

New Friends… new Family

Most of the visits, during this trip, were with people that we’ve known for a number of years, and the time spent together with them was rich. This visit however, was not like most of those others… this was a time to make a new friendship.

We were in DeQuincy for less than 24 hours, but those hours are etched in our minds as a time of rich connection.  I am thankful for the family of God where you can come together as strangers and leave as family.

Thank you Lord for the gift of the family of God!

 

Open Invitation…

If you’re in the DeQuincy area and looking for a church family, you can find The Pentecostal Church at 301 W. 4th St., DeQuincy LA 70633. Their phone number is (337) 786-4740

Family Time… relaxing in Florida

June 21, 2014 By in Blog, Places Tags: , , Leave a comment

The impetus of our roadtrip, in May, was a week-long family vacation in Florida. We managed, on either side of that week, to incorporate time with pastor-friends and their churches, however these days were the raison-d’être of our time away.

Down-Time

As Assistant to the Pastor of a very active church with responsibilities for the design, publication and distribution of a 12-page monthly magazine for our district and as dad to a homeschooling family where Liz does an amazing job… we tend to lead a very busy lifestyle.  I can’t even begin to say how nice it was to unplug from email, voicemail, web-technology, etc. for a couple of weeks. Oh I know that we never really escape it totally, but we can put a much greater distance between it and ourselves.

Unlike previous visits to Florida, where we’d visited various Disney parks or other such attractions, this time we made a point to not move from our home-base (it can be tough to resist the temptation “go and do”, but we’d set the expectation with our kids, from the outset, that this would be a “poolside” vacation… no parks, and that did the trick).    map_FL

Staying “Busy”

The only kind of busy that we were looking for, during our time in Florida, was… well… none!

The kids were content to spend hours at a time in the pool – chasing, dunking, splashing, stalking & wrestling with each other and the various pool-toys that were available. While they did this, Liz & I did a fair bit of reading and I included some journaling and blog-maintenance as well. We only left home-base twice.

cypressgroveThe first time we left was to go to church, Sunday morning, at Cypress Grove Fellowship, located just 20 minutes or so from our hotel and pastored by Rev. Mark Barrick. We really enjoyed service and were very warmly welcomed by church members. Thank you Cypress Grove, for making us feel so welcomed.

The second time we left home-base was, based on the recommendation of one of the folks at church, to go visit Playa-Linda (spanish for “beautiful beach), part of the Canaveral National Seashore…. THAT was beautiful!

Huge waves of salty water crashed onto the fine sand and underwater sand-bars, carrying you along and causing you to either stumble or tumble ‘neath their power.  I’m sure that before the abundance of theme parks and attractions the beaches would’ve been crowded, but they were virtually empty… two surfers, a handful of fisherman strewn along the kilometers of pristine beach coast. This was probably one of the most fun days we spent in Florida.

*thankful for family fun*
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Open Invitation to a GREAT church

If you live in, or are visiting the Orlando area, you will find a great church in Cypress Grove Fellowship. They are located at 745 Holden Ave., Orlando FL  and can be reached at (407) 857-5866 (see link to their website, below).

Thanks for following our adventure, Next stop… Pensacola.

One last note…

Today we are having our final FX Meeting (France X-travaganza) in preparation for our upcoming 10-day mission tour to France (beginning June 30th).  We will be working on music and preparing for our final fund-raiser… Paris by Night, a 3-course sit-down dinner and silent auction where the choice of Entrées will be Boeuf Bourgignon or Seafood Alfredo.

…So be watching for a few extra posts around that time as I will be sharing some of what the team will be involved in on a day-to-day basis.

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to Montreal, Ottawa & back

June 18, 2014 By in Churches, Places, Process Tags: , 1 Comment

This time last week I’d asked you to pray because I was heading to Montreal for Canada Conference and as you read this, this morning, I’m preparing to fly back to Saint John. Taking a break from details of our trip down south, let me give you a run-down of the past week.

Canada Conference

CCcompositeThis year’s Canada Conference was hosted by the incredible church in St. Laurent, pastored by Rev. Paul Graham. This church is no stranger to us (or rather, we’re not strangers there) having been there numerous times, with Rev. Dieudonné Kahozi, for various French Conferences.

The speakers this year were

Paul Mooney, Jimmy Toney, Melvin Calhoun, Raymond Woodward, Jesus Fortaleza and Albert Foster.

The worship and teaching was incredible… what a great blessing to be part of those meetings.

Bro. Woodward afforded me the opportunity to greet the conference as an appointed AIMer which was a great privilege. It took me a bit off guard because I didn’t know it was going to happen, so I don’t think I did as good a job as I could have, however, I’ll chalk it up to a learning experience and do better the next time such an opportunity arises, knowing better what to expect.  So thankful for every opportunity!

I was asked to translate the morning sessions on Friday which included teaching by Brothers Foster, Woodward, Toney and Mooney… a wonderful marathon that I was privileged to be part of (*note to self… bone-up on Revenue Canada & accounting terminology for the next time I translate Bro. Foster – haha). 

Services in the Quebec District 

After the Canada Conference was over, I spent a few extra days in the Quebec District, to present our project and our burden at the invitation of Rev. Scott Grant (career church planter under North American Missions) and Rev. Dieudonné Kahozi (French pastor at St. Laurent, church planter in Montreal East and North American Director of French Evangelism). I spoke…

  1. Sunday Morning at the newest French church in Montreal, located in Montréal Est. This church began as a Bible study in Bro. Kahozi’s home, outgrew their second location, a rented 45-seat facility, 2 years later and are now in a recently-purchased location, the dedication service of which will take place in July of this year.
  2. Sunday Afternoon at International Church, a growing church on Montreal’s south shore, started by Bro. & Sis. Grant in 2009 and currently being pastored by Bro. & Sis. Hector Arriola.
  3. Monday Night at a Bible Study attended by international university students as an outreach of the Saint Laurent UPC. Don’t let the name fool you… there were 88 people in attendance. These young people are on fire.
  4. church-smTuesday Night at the Église Pentecôtiste de Trois Rivières. This is an established church that will celebrate 25 years this summer and is also pastored by the Grants. We love the church at T-R (as it’s affectionately referred to) and have been there numerous times as well.

“Office-time”

While in the area, I had a number of appointments between Montreal and Ottawa which related to my application for European Citizenship. Liz holds EU citizenship by virtue of being born there, my kids have it because or their mom and I am entitled to it by marriage (in the same way that Liz was able to get Canadian citizenship, by marriage, when she moved here) and can maintain dual citizenship. While on one hand it’s fairly straightforward, it nonetheless required a fair bit of paperwork, document authentication and eventually translation.

Why apply for citizenship to an EU nation?

Not because we plan to cut ties to Canada or anything. It will simply reduce the amount of bureaucratic hoops that we will have to jump through in order to live in Europe temporarily. Typically, France only issues 111SussexDrresidency permits for a 1-year term, meaning that after only about 6 months, you have to already begin the renewal process. Having citizenship does away with that.

This part of the process required time at both the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa as well as the Italian Consulate in Montreal, among others.

A Busy Few Days…

I’m back in Saint John today, but in the next 5 days we need to:

  • Meet with officials about Homeschool planning for the kids next year.
  • Have a final, all-morning, planning session with the 13-member team that we’re leading to France on June 30th.
  • Celebrate Sophie & Dominic’s “last birthday in Canada” for a couple of years.
  • Speak at Life Source Church in Shediac, pastored by Kent Carter.
  • Host a 3-course fundraising dinner for our 10-day mission trip to France on June 30th.

It goes without question that we would appreciate your prayers. 

God has done and is doing many amazing things and we are glad to be part of it!
Thank you for following our preparations and for your prayerful support… with it you become part of what God is doing and will do in France.

 

Montgomery AL, Birthplace of US Civil Rights

June 14, 2014 By in Blog, Churches, Places Tags: , , , 2 Comments

From the Elm City, New Haven Connecticut, we took two days to make our way down to Montgomery, Alabama, where we spent a few days with Pastor & Mrs Timothy Mitchell, founding pastor of New Testament Christian Center.

Birth of a Friendship

We got to know the Mitchells through a translation opportunity. Mutual friends, missionaries Eddy & Della-Mae Kennedy, let us know that Pastor Mitchell was looking for some help translating a Bible study course for new believers that he had authored, entitled The Way More Perfectly.

Liz accepted to do the translation and so, during the months that ensued, we were in contact at regular intervals and at one point, without even planning it, the Mitchells were on a cruise that stopped for the day in Saint John, allowing us to meet in person for the first time. Following that meeting, there were a couple of times, two in particular, where the Lord prompted Bro. Mitchell to call us “just to see how things were going.”  Those calls came at pivotal moments and were definitely God-moments.

The translation was completed last year, but the friendship lived on and as soon as we decided to drive to Florida, we made a point of connecting with them. map_AL

Unexpected Surprise

GoddardAt one point in our drive, we realized that the highway we were on would take us within 10 minutes of Anderson, South Carolina (we had no idea this would be so beforehand… we just followed the GPS – nicknamed Olive for our trip) where Rev. Edward Goddard pastors a wonderful church (Sanctuary of Praise). Bro. Goddard was the pastor of Mission Point (First United Pentecostal) when Liz and I first started attending and so was an important part of our walk and growth in God.

We were able to stop in for a short visit and see the miracle church that God provided for them. So glad for even a short visit and thankful for the great example of this pastor who has been part of shaping who we are today.

Montgomery

IMG_8229After surviving heavy rain as we came through Atlanta, we arrived in Montgomery. Not only did we have the chance to worship with the Mitchells, both in the morning and evening services, but they showed us around the birthplace of the Civil Rights movement and the First Capital of the Confederacy.

As you read in my earlier post, The Power of One, the Rosa Parks Museum moved me tremendously (surprisingly so). We also visited the First White House of the Confederacy and the Alabama State Capitol (pictured at right) where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as President of the Confederacy.

We got a chance to visit the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site where African American servicemen had to fight to win their place, both in World War II missions and in military ranks back home.

The Civil Rights Movement is intricately woven into the American national identity and narrative, but such is not so much the case in Canada. Although we are aware of it, at varying degrees, I daresay it is not as widely understood here in all of its complexity. These two days were a humbling time as we were somewhat immersed in it.

Open Invitation to a GREAT church

If you live in, or are visiting the Montgomery area, you will find a great church in the New Testament Christian Center. They are located at 10300 US 80, Montgomery, AL, 36117  and can be reached at (334) 215-7215 (see link to their website, below).

If you are in Anderson, SC or the surrounding area… visit Sanctuary of Praise, 518 Stone Drive, Anderson S.C., 29625. You can reach the church at (864) 224-6699.

Next stop

…the Sunshine State. We’ll go there on Saturday

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Related Links:

 

New Haven… Connecticut’s Elm City

June 11, 2014 By in Blog, Churches, Places Tags: , , , Leave a comment

The first stop on our road-trip, was New Haven, Connecticut… nicknamed The Elm City for the high canopy of mature trees which characterize the city, reputedly the result of America’s first public tree-planting program.

Probably most known as the home of Yale University, New Haven was on our mind and has been in our heart for another reason.

Haven of Hope

Back in 2008, Pastor Rick Perry came to Saint John to speak in our annual missions conference, as a representative of North American Missions, since he and his wife Stacey were church planters in The Elm City. Our church partnered with them and two years later, sent a team to help them refurbish a newly purchased building that would become their church’s home… Haven of Hope.

Our friendship with the Perrys has continued to grow over the years, making it impossible to drive by without stopping to say hello!

French Connection

As we arrived on their doorstep, we noticed a car in the driveway bearing North Carolina license plates. The mystery was unveiled as soon as we knocked on the door, which was opened by missionary to France, Marcus Brainos!  How cool!!  We, of course, knew the Brainos’ from our time in France and had recently had them visit with us at Mission Point in Saint John (read about that visit here).

What a treat… we got to have a nice supper together with both the Perrys and the Brainos’ followed by a truly authentic cappuccino at Libby’s Italian Pastry Shop (VERY cool & VERY authentic! Also very old-school- don’t go unless you have cash as they don’t accept debit or credit cards).

map_CTForestThe Clear Call of God

I’ve always been amazed by the way God called the Perrys to New Haven. They were heading through, on their way someplace else, when, passing in front of the Forest Cinema, God spoke to Bro. Perry about establishing a church there. He didn’t immediately say anything but a short while later, when speaking with his wife about being called someplace, she responded… “It’s New Haven, isn’t it?  It was the Forest Cinema wasn’t it?”

God had spoken to her at the same time, and they both knew it, although neither immediately expressed it to the other.

God’s voice isn’t always that clear… sometimes you have to search it out a bit, but it was that clear to me when it came to our call to France, and I’m so glad it was. There will undoubtedly be days when “the going gets tough” but on those days, the clarity of God’s call will help us to continue forward.  I have long thought, and it’s been my experience, that you can make it through just about anything if you know, without doubt, that you are in God’s perfect will. I’m thankful that such certainty is available in Jesus.

Open Invitation to a GREAT church

If you live in, or are visiting the New Haven area, you will find a great church in Haven of Hope. They are located at 884 Grand Ave., New Haven, CT 06511  and can be reached at (203) 404-0339 (see link to their website, below).

Next stop… The land of rattlesnakes and water moccasins.

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Please pray today:

Two things that I’d ask you to pray about today…

  1. By the time this post is published, I’ll be on my way to Montreal for the UPC’s Canada Conference, where I’ll have the opportunity to present our project to pastors from across the country. Pray that some of these will partner with us.
  2. While in the area, I’ll also need to look after details that will facilitate living in Europe for two years. For this I have several appointments in both Montreal and Ottawa. Pray that these appointments go well and that “bureaucratic bog-down” doesn’t happen.

.Thank you!

Related Links:

 

Roadtrip through the USA

June 7, 2014 By in Blog, Places, Process Tags: , , Leave a comment

IMG_8023May was an incredible month!

It began at the Atlantic District Conference, in Moncton, NB.  The day after its conclusion, however, we set off for a 3.5 week trek through the United States which would take us some 9,800 kilometres (over 5,000 miles).

As we prepared to cross the border, the sign said it all: “If you want to stay in Canada… turn left”, otherwise… “straight ahead for adventure.” We chose adventure!

The Where:

We had been planning this family trip to Florida for some time. In the past, we’d done a couple of parks… Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Legoland (in Winter Haven on the old Cypress Gardens location), but this time there would be no parks: relaxation and economical were to be the names of the game – no fighting the crowds and no bankrupting the wallet. The spot where we stayed had a number of activities for the kids / family and that would suffice. In fact, the only time we left the property was (a) to go to church on Sunday and (b) to visit the Canaveral National Seashore one day.

In total, the trip would take us to New Haven Connecticut, Montgomery Alabama, Orlando Florida, Dallas Texas and St. Louis Missouri… with a couple of wonderful (if unplanned) stops along the way.

The How:

In the days when my wife worked in the airline industry, we would’ve flown but since that was no long the case, 4 wheels replaced 2 wings and the idea of a grand road-trip was born.  Since we’d not be limited by rental car pick-up or drop-off locations, MapDrawwe decided to combine pleasure with more pleasure and connect with friends along the way. The posts over the next couple of weeks will detail some of the highlights of that trip.

What I can do for now is give you an overview of the trip using the map below (created using Map Draw, from iTunes’ App Store).

map

The Who:

Liz & I and our kids got to know each other in a whole new way over the past few weeks!  Sure we’re family… but this was the first time ever that we’d spent three and a half weeks living from car to hotel room to suitcase. It was DEF-initely a new experience.

I’ve got to say, though, that everyone survived very well. Liz had prepared school material for the kids and they spent a great deal of our driving time doing school work: the older two with their ABeka DVD curriculum and Timo with diligent help from mom. Not only did it keep them from getting bored (and getting on each other’s nerves) but it also kept them on track to finish their school year within the same time frame as their friends.

Drive Down Memory Lane

I can’t say that I was conscious of this at the time, but perhaps part of the impetus of this grand adventure had something to do with such an adventure in my own childhood.

I was just a little younger than my daughter when my mom, my dad, my brother and I made a similar road trip, except that we drove across Canada and returned through the norther USA, tenting when there were no family members or friends to stay with.  It was on that trip that I rode horseback for the first time, climbed Banff’s Sulfur Mountain, saw Victoria and Mt. Rushmore… reading 99-cent comic books in the back seat and trying to ensure my brother stayed on “his side of the line” (that separated us in the back seat).

I daresay that we have just completed building a significant memory lane for our own kids… You’ll hear more about it in coming posts.

Paris in July

April 26, 2014 By in People, Places Tags: , , , , 3 Comments

More than just Paris

Unless you’re in our local church, you probably don’t know that in addition to preparing to move to France in January, we’re also leading a team of young people to France, in July, for a 10-day missions trip. Although I’ve entitled today’s post “Paris in July” it’s really Châtellerault and Paris in July… with a few more awesome stops along the way.

#MPTeamFrance

14_04_26 FX1 picWe’ll be known as #MPTeamFrance
(where MP = Mission Point, our home church)

Strange name?

Perhaps… but it’s “hashtag-able” and isn’t it all about hashtags nowadays?  After all the twitter invention is now key to huge social media players like Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram and even Facebook, which integrated them in June 2013 since users were using them anyway.

Hashtags are powerful because they allow users to follow public conversations outside of their own network of friends. Whichever of the above-mentioned platforms you use, come July there will likely be a steady flow of the #MPTeamFrance hashtag as team-members share their experiences and photos with family & friends back home.

The team is made up of 12 people from Mission Point and a lone courageous member from Capital Community Church in Fredericton (three were absent when the photo above was taken).

Preparation

Because we will be involved in ministry on various levels this summer, it was important to plan some prep-times… when we could focus on:

  • 14_04_26 FX1bsharing information on travel arrangements, timetable & activities
  • planning roles, responsibilities & involvement
  • gaining interaction experience… a.k.a. team-building (just because we all attend the same church, we don’t take for granted that we automatically know how to work together).
  • praying together
  • Preparing testimonies & music, to be shared in service settings

We call these prep-times FX-Nights.
(France X-travaganza).

Last night was our second one and among other things,we had to breathe life into those that were still hyperventilating from FX#1, when we told the team that they could only bring a carry-on sized suitcase each as well as a personal item (Stopping to think though… it can’t be about how much an individual is able to carry… but how much we can fit into the cars once in France, and 26 pieces is already a lot!). So one of the things we did last night was show them just how much you can put in a small suitcase, when done efficiently.

The Plan

One of the main ways that we expect to be able to lend support to the Châtellerault church, once on site, is by helping prepare for and distribute several thousand invitations to a gospel music concert that they are currently organizing.  This will be the first time that outreach on this scale will be attempted in Châtellerault and we expect it to accomplish the following:

  • Build awareness of the church among thousands of local and regional residents
  • Provide an opportunity for those same residents to experience anointed worship in a Holy Ghost-filled atmosphere
  • Build a foundation for contact with those in attendance
  • Obtain Home Bible Study opportunities with hungry individuals that would desire.

Overall… our goal is to put the local church in touch with a much larger number of contacts than  would normally be possible, from which they may obtain followup opportunities for later in the summer / year.

Who knows… when Liz & I get onsite in January, we may get to be involved with someone whose first contact with the church was during this summer’s outreach!

If that’s the case, it may be part of God establishing the “Crown” around Châtellerault, like he said he would.

We will also spend a bit of time in the Paris region, with the church in Melun, but plans are still being formulated for that leg of the journey…. more to follow!

Exposure

One of the other great things about this summer’s trip is that it gives more people from home a first-hand experience with the field in which we’ll be working.

  • When they pray for us… they’ll do so with personal experience.
  • When victories are won spiritually…. they can know that they were part of it.
  • When others wonder about us, the work, the field… they can help educate others.

More to come

You’ll likely hear more about this trip as we get closer, and certainly when we’re there, but for now know that it’s one more way that the Lord is working out his calling in our life. I’m so jazzed for the team that we have preparing to go… Great things are in store #MPTeamFrance.

As always… thanks for stopping by!

What about you?

  • Do you think YOU could do 10-days abroad with only a carry-on sized suitcase?
  • Have you done it already?
  • Tell me about it in the comments section below.  (Your comments could encourage & inspire the team… of course your horror stories would be fun to read too.)

 

The Lewis Revival 2

April 12, 2014 By in Places Tags: , Leave a comment

Context

You’ll recall, from my last post, that I promised to allude to the role of prayer in the incredible revival that was see on the island of Lewis-Harris in the early 1950’s.  The following excerpt is taken from the transcript of a taped message, preached by Duncan Campbell (a Scottish preacher with the United Free Church of Scotland and the Faith Mission) in 1968, on the topic of the Hebrides Revival.
(formatting & emphasis mine)

Prayer…

photoNow I am sure that you will be interested to know how, in November 1949, this gracious movement began on the island of Lewis. Two old women, one of them 84 years of age and the other 82 (one of them stone blind), were greatly burdened because of the appalling state of their own parish (where) …not a single young person attended public worship. …They spent their day perhaps reading or walking but the church was left out of the picture. …Those two women were greatly concerned and they made it a special matter of prayer.

They were so burdened that both decided to spend much time in prayer, twice a week. On Tuesday they got on their knees at 10 o’clock in the evening and remained (there) until 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning–two old women in a very humble cottage.

Vision

One night, one of the sisters had a vision… she saw the church of her fathers crowded with young people, packed to the doors, and a strange minister standing in the pulpit… (she) said to (their) minister, “You must do something about it. And I would suggest that you call your office bearers together and that you spend, with us, at least two nights in prayer in the week. Tuesday and Friday if you gather your elders together… and as you pray there, we will pray here.”

…that continued for almost a month and a half, until one night… they were (all) kneeling there in the barn, pleading this promise,

“I will pour water on him that is thirsty, floods upon the dry ground”
(Isaiah 44.3)

…when one young man, a deacon in the church, got up and… said, “It seems to me to be so much humbug to be praying as we are praying, to be waiting as we are waiting, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God.”

Repentance…

…he lifted his hands and prayed, “God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure? “ But he got no further. That young man fell to his knees… into a trance.  At that moment, he and his other office bearers were gripped by the conviction that a God-sent revival must ever be related to holiness. …and an awareness of God gripped the community such as hadn’t been known for over 100 years.

Campbell Arrives…

I shall never forget the night that I arrived… The minister turned to me and said:

“I know Mr. Campbell that you are very tired-you have been traveling all day, …and I am sure that you are ready for your supper and ready for your bed. But I wonder if you would be prepared to address a meeting in the parish church at 9 o’clock tonight on our way home. It will be a short meeting…”

barvas-church

The Parish Church Barvas

We got to the church about quarter to nine to find about 300 people gathered… Nothing really happened during the service: A sense of God, a consciousness of His Spirit moving but nothing beyond that. So I pronounced the benediction… When I went to the door of the church I saw a congregation (outside) of approximately 600 people. …Where had they come from? I believe that that very night God swept in Pentecostal power-the power of the Holy Ghost.

Where’d they come from?

Over 100 young people were at the dance in the parish hall and they weren’t thinking of God or eternity… when suddenly the power of God fell upon the dance. The music ceased and in a matter of minutes, the hall was empty. They fled from the hall and made for the church. They are now standing outside. Oh, yes–they saw lights in the church. That was a house of God and they were going to it.

Men and women who had gone to bed rose, dressed, and made for the church. Nothing in the way of publicity–no mention of a special effort… But God took the situation in hand and became His own publicity agent. A hunger and a thirst gripped the people. 600 of them now are at the church standing outside.

Read more:

  • The full transcript of the text featured in this post can be found here.
  • To download a free .PDF booklet on the Lewis Revival, written by Campbell, click here.
    (a quick read that is WELL worth the time)

The Châtellerault Church…

February 15, 2014 By in Churches, Places Tags: , , , 3 Comments

A bit o’ history…

Châtellerault Church, D749 et La Fontaine, Pasteur Paul Brochu

The first time I set foot in the Châtellerault church was in 2005…. but it didn’t look like this and it wasn’t in this building!

Paul Brochu, who founded the church in 2000, was in the USA on deputation that year and Steve Schobert was covering his furlough. Cécile LeDay, the first to receive the revelation of Jesus’ name, was still alive, and the church met in her large downtown home at 57 Boul. Aristide Briand, on the intersection of Rue de la Paix.

I have fond memories of Sis. LeDay who was a former nun and had impeccable French. The fact that I was a French Teacher at the University of New Brunswick at the time, meant that we had some great discussions about the finer details of the language. She would, from time to time, gently correct my use of a particular structure or expression. More than a French resource though, she was a faithful lady who wholeheartedly served the Lord in Spirit and Truth; truly an example of discipleship in action. She always sat in the back row, on the right side (even at that though, given that we were meeting in a living room, she was still only about 15′ from the pulpit!) 

Click here to see Bro. Brochu, preaching in that building in 2006.

Our first look at this building…

In 2006, we were on a family vacation in western France and joined the Brochus for service on Sunday morning. Following the service, they took us out to see the new building, just outside the city. God had blessed them with an incredible property and building right on the Ave. de Richelieu (Route Départementale D749, at the corner of La Fontaine, directly across from the Centre d’Équitation). It wouldn’t be until 2009 that I would set foot in that building for the first time.

Repurposed…

The building had once been a small manufacturing building so the large hangar (top pic, left side) was the workshop and the smaller section (top pic, right side) was the office area. It would be repurposed… a workshop yes, but for assembling and repairing lives broken by sin, with the power of the gospel of Jesus.

The building had been damaged by fire and so the church initially met in one of the smaller offices and could comfortably hold about 20 people. I preached there in 2009 and the Lord spoke to Sis. Jeannette about her need for baptism in Jesus’ name. Over the next 3 years, work progressed on the larger office area which would, in 2012, be dedicated as the new sanctuary.

Dedicated to a Dream

The picture below is a pretty special one. It was taken on September 22, 2012 during the dedication service for the new sanctuary. Though it wasn’t taken by me (I wasn’t in attendance), it’s special to me for a number of reasons…

  • Bro. & Sis. Brochu can be seen front and center, being ministered to rather than ministering (for Pastors in smaller churches, this can a rare occurrence).
  • This ministry couple have indeed been dedicated to a dream: planting a church in the heart of western France.
  • This photo represents my dream as well… a full church in the city of Châtellerault. It is my prayer and my desire to see 100 people, regularly worshipping in this church, by the time the Brochu’s come back from their deputation.

Is that a daring dream? a big vision? Yes.
Is anything too hard for the Lord? No.
… and so, I dream!

church crowd_b

If you’d like to partner with us and be part of the dream coming true… click here.

Paris… the quiet city

February 8, 2014 By in Places Tags: , Leave a comment

One evening, while searching for some video footage of France in general, and Paris in particular, I came across the video below, filmed and edited by Andrew Julian.  At first, the title intrigued me, because when I think of Paris, I do not think of a quiet city, but after seeing it and stopping to think about it; Paris in the winter, is indeed quiet compared to Paris in summertime when throngs of tourists flood the city.

If you have 4 minutes to spare (plus a bit of time waiting for the video to load)… this is an absolutely incredible look at the beauty and magic of Paris and well worth the look!  Thank you, Andrew, for putting together this amazing package!

The Quiet City: Winter in Paris from Andrew Julian on Vimeo.