Tag Archives: AIMkids

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!

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!

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!

AIMKids MM1 – What’s an AIMKid?

December 31, 2014 By in AIMKids Missionary Moments Tags: Leave a comment

This is the first of a series of 10 posts entitled: AIMKids Missionary Moments
(For a full list of all 10 topics… click on #AIMKids in the top menu bar or click here. Hyperlinks will be added as the Missionary Moments are published)

The Goal: Each post in the series is designed to be a resource for Sunday School Teachers & Youth leaders. A tool that will help kids…

  •  connect to missions in general.
  •  relate to the life of an MK (Missionary Kid) specifically.
  •  understand how they too can help their friends know more about Jesus & his love.

(These posts are intentionally short because we know you already have a lot of material to cover.  This first one will act as an introduction to AIMers and AIMKids in general.)

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What are AIMers?

.The term AIMer refers to someone who goes on AIM (Associate in Missions) for short-term missionary work that usually last 2-months to 1-year (in our case it will be between 1.5 – 2yrs).  AIMers can be single, a married couple or a family (like us). They can be in their teens, twenties or even older. Generally they work with other missionaries – it’s rare for them to be all by themselves in another country.

Some AIMers…

– Cook for Bible School students
– Photocopy invitations to church & teach Sunday School
– Put together text books for Bible School students
– Paint walls & repair buildings
– Try to start new churches

Our parents are going to…

– Pastor the church while the missionary goes to the USA on deputation
– Teach at the Bible School

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What are AIMKids?

Actually… AIMKid is a word that our dad made up. Have you heard of MKs before? They are Missionary Kids… technically we’re really MKs too… but just through the AIM program, so my dad liked that word.  Since our dad made it up, that makes us the first AIMKids ever!  How cool is that!?

We’re going to…

– Help our parents by being the worship team during church
  (we’ve had lessons for a lot of years, but it’ll still be new to play in most services)
– Help pray in our city and pass out invitations sometimes
– Do our school at home (homeschool)

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Prayer Focus:

– Pray that God will help us learn the new songs that they sing there.
– Pray that God will help us with our schoolwork
– Pray that we’ll be brave and meet new friends & tell them about Jesus.

Pray that God will help you to be brave about talking to your friends about Jesus & how he loves them.

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

 

Again… to see a summary of the AIMKid Missionary Moments, as they are currently planned… click on #AIMKids in the top menu or click here.

Praying for our #AIMKids

December 20, 2014 By in Blog, Process Tags: , 2 Comments

Today I’m serving up another infographic for you. The last time you saw one was on October 18th and it detailed the Timeline of the Call.  In today’s post, we’re focusing on the kids and a tool I developed for Sunday School personnel and youth pastors who would like to adopt our kids as a “Prayer Project” during our time on AIM.

AIMLong.ca/Kids

We’ve launched a new Top-level page on this site:  AIMLong.ca/Kids

This new page will serve as a) a general introduction to our kids for those who don’t already know them and b) will have links to 10 AIMKids Missionary Moments: 5-min long, France-related object lessons that will help kids pray not only for our kids  but also for their own outreach potential.

Why?

…largely as a result of the following quote:

“In some churches you will raise support and in others you’ll raise supporters.”

I read that quotation in a book by Steve Shadrach, The God Ask, and so, our goal in developing this infographic is to not only garner prayer support for our kids but also to give leaders tools that can help them connect their kids & youth to missions.  If these young ones can feel a connection to missions from their youth, then there is a greater chance that they will be open to either giving or going themselves as they get older.

Feel free to download and print the graphic below. Use it in your Sunday School classes, Kids’ Prayer groups, Youth classes, etc., and connect kids to missions!

AIMLong.ca, France, Châtellerault, #AIMKids

 

 

 

 

5 Weeks & Counting!

December 17, 2014 By in Blog, Process Tags: , , , Leave a comment

I’ve stated that the goal of AIMLong.ca, during the time leading up to our departure, is to keep you up to date on the progress of preparations. So for now… here’s how the hive has been humming!

Day to day

House & Car: The house is still for sale and while there is no firm offer, there is someone who wants it but they will have to sell their own house first & it goes on the market in January. That can cause us some anxiety if we focus on it, but we try simply to stand still, and trust in God’s faithfulness.

We’ve bought a storage shed & have a place to put it. We’ll store some furniture and other items that don’t require heat.  Liz has been doing a lot of the packing and sorting but I started a couple of my bookshelves and did a large part of the garage some weeks ago. (There’s waaaayyyyy more yet to do!)

We’re thankful to already have a buyer for our car.

Work:  My replacement as Assistant to the Pastor at Mission Point is now onsite. Pentecostal Messenger, Atlantic District UPCIMark Robertson (originally of Hatfield Point but most recently of Miramichi) and I have been working very closely in an attempt to get 8 years worth of stuff out of my mind and into his (poor guy!). I can tell that he is going to do an incredible job and is a credit to the pastoral leadership that has trained him to-date.

Pentecostal Messenger: For those unaware, I’m editor for a 12-page printed publication that goes out to our churches in the region, with a readership of roughly 750.  While in France, others will look after logistical details, but I’ll still look after editing and layout of the content.  I’ll be putting together the better part of both the January and February issues prior to my departure.

Missionary Lynne Jewett

Missionary to Guatemala, Lynne Jewett, with our #AIMKidsOn Monday we got to spend the afternoon with our friend and missionary to Guatemala, Lynne Jewett. What an inspiration!

She came for lunch and since she is synonymous with kids’ ministry, we wanted to chat with her about:
a) building a church through kids’ ministry &
b) doing all we can to set our own kids up to succeed on the mission field.

She had some GREAT advice!  Including preparing them for the effect that distance will have on their friendships… some will undoubtedly fade a bit over time, but the true ones will remain.  That’s straight-talk and she is bang on!  She also encouraged them to see themselves as missionaries…

Looking ahead

Departure: We’ve tentatively set our departure date as somewhere around January 25-27.
AC-Flight“Wait, what? …no specific date?” ….We’re going to fly stand-by, which means that, yes, we’ll save money on airfare but we’ll fly according to seat availability.  (If there are seats available, we’ll seat our seats on the plane, if not… we try again next flight). That may seem stressful to some, but it’s how we traveled the whole time Liz worked for the airline, so we’re used to it.

Final Mailout: We’re on the verge of doing our final mailout prior to departure. It’ll be an oversized postcard for Sunday School & Youth Staff, focusing on “adopting our kids as a “prayer project” and various way to pray for & connect with them / us. Look for the infographic in this Saturday’s post.

Thanks in advance!

It goes without saying that, with all of these things going on… we need your prayer. It all comes at a busy time of year and if I were to focus too much on it, I would be overwhelmed. We take one day at a time and rest in the assurance that, if the Lord tarries, we will be there in just over 5 weeks from now!

 

Baptized in Jesus’ Name!

November 12, 2014 By in Blog, Events Tags: , , , 5 Comments

Sunday night, I had the incredible pleasure and great privilege of baptizing Timo in Jesus’ name for the remission of sins…. what a thrill!

4 Great Days

Timo_baptized_1

In Timo’s own words Sunday night…. “These will be four great days!” He was referring to the fact that:

  1. Friday was Atlantic District Kids Convention.
  2. Saturday, Kids Convention (cont’d) with Evangelist David Morehead. Timo told us that he’d been filled with the Holy Ghost.
  3. Sunday, was the day he got baptized, and
  4. Monday, was the day he was celebrating his upcoming birthday with friends.

It’s possible that Timo received the Holy Ghost earlier (he’s very sensitive when praying in the altar), but we never pushed the issue too much with him: we wanted it to come from him… we wanted him to be convinced enough about it to tell us… We thank God for his incredible gift!

Excited

There were a couple of things that were very neat to see / hear: Timo_baptized_2

  • Timo was jumping up & down in the changing room beforehand… “I’m going to get baptized, I’m going to get baptized!!” he repeated several times.
  • Afterwards, while still in the changing room, he said “I feel so light!” 
  • A little while later (still at home afterward), he said… “I’m so glad, because now my name is written in the book of the Lamb!”

How neat to hear statements like that which make me so grateful for Liz’s influence and the influence of Sunday School Teachers who put that kind of understanding in the heart of an almost-9-year-old!

That makes Three!

IMG_5363

As of Sunday night, November 9th, all three of our kids have been baptized in Jesus’ name for the remission of their sins and filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues as God gives the utterance. (the promise of Acts 2.38, exampled in Acts 2.4)

All three have been baptized since I became a licensed minister and so I have had the incredible honour of baptizing them all myself. I’m somewhat in awe when I stop to think about that.

#IAmGlobal Connection

When Timo told us Saturday that he’d gotten the Holy Ghost, I didn’t put it together immediately, but Sunday night before service, I remembered that there was a connection between that day and the #IAmGlobal offering taken at General Conference.

IamGlobal

Liz & I pledged an amount in the #IAmGlobal offering… an amount that was a stretch for us. We determined that, rather than rent our house while we went on AIM, we would sell it. This would not only allow us to leave completely debt free, but would allow us to make a sacrificial offering as well. It wasn’t an easy decision: not only would it require more preparation prior to our departure, but it also removed one of the safety nets for our eventual return home post-AIM.

Timo_baptized_3So what’s the connection with Timo’s Great 4 Days?
I think the best way to make that clear is to quote you from my journal entry of October 2nd, where I describe our experience of the Global Missions service and the #IAmGlobal offering:

“During his sermon, Bro. Mangun said that the supernatural would follow the sacrificial, so he urged people to not leave… to wait for the giving to be completed, then we would pray and there would be healings & such.

In my head I was thinking:
“I don’t need a healing, but God, give us our city (thinking of Châtellerault).” 
“I don’t need a healing, but Timo needs the Holy Ghost.”
“I don’t need a healing, but we need to leave fully funded.”

After we came back to our seats, someone that I did not know came up to me and prayed:
“It’s not that it ‘will happen’, that it is ‘going to happen’… it ‘has happened’. God has seen your desire, your tears and it has happened; He has brought it to pass, He has heard your prayer.”

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What else can I say? We trusted him with something that, eternally speaking, is of little consequence (our house & our finances) and within barely a month, he established the eternal in Timo’s life!  Stepping out in faith is never easy (or it wouldn’t be a step of FAITH) but there’s nothing like the way that God answers!

God is great!
God is real!
I can trust Him!
Praise the Lord!

Old Memories & Daily Challenges

November 5, 2014 By in Blog, Churches Tags: , , , , 2 Comments

As I mentioned Saturday, this past weekend was our 7th in a row to be on the road…. and it was a special one!

Fredericton NB

In a couple of ways it just felt so right to be at Capital Community Church (CCC) this past weekend.

Wood-Howell

The guests for their weekend Missions Conference were ourselves and Bro. & Sis. Bruce Howell (Gen. Director of Global Missions UPCI), but because of flight delays, the Howells weren’t able to get in until late Saturday night, missing the first service. In his stead, CCC Lead Pastor Raymond Woodward spoke.

The reason it felt so great was this: when I first came into Pentecost in the mid 1990’s, Bro. Woodward was in the Saint John church and music was led by Jack & Kathy Leaman… so everything just felt so familiar!

Sunday

The services were great on Sunday!  In the morning, Bro. Howell preached on the protection that can be found in the walls of salvation… and in the evening, on the fact that Christians should always be Ready to Rejoice!  One of the neat surprises though was that the choir went from singing in English to French (without warning)… How cool to hear that!  It caught me by surprise, so I didn’t catch all of it, but here’s what I did get.

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Budget Progress…

FullSizeRenderCCC members gave liberally this weekend and their generous offering put us up to 65% of our required budget.

But over and above that offering, they also showed some love to our kids in a special way as well. Saturday night the kids went forward and church members put a total of $329 in their hands… so just under $110 for each of the kids.

Can’t thank you enough CCC for all the support you have shown us!

Crunch Time

To finish off today’s post I’m going to be a bit transparent. I’d ask for and extra covering of your prayers over the coming weeks.  There is so much that needs to happen and only so many hours in a day. Feelings of being overwhelmed are never far off as there is a keen awareness of the pressure to:

  • sell the house & correct a few things in preparation for that
  • prepare to transition my church and District responsibilities, including the publication of the monthly district magazine.
  • continue sorting / packing / purging
  • maintain responsibilities in our local church where I’m employed full time
  • prepare paperwork & immigration formalities
  • complete fundraising our budget

…all while we continue to travel each weekend for the remainder of November
(We intentionally have no services/travel booked for December).

Do we know that we are in the will of God? …yes
Do we know that he’ll take care of the details? …yes

But in the meantime it’s still a great deal to juggle in the day to day… we need his strength more than ever, not just to get it all done, but to maintain our joy in the process.

the Bottom Line

God is getting ready to do some incredible things and we’re so privileged to be part of it. Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

Thanks for following us and for praying so faithfully!

Raising Children with a Global Vision

October 29, 2014 By in Blog, Events Tags: , , 2 Comments

Steve Shadrach makes the following #wowQuote in his book “The God Ask,” and I have wholeheartedly embraced… because it’s bang on!

“In some churches, you will raise support
and in others you will raise supporters.”

Since reading it, I have quoted it numerous times… Here’s the essence – for me:

 A pastor may, for any number of reasons, express to you that their church is unable to offer financial support at this time (size, stage of growth, economic climate, etc.), and it’s often just as difficult for them to say “no” as it is for you to hear. My response…

“No problem, here’s how you can help…” 

Kids_IamGlobal_2 NicI then talk about my kids who will experience much change as they become global and suggest getting a Sunday School class or seniors in the church to adopt them as a Prayer Project. We will provide their photo, birth dates and other pertinent information and they only have to do two things:

  1. Pray for them regularly by name and referencing France.
  2. Write them a note card for birthdays or a holiday, reminding them that
    • They are not forgotten
    • They are being prayed for
    • God wants to, and will, use them in France also.

A win-win

Not only does it mean the world to us to have our kids encouraged, but it will also benefit those taking part as well.

For Kids: It’ll embed in them a connection to world missions in general and Western France in particular. This connection is then part of their early memories, paving the way for greater missions involvement later on.
For Seniors: It allows them to contribute in a meaningful way, even if a limited income hinders them from giving financially the way they’d like or if mobility issues prevent them from getting out regularly.

Over time, these kids or seniors are becoming supporters even if they can’t offer financial support at this time. To get back to Steve Shadrach’s quote… this is how we raise supporters.

Raising Children with a Global Outlook

…that reminds me. I wanted to tell you about he fourth workshop we attended at General Conference: “Raising Children with a Global Outlook.” It’s facilitators were Angie Clark (author of numerous resources on developing kids’s prayer), Linda Poitras (WEC staff, author & retired missionary) and Cylinda Nickel (MK Ministries).

The goal… help children develop a sensitivity to God and to the work of missions in a global environment. Here are some steps that will help accomplish that.:Kids_IamGlobal_2 Sophie

  1. Your passions is important. Kids will mirror you so let them see passion for missions and the work of God in you.
  2. Results will come when you know what the goal is… be patient and be intentional about planning.
  3. Nurture their gifts. Mentoring is training an individual to mimick/imitate the behaviour attitudes of another whereas nurturing focuses on their interest in involvement.
  4. If you don’t like the results you’re seeing initially…. change yourself. Don’t seek to change them first off.

Esther 4:14

“For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

This passage of scripture, Shared by Sis. Poitras, is relevant for a couple of reasons…

  1. It underscores the value of each child. Who knows what the Lord has planned for them?  Getting them connected to missions could lead to a child making a difference across the world or in their city.
  2. The numeral reference (4:14) is also a target age-bracket for secular marketers: from computer games to clothing and more.  If they can get a child “hooked” on their product at a young age there’s a good chance that they’ll have them for ages!  How much more in the Kingdom and Work of God!

Tips & Resources

Tips for growing a child with a global vision:

  • Kids_IamGlobal_2 TimoWhen you find them looking out their window… ask them how they can impact the place where they are living, right now.
  • Adopt another missionary family… in particular with a child their age. Pray for and connect with them regularly
  • Get them to hold a globe in their hands and pray for different places in the world.

Resources:

Now…. go grow some global kids… !
Thanks for stopping by today… Let what you read inform your prayers.

 

 

#IAmGlobal

October 25, 2014 By in Events Tags: , , , 5 Comments

For today’s post I’m reaching back to the Global Missions Service at this year’s UPCI General Conference… thinking not only about the incredible things that God did that night, but the “trickle-down” effects of that service as well.

UPCIGC_GMService

$4.3 Million Dollars

That’s what was raised in the span of roughly 2 hours, by 6-7,000 people in one room and more that were watching via streaming video. It didn’t happen by itself however…

The service began as many do: Anointed singing, some preliminaries and Liz & I were invited to participate in the parade of nations. What an honour! Then someone introduced the #IamGlobal offering that was about to be taken. Missionary kids began heaving inflatable globes through the audience and Liz caught a couple, with the help of missionary to Ireland, Cindy McFarland (pictured above). People or churches offering $5,000 or more would receive a small “I am Global” crystal globe. Some went up to do that but more went once the number dropped below $1,000.

Then something changed. Pastor @AnthonyMangun (Alexandria, LA) got up to preach. #WowQuote of the evening was this:

“We’re very quick to use the term apostolic on our facebook & twitter profiles, but before we use that term next, we need to also look at our bank accounts.”

… his implication: does our giving reflect the same pattern of sacrificial giving as seen in the life of the apostles?

IamGlobalSomething happened. Conviction swept in and many people gave offerings larger than $5,000…without the promise of a trinket. One person was selling a business for $150,000.00 and that money has already been received by Global Missions.

Therein we see the power of the word of God: to convict the hearts of Christians and bring about sacrificial giving for the purpose of global missions. What caused that miracle offering:  the teaching of God’s word received by soft hearts.

More than an offering

I love the name of the offering… “I am Global”,  because every time we say it we:

  1. Reaffirm our connection to that miracle offering and
  2. we reiterate the need to look for a harvest beyond ourselves.

Our Kids are Global

Kids_IamGlobal_1Liz brought back a globe for each of the Kids. They weren’t in that service, but we want them to be connected to that same spirit… to see themselves as Global.

Of course, they’ll see themselves as Global by virtue of the fact that they’ll be living in France for a time, but more than that, we remind them that they’re not just going to France to “watch mom & dad do their missionary thing,” rather, God wants to use them as well: whether through helping with music in the church or showing the love of God to new friends outside the church.

Prayer

  • Pray that God prepares our kids; that they truly grow to see themselves as Global. That he use them to Advance His Kingdom.
  • Later this evening we’ll be ministering in the first French service being organized by Pastor Mike Noel of Life Church, in Campbellton, NB. Pray for revival among the French community of northern New Brunswick.

Thank you for your prayers… they make you part of #Revival_inFrance!