Sept/Oct Update Letter

September/October 2009

Dear Praying Friends and Ministry Partners,

I’ve been encouraged recently by meditating on the fact that God “thrusts” workers into the harvest (Matt. 9:38). Getting us to France is God’s business. Yet, in some way, God’s calling and commissioning of evangelists is a response to his people’s begging. Even though it’s difficult to comprehend this divine/human cooperation, please continue to ask God to thrust us across the Atlantic with the hope of the gospel. Because God is the one sending, no economy or government can stop us.

Staying Busy
In his goodness, the Lord has given us several weeks at home in Spartanburg to rest, settle into a new home (the church parsonage), make contacts for 2010, and prepare for an extended trip this Fall. We’ve stayed busy. We helped with our church’s VBS at the end of July (our third for the summer!). Michael had the opportunity to teach and preach multiple times at our home church. The Lord also gave us two opportunities to present our mission to churches in the upstate of SC: one in Spartanburg and the other in Anderson. We are grateful for these and many other opportunities to serve the Lord at home.

A Full Fall Schedule
We are also grateful for a full schedule for the Fall with an unbroken string of meetings between September 13 and November 15. We look forward to meeting these brothers and sisters and seeing how God will lead with regard to partners for the ministry. Presently, the Lord has given us 23% of our needed support. We trust that he will burden churches and individuals to partner with us in order to help send us out into the harvest.

Answered Prayer
God has been answering your prayers for us. First, we are thankful for the addition of a family to our support team. It is an encouragement to see God burden people to partner with the mission. Second, God has given us several meetings for this Fall and next year. Third, God has provided a van for our use. He caused several mechanical issues to be resolved the night before we left for our current trip in the Midwest, and we trust he will keep it running as long as he sees fit! Thank the Lord for his mercy and provision.
Please Pray for Us
“The Bible clearly reveals that believing prayer is essential for the advancement of the cause of Christ” (Hiebert, Working with God through Intercessory Prayer, 9). So please pray for us that…
1. God will mature us through the deputation process.
2. God will fill our meeting schedule for 2010.
3. God will use us to awaken Christians to the spiritual needs of the French and to Christ’s redemptive purposes for the world.
4. God will give us the skills we need for ministry in France.
5. God will materially bless his people and give them a heart to use their funds for missions.


Itinerary
September 13-Wichita, KS
September 16-Wichita, KS
September 20-Waverly, KS
September 23-Ottawa, KS
September 27-Clay Center, KS
October 4, am-Abilene, KS
October 4, pm-Wichita, KS
October 11-Houston, TX
October 18-Rockford, IL
October 25-Dekalb, IL
November 1-Sterling, IL
November 8-Naperville, IL
September 15-Shannon, IL

Exciting News
In the last letter, we announced that God has blessed us with our second child, and we now know that it’s another girl! She’s due around December 19. Please ask God to protect Liz and the baby as we travel.

Thank you for encouraging us through your prayers and giving. We thank God for you!

In Christ,
Michael, Liz, and Viviane
MLCole@HopeForFrance.org

July/August 2009 Update

July/August 2009

Dear Friends and Ministry Partners,

“This is a tough time to be on deputation.” I have heard this statement more than once from sympathetic pastors. And although it is true that scheduling meetings seems slow due to the economic slump, God has shown himself faithful by opening doors into churches and even enabling churches and individuals to partner with us in proclaiming the hope of the gospel in France.

Meeting Report
We recently returned from another two weeks in Western PA. We had a great time participating in two different weeks of VBS as the visiting missionaries, and we are thankful for the opportunity to share the gospel with several unsaved children. We concluded our stay in PA by presenting our work to another church whose hospitality made our final day in that area an enjoyable one. After returning to SC, we spent a Sunday with the dear people of one of our supporting churches. We thank the Lord for the opportunity to report to them and to fellowship with them again.

Support
The Lord has answered your prayers concerning support for our mission! We are grateful that another church is partnering with us as their missionaries. Also, we were encouraged by an email we received from a couple expressing their interest in partnering with our mission. Thank you for praying about our support! Initially, our team set our monthly support need at $5,000 (US), but currently we are reevaluating that figure based on first-hand observations Tim and Ruth (our coworkers) are making in France. Due to the weak dollar and a better understanding of the cost of living in France, our monthly support level will need to be increased. We are grateful that God has provided more than 20% of what we need. Please continue to ask God to quickly bring in the remaining 80%. We trust that God will answer our prayers and provide support for this mission according to his will.

Please Pray for Us
Thank you for taking an interest in us and our mission. We are more convinced than ever that God will have to work for this mission to be successful. So please intercede on our behalf for these requests:
1. God will accomplish sanctification in us through the deputation process.
2. God will fill our meeting schedule for 2009 and 2010.
3. God will lead us to churches of a like mind who will partner with us by supporting us financially. We would like to be at the 30% level by the end of the summer.
4. God will use us to awaken Christians to the spiritual needs of the French and to Christ’s redemptive purposes for the world.
5. We will continue to grow and develop so that we will be useful tools for the Lord in France.
6. God will give us wisdom concerning a van for deputation travel.

Itinerary
August 23-Spartanburg, SC
August 30-Anderson, SC
September 13-Wichita, KS
September 16-Wichita, KS
September 20-Waverly, KS
September 27-Clay Center, KS
October 11-Houston, TX
October 18-Rockford, IL
October 25-Dekalb, IL
November 1-Sterling, IL
November 8-Naperville, IL

Exciting News
We’re excited to announce that God has blessed us with our second child! The baby is due sometime around December 19. Please ask God to protect Liz and the baby as we travel.


Thank you for encouraging us through your prayers and giving. We thank God for you!

In Christ,
Michael, Liz, and Viviane
MLCole@HopeForFrance.org

Evening with the Kirchners

We had a great time this past Saturday evening with the Kirchner family. We met Charles, Julie, Zach, Brock, Grant, and Cali the first time we visited Church of the Open Door in Connellsville, PA, but we were able to get to know them better this past week while working with them in the VBS. They hosted us for an enjoyable dinner and relaxing evening in their yard. The Lord gave us excellent weather so were were able to really enjoy the outdoors.

As you can see in the collage, there was plenty to do. Everything from baseball to frogs! Charles and Julie were very hospitable. We grew to appreciate their servant hearts as we watched them work in VBS. Their labor is indicative of their faithfulness to the Lord in that local assembly. Liz and I also really enjoyed their children. After dinner, Julie's parents (Merl and Beverly Harbaugh) joined us. We had been staying with the Harbaugh's all week and had grown quite attached to them.

This is the best thing about deputation. We have met many different people, but I think the people of Church of the Open Door will stick out as very special to us for their sweet spirits. Thank you Kirchners for your kindness to us. We appreciate the fact that you extended friendship our way. God bless.

VBS at Church of the Open Door

It was our privilege to help with a VBS last week. We really enjoyed the time we were able to spend with the families of this church. They were exceedingly kind to us. (They fed us so well that I might have to roll home!)

I had a good class (teens) ranging from 3 to 8 participants. I think God gave us a good time together and I trust that he will bless the sowing of the seed in their lives.

The Lord gave us several opportunities to get to know the people of the church. We are humbled by their generous hospitality and kindness toward us. Not only did we enjoy excellent food and fellowship, at one house Viviane was able to sit on a horse! Although she was initially timid, Viviane really enjoyed the horses and Liz and I enjoyed watching her.

We finished the week with a program during the Sunday PM service. That just happened to be the night that Mt. Carmel had its organizational meeting (for the VBS we are now helping with). So, after preaching at Mt. Carmel's service, I drove over to Church of the Open Door to take part in their program. The Lord brought several visitors, some of whom were not Christians. I had the privilege of presenting the gospel to them and pray that God will give the increase.

Liz, Viviane, and I are grateful for the time we had to meet the Christians at Church of the Open Door. Thank you for your kindness to us. God bless you till we meet again.

On Commissioning the Bixbys

We said goodbye to our coworkers, Tim and Ruth, on June 21. Several strands of thoughts ran through my mind as I meditated on the fact that I would not see them again before they left for France. I attempted to channel those thoughts into this poem. I trust that it communicates biblical truths about love for coworkers and love for the gospel despite its shortcomings.

The service sneaked up on me

like a long-assigned project's due date

startles a procrastinating student: Already!

So soon! Its coming and won't wait!

For months and years we've prayed, planned,

prepared-for a mission in the distant future

that now extends its grasping hand

to claim you for its treasure.

Upon bowed shoulders elder hands descend,

deigning to set apart and send away

brother, sister, cherished friends

for sake of a coming glorious day.

Can we rejoice concerning this commission?

How can we feel happiness and joy

at this severing, this removal, this amputation

of those whose vital gifts we enjoy?

Delightful songs about sending out our own

clash dissonantly with the silent, constricting

dirges that grip the throat, turning to stone

joyful thoughts once upward spiraling.

Can it really be that we, the body, are gathering

to celebrate such a separation, the undoing of a union,

which is no less traumatic or agonizing

than the loss of arm or leg by amputation?

A sudden thought impedes dark despair's progress:

"Are you the first to suffer thus?"

The pain remains, but we can't claim this duress

is unique to us.

Long ago a greater severance took place-

when the God man walked this world.

The Father and the Son, eternally face to face,

fellowship cruelly crushed, salvation unfurled.

Far from glory this cherished Son righteously

lived doing good and preaching

good news to crowds persistently

refusing to see in him the Father abiding.

Until one morning the Son was dragged

up a hill to bear full force the anger

of his own dear Father, all communication gagged,

eternal fellowship could not endure.

Why must grief sprout from separation

for both deity and humanity?

This suffering is the price of reconciliation;

temporary sundering brings union for eternity.

Again, can this commissioning lead to joy?

Yes, if despite heartache and sorrow

the body rends itself to send a gospel envoy,

dividing itself so others can know.

And so within the assembly smile and frown mingle

as tears of sorrow and joy freely blend.

Mourning and grief are embraced in full.

Sweet proximity temporarily relinquished.

Go with the blessing of the church,

over every obstacle and resistance advance

until you return triumphantly from the search

for souls to swell Christ's inheritance.

Foolishness to the Greeks-Part 2

Chapter 2 of Foolishness to the Greeks is entitled "Profile of a Culture." Building on the truism that a missionary must know his culture, Newbigin wonders how a missionary from Western culture can reach the nations characterized by Western culture. He suggests that listening to other cultures is a beginning point, but acknowledges that language barriers make this an unlikely place to start. So he suggests analysis of Western culture's genesis: the Enlightenment.

Newbigin describes the Enlightenment as the collective sigh of Europeans (at least the thinking ones) as they were liberated from the darkness of superstition and ignorance that characterized much of the Medieval period of European history. There were many contributing factors to the Enlightenment such as the translation of Aristotle into Latin, the rise of universities, renaissance learning, reformation tumult, advances in science (particularly by Newton), and Descartes' philosophy. In the author's opinion, Newtonian science is the most important. His discoveries in science based on cause and effect forever changed the way humans looked at their surroundings. According to Newbigin, the result of Newton's work was the rejection of "purpose" as a category for understanding physics and astronomy. The new means of explanation came from cause and effect, so much so that identifying the cause became synonymous with explanation. There was neither need for or ability to identify the purpose behind natural occurrences that operated according to mathematical laws. Scientists could discover these laws by the use of reason: analysis and mathematical reconstruction.

This method of analysis soon spread to all levels of society and all aspects of life. No longer was it only applied to science; soon every area of life was subjected to the scientific method. Newbigin thinks this is the key for understanding contemporary (as of 1986) Western culture. The basis for all that we see is the dismissal of "purpose" as a valid category for interpreting reality. All that humans are left with is cause and effect. And yet, Newbigin points out, purpose remains a vital aspect of human existence. So, modern Western culture is forced to make a division between public and private, fact and value. The cause and effect process of science leads to hard, "value-free" facts as opposed to the intensely private values of individuals. The one (fact) holds absolute sway and authority in the public arena while values are relegated to the private sphere and wield no universal authority.

This absolute dichotomy robs modern Western culture of any basis for making value statements about how citizens "ought" to behave. The right to pursue happiness takes as many different forms as there are people--and no one has the right or ability to distinguish what is good or not. Scientific "fact" must be submitted to by all, but values must be restricted to personal preference.

This, Newbigin, argues is the modern Western mindset that has grown out of the Enlightenment. Reason reigns and everything else must submit. But, Newbigin asks, "what if this is not reality?" What if there is a God who has made all things and is calling every person to loving devotion? Could it be that modern Western culture for the past 250 years has been living in an illusion? Is the present decay of society a sign of that illusory dream?

That is as far as the author takes us in this 20 page chapter. Next, Newbigin explores the Bible and its authority.

Foolishness to the Greeks Day 1

This morning I began reading Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture by Lesslie Newbigin. Although this book is dated (published in 1986) I thought I'd give it a read since it deals directly with one of my main concerns: the evangelization of France. Newbigin served as a missionary in India as well as in England and was considered to be a leader in the world of Ecumenical missiology. The fact that he functioned within a more liberal sphere does not negate necessarily his insights into missions in Western Europe. Let's see what he has to say.


Chapter 1: Post-Enlightenment Culture as a Missionary Problem

Newbigin sets out to answer a very specific question: "what would be involved in a genuinely missionary encounter between the gospel and this modern Western culture" (3). He defines culture as the "sum total of ways of living developed by a group of human beings and handed on from generation to generation" (3). This includes religion. That definition is pretty normal. A little less clear is his definition of gospel: "the announcement that in the series of events that have their center in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ something has happened that alters the total human situation and therefore must call into question every human culture" (3-4).

He offers Paul's speech before Agrippa as a paradigm for what is involved in the cross-cultural communication of the gospel: 1) must take place in receptor language, including the intellectual framework of the culture, 2) must be confrontational in nature, calling for "radical metanoia," and 3) must rely upon supernatural working for results (5-6). Concerning this work of communicating the gospel cross-culturally, he includes a caveat that remains true today: "In the attempt to be 'relevant' one may fall into syncretism, and in the effort to avoid syncretism one may become irrelevant" (7). He also warns missionaries that the Jesus received by their converts is the Jesus they present. By this he intends to call attention to the fact that far too often the Jesus and his gospel preached is in fact a very culturally influenced Jesus and gospel (8).

He pinpoints the Enlightenment as the beginning of a self-conscious Western thought that disallows identifying the Bible as the Word of God (10) and then takes up the analysis of Western culture set out in The Heretical Imperative. Basically, Berger (author of The Heretical Imperative) argues that since there is no viable "plausibility structure" (read absolute by which to judge) in Western culture, this culture demands that every individual be a heretic; i.e., each must determine for himself what he will believe (11). Newbigin agrees with this aspect of Berger's analysis, writing that it is natural "in a culture controlled by this kind of experience, for religion also to be a matter of personal choice, unconditioned by any superhuman or supernatural authority" (13). But he disagrees with Berger's insistence that there is no "plausibility structure." Instead he asserts that Western culture's insistence on "facts" in the public venue (as opposed to the private realm) is the new plausibility structure. This dichotomy between private and public is integral to understanding Western culture. On the private level, pluralism and an absence of any plausibility structure is accepted and required. But on the public level of "fact," Western culture does not allow for the same level of choosing for oneself. Newbigin correctly (and colorfully) identifies "facts" as the "center of the temple" for modern Western culture [an interesting word picture in light of the French revolution's idolization of reason]. Based on this dichotomy, Newbigin decries attempts to offer Christianity as a legitimate topic for study within the existing structure of thought because doing so "leaves that world-view unchallenged. The autonomous human being is still the center--with total freedom of choice" (15).

He believes that Protestant churches have accepted Western culture's relegation of religion to the private sphere. In his opinion, accepting a place in the private sphere may have gained churches ongoing existence in the modern world at the expense of "surrendering the crucial field" (19). He then ends the chapter with a sobering quotation of W. E. Gladstone, part of which reads: "Should the Christian faith ever become but one among many co-equal pensioners of a government . . . this will prove that we are once more in a transition-state--that we are travelling back again from the region to which the Gospel brought us, towards that in which it found us" (20). Newbigin concludes that this is exactly what has happened, but that the result is not a secular state that was once predicted. Rather, "It is a pagan society, and its paganism, having been born out of the rejection of Christianity, is far more resistant to the gospel than the pre-Christian paganism with which cross-cultural missions have been familiar. Here, surely, is the most challenging missionary frontier of our time" (20).