Your Best Life…Now? (Part 1)
by Stacey Many of us have seen the Piper video where he expresses his disdain for the “Prosperity Gospel.” But perhaps many are like myself, who do not know the precise theological foundation of this despised message that is sweeping through many developing nations. Since we are going to be ministering in one such nation, I have decided to read the book La Théologie de la prospérité to better understand the underlying beliefs that fuel the Prosperity Gospel (and as an exercise in reading French of course). Thus, we will seek to understand the claims of this gospel in our first blog…
Does Theology Affect Translation?
by Dave I mentioned before that from time to time I would like to engage in this blog with translation theory. Today I am going to engage with an article titled: “The Theology and Ethics of Bible Translation” by Leland Ryken. This article is the seventh chapter in his book The Word of God in English, which can be downloaded for free in it entirety HERE. Positive ElementsRyken very helpfully makes the point that theology matters. There is no such thing as a Bible translator who approaches the text in neutrality. Our theology shapes the words that we choose and…
KEEPING Them “Sent Out”
by Stacey “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” – Matthew 9:36-38 To be faithful to Christ’s command in Matthew 9, I have always thought that Christians were supposed to “pray people to the field.” After, myself, going through the process of becoming a missionary, I completely understand why Jesus told us that the “goers” need a lot…
[VIDEO] French Testing Hidden Camera
by Dave and Stacey We wanted to let you all get a glimpse of what exam week looks like here in France so we snuck a hidden camera into the classroom. And when you are done watching pray that God works a miracle and that our whole class passed. We get our most recent exam results tomorrow! This is tongue in cheek. We REALLY love our school and professors. But the tests are REALLY hard. And I am pretty sure they know that they are really hard too.
Pressing Prayer Requests
by Dave In light of recent events and those upcoming we would like to ask for your prayer. Since we have been in France one of our classmates was diagnosed with cancer, three classmates have lost a parent, and just a couple of days ago one classmate fell down the steps and broke her right arm and fractured her left arm. On top of that two of our co-worker families in Cameroon have had to leave due to medical problems. All of this convinces us that we need your prayers. We know that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood”…
Is Jesus God? And Does it Matter?
by Dave Unexpectedly we have had 3 house calls by Jehovah’s Witnesses since we arrived in France. We actually were not able to talk to them any of these times (the first two times because we did not speak French well enough and the last time because they came at a bad time). But considering these encounters got me thinking about the deity of Christ. Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus is not God, nor that he claimed to be God. Instead he is the archangel Michael and was God’s first creation. I have found that this is actually a pretty…
The Great Cloud of Witnesses and the Lonely Christian
by Stacey After several months of neglecting my morning jog due to cold weather, this past week I decided to put on my running shoes once again. The first morning out, it was cold and the streets were empty except for a few men in berets coming to buy their morning baguettes. I was panting and struggling due to the fact that I have gotten a bit of out of shape during the winter months. I was just trying to put one foot in front of the other. Suddenly I looked up and saw a rather large French woman, still…
God Bless America: A Response to Secularism in France
I expected France to more like America than it is. Both are Western countries, both have democratic governments and both are committed to religious freedom. So, I assumed that the manifestation of my faith here in France would be more-or-less identical to the expression of my faith in America. As it turns out my presuppositions were wrong. Is Religious Expression…Illegal? We have slowly learned that the “separation between Church in State” in France does not mean what I am used to it meaning. In the States the government seeks to remains “neutral” while allowing all adherents to practice their religion…
7 Tips for Americans Visiting France
by DaveWe have been in France now for 11 months and I feel like that is long enough to begin to dispense some advice for our American friends. We are certainly not French culture experts, but here are 7 things that might be helpful if you decide to visit (or move to) France:— 1. Prepare Yourself to Feel Like a Giant We are pretty used to it by now, but when we first moved to France it was shocking how much smaller everything was. The people are smaller, the cars are smaller, the food portions are smaller, the refrigerators are…
3 Ways to Pray for your (Usually Discouraged) Missionaries in Language School
By Stacey Do you have any friends that are going through language school for missions? Let me give you some insight into what is going on in their heads. (reading) “How are they to hear without someone preaching?…How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10:14-15).(thinking) How in the world am I ever going to preach in this language?! And how beautiful are my feet if my mouth is incapable of communicating the Gospel?! We (missionaries) used to flip to Romans 10 to inspire ourselves during the long season of support-raising. These days we eye…
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