| This month's prayer bulletin will be a departure from the same-ol'-same-ol'...and will probably be a bit long. My apologies in advance...;-) If you were able to fluently read "native cat" in Gumdrop's recent newsletter, you'll understand that on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 (hold on to that date), we received 10-year residence permits in France, that give us the right to work. My limited hyperbolic vocabulary restricts my ability to do justice to the significance of that in our life...as we view it...and I believe that our understanding is still quite limited compared to what God sees as the significance. I'll try anyway! :-o - As of the end of April, it will be 10 years that we've been on a country-to-country (Germany, USA, Scotland, France) hop-skip-and-jump with many a visit to various immigration offices in all those countries...always pursuing the next step that we believed that the Lord was putting in front of us...many a form filled out...many a photo booth visited for ID photos!
- Since arriving in our present location in Soultz in July of 2004, we've had the strong impression of finally "arriving" at our geographic destination. We have felt "at home" here like no place else. We've owned our home outright from day 1 here. Unfortunately, our residence permits still let out the muffled screams locked up in our wallets, "VISITOR!!!"
- This has meant annual visits to the mayor's office to humbly request the permission to stay another year in our "home."
- This has meant creating a pretty nice pile of paperwork for our family to justify why we should be able to stay. As we don't really fit into any of their immigration "boxes", we never had the feeling that we'd actually fully met all their requirements, so when the next 1-year residence permit came after a 2-month bureaucratic wait, there was a real sense of relief (at least for me) that we could relax for another year and get on with life.
- Several attempts to de-cipher the immigration labyrinth to determine ways in which we could have long-term residence status in France were attempted. Many people tried to help us navigate the bureaucracy to request via this route or that a change in how France viewed us. Every request was refused. We seemed destined to be perpetual visitors! ;-)
That's a bit of the background of "human frustration" that we've experienced cyclically with respect to this issue. Of course the dynamics are complex: my own fears/anxieties/weak faith, our adversary's jabs and lies, the Lord's patient and loving plans to work both through and in us, etc. While immigration stability is one aspect of all of this, another is the right to work. Here's some of the context from that perspective: - In recent years, a message has been growing in the Body of Christ that the Lord is "deconstructing" (demolishing?) many of the "Churchianity" constructs that are so prevalent in the Western expressions of His Church. Notable in this is an increased understanding of Genesis 1:28 as it relates to all engagement in Creation, not just within the 4 walls of our church facility...not simply in our Christian gatherings. There is a redemption of work itself, not only as a mission/harvest field where we can witness to our co-workers, but an understanding of how the Lord wants to redeem the actual activities; bless them; make them fruitful; multiply them; etc.
- So for the last several years, I've been praying into this and asking God for clarity about "working" and "full-time ministry"...all without the right to work in France. Go figure! Confusing to say the least, but I've had a growing conviction that there is something in all of this for me...so much so that I had the conviction that something had to start somehow in 2009 with respect to an entrepreneurial endeavor...and had been praying along those lines.
- Add to that the simple wisdom to have diversified income streams, the financial times in which we live, a house that needs some big-ticket renovation, etc.
- In France, one can't even do simple odd-jobs like babysitting legally without the government being involved...and that's for French natives! 8-O
- With some unexpected large gifts in January, I invested in some IT equipment that would facilitate computer repair activities.
- I have a growing conviction as well that anything that I do work-wise needs to have relational and discipleship components to it. This is a huge challenge for me...but exciting at the same time.
While we've been battling in prayer for this breakthrough for a long time, we can see beautifully crafted timing as well: - First of all, there is the acquisition of a 10-year residence permit on the 10-year mark of our odyssey. While Biblical number symbolism has a good sprinkling of flakiness and variability out there, there is some real significance to the number 10. I found a very good resume here: http://vic.australis.com.au/hazz/number010.html.
- The ladies in the local mayor's office who deal with all of us "aliens" (we're good buddies by now!) suggested that this year we simply ask for a 10-year residence permit...no other justification really than "enough's enough already!" Other than passage of time, nothing in our situation had really changed.
- Then there is the issue of the bureaucracy surrounding employment and entrepreneurship in France. Starting one's own business in France, even for the French, has been an exercise in frustration and largely failure for some time. In the States, one can pretty much "hang out the shingle" and your ability to figure out a Schedule C is all you need from the standpoint of being official and legal. In France, one must establish all that up front and the cost in taxes...some regardless of revenue...was very high.
- On January 1, 2009 a new form of "sole proprietorship" came into being in France. This is a greatly streamlined process to allow one to legally receive payment for services rendered and pay-as-you-go your taxes on a percentage of that revenue. Interesting timing...hmmm.
- On February 19, 2009 (you kept that date didn't you?), certain provisions of that sole proprietorship came on-line for the general category of work that we can do here: IT, language teaching, instrument teaching, translation work, etc. Wow.
This is clearly a new season for us. I've seen that the "summit" for which we've been praying, wrestling, and to which we've been climbing has very rapidly become a foundation under our feet upon which we see God desiring to build. Walking through this now wide-open gate has energized us to contend now for the fullness of this blessing...to not simply earn a few extra bucks to fill the financial gaps. No, I really see the need to redeem this space in our lives for God's Kingdom; to be relational with others and with Him as we work; to receive so that we can give; to disciple young people in what we know how to do; to open doors in music, worship, English language, technology, communication, etc. for others around us; to persevere in learning how to manifest God's presence in all these activities; to persevere in healthy use of time to cultivate family relationships and sabbath rest; to understand even more our Heavenly Father's supply and our need for each other as someone hands us 10 euros for a guitar lesson. Happy to let you pray as you wish or simply to rejoice with us!
David |