| I really like the December/January season because I find the change of seasons fascinating, exciting, and full of hope. I really encourage you (it's not too late!) to take stock of 2009 (perhaps the last decade!?) and to read what various prophetic voices are saying about the new year and the new decade. I believe that God does reveal new direction at milestones like the change of years and decades. I believe there is life and grace imparted in aligning with what He says...what He says to the Church at large and what He says to you individually. (ok, end of sermon ;-) ) I wanted to get this out on Monday (....oops...didn't quite make it. ;-) ) because I have the strong impression that so much has actually been established with the passing of January. It's as if December and January together make up the "hinge" between the seasons and that February is the beginning of the new season. So, February 1st began on a Monday. In the work world (and, notably, in the European mindset), Monday is the first day of the week. So for me, on Monday, we began a new day, week, month, year and decade all at once. So...did you feel it? 8-O My times of reflection during the past two months regarding 2009 have been very revelatory for me. I've become partially re-acquainted with the world of "work-for-pay" in this past year and I'm not entirely enamored with what I've experienced. I'm still sorting out all my conclusions, but I feel that my "technology focus" has gotten me out of balance recently and that relationships have suffered. This is obviously not the goal! I still don't know all the adjustments that I need to make, but I feel like I've re-aligned my direction in my thoughts at least to walk in closer step from here on out with the Body of Christ locally here and the outworking of the Kingdom that He's called us collectively to. My "work-for-pay" activities need to take a back seat to this priority. In past updates we've mentioned from time-to-time the longer-term visions of the church and Christian school that we work with here. Notably, on Sunday and Monday this week, two important meetings took place that bring focus on these visions at this time and the next steps before us. - On the church-front , our new "cultural association" Caleb, is moving forward on the project to buy and renovate the building we're currently renting to make it a multi-purpose facility for touching the community with diverse ministries and social programs, and for incubating small businesses. (In France churches can only legally "hold services." Anything they want to do outside of that must be done under a separate organizational umbrella - yeah, it makes my head spin too!) Additionally (try to follow me here!), our current landlord has made an offer on a large, ground-floor vacant warehouse in the same complex and it may become the expansion of the clothing and food bank ministry. The whole region used to be a major textile industry center and some of the older buildings in the complex where our church is situated were part of it. For example, it appears that our current church building may have been involved in coloring/dyeing thread and fabric (pretty cool when we consider the decidedly creative bent of our church!). The street that winds around in the complex of buildings and which gives us our address is called "Rue du Tissage". "Tissage" translates into "weaving" and has spoken to us as a group about being woven or knit together as a people. The image that comes to me might be that of a Scottish Tartan, but really, any image that indicates the beauty and strength of diverse individual threads being woven together to create a beautiful fabric expresses well what I believe God is doing here among us right now. So we've decided to name the physical location that is being developed, "Maison du Tissage" which translates, "House of Weaving". It is an audacious undertaking that requires a collective faith, a collective action and a collective anointing and blessing. I'm excited to be a part of it and to watch God work as it unfolds. It may help visually-oriented folks to take a look at this google map of our little world to understand where all this is situated.
- On the school-front , there are several significant thrusts. The high-school that opened this year with a sophomore class of 7 students must soon decide if and how the next year can be added. There is an increased specialization in the junior year in France that would require a huge increase in resources should we offer an array of options. If we don't offer an array of options, we automatically reduce the number of students for which the school could be an option (including several of the sophomores from this year). It is an interesting dilemma for which God alone seems to know the solution at the moment. There are still facility renovations in progress that also affect these decisions. Part of the dilemma involves finding enough teachers available to teach the increasingly specialized subjects (typically on a part-time basis). In the past, our school conducted an extended training program to raise up a generation of Christian educators in the French-speaking world. This training has not taken place for many years, but now there is currently a project to re-establish it. As a precursor to this training and a fundamental building block to this "diverse fabric" that the Lord is establishing here, there is also project to start a language school with the first class starting this fall. This would be only the 3rd Christian language school in France. This school will be distinguished from the others in a couple of ways. The other two language schools primarily (though not exclusively) serve the evangelical missions community to send English speakers into traditional missionary roles in 3rd-world French-speaking locations. They do this very well and I bless their important contribution to the advancement of the Kingdom. Our desire is more to help the Body of Christ to be positioned in the geography to which the Spirit is leading them, whether that be Mexicans in France or French people in Germany, etc. So this will be a multi-directional language school where we hope to have different nations and generations learning different languages to facilitate the Body of Christ working together across national, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. These training programs are part of the specific calling of this region and are also critical building blocks for the future of what God wants to do here.
So with this you can probably anticipate some of the prayer requests! |