Why France?

We’re often asked “why France” or “why can’t you do mission work in Atlanta”? So we decided to summarize the reasons and share a little of the journey with you.   I think you will all agree that there are unmet needs around the world, including Atlanta and Paris.  When asked, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'”(Matt 22:36-37)  This is Jesus telling us that we are to serve our fellow man, and through helping those in need, we show our love to Jesus by obeying these commandments.  While here in Atlanta, we are serving others at a local transitional housing home for previously homeless men.  I (Benjamin) teach computer classes to the men, giving them the basic technical skills that the current job market requires (i.e. MS Word & Excel, resume creation, internet, etc.) We also host frequent lunches for our Sunday school class, teach Sunday school, lead a men’s Bible study, and provide computer consulting to friends and church staff.   But Atlanta is not alone in her need – Paris and her suburbs are in pain right now.  If you do a search in Google on “Homeless in Paris”, you will quickly realize that Paris shares the homeless problem, and it is getting very bad there.  They call them “sans domicile fixe” (SDF) or, “without fixed home”, and there is a very public outcry begging people to help them there.  And racism?  White-Black-Hispanic relations in the U.S. may not be much improved, but the French-Islam racism problem is epic.  There is a presidential election race in France right now which hinges on one singular topic – one candidate wants to embrace the immigrants (mostly Islamic) and integrate them into society.  The other candidate wants to crack down and kick out as many as possible.  Either way, it reflects that there is a huge population schism in France right now, and that became more than evident in the recent riots that were triggered by race-related problems.   So if both Atlanta AND Paris are in great need for us to practice Jesus’ commandments, why not just stay at home in Atlanta where it won’t costs $7000/month?  In Acts 1:8, Jesus goes on to say, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  At that time, the first missionaries were created and the 12 apostles went out into the world preaching the Good News that Jesus had come to release them from their sins.  The apostles taught their disciples to spread the news, and those students went out to other parts of the world – and now we have Christianity everywhere!  Here in Atlanta, we have a church on practically every block, Christian book stores in every strip mall, and all the television, radio, and print media you could hope for.  But we have been to France and seen their situation – we have talked with the people, and heard their stories.  Due to many historical reasons (the politicizing of the Catholic church being one), the French have turned their back on Christianity, and have forgotten what the original message was.  We even recently had a letter forwarded to us by our church here in Atlanta – a young woman in France was begging our pastor to send missionaries to France, because she felt that everyone had lost their way, lost their hope, and lost their connection to their Creator.  The letter was in French, but as I translated it for my pastor, it brought tears to my eyes – never has anyone written to beg for more teachers in Atlanta.  How could I refuse such a heartfelt plea for assistance in sharing the joy that Jesus has put in my heart? Jesus called us to minister not just to our own towns, but also to the “ends of the earth”.  Sure, Atlanta needs help right now, but so does Paris.  Besides – I am but one man, and if I go on my own power, I will accomplish very little.  But if I go where God wants me to go, and do what he guides me to do, then I know great things can happen.   The short answer to why we are going is, “God has made it clear he wants us to go to France”, and that is truly the best answer.  Since I was a child, I have had a love for France – and I am not talking about the touristy things here, either.  I love the language, and studied it for five years – my default singing-in-the-shower-song is the French national anthem.  We had French missionaries stay in our home on many occasions.  We had French foreign exchange students live with us.  I always thought it strange that here in the Hispanic-influenced South, I have a passion and knowledge of the French language and culture!  If I were to choose a country to go and serve, it most certainly would have been France.   But I didn’t choose it.   You see, I never intended to be a foreign worker.  I know, I know – I just got done telling you about how as Christians, we are to take the Good News to the ends of the earth, but I thought that as long as SOMEONE was doing it, that was good enough.  Then I took a trip to Brjansk Russia, and my eyes were opened – I realized that not all of the world was like Atlanta.  The rest of the world did not have many people to teach them from the Scriptures.  They did not have someone to demonstrate what it was like to live a holy life.  The workers were few in the world, but the harvest was ripe.  I could see in their eyes (and later in the eyes of the French) that they desperately understood that they had a purpose, but they could not understand it.  If they participated in a church, they were beaten down by how they just needed to TRY HARDER to be good, when in their hearts they knew that they could never be perfect.  I have experienced how their hearts leap for joy when they realize that it is not their own works that save them, but the price paid by Jesus – a simple message, but one that has been lost over the centuries in many parts of the world.  The problem was, there just were not many followers of Christ out there bringing the message!  They needed people – ANYONE – who loved the Lord, to help spread the Good News.  It was then that I realized that while the US still needed help, there was a huge void in the world that was crying for help.   Even still, while I saw the need in the world, I let myself get distracted by all that life offers, and eventually I was able to forget that there was darkness out there in the world, waiting for someone to shine a candle.  I eventually got a good job, married a wonderful woman, Amanda, and we started thinking about children.  But we wanted to raise them with an understanding of what it means to follow the instructions of Jesus, so we prayed this prayer: “Jesus, please bring into our lives opportunities for service, so that we may live our lives with that as our focus, so that our children may see that we trust and obey you.  Lord, whatever it is you make clear for us to do, we will do it, no matter what the apparent cost to us.”   Exactly a week later, Amanda received a call from her sister, Abigail.  Abigail and her husband had just returned from a trip in Europe, where they had been searching for opportunities to serve there – they had just graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary, and desired to work with the Muslim people and serve them as Jesus had commanded them.  Abigail had always been the missionary of the family, and Amanda was the business woman (marketing).  Their paths had never crossed in this way before, and Amanda had never mentioned to Abigail that we were looking for opportunities to serve.  That is what made Abigail’s telephone call so amazing.  You see, after the two sisters caught up on all the details of Abigail’s trip, as sisters do, Abigail offhandedly mentioned that during a prayer time in Europe, she and her husband prayed for guidance on which country they should settle in.  They both realized after their prayer that while God didn’t show them a country, He somehow impressed on their hearts to talk to Amanda and I and ask if we would consider joining them wherever they ended up.  Amanda told me about this and we both realized that we had just prayed for this!  We immediately called Abigail back and shared with them our prayer the previous week.  We said, “We prayed for an opportunity, and if we are waiting for something more than a personal invitation, we will be waiting a long time!  We don’t know where you are going, but we will go with you until God stops us along the way!”   It was then that they shared that they had settled on three countries, with France being one of them due to the large Muslim population there.  Together we researched all three countries (the other two were Slovenia and Albania), but it was immediately clear to me that France was exactly where God had been guiding me my entire life up to that point.  It all came together – my proficiency for the French language, my internal desire for foreign missions, and now a personal invitation!  We selected France, and God has not slowed us since then – in fact, we have been raising our support at a faster rate than our organization, WorldVenture, anticipated that we would!  Dozens of other individuals and churches who share our desire to serve the rest of the world have joined us, and we now have a large team of people guiding us, supporting us, equipping us, and praying for us.  Our supporters believe that $7000/month is not too much to pay to send the message of eternal life to France.  And $7000 won’t even feel like much to us once we are there – the euro exchange rate knocks that down to $4900 right off the bat. And of that $4900, only around $2500 is our personal salary to live off of – the rest has to go towards supporting our ministry work such as computers, facility rental, materials, etc.  Basically the cost of running a small business, but without the profit! (well – financial profit, anyways – we hope it will be very “profitable” in the lives of those we reach!)   Does Atlanta need help?  Sure – but it seems God has other people in mind for Atlanta right now.  For my family, we will go and do whatever the Lord leads us, and right now that is very clearly France.  "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15 If you have any additional questions about why we are going to France, please don’t hesitate to ask. Thank you!

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