OF MOZART AND MANGOES

“…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”Philippians 4:8

Dear friends,                                                                                                                                                                                        

       While a student at seminary, I remember reading somewhere that the famous 2oth century Swiss theologian Karl Barth once referred to the above verse (perhaps tongue-in-cheek) as evidence that God must certainly approve of the music of Mozart.  Though I tend to agree with Barth on that, the anecdote surely says more about aesthetics than theology.    Likewise Aline is convinced that heaven’s sound system will surely include—in addition to Handel’s “Messiah”—a number of Mozart’s arias sung by Maria Callas or Barbara Hendricks.  Indeed, how many have been elevated to the heights of aesthetic ecstasy through such sublime sounds?  I’m reminded of Christine M., an old agnostic friend in Paris who once confessed to me:  “If there is a God, He’s the God of Bach as I hear his voice in the music.”  Surely she was on the right track…  

           Paul wrote that “God’s invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived…in the things that have been made…” (Rom. 1:20). Having said that, not everyone is equally sensitive to the different sensorial evidences of God’s goodness and greatness.  Some, with more visual sensitivity, see His awesome grandeur in the overwhelming beauty of the heavens.  Have you seen the recent photos from the newly refurbished Hubble telescope?  They leave one aghast and breathtakingly aware, like the psalmist, of how the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament his handiwork (Ps.19:1).                                        

        We’re attempting to exploit this angle of the visual wonders of creation (both microscopic and macroscopic) showing a series of apologetic films (on creationism, in French) to a mostly Haitian audience on Saturday nights at Coral Ridge PCA.  Attendance has been enthusiastic.  None of the folks in attendance have ever been exposed to any creationist instruction, especially in French, necessary for teaching the older ones whose often minimal schooling was done in that language.  Even their pastors, with their limited and often pre-enlightenment education, are generally clueless, alas, about the Darwinian theory now presented to their children in American high schools as scientific fact and wreaking havoc with their erstwhile evangelical faith.  A Haitian pastor who phoned me after hearing a Haitian radio announcement for our program, urged me to speak about the issues with his youth group.   Pray that their faith would be strengthened as they consider the cosmic wonders of His universe, the “theatre of His glory,” in Calvin’s words.

        Getting back to the subject of man’s sensorial sensitivity to God:  others—more Frenchmen than Americans I think—taste the presence of God through their palates. Indeed, as a student in Paris, I remember reading works of 16^th century French poets who waxed lyrical about fruits and vegetables, with ecstatic literary reflections on the marvels of a melon!  One even wrote an “Ode to a cantaloupe…” “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” is surely a good verse for evangelism amongst the French.  

Then there are other well-know sensorial delights which speak of the Lord’s goodness. What husband hasn’t been taken to the heights of earthly transcendence in the arms of his spouse, a vision of total delight, yea a preview of paradise (cf. “Song of Songs”).  In every case, the beauties of things we experience with our senses (hearing, sight, taste, smell etc.) should lead us to see the glory of the Lord who created them all and provide us with a foretaste of the goodness He has in store for His elect.  

     Though I personally tend to gravitate towards the visual evidences of the Lord’s grandeur (those photos from the Hubble telescope!), Aline and I grew again this summer in the olfactory and gustatory appreciation of His munificence through the “ministry” of our backyard mango tree which produced a bumper crop of that succulent fruit—surely one of the finer things the Lord has put upon our planet.     For those of you in climates unsuitable to that tropical delight, know that it’s one of the few things we can grow here in the sandy soil of S. Florida and, like most fruit, has nothing to do with the insipid store-bought version from your local supermarket picked long before it was ripe.  

         After all these years, I have finally understood what an old Dutch hippie (“wise old Art” cf. Discovery on the Katmandu Trail)  was telling me back in 1973 in Goa, India when I announced to the old sage of the of “Chopra beach” in early February, that I planned to leave India to go trekking in Nepal.  “What? You would leave India before the mango season”! he exclaimed incredulously. “Are you mad?”  I had much to learn.  Here I was searching for the meaning of life, and he’s telling me about some fruit in which he’d apparently found his own little transcendence.  At the time, it seemed ridiculous to me.  Our recent experience with mangoes has taught us otherwise.  Taste indeed, and see, that the Lord is good.  

In His service,

 PRAISE: 1- For the way the Lord is opening doors for us, providing numerous opportunities in the S. Florida Haitian community to contribute to the edification of this largely uneducated people which includes many believers. We’ve been given over an hour and a half/week of free air time, by the station director (a student in our Bible school) who interviews me each Sunday afternoon on a variety of  predetermined subjects (evolutionism, Islam, the Jews, UFO’s, faith vs. the law, etc.)                                                                                                                                                                       

  2-For a new contract with “Radio Floride” making possible, again, the evangelization of the Quebecois snow birds etc. starting in November. Thanks to those of you who make this effort possible!                                                 

3- For the start of a new academic year at the ever-struggling Haitian Bible school where I continue to teach twice/week.

PRAY: 1- For the spiritual and professional welfare of our older son Calix, down and out in Marseille; Justin, teaching fourth grade in the Dominican Republic; and Anaïs, working and studying in Los Angeles. 

2-For our next teaching trip to St. Martin Oct.3-10 and the future of our programs in the French West Indies. 

3-For the Lord’s provision for new support. We’ve lost three supporting churches and as many individuals this past year.                                                                                                            

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  “Who has believed what they heard from us?”  Isaiah 53:1

Dear friends,

            We travelled to France once again this summer to fill-in for a vacationing pastor colleague, presiding at worship (four Sundays), preaching,  and visiting some the church folk including some old friends.   It was mostly enjoyable (though we did get robbed—a rucksack with some papers etc.), due in part to the delightful summer weather and the fact that things run at a refreshingly slower pace in France in August when fully half the country closes down for the annual month of vacation.

       As in the past, our stay in the Marseille area included a lot of late nights around the table with friends and acquaintances and lengthy discussions on various subjects.  Indeed, if there’s one element of French culture that should favor the advancement of the gospel, it’s these prolonged mealtimes when the blood sugar is high, the mood is relaxed, and the minds are running freely.  It’s an opportunity to be seized!   Curiously someone calculated that around 65% of Jesus’ words as recorded in the gospels were pronounced in the context of a meal; either just before, during, or after.  Surely the Lord would approve of the French gastronomical tradition.     

       We were slightly dismayed, but hardly surprised, to see the spiritual temperature in France—in contrast with the dry daytime heat of Provence—still hovering around the arctic level.  Most evangelical assemblies plod along with the same handful of folks from year to year with few new additions and little vision or zeal for evangelism.  One might think that most French Christians, with regards to the gospel, have not really appreciated what’s at stake.  In fact, many are frustrated—as we were—by the horrendous indifference of the majority of their compatriots to the questions of eternal life. Eventually, even the most stalwart believer tends to shrug his shoulders in dismay

        We had a vivid reminder of that callous indifference shortly after our arrival as we helped MTW missionary Pete Mitchell move into a new office at the Luminy university campus just outside of Marseille.   As we unloaded some cartons from the moving van, a twenty-year-old woman standing by the door of the office complex casually inquired as to which new business was moving in.   I replied that it was the ‘Reformed evangelical church of South Marseille’ and attempted to hand her a handy copy (I usually keep one in my pocket) of ‘l’évangile selon Jean” with a friendly word of exhortation to read it.  She reacted as if I had the plague and rapidly withdrew her hand.

[ “La religion ne m’intéresse pas du tout !”  (Religion doesn’t interest me at all!)  she exclaimed coldly.                                  “OK, forget about the Church,” I pursued.  “What do you think of Jesus as a historical character? Who was he?”                                                                                                                                                                                     “Je n’en sais rien et je ne veux rien savoir” (I don’t know anything nor do I care to know) was her parting reply.  

One never sees that kind of reaction amongst the Antilleans of S. Florida or the islands who usually fear God even if their theology is often less than rigorously biblical.]

  In addition to the usual visits in Marseille, we organized three “pizza/cinema” nights at the ecumenical chapel showing some edifying films (including Frank Capra’s 1946 classic “It’s a Wonderful life”) followed by discussions.  The fifteen or so folks (average attendance) included a few church-goers and some non-believing acquaintances.  Coincidentally, one had asked me shortly before about the Bible’s teaching on angels, of all subjects.  Hopefully “Clarence” (the angel in the Capra film) didn’t leave a negative impression, Hollywood theology notwithstanding.

    On our last night in France (Aug. 17), I did a conference (on “Creationism vs. Evolutionism”) at an evangelical gathering organized by Aline’s brother Pascal (a pastor in a fledgling Evangelical Methodist assembly) about 100 miles west of Marseille.  Once again, attendance was less than one might have hoped, but one learns to work with small numbers in French evangelical circles.                  

     Finally, a highlight of our time in Marseille was a couple of visits with David P., the 16 year-old son of a dear Christian couple who is dying of an inoperable brain tumor.  David’s is an amazing case of the Lord using the weak to confound the strong.  For several months, a steady stream of visitors has come to the family’s tenth floor apartment to see David.  Clearly the Lord has been using him for the advancement of His Kingdom, even as the inoperable tumor growing around his brain stem has gradually reduced his corporal functions.  Arriving at a point where he was no longer able to speak, David could only communicate by faintly squeezing the hand of his visitors to acknowledge the correct letters as they laboriously spell out what he would say.  David asked one visitor (his French professor) if he were ready to meet his Maker. When the professor claimed to be an atheist, David spelled out:  “You fool.”  His serenity through this whole ordeal has been inspiring to many. 

     Back in S. Florida, we’ll be showing (in French, for the Haitian community) the excellent apologetic series “Origins” by the late Dr. A.E. Wilder-Smith.   We’re grateful for the enthusiasm of a couple of key Haitian students including Moïse J. and Lesly J., the director of the largest Haitian radio station in S. Florida (with a potential audience of ½ million) who is  giving us precious air-time to publicize our efforts—an answer to prayer.   We’re also preparing for the next series of classes (on the book of Revelations) in St. Martin (Oct.3-10) and the start of a new academic year in the ever-struggling Haitian Bible school with our longsuffering colleague Rev. Jean Petit.  Thanks for your prayers for all these concerns!

In His service,                                                                                                                                                                               

Marc (email: MMailloux50@comcast.net;

(blog:www.marcmailloux.wordpress.com)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Praise:  

1-For a blessed journey with multiple opportunities to share the Word in France. 

 2-For signs of progress in our son Calix: in Marseille; still without a full-time job but asking himself more questions, spiritually.  He was reading Dr. Kennedy’s book Why I believe as we left him. 

  3- For the Lord’s amazing use of David P. in Marseille.                                                                                                                                  Prayer:      

1-For the continued work of the Spirit on Calix.

  2-For the projection of the “Origins” series Sept.12, 19, 26 at Coral Ridge PCA

 3-For the welfare of son Justin who has taken a teaching job in difficult conditions in the town of Cabrera on the north coast of  the Dominican Republic.                                                                                                                                                4- For David P. and his family (parents and two sisters).                                                                                                            5- For administrative help (a tri-lingual secretary) for our fledgling Haitian Bible school.

“My grace is sufficient is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  II Cor.12:9                           JUNE 2009

Dear friends,

        It was an inauspicious beginning to a long (32-hour) trip including flights from Ft. Lauderdale to N.Y., N.Y. to Paris, and finally Paris to Lomé, Togo, where I arrived exhausted and envious of people who can sleep on airplanes.  Salomon, the Togolese program coordinator for the ITAO (“Institut Théologique d’Afrique de l’Ouest” or ITAO) and Moses, a church-planter from nearby Ghana, met me at the airport and drove me to the hotel “Minba la Licorne”  where I’d be staying.  I went right up to the room hoping to get some badly needed rest but instead was overcome with an allergic reaction to something in the room resulting in the asthmatic’s terror: I couldn’t breathe. In my panic I sent up a desperate, breathless prayer.    Fortunately, I had an old “Ventolin” respirator I hadn’t used in years in my toilet articles from which I took a couple of shots. It helped.  I still couldn’t sleep but at least I could breathe.  As I lie looking at the ceiling, I prayed with the premonition that my aforementioned health issue might have been an Enemy attack to discourage me before even starting what I’d come to do. I came for a week of teaching (30 projected hours of classes) for a group of 11 Togolese and 2 Ivory Coast pastors eager to study some basic principles of biblical interpretation (hermeneutics), which I would be doing thanks to copious notes mostly from the works of R.C. Sproul and Bryan Chapell, translated and adapted for the course.    

    In my jet-lagged insomnia, I watched some Togolese television which featured a number of news programs from France (Togo was a French colony until 1960), including a surprisingly evangelical Roman Catholic broadcast, and even “Al Jazeera.”  Alas, even the monotone voice of a mufti reading to the faithful the Koran in Arabic from a mosque in Jordan didn’t put me to sleep. 

  Salomon and Moses picked me up at around noon for lunch before Sunday afternoon worship. We ate African  “Djekoumé” (a pasty corn flour concoction served with a spicy sauce; an acquired taste for sure) at the teaching center a little over a mile away up the  road crammed with death-defying  motorbikes and bicycles, in addition to the usual cars and trucks. African roads are unlit at night, and the fact that many vehicles have no lights makes driving hairy.  “The drivers in Ghana are much more disciplined,” insisted Moses as he navigated ITAO’s Toyota-Previa through the sandy mostly unpaved roads.    Must be the English influence, I thought.  

       I was up early Monday. No need for an alarm clock as the roosters in the street in front of the hotel inform you promptly when the sun comes up a little before 5:00 AM.  I strolled around the already bustling neighborhood, on heavily travelled sandy paths already saturated with thousands of people going about their business, including hundreds of petty roadside merchants—men and women—selling a handful of peanuts, or a couple ears of grilled corn or whatever other sundries they carried here. Life is a hustle for most Togolese; a struggle to survive on a few cents’ profit gleaned from the rest of the mostly struggling masses.  Togo (pop. 5 million) is of course dirt poor, though I doubt many actually starve in this part of the country at least,  as the country is blessed with mango, coconut palms, and papaya trees, in addition to the bananas and corn one sees everywhere.  The spiritual diet is another thing.  

  The country is about 32% Christian (mostly Catholic), 30% Moslem, and the rest a mixture of indigenous beliefs.  The official language is French though most also speak “Ewe” as in neighboring Ghana and Benin.    The students in the ITAO program (Organized in cooperation with New Harvest Mission and Mission to the World) are a refreshing group of Reformed pastors eager to learn anything that helps them as they labor in the Lord’s Kingdom in their part of the world. A couple of them (Pastors Nestor and Siriki) flew over from Ivory Coast for the course.

            After Moses picked me up at the hotel at 6:30, we had a cup of coffee at the study center and started the day with a half-hour devotional that included joyful singing and dancing to the glory of the Savior.  Pastor Siriki, a converted Moslem, expressed his bewilderment at the comparative inflexibility of the American worship he witnessed during a recent trip to the U.S. “Whites don’t dance,” I told him.  “We didn’t get a rhythm gene; or perhaps it vanished from the gene pool somewhere along the way, along with our capacity to make melanin.”  None of the others had ever been to the US nor even continental France, so they were understandably curious about life in the Western world and dismayed at what I told them of the pathetic size of the church in Western Europe.  They all followed the course attentively, growing in appreciation for the radial nature of the Christian gospel in a legalist world, as underlined in Dr. Chapell’s Christ Centered Preaching upon which much of the teaching was based.  

    In spite of my fatigue and the extreme heat, the courses (6 hours/day) the first day of classes went surprisingly well. His strength is indeed made perfect in our weakness. Great is His faithfulness!

  The rest of the week went without incident.  We finished on Friday with an exam, after which the pastors (save the two from Ivory Coast) hurried home to their respective churches for the weekend as Dr. Tom Wright arrived from Senegal to teach the next week of classes on the Old Testament.

   As for me, it was time to be heading back to the US to prepare my lessons for both the Haitian Bible school in Florida and our students in St. Martin.  My Air France flight was supposed to leave Lomé airport on Saturday night, May 23 at 22h, but was delayed for “technical reasons” (in fact, two of the crew members were involved in an accident in Togo on the way to the airport) until 6AM.  So I spent my last night in Togo talking with Eden (a forty year old nominally protestant, French-Togolese pharmacist) about the gospel. It occurred to me, that in God’s scheme, that might be the real reason for the flight delay. In any case, by the time we got to Paris, after a long sleepless night, I’d missed my Paris-New York connection. Air France put me in an airport motel and rebooked me the next day on their nine-hour flight to Atlanta, after which another two hour flight to Ft. Lauderdale still awaited me.  It had taken me 32 hours to get to Togo and 52 hours for the trip home! That left a lot of time to read and write this letter. What I wouldn’t give to be able to sleep on a plane…                        

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Blessings,

Praise: 1-For a blessed (healthy+ useful) Togo trip. 

 2- For the Lord’s protection on my wife and son in my absence.                                             

3- For the delightful receptiveness of the African students.

Prayer:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 1-For Christian host families for French adolescents (14-18) coming to the US this summer (mid-July to mid-August). For information in the Carolinas contact Rich Wagner: francorw@aol.com 

 2- For the next series of classes in St. Martin (scheduled June 29-July 5)

  3-For the spiritual and professional welfare of our sons Calix (29) and Justin (27).

Dear friends,

           It was Rip Van Winkle revisited as we woke up in an erstwhile familiar place after a long absence.  The purpose of our recent trip to France was to investigate ministry opportunities at Sophia Antipolis, the French version of “silicon valley” in hills above Nice and Cannes.  It’s our conviction that the legions of uprooted scientists, both French and foreign, who sojourn in the area should go home with more than an enhanced appreciation of the beautiful Mediterranean countryside. 

    A few years ago, the French director of an international para-church organization, convinced of the strategic importance of the region, considered relocating in the area but couldn’t find affordable housing, so he shelved his project.  Meanwhile Drs. Royce and Susan J., a couple of retired  ophthalmologists from Arkansas, caught the vision and now share the gospel here with a growing list of mostly English-speaking contacts from the international community. The question is whether we should forsake our work in S. Florida and the Caribbean to join them?  Is this a providential opportunity or, as a friend suggested, a satanic ploy to take us away from the ministry with the more receptive French-speaking Antilleans of the Caribbean? That was the question we hoped our trip here would answer.

 It was fun being an ‘innocent abroad’ again, and I resolved to note right away contrasting cultural impressions which diminish rapidly as one becomes too familiar—like a fish in water—with his new environment.

Claustrophobia hit us as soon as we stepped off the plane in Nice:  so many people in so little space.  There’s no place to maneuver anything bigger than a Vespa, and our hotel room was roughly the size of an American’s wardrobe closet. But a month ago we were in Haiti where even running water and electricity are luxuries.  It’s all relative.  

 Expensive was a second impression: the equivalent of $5.50 for a small glass of OJ; and almost $7. for a gallon of gasoline.  Ouch.  Worse still are housing prices which are on a par with those of New York City.  If the Master of the Harvest wants us here, there will be significant logistical obstacles to overcome starting with new support-raising, which one looks forward to about as much as root canal work.  Still, is there anything too difficult for the Lord?

It’s Sunday 7:00 AM and I’m writing this from the café across from our hotel while Aline catches a few winks of sleep undisturbed by her husband’s nocturnal snoring.   I remember why I always preferred Sunday mornings in France.  The tranquility of our normally congested street is disturbed only by the occasional passing car and devoted Sunday morning bicyclists. Today’s “Nice Matin” (the regional newspaper) has a feature story on Lance Armstrong who’s training in the region for this summer’s Tour de France.  No one his age (almost 38) has ever won cycling’s most prestigious race.  Can he do it?  All of us over 40 are rooting for him.

More revealing than the depressing headlines in today’s paper are the forlorn looks on the faces of the few locals in the café as they puff on their ubiquitous cigarettes and sip their morning espresso.  To say that there’s not much joy of salvation here is a gross understatement.  Jay Leno once quipped that all seven of the dwarfs at Disneyland France are named “Grumpy”.

The morning’s headlines include the death (from lung cancer) of a noted French singer (Alain Bashung) who only a fortnight ago received several coveted music awards for his work.  I wonder what those awards are worth to him now?  “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity, says the preacher.”

Others, including our own son Calix—just two hours away in Marseille—seem more concerned by the immediate fate of their favorite soccer team than their eternal destiny.  Tonight (March 15) is a big game with the “Paris Saint Germain” team hosting the “Olympic de Marseille”—roughly the equivalent of a Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, with even more potential for violent confrontations between the two rival’s fanatic supporters.  2500 additional Parisian police have been called to cover the match, which constitutes a major distraction for a nation of millions of disgruntled welfare recipients.  Government allocations and soccer are the modern equivalents of bread and circuses, drugs of the decadent Roman Empire.

   10AM:  There’s not a single Reformed Evangelical church in the entire ‘Cote d’Azur’ region (almost three million people!); neither could I find any Christian radio station on as I lie awake in the wee hours due to jet-lagged insomnia.  So we head off to worship at the “Eglise Evangélique Libre” (a congregation of a denomination formed in 1838 after a split from the liberal Reformed Church of France) near Cannes.    The church (which meets in a building provided by the foresight of its 19^th century Scottish founders we’re told) is a friendly group of around 75 believers of diverse ages and sociological backgrounds.  The worship service was a well-balanced blend of traditional hymns and modern instrumentation with forty year old pastor Pierre playing the guitar.  Aline and I went away encouraged but nevertheless convinced that the preacher would benefit from Dr.  Bryan Chapell’s homiletics lectures we’ve been listening to via Covenant Seminary’s website.  Christ-centered preaching such as one hears in many Reformed churches in the U.S. is virtually non-existent in France.  A subsequent visit with the pastor revealed that his understanding of the Scriptures has been tainted, alas, by his evolutionist beliefs.

Sunday afternoon we did a bit of tourism, making the short drive up to nearby town of Grasse to visit the French perfume capital.  We learned from Vanessa, the vivacious 25 year old “Fragonnard” museum guide, that it takes 3.5 tons of rose petals to make one liter of perfume essence.  I couldn’t help but see the parallel between the manufacture of perfume and the making of disciples in France: both labor-intensive activities with the goal of producing a rare sweet fragrance.

   A friendly conversation with her after the tour allowed us to share some Scriptural aromatic allusions, including the story of a prostitute’s magnanimous gesture, anointing the Savior’s head with fragrant “oil of spikenard” (Mark 14:3), and the Christians “olfactory identity” as the  ‘sweet odor of salvation’ of which Paul speaks in II Cor. 2:14.  She graciously accepted a copy of “l’évangile selon Jean” and promised to read it.

Tuesday March 17:  We made some morning calls to speak with a few local pastors about our project.  In the afternoon we boarded a small ferry boat with about twenty elderly French folk to visit the nearby St. Honorat monastery on the smaller of the two Lérins islands, a center of Christian learning since the 5^th century.   Saints Patrick, Hilaire, Césaire, Vincent and other great luminaries of the early church, all studied there.   The monastery still exists, and is inhabited by about 30 monks who earn a living producing wine and lavender and selling some of their production to the few pilgrims to the island. 

While visiting the monastery’s somber gothic chapel, we were absolutely blown away by an impromptu rendition of Gounoud’s “Ave Maria”, sung with soul-shaking reverberation (due in part to the chapel’s acoustics) by the sublime soprano voice of a visiting member of the Paris Opera.  Noble for its aesthetics aspirations, but woefully misguided in its theology—it seemed a fitting metaphor for much of what we saw in France.

   We capped off our trip with a visit to Marseille to meet with MTW church planter Pete Mitchell and our son Calix.  Our older boy’s spiritual and professional welfare continues to be our greatest earthly concern.  He’s been blessed with musical talent, better than average literary skills—he’s perfectly bilingual—and the strong-willed determination that allowed him to pass the difficult European aviation exams.  But at 28, he’s still without a job, and more importantly, still not walking with the Lord.

March 22: We spend our last Sunday with a group of folk who worship at the Anglican Church in Cannes. It’s a convivial, cosmopolitan, if not visionary group comprised of about half Brits and half others. They appear to worship the Savior with a matter-of-factness which reminds one of how much residual grace still lingers in the Anglo-Saxon world.  Lunch is at a golf course with Dr. Royce and his wife and a dozen guests who use the opportunity to plan an evangelistic outreach with some of their English-speaking golfing friends and acquaintances. My game is the more French proletariat pétanque.  But I’m told that golfing is great for teaching humility; a precondition for accepting the gospel…  That could open up some new opportunities to witness….

  As for ourselves; the jury’s still out with the decision about the future of our ministry. We welcome any feedback from our supporters. We rely on His Word, a light for our path.   We’ll  continue to seek the Lord’s will even as we prepare for next week’s radio broadcasts, the next series of courses at our Florida Bible school as well as those in St. Martin (April 20-25) and in Togo (May 17-23).   There is hardly time to get bored.

                                                                         In His service,

                                                                         Marc

email: MMailloux50@comcast.net

Dear friends,     

      It was the last day of classes at the [Haitian] Baptist mission at Fermath  (http://www.bhm.org) the cool air of the hills (4,300’)  overlooking Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  Even though our Air France flights regularly stop at Haiti’s “Toussaint L’Ouverture” airport on the way to teaching gigs in Guadeloupe and Martinique, it was Aline’s first actual visit here and my first in several years.   It was an intensive week between  preparation and four hours of lectures every day for 52 qualified students—pastors and teachers who’d come from all parts of the country—for a master’s level course on “Comparative World views.” Dr. Richard Ramsay had prepared the course in English.  I had to learn it and transmit it in French thus avoiding the students the tedium of learning through a translator.  

           They were motivated, many having travelled long hours in grueling conditions from the most distant reaches of their impoverished, Maryland-sized homeland of 8.5 million souls.  They were sharp too.  As we went over the difference between the epistemologies of Plato and Aristotle, and the implications of Immanuel Kant’s “line of despair”,    I was grateful for the analyses of the late Francis Schaeffer, and especially for the genius of R.C. Sproul’s in clarifying the arcane complexities of Kant’s thinking.  

         After a draining week of classes, Aline and I were delighted to get away from the mission compound on Friday accompanying Elsa Peterson (who heads up the mission’s child sponsorship program: bhmhati@bhm.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) for a couple of visits to sponsored children in nearby villages.  Five of us piled into a 4-wheel-drive Nissan Pathfinder for a bumpy ride over some barely navigable trails with some basic foodstuffs (rice, beans, cooking oil etc.) , for the destitute families of  couple of sponsored children:  five-year-old  Bérenice  and six-year-old Antoine.   The road along the way to their villages was littered with legions of barefoot and pregnant women of conspicuously elegant gait,  trudging up the steep muddy trails from nearby water sources with five-gallon buckets precariously balanced on their heads.  One has to walk straight and upright indeed lest his labor be for naught.  Standing out like a sore thumb amongst the hovels along the road was an opulent walled-in mansion, built with the embezzled money of a generous foreign benefactor for the construction of a badly needed road.   Alas, such corruption is all-too-common in Haiti and is manifest proof that any solution of a country’s ills—our own included—starts by the transformation of the hearts of the people.  

          The mission’s sponsorship program provides a refreshing exception to the usual graft:   100% of the $25/month sponsorship goes directly to the children’s families for food and education with no administrative deduction as the missionaries distributing the goods raise their own support.  Not only that, but the foodstuffs are purchased from local merchants stimulating the needy Haitian economy.  It’s a win-win situation that we can highly recommend.

    We finally arrived at the village of Bérenice, a five year-old waif dressed in rags and barefooted, and left to tend to her two-year-old brother as their mother was off somewhere.  When the latter arrived, Bérenice disappeared into the “house,” a one-room cinderblock shanty with a corrugated metal roof—no electricity or running water of course.  A minute later she emerged wearing a spotless white dress—no doubt her Sunday best—which she displayed proudly as we snapped a few photos.   While speaking with her mother, a thin, yet manifestly pregnant women of about 30, we penetrated slowly into the darkness of  her one-bedroom  hovel  bereft of even a window and with a muddy mattress on the middle of the floor upon which all five family members sleep.  The children all bore radiant smiles and were sincerely grateful for the aid. 

     Elsa, who’s been working in Haiti for 23 years and is clearly appreciated by the locals, expressed some frustration at the lack of response to the mission’s offer for aid in family-planning including free birth control pills for the women and vasectomies for the men. Amazingly, only a few (1%) accept the offer.  Hungry children remain Haiti’s major product.  Families of ten or more—none of them properly fed or educated—are not uncommon.  Some send their ‘surplus siblings’ to live with wealthier friends and/or relatives as “restavecs” (literally, “stay with” in Creole) or de facto slaves.  

    The deplorable situation of Haiti is all the more amazing when one considers that, at the end of the eighteenth century, this crown colony the French called “La Perle des Antilles,” out-produced the thirteen American colonies!  However as America was blessed with godly leaders like George Washington, John Adams etc., Haiti was literally consecrated to Satan worship in a notorious 1791 ceremony by a Voodoo Priest named Boukmann and since renewed by the likes of Jean-Bertrand Aristide!  Even today, voodoo remains ubiquitous and is a major obstacle to the country’s spiritual and material development.                                                                    

      We returned home more grateful than ever for the tremendous blessings the Lord has bestowed on our increasingly unworthy country, and more eager than ever to remind the half-million Haitian refugees in S. Florida of the Source of those blessings.                                         MMailloux50@comcast.net

                                                       www.MarcMailloux.wordpress.com

Praise: 1-For health and enthusiasm.

           2- For the Lord’s continued provision for our work.

           3- For the joy of returning home to a blessed country.

Praise: 1- For the spiritual welfare of our children, especially Calix (28) in Marseille, France.                                         

           2- For forthcoming mission trips including France (March 13-23); St. Martin (April 19-24); Togo (May 18-22)

         3- For wisdom for major ministry-related decisions we’ll be making soon.

               “For the promise is for you and for your children…” Acts 2:39  

Christmas '08

Dear friends,

       The Christmas holidays were punctuated by a number of visits to the Mailloux household including that of Aline’s longsuffering mother (who at 70 is raising great-grandchildren), our beloved son Calix (28) from France,  and daughter Anaïs (25) from California.

    Aline’s mom was grateful to celebrate the Savior’s birth while getting some badly needed R+R in the warmer confines of the Sunshine state, away from Western Europe where, to paraphrase C.S. Lewis,  “it’s always winter but never Christmas.”  Likewise, son Calix got himself a dose of S. Florida sunshine along with some tender loving care from those who love him unconditionally.

We left right after the holidays (Jan.4-10) for a teaching trip with our faithful group of Haitian students in St. Martin.   First of all, a word of follow-up on the plight of J. Usson (mentioned in our previous letter) who has been separated from his young wife for over three years due to bureaucratic indifference and corruption:  he spent the holidays in Haiti with his bride.  Apparently, nothing has changed yet in her immigration status but many are praying…

   At the Miami airport:  Aline and I observed an inspiring couple in front of us at the security screening going through the procedures with  two autistic twenty year-old boys in tow.  It was one of those moments in which a parent is grateful for the good health of his own children. We wondered how we would handle the particular trials of having children with these challenges? Surely, the Lord accords one the necessary grace for each situation…

We would gladly sacrifice any terrestrial blessings for the assurance of having our children (especially our prodigal elder son) with us in eternity.    As we age, creeping ever closer to Eternity, the worldly success which once seemed important pales in the shadow of the life’s overwhelming transiency.  We find ourselves thinking more like the despondent Hamlet:  “How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!”   Age and circumstances, including the periodic demise of a number of our high-school peers, illuminate with increasing clarity, the eternal truth underscored by Ecclesiastes: “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity…” 

 Providentially, our gnawing concern over the spiritual blindness of our older son (whose middle name, not coincidentally, is Augustin) was somewhat alleviated by an insightful sermon (dated Sept. 7, 2008, downloaded from the internet) on the education of covenant children by Tacoma Pastor Rob Rayburn.  Those of you with rebellious children would do well to listen to it too (coordinates below).

    Our teaching time in St. Martin was rewarding, as usual.  The 30+ students (which includes more than a half-dozen pastors and other occasional preachers) are always grateful and appreciative of our efforts.  Sometimes we’re shocked by their ignorance of even basic biblical truths and the presence of various superstitions (astrology etc.) amongst even professing believers. Other idiosyncratic beliefs are puzzling, such as that of a pastor whose church doesn’t celebrate Christmas because it replaced a pagan holiday.   Still, they remain most receptive and teachable, unlike the Quebecois or continental French.  What’s more, a French-speaking white man gets more respect than he’s earned. It’s an opportunity to seize…

Samuel, a visiting pastor from the Haitian community of nearby St. Thomas, attended the classes and pleaded with us to start a similar teaching program on that U.S. Virgin island.  We’ll have to pray about that… 

           Our radio evangelism remains a mysterious affair as one is inclined to feel like a voice crying in the wilderness… Who listens and who benefits from our efforts?  The mostly impious Quebecois, like their continental French cousins, rarely have a positive word to say.  Other reactions, like that of the cashier of a Boca Raton French bakery, are curiously revealing:

  “Je vous écoute tous les jours …” (I listen to you every day).  She added: “Je ne crois pas spécialement à la Bible, mais j’écouterais n’importe quoi en français » (I don’t especially believe in the Bible, but I’d listen to anything in French).   Behold an Israelite in whom there is no fraud.

   More encouraging has been the positive feedback from the ½ million strong S. Florida Haitian community, more receptive to the Word, even if the cultural distance that separates us is considerable.

       In January ‘09, Aline becomes a proud American citizen.  In fact, she’s surely more patriotic than 99% of our compatriots. She perceives from a foreigner’s eyes the tremendous blessings—both spiritual and material—the Lord has bequeathed on our country, even as she laments America’s determined, self-destructive efforts to squander them! For how else could we elect so many blatantly unworthy political leaders? 

She chided me about my ignorance of the U.S. constitution with some of the questions from her citizenship exam. In addition to the numerous “gimmies” (Who was the first President?  Where is the U.S. capitol?), it included identifying the four constitutional amendments (their dates and provisions) which deal with voting rights?  If you can name all four, then you’re better than I am.

     Finally, a closing tip to our readers: a little over ten years ago, I decided it just wasn’t right for me to be the sole beneficiary of my sister Andrée Seu’s unique insights and delightful writing style and mailed an essay she’d sent me to “World Magazine”.   The editors at “World” apparently agreed.  A regular contributor to that magazine, her work now blesses thousands of readers.  Alleluia.

So likewise, I’ve another tip for your edification.  For years I’ve been blessed by the preaching of a two very gifted expositors of the Word.  Dr. Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC is a master of communicating the gospel truths to a cosmopolitan audience of mostly sophisticated, albeit biblically uninstructed folk such as one finds in the Big Apple (and in France).   Some of his sermons are available at www.redeemer.com.                                                                 

         In a different style but equally edifying is the anointed preaching of Dr. Rob Rayburn of Tacoma, Wa.  For over twenty years I’ve been listening to his sermons (via cassette tape, and now the internet www.faithtacoma.org) of exceptional depth, insight, erudition, and eloquence which have regularly made my heart burn within me.    In fact I now download the sermons of both of these brothers (onto my MP3 player) and listen to them on my morning bicycle rides.  Once again, I feel compelled to share this information that as many as possible might benefit. Why deprive yourself?

Sincerely,

 Marc

Email: Mmailloux50@comcast.net

November 08

“Run in such a way as to get the prize.” I Corinthians 9:24

Dear friends,

Jean-Usson is one of the group of 20-25 faithful Haitian students of our teaching program on the Caribbean isle of St. Martin. Thirty years old, a strapping 6’2” with a quiet demeanor and gentle spirit, he works in construction for one of the many companies building condos and hotels on the French/Dutch island largely devoted to tourism. He’s also an avid student of the Word. In the six years since our program started, he’s rarely missed a class. Save for the Church, he has no family in St. Martin where work and the church are his whole life. About three years ago, he went back to Haiti to marry Rose-Marie, a young woman with whom he’d been corresponding. After spending only a week together, the groom had to return to work in St. Martin where he started the paperwork for his new wife’s visa so she could join him there.

It’s been over three years, and it has cost Jean-Usson thousands of hard-earned dollars, but as of this writing, corrupt Haitian officials continue extorting money from this longsuffering brother without producing the necessary documents for his wife’s visa. Naturally, he’s a bit discouraged. Jean-Usson is a powerless victim of this all-too-common form extortion by his own compatriots. It grieves us to see our brother victimized this way. We told him we’d pray for his situation and we ask that you join us in interceding for him…

In more frivolous matters, our return from St. Martin coincided with the major league baseball playoffs with the venerable Boston Red Sox pitted against the upstart Tampa Bay Rays. Normally a devoted Boston fan, I wasn’t disappointed when the heretofore lowly Rays (perennial last place finishers in their division) eliminated the mighty Bosox who were defending their 2007 World Series title. For it was a case of David vs. Goliath between the team (Boston) with the second highest payroll against the Rays with the second lowest. The underdogs came out ahead, thus vindicating the saying that the “race is not necessarily to the swiftest”— or the richest. Beyond that, one can’t but help admire the exceptional motivational skills of Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon, able to coax the best possible performance (World Series collapse notwithstanding) from his erstwhile underachieving players who have the unprecedented distinction of going from last place to first in a year! Such success is truly inspiring. I know nothing of Mr. Maddon’s core beliefs, but Christian or not, he has succeeded admirably in motivating his players in a way that begs emulation from any Christian leader.

Several Rays players testified that their manager instilled in them the sense of what it means to work as a team; individually self-sacrifing– everyone pulling together in the same direction for the common cause. One wishes for more of the same spirit amongst some of our Haitian brethren in S. Florida where factionalism seems to rule and cooperation in the cause of the gospel is all too rare.

A case in point is the badly needed, ever-fledgling Haitian Bible school (IBTF) started by Rev. Jean Petit with whom I have been working for the past ten years. His tireless efforts–administrative shortcomings notwithstanding–have often reminded me of Nehemiah’s attempt to rebuild the walls of Jérusalem (Nehemiah 2+3). Regrettably, there seems to be more “Sanballats” around to discourage him than helping hands. As I write this, classes have been suspended (temporarily?) for lack of enrollment.

On a personal note, the elimination of the Red Sox providentially removed from me the temptation of spending too much time watching the World Series. The suspension of classes at “IBTF” where I would normally be teaching allows me to participate in our Church’s Thursday night “Evangelism Explosion” program. “Coincidentally“, my first visit was with Jeanette, the eighty-four year old non-believing French mother ( a WWII bride from Reims) of one of the “EE” trainers. Her apparent indifference to her eternal destiny is a “monster”, as Pascal would say. But with two of her children in the Faith praying for her, there’s hope that the Spirit will get through to her yet.

Other than that, we remain busy with the preparation of forthcoming teaching trips and the daily radio broacasts which start November 10.

We eagerly anticipate the visits of our children and Aline’s mother over the Christmas holidays. As always, we cherish your prayers for our family and work and thank those of you who make our ministry possible.

May His richest blessings be with you.

Marc

Email: Mmailloux50@comcast.net

Blog: (www.marcmailloux.wordpress.com)

 Prayer: For the spiritual and professional welfare of our children.

For a visa for Rose Marie, the wife of Jean-Usson P.

For the Lord’s unction on me as I start another Radio broadcast

season

www.radiofloride.com

With friends Christian and Joelle at Notre Dame de la Garde overlooking Marseille.                                                 

                                         “Behold I stand at the door and knock…”   

                                                                          Revelations 3:20  

Dear friends,

        Blaise Pascal, the great 17^th century French Christian luminary said there were only two kinds of people one might call reasonable:  Those who know God and serve Him.  And those who don’t yet know Him but are earnestly searching for Him.  As for the others who neither know Him nor seek Him, their indifference in a matter in which their eternal destiny is at stake was a MONSTER to him!  One needs all the charity of the religion they ignore, according to Pascal, not to disdain them.  There are many in modern France, alas,  who seem to fall into this last category, and who are not—Cartesian pretensions notwithstanding— what Pascal would call “reasonable“.  

    We spent part of July and August amongst some of these “monster victims“ in  south Marseille, our old stomping grounds, where the glacial  spiritual temperature contrasted with the stifling summer heat.  We averaged fifteen people at the four “cultes” (worship services) at which I presided (July 27-August 17).  It seems most of the 30-40 or so regulars were on vacation somewhere.  There were others, alas, for whom worship is not a priority. One couple explained their absence telling us they had gone to the beach to escape the heat.  I reminded them that they might have come anyway to publicly acclaim Him who allows them to escape a far worse heat!   They shrugged. Ministry in such a climate of indifference can be discouraging.

       One learns to console himself by admiring the  beauty of the surrounding Provençale countryside, lavender fields, olive trees, vineyards, chirping cicadas, and breathtaking Mediterranean coastline–surely one of the Creator’s masterpieces.  

           In addition to sermon preparation, pastoral visits and counseling sessions (especially for Aline, whose reputation for discretion incites hurting housewives, divorcees, etc.  to confide in her) we enjoyed the company of some old friends with whom we spent many an evening into the wee hours in conversation  around the dinner table where the French are particularly adept at extracting gastronomical sublimity from  the Lord’s terrestrial blessings.    Is there any other culture whose poets have waxed lyrical on the sweet   epicurean delights of various fruits and vegetables?  If the French could only see the Light of Him who put such goodness in peaches and melons! 

       We know too well that there are no magic evangelistic bullets. The most well-planned  missionary efforts are futile until the Lord blesses them. At the present, contemporary France remains about as sympathetic to our Christian faith as the New York Times is to Rush Limbaugh.  On the other hand, the Dalai Lama (in France in August for a twelve-day visit), with his vacuous message, got great press from the French media.  7500 lost souls coughed-up 175 E (ca. $265.) each to listen to the so-called 14^th reincarnation of the bodhisattva  dispense his wisdom at one of the dozens of new Buddhist monasteries recently opened in the land of Calvin.  

        Meanwhile, general ignorance of even the most fundamental Christian truths is breathtaking. That’s partly because incredulity amongst the French often goes back several generations in contrast to the comparatively recent impiety of the United States where there’s still a lot of residual grace from our ancestors.  Ask even an unbelieving American one of the “E.E.” diagnostic questions (“Why should God let one into His heaven…?”)  and he’ll probably  be thinking of the God of the Bible of whom his mother or grandmother spoke.  Conversely, a  typically hardened, biblically illiterate Frenchman will have little or no notion of God’s personal, holy and loving nature.

         Not surprisingly, non biblical religions and superstitions abound.  I spent one afternoon playing pétanque with three Marseille adolescents to whom I offered French copies of the Gospel John with a brief explanation of its contents and the identity of Jesus.   “Nous sommes Musulmans” (“We’re Moslems”),  explained nonchalantly thirteen- year-old Gabriel, manifestly not interested.  “We believe in the Koran.“ 

         Even the French Christians are influenced by an overwhelmingly secular mentality. A French pastor we know lamented his wayward daughter’s plans to forgo  Christian baptism for her son in favor of  a city hall “citizen’s baptism” in the name of the French republic! 

     Tragically, many (most?)  people in France have little or no idea of the claims of Jesus Christ.  Not surprisingly, evangelism amongst the French is like plowing in concrete and necessitates much soil preparation.  One approaches the subject more like Paul speaking to the Athenians, than Peter speaking to the Jews of the Messiah.  It takes time and patience, and most often a long-term commitment.  Discouragement is the real enemy as visible results are meager. There’s a real temptation for French Christians to give up saying:  “What’s the use…?”  But the Lord promises a harvest if we persevere.  We have the only real Good News! 

     As much as Aline and I enjoyed our time in the old country where we hope to return eventually, we appreciate the fact that, for the moment, our work includes discipleship amongst French-speaking folks of the Caribbean who are generally hungry for the Word.   We’re grateful for those of you who make this ministry possible.

                                                                                   In His service,

                                                                               Marc                                                                                  

Praise:

1-For encouraging visits with old friends and brethren in Marseille. 

2-For MTW missionaries the Mitchells, Guildards, and Stephanie Pike at the South Marseille Church, the Wessels (itinerant ministry) and Jan S. (Marseille and N. Africa).

3-For Louisiane, a 55 year old divorcée counseled by Aline who made a profession of faith (Alleluia!)  following our last worship service Aug.17: that she’ll persevere.                                                       

Prayer:

1- Spiritual and professional welfare of son Calix in Marseille; Justin, teaching in a tough school in Pompano Beach; and Anaïs, working and doing her masters (aerospace engineering) in California.         

2-For an outpouring of the Spirit on the land of Calvin.

3-For wisdom in preparing and planning our next teaching trips to the Caribbean, and the future of the program in Martinique, French Guyana etc.

“Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory!’”  I Chronicles 4:10

Dear friends,

        The immigration official at the St Martin airport flipped impatiently through the pages of my well-worn passport and complained that there was no more blank space for him to stamp our arrival date.  I didn’t know what to tell him save that my passport would expire in September so I would soon have a new one.  He grumbled something and perfunctorily mashed his stamp down adding more blue ink to an already illegible page.    We may not have prayed like Jabez, but the Lord has certainly enlarged our territory and made us familiar veterans of numerous airports of the French-speaking world.

       Since we last wrote following the graduation of our group of students in Martinique in March, we’ve made a teaching trip (Apologetics/Islam) to St. Martin, and a couple of mission conferences in Kingsport, Tn. and Baltimore, Md.  At the end of April, I accompanied Dr. Jean Petit on a trip to Montreal for our S.  Florida Haitian Bible school.  Most recently, Aline and I went on an exploratory excursion to French Guyana (May 16-21) where we hope to start a new teaching program in September. 

        It’s an all day journey to French Guyana including ten hours on Air France’s flight #3943 from Miami to Cayenne, with stops in Port-au-Prince (Haiti); Point-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe); and Fort-de-France (Martinique).  The French overseas “départment” in S. America—with its notorious “Devil’s Island”—was once used as a penal colony and housed the famous Captain Louis Dreyfus, but also criminal elements the government was eager to keep away from the “métropole”.  It was made famous by the publication (1969) of Henri Charrière’s semi-historical memoirs called “Papillon” (butterfly) of which Hollywood made a movie starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.

     There are around 200,000 people in “Guyane,” called  “l’enfer vert” (green hell) by the French for its virtually impenetrable tropical rainforest and legions of pesky, disease-carrying mosquitoes.   More than half are descendants of the slaves brought over from Africa in the 18^th century; 12% are metropolitan French, 5% Antilleans from Guadeloupe and Martinique, and about 30% foreigners, including Haitians, Brazilians, and Hmong from Laos.    The local economy—largely dependent on subsidies from Paris—is based mostly on fishing, a bit of gold-mining, and timber.  Unemployment hovers around 30%.    The Guiana Space center at Kourou (30 miles up the coast from Cayenne) which serves as the launch base for the European space program employs 1700 people and receives hundreds of European scientists who come to work on the rockets and high-tech satellites.  We’re eagerly anticipating the prospect of showing them apologetic films on intelligent design, creationism etc.    

Like many of the former French colonies, F. Guyana has a rather dynamic church (especially in comparison to metropolitan French standards), with many young believers, but a woefully inadequate teaching program.  In fact the “Guyanais”, as they are called, are bereft of Bible schools or any institution to train their teaching elders.  Hence their eagerness to learn about our program.                   

          Our man in French Guyana is Jean-Michel Bonnet, an electrician by trade and  president of the local GBU (French Inter-Varsity) an acquaintance of our colleague and co-worker Gordon Woolard.  We stayed with him and his wife Malou and their two children  at their home in Kourou.  He surprised me on Saturday night with the news that I’d be preaching on Sunday morning at the church in Iracoubo, Malou’s home town. Fortunately we’ve learned to be like scouts: always ready.     We’ll need Jean-Michel’s help as coordinator, promoting the program, reserving the classroom space, contacting the students, collecting the homework assignments etc.   

      The goal of this first trip was to introduce ourselves to some of the church leaders and assess the situation to see if a teaching program there would even be feasible. The pastors of Cayenne received us on Monday night at their monthly meeting and enthusiastically applauded our proposition.  Still, it’s a major decision over which we have prayed much as it entails a significant expenditure of time and resources.  But even the relatively expensive flights from Miami are a bargain compared to what it would cost to send a Guyanais  Christian to a Bible school in Europe or  America  whence most never return.  Hence the rationale for bringing the training directly to them.

           We don’t know if there will be enough interested in doing biblical Hebrew or Greek to justify Aline’s ticket.   But it looks as if I’ll be returning there on a fairly regular basis. There may still be a few mosquitoes—the “flying infected syringes” as one put it graphically—that didn’t get a piece of me yet.  A small price to pay for the edification of the Kingdom.

                                                                                                                                      In His service,

                                                                                                                                      Marc

 Praise:

1-For encouraging, inspirational visits to mission-minded churches in Tennessee and Maryland.

2-For the Lord’s provision and protection for the Guyana trip.

3-For the grace of being able to function on 4-5 hours sleep/night.

Prayer:

1-For good stewardship with the Lord’s resources/ provision for the teaching programs in F. Guyana

2-For the spiritual and professional welfare of our son Calix, still  without a pilot’s job.

3-For our summer travels including another week of teaching apologetics in St. Martin (June 30—July4); and replacing a French pastor colleague in Marseille July 24-Aug.18

“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season…”  II Timothy 4:2

Dear friends, 

           S. Florida is in need of the gospel as much as any place. One meets a wide sociological variety of people in this “sixth borough of New York”.  Most Americans think of our region as being primarily Hispanic.  While that might be essentially true of Miami-Dade county, we live in Broward county where the sociological composition is even more diverse.  Think of our region as “New York with palm trees” and you get the idea.  It was a Pakistani-Moslem cab driver who drove us home from the airport recently. My “pétanque” buddies are mostly French and Quebecois, as are the listeners of our daily radio broadcasts. In January I conducted a bi-lingual wedding service for the son of a famous French chef and his American bride where 75% of those in attendance were French.   Our regular gas-station attendant is Egyptian; our convenience store clerk Indian, local postal workers Vietnamese.  In addition there are ½ million Haitians, Jamaicans, and other West Indians in S. Florida, a real melting pot.        

          Recently, I’ve re-discovered an old principle I had applied for years in France but which I’d somewhat neglected since we came to the over-evangelized U.S.  It has to do with the fact that the fact that the Lord often answers promptly requests for encounters with someone with whom to share at least a word of faith, (if not a detailed gospel presentation).  If you don’t believe me, then try it yourself.  But be forewarned:  you’ll find Him leading you to folks ready for the Word at times when you’re not feeling particularly spiritual yourself—perhaps after a disagreement with your spouse. I suppose He does that to remind us that the power of the gospel to touch lives is not dependant on our sanctification, or lack thereof.  If you wait until you think you’re holy enough to be useful for the Kingdom, you’ll probably wait forever.  Carpe diem!  And redeem the time.        

       Not long ago, while standing in line at my favorite café (owned and operated by a French couple) I overheard a middle-aged French woman customer lamenting to Mme. Durand (the owner) about the recent death of her mother. It was clear that this bereaved daughter desperately needed a Word of hope.  Consequently, when she sat down with her cappuccino on the terrace at a table next to mine, it was a natural, albeit delicate opportunity to offer her a copy of “l’évangile selon Jean” I carry with me.  I told her that I’d overheard her conversation with Mme. Durand and was sure she’d find comfort in the words of Jesus who claims to be “la résurrection et la vie” (John 11:14).  She gratefully accepted the gospel, and told me that she possessed a Bible at home which she had never read, but was now ready to examine.             

      An occasional contact is Eva, a twenty-five year old Polish waitress from Gdansk working at the Italian café on the beach where I cycle for my Saturday morning expresso when we’re in town.  A nominal Catholic, she’s been asking herself spiritual questions since her Israeli boyfriend chided her about celebrating Christmas.  Eva gladly accepted a Polish New Testament we brought her.          Regular opportunities to share the faith are generated through the natural curiosity over my prized recumbent bicycle, a most appreciated gift from a local pastor.  I explain to the numerous folk intrigued by its somewhat unusual form that it’s called a “recumbent,” as in to the old theological notion of recumbence, signifying “resting” in the Lord for one’s salvation.  This last bit of information I gleaned from a sermon from our late Pastor Kennedy who surely didn’t imagine that theological tidbit would be used that way.   Even if I don’t get further than that, the Seed is sown and the curious are left with something to ruminate.        

           Our work load increased a bit in January.  In addition to our daily radio meditations (accessible via www.radiofloride.com) we started a new series of courses (Apologetics) at the “Institut Biblique et Théologique de la Floride” (IBTF).  We cherish your prayers for this fledgling institution founded and headed by Rev. Jean Petit with woefully little help from the surrounding Haitian community of believers.  There are thousands of Haitian Christians in S. Florida spread out in dozens (hundreds?) of churches; but no Bible schools or seminaries save for the tiny IBTF. Consequently, level of theological instruction leaves much to be desired.  The Haitian brethren are grateful for any help we can give them.       

        As for the ministry in the islands:   “Never overestimate what you can accomplish in one year, or underestimate what you can do in twenty years.”  So spoke the wisdom of an older brother about church planting.  Surely, this applies to teaching too where results are often slow in coming as one does not always see immediate results from his prayers or efforts, though we are delighted to observe real changes in the lives of some of those we’ve been privileged to mentor over the years.   A recent remark from Jean-Marie, one of our students in Martinique was particularly encouraging: “I am so grateful for these courses…  They have transformed my understanding of the Scriptures.”   Alleluia!  We’ve a graduation ceremony scheduled in Martinique on March 15.   We thank those of you who make our ministry possible.                                                                                                                                            Blessings,                                                                                                                                        Marc+ Aline 

Praise:

1- Positive response to the apologetic film “The Perfect Stranger”  seen by many of our French friends.       

 2- Encouraging visits to supporting churches in Tupelo, and Oxford, Ms. on Super Bowl SundayFeb.3  

 3- For a French translation of John Piper’s excellent book “The Passion of Christ” , most useful for       the   radio ministry.

Prayer: 1-The spiritual welfare of our older son Calix, still in Marseille, and without a job.             

  2-Wisdom for the use of our resources (perhaps to start another teaching program in French Guyana?)  

  3- For Kahina, a dear 27 year old sister in N. Africa, terribly  isolated from any Christians. She would like to correspond (in French or English)  with some American believers.  Kahinabelguebli@yahoo.fr