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Aline with Marco and Justin at Marco’s Dominican Republic restaurant
Aline and I arrived in Santo Domingo on Sat. Jan.14 and drove up to see our son in Cabrera, three hours from the airport on the
island’s north shore. We were, once again, well received by Rebecca, Justin’s landlady/employer who presides over a palatial
mansion full of guests on a magnificent beach-front property near the hotel where he earns his living giving tennis and surfing
lessons for their well-heeled patrons. The nightly meal around the 40’ long table afforded a providential opportunity to share the
faith with a retired Serbian professional soccer player and his American psychiatrist wife who happened to sit opposite us.
Justin has an American girlfriend named T., a bonny lass from the Midwest. We warned them gently that marriage is not just a
quaint, convenient compact for canoodling and cohabitation, but a solemn mutual commitment to another, a covenant to stick
together—with God’s help—through the inevitable trials of conjugal living. One wonders how they or anyone could raise welladjusted children—our grandchildren!—without following the Lord “directions for use.” Stay tuned for further developments…
The visit with our son included our customary meal at the restaurant of his French friend Marco from Montpellier, a fifty-year-old
divorcé with two daughters back in France. After the meal, Marco gave me a fine Dominican cigar. We left him the 2023 “Bonne
Semence” calendar to which he reacted: “I know the gospel involves an all-or-nothing commitment…I don’t know if I’m ready.” I
enjoyed the cigar… Pray he reads the calendar.
On Mon. Jan. 16, I dropped Aline at the Santo Domingo airport and went into the city where, until Sat. Jan.21, I taught a class in
Apologetics to a group of 23 Haitian students. We went over some of the alternative non-Christian worldviews that beset their
culture, including animism and various non-biblical elements which have insidiously infiltrated the Roman Catholic traditions.
The remedy for the resulting pernicious syncretism is of course a better understanding of the infallible Scriptures, as man knows
nothing specific about God save through His special revelation. Hence, much of the course was spent explaining how we know
that the Bible is reliable.
I arrived home from the D.R. on Sat. night. Monday morning Aline and I left for Oviedo, Fl., a 3.5 hour drive north of our home in
Pompano Beach, to attend a required MTW retreat.
On the way, we stopped in Orlando to visit A., a young (49) French woman we met a few months ago with whom Aline has been
keeping in touch. She’s going through a difficult time involving a messy custody battle with her ex-husband over their 13-year-old
son.
A. has lived on several continents and, through a convoluted confluence of providential occurrences, has come into contact with a
number of Christians including our Florida pastor whose son attended school with her son, and a professor from our old seminary
in Aix-en-Provence. What are the odds? Her unusual spiritual openness reinforces my conviction that the best way to evangelize
the French is to get them out of France
On the way to see A., we stopped for lunch at a French café in Orlando. The owner (Claude) is a
sixty-year-old from Metz who’s been in the US for 20 years and has started two restaurants serving
typical French specialties which employ at least 20 people. He told me that at 40, he was already
weary of the French economy—a masterpiece of socialist constipation—as he was working long
hours only to surrender the lion’s share of his profits for redistribution by the government. Alas, he
lamented, the current U.S. administration seems to be pushing for similar policies…
Still, he had no intentions of returning to the “old country,” as he appreciates the residual, albeit
waning, Christian influence of American society (though he didn’t put it in those terms), the
unpretentious simplicity of most Americans who don’t let success go to their heads, and the greater
professional options available to his three children in the U.S. He needs only make the connection
to the U.S. Christian heritage. We sent him a “Bonne Semence” calendar.
Finally, we had an enjoyable week of R+R at the MTW “Refresh” retreat in Oviedo in the company
of a number of dear brethren from various foreign mission fields with whom we shared our
experiences of the diverse ways the Lord is advancing His Kingdom throughout the world. We were
regaled by a terrific preacher whose Anglo-Saxon genius for practical application of Holy Writ
never ceases to impress us. It was great time of fellowship and even included some afternoon
pétanque with Patrick (from my home town of Woonsocket, who ministers to Native Americans);
Josias ( a young missionary to Chad who with his heroic wife have six children); and MTW
coordinator Lloyd K. It was so sweet that we almost caught ourselves uttering Faust’s ominous
phrase (“Moment linger a while…”). Almost.
As I write this we’re receiving Aline’s older brother with his young daughter who’ve have been
going through a tough stretch. May the Lord’s sunny Florida love warm their hearts…
Blessings,
Marc+Aline
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