posted by jesse on Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 5:20 pm
There were many of you who were praying for my first sermon in French, which I preached on Sunday night. It actually went much better than I thought it would. Sections that were tripping me up in practicing (yes, because it was in a different language I did “practice.” Sounds weird, but it helped!) didn’t seem to be difficult at all once I was in the flow of the message. People said that it sounded very natural and easy to understand. I say all that not to brag, but to say GLORY TO GOD! All of the praise goes only to Him, because without His direct enabling I would be entirely incapable of preaching or learning a second language.
I had intended to record it on video to put on the blog, but unfortunately I miscalculated the remaining battery life in the video camera and it shut off right after the singing and announcements. Oops! Fortunately, they recorded it through the church’s sound system and I should be able to at least put the audio up in a few days once I receive it. Not that I expect non-French speakers to listen to the entire message, but I figured that maybe you’d like to at least hear what it sounded like. By the way, have you ever heard yourself speak on a recording? It’s really bizarre, right? It’s even more strange in a foreign language!
Category: ministry
Tagged with: blessings, french, glory, Jesse, ministry, prayer
posted by jesse on Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Ever since moving to Quebec, we’ve been telling our parents about the city and how much they would enjoy it. Tiffany’s parents were able to come for a visit last October, and my parents have been planning a trip for this summer. Well, the summer has flown by and my parents are here already. They took a red-eye flight on Tuesday night and arrived Wednesday morning. Needless to say, they were VERY tired. After my mom woke from an afternoon nap, my dad said, “I’m feeling pretty good! I thought I’d be more tired, but I’m really not.” This is a photo of him one hour later.
They had a good and long night’s sleep last night, so this evening we are headed to Old Quebec for a tour of the city and to see the Moulin à images, which is a multimedia show that is projected onto a massive building.
We are very happy to have them here, and we’re glad that my dad finally woke up from his not being very tired.
Category: family, ministry
Tagged with: family, fun stuff, humor, Quebec
posted by jesse on Monday, July 14, 2008 at 5:55 pm
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Hmm, let’s see here, what do I really want? A professional Canon or Nikon SLR camera would be nice. Oh, and all the lenses too. An iPhone could really come in handy. A tennis racket that could make me play like Rafael Nadal would be awesome. Let’s see, what else? Oh yes, the biggest, fastest Mac computer on the market. All the best, super lightweight backpacking gear and a high clearance 4WD vehicle to get to all the best hiking spots. Well, I guess that’s enough for now. So alright, Lord, I ask for all of these things, in your name of course. Well, I’m waiting!
Do you ever feel like your prayers aren’t getting answered? God gives us the promise that He will answer our prayers, but sometimes we are just ignorant to the fact that His answer may be a definite and certain “NO!” Our problem most of the time is that we are praying for the wrong person, and I am just as guilty of this as anyone else, although not quite as bad as the exaggerated example above. We pray most often for the one who we are most concerned about pleasing - ourselves.
James 4:3 tells us about praying for our needs, for our desires, for our “things” that we think make us happy. It says, Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
The key to John 15:7 is the phrase and my words abide in you. I truly believe there is a great difference between knowing the Word of God, and the Word abiding in us. The words of Christ abiding in us produces a change of mentality, a change of focus, and a change of our desires. Instead of dwelling on what we need, want, and crave for, we begin to pray according to God’s plans, His purposes, and His desires. God never intended prayer to be a service bell for our every whim in the cushy mansion of luxury that we like to call our life. It is intended to be the line of communication between commander and soldier as He carries out His plans through you.
Perhaps you, like me, need to begin praying more biblically. As Jesus did, we ought to pray, “I don’t seek my will, Father, but let yours be done through me.” God desires to give us what we ask for, but are we asking for what God desires? I encourage you to know Jesus more through His Word. Let it abide and take root in you, that you might begin praying more for God and His desires and a lot less for ours.
Category: John 15
Tagged with: Bible, Christian life, God, prayer
posted by jesse on Monday, July 7, 2008 at 11:40 am
Click here to download a printable PDF copy of this letter: June ‘08
I’m not sure that we’ve ever talked so much in all our lives. In the past month, it seemed that every day was spent with friends, our tutor, conversation partners, or anyone else who speaks French. This has been a great opportunity to put into practice what we have been learning for the past year. If you’ve ever learned a foreign language, you know how much more difficult speaking is compared to “textbook learning.” It is encouraging though to look back and see the progress we’ve made and to look forward to being relatively fluent one day in Africa as we evangelize, disciple, and encourage all in French!
Along those lines, I’d like to ask that you pray for me as I will be preaching my first sermon in French on July 20th. I wrote it during my theological course, and have been meeting with our pastor here to smooth out the rough edges. I am a bit nervous just because it will be my first time preaching in French, but I pray that God will work through it to deliver His Word despite my mispronunciations and backwards English sentence structure!
If you have not yet done so, I’d like to encourage you to visit our blog where I have begun a verse by verse study on John chapter 15. This is a great way for me to dig a little deeper than normal into the Bible and I hope that you can follow along and do the same.
With all of our Togo coworkers scattered all over the map, it is at times difficult to keep in touch with them, but lately we’ve had the opportunity to speak with them through the internet using Skype. From talking with them about future plans and preparations for Togo, it makes us all the more excited to finish strong in our language learning and get to Togo. We are looking forward to the day when all of the missionaries are working together, reaching the Togolese with the gospel of Christ for the glory of God.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support!
Category: prayer letters
Tagged with: Bible, coworkers, french, Jesse, prayer requests, updates
posted by jesse on Saturday, July 5, 2008 at 3:55 pm
There is a long-running story about missionaries and used tea bags. It comes from many years ago when people had the mentality of “well, we can’t use this junk, so let’s give it to a missionary!” Occasionally, missionaries would actually receive tea bags that had already been used. Thankfully that mentality is long gone…well, almost. A couple weeks ago, we received a package from the States with a few goodies in it, and to our surprise some used tea bags as well. Yes, that’s right, used tea bags. What made it even worse is that it came from our home church! However, if you knew the people who sent it to us, you would immediately know, as we did, that it was completely a joke. It was from our great friends Mark and Tami Norwood. We have told them that story and they have often joked around with us that when we are gone they will send us some. I never thought that they would really do it though! Just in case you’re wondering, they did send some other, more useful things too!
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.lightoftogo.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.lightoftogo.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://www.lightoftogo.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Google]](http://www.lightoftogo.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[Reddit]](http://www.lightoftogo.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.lightoftogo.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://www.lightoftogo.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.lightoftogo.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://www.lightoftogo.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)