Light of Togo

Unfortunately when we read the Bible, we sometimes tend to look at each verse or each chapter as a separate and unrelated thought, principle, or event. However, when the Bible was originally written it did not contain chapters or verses and therefore was likely read in more of a contextual fashion. This is the case with John chapter 15. Many people will quickly identify this as the chapter of “abiding in Christ,” but what I did not fully realize until recently was that it is part of a much larger context.

Starting in chapter 13, Jesus sits down with his 12 disciples for the feast of the passover and afterwards begins a lengthy time of instruction, teaching, and prayer. This was all one continuous event which continued through the end of chapter 17. Some of the notable highlights are:

• Jesus washes the disciples feet, a demonstration of service and humility
• The revealing of Judas as Jesus’ betrayer
• The giving of a new commandment, for Jesus’ followers to love one another (13:34-35)
• Jesus tells the disciples that He will soon be gone, but gives them the assurance that the Holy Spirit will soon be with them
• He gives His followers the promise of a place in Heaven, answer to prayer, and peace of heart
• The metaphor/allegory of the vine and branches (15:1-17)
• Instruction as to how the world will view and treat followers of Christ
• The great prayer of Jesus for all of His followers; past, present, and future.

From this perspective, it’s easy to see that chapter 15 is only one part of a large discourse.  If you are interested in studying this chapter along with me, I would challenge you to read at least chapters 13-17 at one time, uninterrupted.

So before we get started with the first verse, I think it’s important that we put ourselves in the context, in the place of those 11 disciples (minus Judas at this point).  Can you imagine the fear, the worry, the uncertainty, and possibly even the disappointment they were feeling?  They had followed Jesus everywhere for three years, and now He was telling them that He’d be leaving, and even hinting at the fact that He would be killed.  What would you be thinking at that moment?  Jesus gives them this powerful illustration of the Christian life at just the right time, right when they needed it.  It still functions today as one of the most vivid explanations of the relationship between God, Jesus, and His believers.

The post for verse one will be coming within a day or two, so if you haven’t already make sure to sign up for our blog updates by RSS or email.

Over the past couple weeks, I have really been struck by the passage in John 15, particularly verses 1-17. The amazing thing about the Bible is that no matter how many times you read a verse, a passage, or a book, there is always something new to be learned; most importantly something more to learn about God, His character, and His grace.

I have always learned best by taking what I learn and sharing it with others, so I figured that a great way to do this would be to share some of my two cents worth (more like one and a half) with you. Rather than writing very long posts and covering the whole passage in a few shots, I’ll try to keep each post relatively short by writing one post for each verse. Keep in mind that the word relatively is very…well…relative!

The truth is that I would be doing this even if I knew that nobody was going to read it just because it will help me (sounds selfish, I know!), but my hope really is that God would use this to make the truth of His Word more known and set people free as a result. Remember that Jesus said that we would know the truth and that the truth would make us free.  True freedom in Christ does not come by truth alone, but by knowing the truth. This is why it is so important that we dig deep into the riches of the Bible as we seek its Author with all our heart, soul, and mind.

So, in the next couple days we’ll get started with the introduction and verse one, and hopefully we’ll have this thing wrapped up by the time we get to Africa.

Just a little background first:  Joshua is five years old now, has a mind of his own, and is constantly saying things that seem to come out of nowhere.  He has been saving every bit of his own money - from his birthday, from grandparents on holidays, and from his occasional “jobs” around the house - for more than six months because he has been wanting to get his very own little camera.  He talks often about it, but this time it completely caught us off guard.

Sitting at the dinner table last night, I asked Joshua if he would like to pray to thank God for the food before we ate.  He quickly agreed and began praying, but not for the food.  He said, “God, can you please help me not to spend any money…long pause…and help me to get more jobs…long pause…and help me to do my schoolwork slowly…amen.”  We managed to hold back our chuckles, and Joshua just began eating like nothing out of the ordinary happened.  It’s amazing how cute kids can be and be entirely clueless to it.

By the way, the reference to the schoolwork was because Tiffany has been working with him lately and she’s often telling him to slow down and do the work correctly rather than quickly.

You just never know what will come out of the mind of a kid!

Today we met at a restaurant with our tutor, Suzanne, and all of her students, who all happen to be friends of ours. There were five missionary couples, plus my friend Dmitry and my conversation partner for a grand total of 16 people. We had quite a good time, and a good meal. Tiffany and I both had Greek salads with tons of fresh veggies - yum! - and Joshua had the longest chicken strips I’d even seen. They must have come from some kind of super hybrid turkeychicken.

I spent most of the time talking to Dmitry, which was nice since I haven’t seen him for a while. He told us about an event going on next weekend at the city port, where 8 battleships from all around the world will be docked for three days and open for tours. Then on Sunday afternoon as they are leaving they will fire off 20 rounds each from their canons. We are planning to go together with Dmitry, so we’re really looking forward to that. I’m just hoping that the guy in charge of loading the canons remembers to put the blanks in rather than the real rounds.

You may have noticed a scarcity of blog posts recently.  I was thinking about making up some great story (excuse) such as the dog ate our computer or something, but I couldn’t come up with anything original or believable, so I guess that the truth will have to suffice.  The fact is that we’ve been very busy lately, but it has definitely been a good kind of busy.  We’ve been meeting a lot with Quebecois friends, which means that we’ve been speaking French a lot and often.  This is extremely helpful for us right now since we already have a good foundation of “book learning,” but not as much experience in putting it to use.

One man in particular, Pierre, has been a huge blessing to us.  He is retired and single, so he has chosen to dedicate a large portion of his time to be a conversation partner with missionaries who are learning French, free of charge.  It really is difficult to explain how much this helps us out.  At times, it is difficult to find people who have enough time and patience to sit around and listen to somebody talk to them on a 3rd grade level!  Just last night, he invited us and the Huffs over to his house for dinner.  He went all out and fed us like kings: huge steaks, fresh veggies, French bread, and cake for dessert.  After waddling out of his house last night, I couldn’t help but thank God for his willingness to help missionaries learn his language.

In the coming weeks, we do plan on posting more frequently in order to keep you up to date with what’s going on.  I also plan to do a series of posts which will focus on the Bible passage in John 15 regarding our abiding in Christ.

So, if you have not yet subscribed to our blog so you’ll automatically get these updates, go ahead and do so now; either by email or by RSS feed.

It’s amazing to think that we have been living in Quebec now for almost one year.  We have been thinking a lot lately about our first few months here and the amazing ways that we say God work in our lives.  Here’s a brief summary:

May 6th, 2007 - last meeting of deputation, Pasco, WA ~ May 7th - La Grande, OR…journey begins ~ May 8th - weird van noise, overloaded back end, prayer ~ May 9th - really weird van noises, squealing, grinding, more prayer ~ May 10th - arrive in Quebec, 2,851 miles in 4 days, decided never to do that again…no apartment reserved, no furniture, no French, no plan, no idea…more prayer…stay with missionaries we’ve never met, poor missionaries ~ May 11th - meet another missionary we’ve never met, gives up his whole day to drive us around and translate…thanking God…appointment to see the only available 3 bedroom apartment in all of Quebec City…nice, good price, 5 minutes from the university, no bugs or crazy neighbors…we’ll take it…thanking God again ~ May 12th - thrift store marathon, no translator, lots of hand motions…and prayer…not finding furniture…receive random phone call from unknown furniture-collecting lady, offers furniture, next thrift store, receive call from furniture-collecting lady’s friend, offers more furniture…thanking God ~ May 13th - Sunday, church…what are they saying? ~ May 14th - classes start at university…what are they saying?  more prayer ~ May 15th - morning classes, more random calls from more unknown furniture-collecting people ~ May 16th - classes, still no idea what they’re saying, is this even French? …moved into apartment, slept on floor…thanking God ~ May 17th - classes, feeling very lost…prayer…another call from furniture donator, this is borderline weird, wondering where they get our number, only explanation is God…thanking God ~ May 20th - fully furnished apartment, everything free…speechless ~ May 9th, 2008 - Jesse still trying to regain sanity from 2,851 miles in 4 days, Tiffany doesn’t believe it will happen

Without going into every little detail, all we can say is that what God did was nothing short of a miracle.  Since then we’ve seen God work in so many other ways, but mostly in giving us the ability to speak and understand French…finally.  I know that we’re not fluent, but just to be able to carry on basic conversations is light years ahead of where we were a year ago.

We really appreciate all of you who have prayed for us in the past year, but please don’t stop.  Many people have told us that our last several month in language training will be the most important because we are now at the level where we can make the most rapid progress.  And as we look ahead to January of next year, we see the next big obstacle of getting to Togo.  We really have no idea yet how it’s all going to work out…we just know that it will.  It might not all happen exactly as we plan, but it will happen as God has planned, and we just want Him to get all the glory for everything, good or bad, in our lives.

Click here to download a printable PDF copy of this letter: April ‘08

The theme in April for our family would definitely have to be “transition.” At the end of the month, I finished my last semester of French studies at Laval University and immediately jumped into a five week French theological course with Tiffany’s tutor. So far, this has been extremely helpful and useful as I am learning the proper French vocabulary and grammar for things like: how to pray, how to preach, how to share the gospel, how to share my testimony, and many other things. At times, it is easy to get impatient in wanting to reach that eventual goal of fluency, but the main thing that we must focus on each day is progress. We can see how God has greatly blessed us by giving us the capacity to make progress each day, little by little. Thank you so much for your continued prayers for our language studies.

Around the same time Malerie, our nanny for the past year, left to go back home for the summer before heading to college this Fall. This was, and still is, a huge adjustment for all three of us. When you are used to having an extra set of hands around the house and suddenly they are gone, it is easy to see how much they are missed! Malerie was truly a blessing to our family and she has become our dear friend. Please pray for her as God directs her life in His will.

As we get closer to the end of our time here in Quebec, our attention is being drawn more and more to all that will be necessary in order to reach Togo by early next year. Many years ago my thinking was that getting to the field was a quick, easy, and cheap process for missionaries which simply involved getting some shots, buying a plane ticket, and going. Boy was I ever wrong! What we’ve realize is that this project is beyond us and our means. We are confident that God, just as He always has, will provide the necessary funds and resources. In fact, we know that He will likely use many of you in helping us to get there. We will be keeping you up to date in the coming months regarding our progress. We just ask that you would continue to pray with us to the God who provides all that we are and all that we have.

Thank you for your prayer and support!

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