Our mission with Agapé France (Cru in the US) is "Turning lost students into Christ-centered laborers."
We live in Rennes, France, where Trent provides tech support for the French national ministry while Tara reaches college students. We regularly post updates and videos with encouraging stories, and we ask you to join us in praying for the Great Commission to be fulfilled. Feel free to leave a note in the guestbook, and thank you for your support!
"God, what is the most important thing..?"
Thursday, 26 January 2012 11:03
(a recent devo Tara penned for the ladies at her home church)
I was at a loss as to what I should write about. My first instinct was to be as relatable as possible. I asked God, “Should I write my testimony.. how I came to faith in a small church at age 18 during my rebellious and boy-crazy season?... should I write about how you called me to France, God? Should I write about how you brought me and Trent together?.. Should I write about my current comparison issues or my inferiority complex while learning French on a fluent team?”
The Lord shook his head to all of these things, and I was disappointed since I love to write about myself (and I already have many of these stories documented! Haha..)
God offered clarity. He’s caused me to stop and reflect over my nine years of walking with Him. My faith began with a simple thought: if God exists, I desire to know Him. After that, however, I went through many seasons of trying to find more: more depth in the Bible, more apologetics so I could debate/defend the faith, more analogies to describe grace, more training in how to witness, more eloquent speeches I could copy somehow, more, more, more. And as I asked God, “Which is the most important theme to teach about? Obedience, sacrifice, discipline, worship, persecution, love, evangelism, grace??” He said very clearly, “the most important thing in your life is.. my presence.”
God’s presence. So simple. It was the first thing I learned. It is the first thing the Bible talks about. It is what the end-Revelation 22- talks about. God’s presence IS eternal life.. the Bible says is quite clearly..
“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3. So clear, so simple, so overlooked.
As I find myself here in France on the ‘mission field’ of three college campuses, I have a hard time accepting that God’s presence is truly more important than fruit. After all, there are people supporting us to be here, family at home wondering why we left, and God, of course, who called me here. If I don’t see significant fruit this year, what does that mean? At this thought, I am tempted to dive into more apologetics on how to reach atheists and put more pressure on our student leaders to perform in some way.
But Jesus spoke directly on this issue. “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you.’” Matt 7:22. This verse is so sharp and shocking, I would rather not see myself in it, but yet I feel conviction. Clearly without a close walk with God and spending time His presence, all my efforts toward fruit are pointless. So I should start there every day. I have not outgrown my need for His presence, nor should I want to!
I can also be tempted to think that it is my job to enter His presence, to pursue Him. And it is- it is a choice He gives me. But every year especially around Christmas, I marvel at the fact that this relationship was HIS idea, not ours. He came..
“For God so loved the world that he gave…” John 3:16. The fact that we can be in His presence at all is based on Him. It was He who decided, motivated by great love, to give.
On a personal note, every time I’ve been to France God draws me to this verse: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”Joshua 1:9. There is something about this verse that makes me strong, especially in a foreign land where I don’t feel quite like myself. God has moved me to be here, He commands me not to be discouraged (yes, I need that!), and most importantly, He is with me wherever I go. He and I can conquer any fears, any insecurity, and even any language. I imagine Him holding my hand throughout the day and even holding me up at times. The Holy Spirit has given me words, even to groups of French girls staring at me, when I had no words of my own. Wow. Not everyone lives like this. But they could…
He and I are a team. And He, Trent, and I are “a cord of three strands that is not quickly broken.” (sidenote… we are doing quite well here. Our marriage is funny.. I can’t decide which year was harder- our first year of marriage or this first year in France. I think the highs are higher and the lows are lower than ever. But, our communication has reached new levels, and we are seeking God together more as well. We have great community around us who do speak English, though all the married couples are much older, they are a massive blessing. And we still have you guys! Thank you for praying!)
The Lord is there. He is there and he is fully-present. He literally dwells within us through the Holy Spirit. What is more important than that? What Greek word or helpful analogy can trump His actual living presence?
I urge you right now to take a few minutes, close the computer, and just sit in God’s presence and commune with Him. Getting to know Him better is the key to any problem. It’s simple, He says, “fix your eyes on Jesus, the perfecter of faith” and.. “Be still, and know I am God!”
If you want to see snow here, you need to go visit the mountains. Not one flake to be found in Rennes, France. We certainly appreciate the warmth here, but not the jawbreaker cakes.
It was a normal day in the Pyrenees (not that I would know). Snow had just fallen that morning, and we were off to do outreaches in groups. My (Tara's) group was made up of two cars. In one car were all French students and me. In the other were all French students and Fateh, a Middle-eastern jovial guy. He told me he comes to Agapé events "because they're fun and curious." I loved hearing that! Oh, and sadly, Trent stayed at the camp to work on computers.
Our job: spend three hours fixing up an elderly lady's house- doing whatever she asks of us.
And so we did. Two girls and I swept her outdoor areas and raked everything we could. Fortunately she was at a low enough altitude that no snow had fallen anywhere in sight. In fact, we were all sweating like it was summer! I was doing okay with communication that day, but at one point I swear I heard the girls say "gateau," so I asked, "Did someone say cake?!" I'm sure I had a huge smile on my face because they paused, looked at me, and laughed hysterically. Stephanie insisted on how funny I am, and then they said, "No, sorry."
But when we finished our work, the elderly lady invited us in, messy boots and all. She brought out a cake, and us three girls looked at eachother and giggled. But it wasn't a normal cake.. it was in bunt form with lots of large nuts on top. There were no plates or napkins, so people just started grabbing slices and holding them like bread. I did the same, and with lots of chatter, it was hard for me to understand anything.
I took one bite of that cake, and immediately something was wrong. One of the nuts was huge and insanely hard. I tried to crack it a few times, but I wasn't making a dent. Soon my teeth started to hurt! Again noticing the lack of napkins, I resolved myself to sucking on the nut in hopes that it would soften. I had no options... surely I couldn't spit it into my hand! That would be so American of me. :-S
After several more minutes of sucking and biting, a dangerous thought flashed through my mind: I could try to swallow it. No, NO! My body shuddered, as I was already feeling carsick from the weaving in the mountains. Surely I would gag on this thing, or worse yet, choke.
Just then, my tongue discovered some interesting protrusions on this nut. What the heck was this thing in my mouth?!
As all heads were turned in other directions (we were seated at a circular table), I spit the thing into my hand. I found myself holding a tiny ceramic turtle. A turtle!! Had this lady accidentally baked one of her trinkets into the cake? Should I put it in my pocket and forget about it? My poor teeth! I have no social protocol here.
So I showed it to the girl next to me, and she exclaimed something with her arms in the air! I think she said, "You won!!" Huh? Suddenly the sweet lady of the house is putting a crown on my head, and everyone sang some sort of song. Am I on candid camera?!
As it turns out, this is a French tradition with this particular kind of cake. (Holy dangerous, Batman.) At first I was embarrassed, but then I got over myself. On our way out the door, I told my group-mates some of the thoughts that were going through my head, and they all got a huge kick out of it, especially Fateh. I think it made his day. And when we got back to camp, I was pretty popular. People had a lot of questions. My group-mates told me that the lady had mentioned the turtle in the cake before we ate, but I must have missed it. Everyone says I should write this story down, so now I did!
This story is better than Trent stepping in dog poo during our first month here! Sorry, hun. Now we both have a "culture moment."
By the way, the cake is a Christmas tradition called "galette de roi," and any ceramic object can be used. I kept my turtle, who unfortunately suffered no damage. I keep him in my coat pocket for giggles.
Okay, so my subject line here might be the lamest ever, but I got really excited about this!
You can practically tour my city through this site! This, however, does not give anyone an excuse not to visit. :-P
When you get to the site, try to read the directions, but really all you have to do is start clicking. Once you've circled an area, click on the bulls-eye symbol to select another area of the map. I am sad that they do not have the St. Anne area documented, nor the parc de Gayelles, but that's ok. You will be ecstatic anyway!
This is an article from the magazine "Worldwide Challenge." I was hoping to send over 200 copies of the 'zine as Christmas gifts- to family, support partners, and prayer partners. Wouldn't that have been nice?! But sadly it was several 0's too expensive to pull off.. and then I thought, "maybe this article is online." Bingo! Praise the Lord, here it is. It's an article about my teammate Melissa, our beautiful yet lost city of Rennes, and a trip that Mel is planning....
My boss, Dan, wrote this article about a recent trip out team took to Africa (sans moi.. I was still adjusting to France and classes). The pictures tell it all. My favorite part of the story is everyone wanted to shake the hand of a white person- even BABIES strapped to their mothers backs! :-) enjoy..
We are incredibly blessed to be part of this team and part of what God is doing globally!
In November we showed the French what Thanksgiving means (If you are asking why that is necessary, just read it again). Tara discusses the meaning of Christmas and Trent completes another trip around the sun.
November has definitely been a roller-coaster month. It's been emotionally high and low. Trent and I both seemed to crash shortly after his birthday but before Thanksgiving. It wasn't pretty. Trent told me I was yelling "HELP" in my sleep two nights in a row. Yikes.. I haven't had nightmares in years. Plus, I would be embarrassed to say how much I cried that week. The root of it all: feeling useless. My job is all about communication, and for some reason I felt like I had made zero progress in my French (despite the 14-18 hours per week of class).
My staff team was quite supportive. One of them said "Oh you're early! Most people have the no-progress feeling after about 5 or 6 months." The joke actually cheered me up, as I realize that I am not alone in this and I am certainly making progress. Maybe it's not as dramatic as Trent's progress, but lo and behold, he was feeling the same way. We both felt like people just weren't understanding our French.
A funny example: I was at a womens' event recently, and the woman to my left always had me repeat what I was saying. We really struggled to talk, and I didn't always understand her either. But, the woman on my right continually told me that my French is near perfect, and we never seemed to miss a beat. How does that happen? Am I just on the threshold of normal French?? Why is it that I can hear what I want to say in my head, and it's perfect, but when it comes out, it's like I have cotton in my mouth?! :-)
Anyway, so Trent and I took a day off from work to just rest, and God met us in a mighty way. Once I got all my frustrations and tears out, things got progressively better. We're still not pros at being French, and we're still missing family and friends a TON, and we might have a difficult Christmas since it's the first one away from home, BUT, overall we're feeling good about being here. We're seeing progress. And I'm definitely glad to be "that American girl" because occasionally it draws people toward me and toward the Good News.
Melissa and I (Tara) got into a pattern which uses my culturally-innocent newness to its advantage.
It all stemmed from this encounter with Elise and Marie. We were doing a traditional picture-survey with them. They had 40 photos to choose from for each question. "What pictures describe your life right now? What photos describe happiness to you? Choose a photo to describe what you thought of God when you were young. Choose a photo to describe what you think of God now. Which photo would you choose to describe Christ or his message?" And for that last question, we happened to ask the girls if they were familiar with the message of Christ. They said no. I looked at Melissa and suggested, "Melissa, maybe you could explain Jesus's message in a quick summary?" The girls nodded, and we started talking about having a relationship with God. It's true that we often think that we are responsible for beginning that relationship with Him, but as this girl aptly pointed out, the burden is on Him!
"If God exists, and if he wants a relationship with me, then it should be his job to initiate with me. I don’t see why I should potentially waste my time trying to find an invisible being who might be there. I would love to know more about God, but how can I?" And it dawned on me and Melissa at the same time: God DID, in fact, initiate the relationship with us. Why is it so hard for me to remember that? Well, maybe because I wasn't there. Anyway, Melissa gave a beautiful gospel presentation, and the girls' eyes were completely fixed on her. (I'm more in tune with body language lately.. it truly expresses more than I thought!) I think the gospel sounds prettier in French. Anyway, Melissa explained God's heart for a relationship with us, that He wants it to be our free choice, that our choices have led to sin which separates us from God, and that Jesus was fully God and fully man, so his sacrifice is the only one perfect enough to pay for our sins.
Whew! It was quite a summary, and I think the girls understood it well and appreciated the clarity of the message. It was a first for them, as most French think that all religions are the same thing-- just something to believe in even though you know you're the one working at it, not God. I also noted that these girls quickly understood grace, but the concept of sin was a stretch. It's been a glorious time, though, as many people are hearing the gospel and seem genuinely interested in it, mostly because it's news to them!
