It was not on the radar screen of my life. In fact, it was on the ‘no way’ list of my life. That idea continued blissfully unaltered for 35 years. It was what others did, what others took care of, what others found joy and delight in doing. But not me. Nope. So, God being God, He (lovingly) set me up. During a musical team tour in the summer of ’88, exposed to the dearth of Christian material available to believers and churches in the Spanish world, I felt a new something, a burden, being birthed in my spirit. A conversation of sorts went kind of like this: me: ‘God, there’s a huge problem here and I don’t know what to do. I can’t help. I don’t know any Spanish.’ (that, I thought, took care of that.) response ‘Well, you do know some French.’ me ‘French? What has that got to do with anything?’ response‘There’s a need in the French church, too, you know.’ me ‘Québec?’ nah.
It was at that time, during this tour, that we were joined by the son of the French pastor who organized trips in France for our full-time team. I got partnered up with this young trumpeter for the remaining few weeks of our travels. I was still pondering my earlier conversation with the Lord. Mentioning it to my new friend, he made it clear that there was a need in France, and if I was interested, his father could find a place for me to stay if I chose to come. Not knowing where this was leading, I said I was. Five months later, I arrived in Nice, France, and was met by this man and his son, my friend. I was oblivious of God’s plans for me at that time. Fast forward 37 years, and a large part of my heart is still entwined with the hearts of the French people. Just as Job came to realize (Job 42:2): ‘I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.’ I guess the moral here would be: Never say never.
Our recent trip to France has re-confirmed a commitment. It’s to see hearts come alive in Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and to see families of churches birthed there that would breathe fresh life into the 36,000 towns and villages still languishing in their waiting to be reminded of the dynamic promises in God’s Word. Sure, we are a very small part. But Zechariah 4:10 speaks up here: “Do not despise these small beginnings; for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumbline in Zerubbabel’s hand.”
Where is God leading? What is His plan? How will He accomplish what He has set out to do? We don’t know the answers to these questions, but we know Him Who is the Answer. And He never fails. If you’re interested, there’s a (monthly) Zoom Prayer Call for France on the second Tuesday of every month at 2 PM EDT @ www.vineyardfrance.org. Prayers are mostly in English. Join us if you’re free. You might recognize a few faces! PD
