Beauty and the Beast
As we stepped into France on the 4th of May 2016, we made a declaration that God was with us and that we would see His kingdom come. We were not exactly sure as to where we would plant our first church, but we felt that we should build with our Every Nation church in Marseille before venturing off into the mission field. We desired to have strong relationships that could sustain us here, and to plant churches from a place of unity. We believed that Marseille would be the best environment for us and our 2 sons to learn the culture and language of the French. We made it our home for a season and were truly welcomed by the church. We became friends with some of the most amazing people. One of the greatest blessings God has bestowed on us is friendship with the Rasch family. They are an American family who were the first pioneers to France within our Every Nation family of churches. Matt and Christy have become our leaders here in France, and they are also our church planting coaches. They have been a blessing and source of strength to us through some of the darkest days that we have faced on the mission field. Seeing how much my boys love them and their children actually makes me tear up with gratitude. God knew we couldn’t do this alone as we felt that there were many giants shouting, “You are not welcome here!”
Upon our arrival that day, we learned from Matt that he had been unable to reach the estate agent from whom we would be renting an apartment. The Rasch family graciously took us in and hosted us for a week in their home. As 1 night turned into 5, we realized that we couldn’t stay with our friends much longer since they lived in a small house and their 4 children were in the midst of their school exam time. We had to find a bed and breakfast place to stay for a while, but we couldn’t afford to do this for very long. The exchange rate for Euro to Rand was 1 to 18 at the time. As we embraced the challenge of finding accommodations, we discovered that in France you need a proper dossier that contains 5 legal documents before any agency would even consider your application. This would have taken months for us to get the proper documentation. We were desperate because we needed a place to stay immediately. We needed a miracle.
We were living like nomads relying on the hospitality of others. For 2 months we went to view potential places and spoke to agents, always needing a translator with us. We couldn’t understand or speak any French and nobody spoke English. I remember the day we met our soon-to-be new landlord. I joked saying that he and my husband spoke Rugby! He couldn’t speak English and Ryan couldn’t speak French, but they understood each other through the common love language of Rugby. God gave us favor in his eyes that day and he decided to rent his apartment to us. The agent told us later that this is very unusual and that we had some type of favor on us. He didn’t understand the landlord's decision because we still lacked 2 of the 5 official documents and there were 6 other French couples who viewed the place that did have proper dossiers. We learned then that there are many giants that we will have to face that have occupied the land.
The next challenge was finding a school for our kids. I remember how my husband and I were on our knees, pacing the floor in our room declaring God’s prophetic promises over our children and the words He had given us for them. Again, God came through for us and His favor opened up 2 places at the same school where the Rasch kids were at.
I remembered facing a giant of intimidation in our second month in France upon learning that fellow missionary friends, who had been in Europe for a couple of years, had made a decision to move back to South Africa. I heard the enemy whisper to me that he would shipwreck our lives and that we would be forced to go back to South Africa. Scared and troubled, I got up one morning early while my family was still sleeping and I sat with the Lord and my open Bible. I asked Him to speak to me and to save me from being shipwrecked. I needed Him to give me supernatural keys to sustain and empower me to be able to do what He had called us to do. I felt hopelessness, fear, frustration, and intimidation stealing vision and passion from my heart. Faithful to His nature, He came and He met with me at that moment and gave me some crucial keys from Psalm 63. He showed me that some of the keys to thriving while living in the wilderness was to ensure that my soul stayed hungry and thirsty for Him. My soul needed to be replenished by His Word daily, because being a missionary in a foreign country was like being a tender plant that needed daily care. Spending time in worship, prayer and intercession will keep me in His love. I had to develop the skill of meditating on His majesty and not on the size of my enemy. Another key was leaning upon Him and not on my own strength.
These were truly necessary keys and weapons to face the challenges that were to come. Challenges including the heartbreak of losing my mom, financial hardships, my son being rejected and bullied in school as a foreigner, the effects of immorality in the culture that our sons are exposed to in school, spiritual apathy, cultural clashes, and adjusting to a new life in Paris where God had called us to plant a church.
To be honest, as the years rolled on and we became busy in the ministry, I neglected many of these keys. Then one day our ship sailed into a “perfect storm.” The ship of our lives was crushed by the wind and the waves. My PTSD diagnoses and my husband’s uncontrollable seizures seemed to say, “You are done here, go home.” But God…He gave us Pastor Phil and Karen Bonasso. On our first Zoom call they told us that we found ourselves in a very deep pit, but that through the grace of God, the Holy Spirit would put down a ladder and that they would help us to take it step by step to climb out of this pit.
These steps became a rediscovery of the necessity of practicing the keys that the Lord had given me before. The Bonassos called it “sacred rhythms.” God so generously added more mentors to our lives whether it was my trauma counsellor or people who prayed and encouraged us to continue putting one step in front of the other!
We had to learn to become diligent in fighting the warfare according to our prophetic promises. In doing this we learned that God is not surprised by the size of the storm, and that our enemies are no match for Him. He has called us to France and His purposes will prevail. Being a missionary to France truly is a thing of BEAUTY for me - Being Earnestly And Ultimately Totally Me in this land as an ambassador of King Jesus.