8/7/2019 Letter From Jerry

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Many years ago a Cuban and a Canadian got together topray about the Caribbean Islands. Missionaries were scatter-ing across the world but God laid a spot much closer to home ontheir hearts. In a little over a decade the mission they oundedhad moved all the way down the chain o islands to arrive inGuadeloupe, an overseas department o France. It was perhapstheir most challenging feld: fve years o street preaching withouta single convert. Today it is the department in France with thegreatest percentage o evangelical Christians. Quickly our heartswere pulled across the sea to the mainland, France, a countrynotorious or its philosophical skepticism on matters o aith. Ittoo has proved a challenging feld. Many people have labored ali etime to plant just one or two churches. This patient work hasgiven ruit. Every two weeks a new evangelical church is startedin France. We have not yet arrived at revival but the bases are

orming. Young men and women are being called by God into theministry. They sign up knowing that, at the best, the most church-es can o er is minimum wage. Many live in low income housing.Many o their wives work to support their pastor husbands. I amhumbled when I see their sacrifce or their own country. They in-vest their all in hope that God will pour out grace on this country.

We at World Team France have committed ourselves to jointheir labors. We have committed ourselves to being church plant-ers. We have committed ourselves to always be training youngmen and women or the ministry. We have committed ourselves to

networking with all evangelical works by generously sharing theresources God gives us.

To be e ective in this we need to recruit qualifed people.People resources are expensive, especially those brought romoverseas. Our desire is to invest well.

The Barrs came to us a ew years ago through one o themany prayer con erences we have organized or the country oFrance. They both elt that the Lord was calling them to servein France with World Team. We have established procedure orresponding to those who express a sense o call. Most importantperhaps is a feld visit. Here the Barrs met with veteran mission-aries. We interview many like this. Some are invited. Few come.

The Barrs were questioned frst to see i they had any graspo what they were asking to do. They were so enthusiastic thatsome o us wondered i they knew just how hard ministry can be.They convinced us that they understood very well what they weresigning up or and had no delusions about how the Lordmay use them here .

We also considered their age. We bring a young person orcouple to the feld knowing that we are going to invest literallyyears in training and developing them in the ministry. When a

couple like the Barrs come we look at what skills have alreadybeen developed. We want to know what they can o er right nowas they are; then we ask i what they have to o er is worth theinvestment. I am going to put this bluntly. We cannot a ord deadweight. We work in the desert. Everyone needs to be able to con-tribute. Age and experience can be an advantage. In the case othe Barrs, they come with a skill set that is immediatelyneeded.

Communication is a priority or us. To launch new French menand women into the ministry we need resources. To fnd thoseresources we need communication. Our church planters have thecontent but neither the skill nor the time or delivery. We need agraphic artist. We need people who can communicate passion inEnglish. We need the Barrs .

Administration is a heavy weight on the team. Praise Godwe are seeing French men and women going into the ministry.We have been able to fnd resources or them and new churchprojects in the US and other places. One o our church plantersis giving a day a week to the administration that accompaniesthese trans ers o resources. Carol has worked in this very sort oadministration in the past. We need an administrator. We needthe Barrs .

In early church plants making contact with people is a chal-lenge. Most have no interest in spiritual things but they do haveinterests. As church planters we develop non-spiritual inter-ests in order to fnd common ground with our neighbors: music,sports, the arts. The Barrs have real artistic talents. We needpeople who can use their various interests and talents to makecontact with people. We need the Barrs .

France VIE is a church planting team. We work as a am-ily each contributing things the other needs. The Barrs bring anenthusiasm that warmed us all when they were here. We needenthusiasm. We need the Barrs .

We work and pray or a church planting movement in thiscountry. We know that to multiply a church you start by multiply-

ing people. The Barrs have experience in discipleship. They arepassionate about investing in others. We need people who canreproduce their li e experience in others. We need the Barrs .

In an early stage o a church plant sometimes it eels likethe church planter does everything rom setting up chairs on aSunday morning to preaching the sermon. People are needed whocan give a hand teaching, preaching and organizing. The Barrs arenot pew sitters now. They will not be pew sitters here. We needpeople who can pitch in and help everywhere possible. We needthe Barrs .

Letter from Jerry Moyer, France Field Director, World