Learning to Walk

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“You’ll learn how to walk,” our friend Mike said as he helped us find our way in the new city. We were fresh off the train from the Paris airport and fighting off the haze of jet lag and lack of sleep as we walked through a dreary drizzle on our way to our new apartment located at the school where we would soon be learning to speak French. He had no idea how true his words were.

We had just finished a whirlwind holiday of family followed by a dizzying change of plans after our flight was cancelled and another delayed because of bad weather along the entire East coast of the US.  The first day there wasn’t a jet flying to our destination.  Day two, try two, and we were able to make the connection to our flight. Only by the grace of God was it delayed, allowing us to sprint (literally) from one end of the airport to the other to make our connection only minutes before the doors closed… only to find out on the other side that our checked bags weren’t as good as us at sprinting.

Just days before that, we were still unsure how God planned to allow us to get clearance to leave.  Two days before Christmas we were feeling confused and depressed that the funds to receive clearance were still over $20,000 short.  It was the cost of a vehicle.  That was a huge gap. We doubted. Had we been misunderstood God’s leading when we applied for language school, bought plane tickets, and packed everything, that God wanted us to leave in January?

Then we received a message that someone was willing to donate a vehicle. We were overjoyed.  But some details still remained such as how to pay for shipping and tax.  But God… He knew beforehand and had already planned not just for the vehicle but also for these costs.  The amount generously given by so many of our partners covered the estimated cost of these expenses.   The day after Christmas we received our clearance to leave.  We had doubted, but God had already gone before us and prepared all of the details. He waited until the last few moments because He wanted us to learn trust Him… to learn to walk in faith.

Now we are four weeks into learning French and feeling like babies.  It’s a new culture, a new language, a new way of, well, everything.  When you go to the store you don’t know where anything is and you don’t know how to ask for it.  Even simple tasks like mailing a letter become complicated. It’s like having to learn to walk again.

So now as we walk around this new city learning a new language and new skills, we are learning to walk more by faith day by day in the One who has called us to this mission to fulfill this task. And we trust that He will be the one to go before us and work out all of the details for now and for our future and we must learn to trust Him and do our part even when the circumstances seem hopeless and we become discouraged and begin to doubt.

Please pray for us as we continue to learn French effectively so as to be good stewards and ministers of His gospel, that we will stay focused and not become disheartened by the immensity of the task.

Please pray for all of the details of logistics so that when the time comes our vehicle and house container will arrive undamaged, expediently, and not be caught in customs or incur unreasonable costs.

Please pray for our spiritual well-being, that we would continue to grow and fellowship in a place where the church services are in a language we don’t speak well.