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Staff Reports
Reports of recent Trips and Work by Godspeed Missionary Care
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Staff Missionary Reports
Reports and Experiences of the Godspeed Staff
French Connections...
"...and in Him all things hold together...""
Col 1:17
Charles De Gaulle airport, the second largest airport in all of
Europe; short on language skills and directional signs, we clear
immigration and head toward luggage retrieval and customs. Next,
the challenge: after we get our bags we are to meet, somewhere
in this huge place, a missionary couple arriving from North
Africa on another international flight. We don't know their
flight number, but they know ours. None of us is sure we all
will even come into the same terminal. We all have cell phones,
but they can't call mine without initiating an international
call to the U.S., a prohibitively expensive way to make
contact. I can call them, but I know nothing of the layout of
the airport. With no real idea of how to find them, after
finally determining what we think is the correct next
destination, we head toward luggage carousel 27 to await our
luggage. It is more than a little comforting that, while we
anxiously wait for our bags, I see our couple waiting for theirs
at the adjacent carousel, hovering over their laptop trying to
find my e-mail and our flight number so they can try to connect
with us. In the midst of literally hundreds of possible
locations in several acres of international airline terminal, we
are providentially placed about ten feet apart.
Score: God 40, confusion 0.
We meet with this couple intensively over the next three days.
They are both medically and psychologically knowledgeable and
absolutely transparent in their willingness to talk about issues
of past and present that have been causing difficulty. This
work is not tiring; it is energizing. Complex issues are
quickly dispatched. We all feel as if we have known each other
for years. Understanding and insight prevail. A plan of
future action is agreed upon. God has prepared us all to be
able to have this precious time together.
Score: God 50, chaos 0.
The director of an international branch of a large mission
agency asks to meet us for lunch. He is a fascinating,
charismatic personality of Middle Eastern origin, graduate
training in the U.S., fluent in four languages, constantly on
the go into many parts of the world as he manages and trains
cross-cultural mission teams serving in difficult access areas.
I find myself wanting to impress him, to be received with favor
by this most gifted person. He speaks of events in his ministry,
I quickly respond with my own. He describes situations in his
and his wife's lives where major political and spiritual stress
has affected them; I immediately talk about how I would deal
with such stressors. It is not until he literally has to
override my commentary that I finally hear him: "It I so hard
to find people who listen. We have never been debriefed. We
need someone to just listen to us without comment or opinion."
Score: self serving interests 81, empathy 0.
We take a train into the city of Paris; the plan is to meet a
missionary at the Gare de Lyon railway station. She has lived
in France for several years, and knowing we will struggle just
to get to the right station on the right train, arranges to meet
us trackside as we disembark. However, my need to control
results in an earlier train and a premature arrival; I decide
we should enter the terminal, get something to eat, and have
her meet us inside. I have her cell phone number and once we
have been served at the only cafe visible in this huge station
I call and describe our location. Minutes pass, no missionary.
I call back; she says she is standing in front of the cafe and
cannot see us. I offer further description of our immediate
surroundings, and wait. Still no contact. Another phone call;
we both can say we are standing in front of the same sign, Salon
Mediterranee, yet we cannot find each other. It finally dawns
that we are on different floors with similar facilities and
signage, so near yet so far apart. People with common purpose
and goal, at the same general location at the same time,
trying to make contact but unable to do so because one of
them needed to do it his way.
Score: self-will 82, surrender 0.
Evident from above: When God arranges the connections, things
go well. When I try to help Him out, things don't. Such are
the rules.
We are grateful for all the connections He has arranged in our
lives, and you count in that group. I look forward to hearing
from you.
Godspeed,
Barney
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