Oh, oh. Well, good morning. Who ordered the rain? A couple of you guys like to mow grass. I was enjoying not mowing. All right. We have a request for, well let me back up. Do you know whose birthday it is today? Anybody else? All right. It's kind of unique. Bob and Michelle. Birthday. Apparently your part. But same day. And so we know. And Mike Soto's was yesterday. So maybe we can sing happy birthday. Can we do all three? So Michelle, Bob, and Mike. How's that? We've got to get the ladies first, right? She's in the nursery, but I think maybe she can probably hear us Okay All right, can we do we I know you don't have any music so can we just what? They to you happy birthday to you happy birthday Mike Wow, all right. Yes? I was going to say, that's about as close to being in tongues in a Baptist church as you can get, right? OK. All right. Well, we got that done. Again, trust you'll take time here this morning. After the service to look at the table out there if you haven't already pick up a prayer card Bookmark, whatever else is out there that is free but would remind you to be praying for charity and I I Misspoke I said she's going back to Minneapolis today apparently changing plans going to Chicago This afternoon and is it? We're, okay, Visa, is that what we're doing? Visa tomorrow in Chicago, so all right. Just be safe. Pray for her. She's going to Chicago. If we'd known that, we'd got a, no, I'll just leave it at that. I don't know how much a bulletproof vest costs, but. Anyway, yeah, okay look over your bulletin won't take a lot of time here with that Other things coming up no life chain, and so on we'll tell you more about that next week after the morning service I I suppose we'll let you be dismissed, but we really want to jump on this business meeting quick. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes. But we need your vote to move ahead, if we're going to, on this putting in the new drives. And we'll tell you more about that then. But OK. But that's right after the morning service here. Good Saturday. Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm trying in a hurry. What's Saturday? Work day. Work day. Well, half day, all right? I'll be here by 8. I don't know if anybody else will, but we're usually done early. I say noon, but we do all the work that we can do, and then we clean the church so somebody else doesn't have to do that since we're all here. get lots of vacuums going and so on, get it done in a hurry, and then you're free to go. And if you've been on your good behavior, you get a donut to go, right? Okay, all right, good enough. I think let's move right along here today. First song is Anywhere With Jesus, 467. Charity's going to To France, we want to try to be praying for her support. Come in for that. Because when she gets there, she'll be working with the Christie's. And I'm sure that they're excited about somebody coming to help them out. So all right, 467. Well, good morning, everyone. How many of you know how to speak French? Sure you do. And what we could do to make her feel more at home is sing Pravijaka, Pravijaka, Domevu. But instead of doing that, please stand and turn to 467. And we can sing all three verses. Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go, Anywhere will He lead me in this world below, Anywhere without Him, with choice and faith. Anywhere with Jesus I am not afraid. Anywhere, anywhere, here I cannot know. Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Verse 2. Beware of Jesus, I am not alone. Other plans may fail me, He is still my own. Though His hand may lead me, over dreary ways. Anywhere with Jesus is a house of praise. Anywhere, anywhere, here I cannot know. Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Beware of Jesus over land and sea, Filling souls in darkness of salvation free, Ready as He summons Anywhere with Jesus when He points the way. ♪ Anywhere, anywhere, here I cannot go ♪ Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go And if you'd like to turn back in your hymnals to hymn number 296, I will sing the first, second, and fourth verses of Weave a Story to Tell to the Nations. A story of truth and mercy, a story of love, a story of love. Oh, the darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning of noon may rise, and Christ's great kingdom shall come to earth, the kingdom of heaven. A song that shall conquer evil and shatter darkness. and shatter the spirit's sword. For the darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning to noonday bright. And Christ's great kingdom shall come to earth, the kingdom of love and light. Fourth is last. The Savior who showed to the nations Let love's sorrow withdraw. Let all of the world's great people Might come to the truth of God. Might come to the truth of God. For the darkness shall turn to dawning, And the dawning to noonday pride. Good singing and all of God's people said amen. You may be seated. Okay. Just to mention here usually I'm doing this ahead of time, and I think I mentioned it in an email that We do take up a love offering for charity help with some of her expenses And so if you weren't aware of that you know we'll wait a week before we send it off so you can put something in the plates here next week to help with her expenses and Pray you'll continue to be praying for her as she continues to visit churches seeking to raise support and And I think most of you had gotten the letter or the email. I realize not everybody reads them. But had spent some six or six and a half years in Romania. So she'd been in Europe, kind of knows, had boots on the ground, know what it's like ministering to people. But now looking to go full time there in the country of France. And so, curiosity. Three languages. Yes. Okay, what would they be? Romanian and French are my best, and I know enough Polish to get myself in trouble. So Dave, you can try those. I was asking, do you know, anybody knows French? I took French in 7th and 8th grade. And that's been a long time ago. And about the only thing, although the Fremer Jacques did kind of ring a bell. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. But mine was Fremer Labouche, David. Back then that was, I went by Dave. That was my middle name. Anybody know what Fremer Labouche means? Yeah. Yeah. Stop talking. I didn't know French, but I knew English, and apparently I was using too much of that. Oh boy, yeah. Mrs. Bevington, what a treat. We were going to sing one more song, but we want to give Charity as much time as she needs. So, you know, you guys, this should be, we'll try to get this up this afternoon. If you weren't here in Sunday school, you missed a real treat, okay? That was good stuff. So, I don't know how it comes across, you know, the recording and everything else, but you might try to listen to that. Later, it should be, we'll try to get that up and posted for you. But she's working with Baptism in Missions, and as many of our other missionaries already on the field are, and we're looking forward to what she has to share with us here today. We'll skip that last one. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. I'm so thankful for this chance to talk to a church that loves the Christie's. I think you're only the second one I've been in that also supports them. And so I feel like I'm speaking to an audience that knows a little bit more about the background of French culture. And hopefully, that can help you connect a little better to the type of ministry that God has called me to in the country of France. My goals for this morning are to let you get to know who I am, to share a little bit more about the field of France and help you get to know the needs there. And then if we have time, a little bit of time at the end, I will take a couple questions. We'll see how far we get. So I was born in Germany. My dad was in the military. And then God called him into ministry and we moved to Missouri. And then when I was 13, we moved to Belgium. And then to Nebraska and South Carolina. And then I moved to Wisconsin and Poland and Romania. And now I'm going to France. So if you ask me where I'm from and I look at you like, oh, you will know why. I had the privilege of growing up in a home where my parents loved the Lord, and they taught me from a young age who God was. Um, I didn't, I didn't accept Christ right away because, um, in my mind, God was going to be somebody coming into my life and telling me what to do. And I don't like people telling me what to do. So I said, well, I have my parents and my teachers. I don't want God too. So I was pushing God off. And then, uh, when I was nine years old, it was a Sunday evening service. And I don't remember what the pastor was speaking on, except He closed by saying, if you were to die tonight, are you 100% sure you'd go to heaven? And I was 100% sure I wouldn't, because I knew I was a sinner. I have a younger brother, and younger brothers help you know you're sinners real fast. But I made a new excuse. I was like, oh, I'm young. I have time to figure this out. And I'm so thankful that the Holy Spirit would not leave me alone that night. My parents put my brother and I to bed and I just couldn't sleep. So finally I got up, went to their room, woke them up and said, I need to get this settled tonight. And I'm so thankful that God in His grace saved me that night. And it was a process of sanctification, as you all know. We're continually going through that. But as I learned more and more the sacrifice that Jesus gave himself to us in the sinless sacrifice and the sacrifice of God the Father sending his only son to us. And I understand that on a deeper level and still learning more and more about that in my walk with God. But I realized that God is not just someone in my life telling me what to do, but I want to thank Him for His sacrifice. I want to please Him with my life. And how can I do that? I can do that by doing the things that I know bring Him honor and glory and that He's asked us to do. And so I'm so thankful that the Christian life is not just a list of rules and regulations that we must obey, but just like my dad loves running, my dad hates peas. For Father's Day, I'm not going to give him a big plate of peas, because I know that doesn't please him. I love him. I want to please him. I will get him a running gear of some sort that he loves. So it's the same way with our Heavenly Father. gets to show him our thanks and our praise for what he's done. So I am very thankful that God saved me. I also have a younger brother. I told you that we like to do crazy things. He lives in Iowa. I love dogs. The bigger, the better. Who likes cats? I'm very sorry. I also love hiking. So these are some of the girls from my church in Romania from the team group. And these are mountains that when I walked out of my apartment, I could see out in the distance. And I love taking some of the kids from church or my students from the college and going out hiking. There's something about getting outside and sweating together that you can just talk about the things of life. And so it's a really neat time to build relationships. Talk about what God means in our life. I also love ice cream. Anything with peanut butter and chocolates, current favorite. Math was my favorite subject in school. Asked me what my favorite subject was. It was always math until I hit algebra. And I was like, nope, no thank you. I enjoy trying sports, but I'm afraid I fit the stereotype of musicians where I'm not very good at any of them. But I like trying them. I am a musician. Piano is my primary instrument, and I'm really excited that God is allowing me the chance to use something that I love to serve Him. I'll share how that comes into play a little bit later. Here's my email. Like Pastor said, I have a prayer card on the back. It has, he's got one here, I have visual aids today, I love this. It has my email, it has my phone number. I love hearing from you guys. If you have prayer requests or you have questions, feel free to send me an email. If you're on social medias, these are mine. I'm not very good at it, but I try to keep up so that people know where I'm at and where I'm going. So feel free to follow me on any of those. I already shared my salvation testimony, but like I said, it was not an overnight sanctification process. When I was 13, my family moved to Belgium, and I fell in love with the culture. Have you ever had Belgian chocolates? You understand then. So I loved their food. I liked the culture. It was beautiful. So in my 13-year-old brain, I said, how can I stay here the rest of my life? I can be a missionary. So I wanted to be a missionary, but not really for all the right reasons. And then two years later, my family moved back to the States, and that was not part of my plan. I got mad at my parents. I got mad at God. I said, God, I was going to serve you with my life, and you messed it up. Yes, I think he chuckled. He said, Charity, I've got some things that I need to teach you. So fast forward, I was getting ready for my senior year of college. I was studying teaching piano. My plan at this point was to go on and get my master's in piano performance and start a piano studio here in the States. And I had the chance to counsel at a Christian camp down in Louisiana. I know it's very, very far from you all here, but it's very hot and humid down there. But the Lord used this summer in my life dramatically. The very first week he started working in my heart saying, Charity, you need to surrender to do whatever I want you to do with your life. And my stubborn streak came out and I was like, God, I'm here as a counselor. I'm here to help my campers. I don't have time for this. And once again, the Holy Spirit was patient and kept working in my heart. And one morning chapel service, the preacher was speaking from Exodus 3 and 4. where God appears to Moses in the burning bush, says, go to Pharaoh, tell him to let my people come worship me in the wilderness. And Moses doesn't just say yes, sir, and march off to Egypt. He makes three, four different excuses about how he's not capable, or he can't speak well, or they're not going to believe him. And God faithfully shows himself strong in answer to each of these excuses Moses comes up with. And then he says, okay, I'm sending Aaron to go help you. And the preacher said, well, I wonder how God might have shown himself even more powerful in Moses' life if he'd said yes that first time instead of making all those excuses. He said, I think there's some people here who need to stop making excuses and say yes to God. And then he said, I think there's some counselors here who need to stop making excuses. And I said, who gave you my number? So right after Morning Chapel was the game where all the counselors go hide and the campers go find them. Have you all been to camp where you played that game? They're looking at me with blank stares. You need to go to better camp. I'm just joking. So ironically, my hiding spot was in a bush. So I'm sitting in this bush, and I have about 20 minutes to myself with no campers. And I said, all right, God, I am done making excuses. Take my life. You use it. You direct it how you want. And that was very terrifying for me because I like to know three, four, five steps down the path what my life is going to look like. But at the same time, it was extremely freeing to know that the sovereign God of the universe was now in control of my life. And he can see the future and he knows what is going to be best for me and what his plan is. And so I was placing my life in his plan then. And I, like I said, I had no idea, no idea what it would look like, but I was pretty sure it was nothing I had planned. So I went, I finished school and then I went to Northland Baptist Bible College, not too far from you all up in the woods of Wisconsin. Studied biblical counseling because I realized I needed to understand how people think. and how we can work through issues of life and see what the Bible says about them. As a music major, especially a pianist, we spend lots of hours by ourselves in a room practicing. So I needed people skills. So I did that. I graduated. I still had no idea what God wanted me to do. So I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Poland with Northland. And we worked with a couple there for three months. We worked with their preschools and their camps, and they have a really unique ministry. They have preschools where all of the staff and the teachers are believers, and they can minister to those families that bring their children to the preschools, and they're known as some of the best preschools in the areas that they're at. And their big draw is that they have a native English speaker in the classroom along with the main Polish teacher. Because all the Polish want their children to learn English. And most countries do start teaching their first language in preschool. And so it was really neat. I loved it. Went back home, still had no idea what God wanted me to do. So I worked at my church for a year, and a few months into that year, this missionary couple that I had gone on a mission trip with called me up and said, hey, would you be one of our English teachers? And it's a paid position, they have housing, and that was one of my easiest yeses. It was so cool to see how God was bringing me back to Europe, not in any of the ways I had imagined, but in His plan. And so this was my first step back into missions, back into Europe. And so I worked with them for a year, teaching English in their preschool. and really, really loved it. Loved the couple I was working with, loved all my little students, but I didn't get to use music at all. There was not even a piano I could practice on. And I started to pray and I said, God, you have paid for all of these lessons through the years. You paid for college. I feel like you want me to use this somehow. So can you show me what you want? And in my mind, again, I was making all these steps for God. In my mind, I was thinking a new church would start in Poland and I could help out with the music. And around Christmas, a family friend called me up and said, we're starting this Bible college in Romania. Would you pray about coming down and leading the music department? And I was like, Sarah, I laughed. And I was like, no, can't do that. And he said, well, pray about it, Charity. And those are his famous last words, because if he tells you to pray about something, he probably already prayed about it a lot, and that means you probably need to do it. But I said, okay, I'll pray about it. So I did, and I realized, you know, this really is God's direct answer to the prayer. I was just asking him how to use my music, and then he brings this opportunity. So I took a weekend, I drove down to Romania and visited the college, visited the team that was there. One of the families involved in the college was also sent out of my same sending church. So that was a really good connection and said, yes, I'll do this. I'll stay for a couple of years and then we'll go from there. So I moved down the following fall and started teaching with them, working in the local church with this family from my church, from my sending church. and really, really loved it. There was so much I didn't know, so much that God had to teach me. But through this ministry of teaching at the college, one of the opportunities we had was to take our students on tours around Europe and around Romania to give sacred concerts. And we had a couple of reasons for this. One was we were a ministry college, and so we wanted our young people to see ministries that are different from the ones they're used to. And then we also wanted to be an encouragement to these pastors and missionaries. And they were more often than not an encouragement to us. But I started to hear a few things over and over. And one was that They wanted someone to come to their area to teach people how to do music in their church, because for a multitude of reasons. Maybe the pastor was the only one. He did everything. That's a lot for one person. Or their pianist, one church had a pianist who knew five songs, so they sang the same five songs every single Sunday. Some have no instrumentalists in their church at all, so they sang acapella. And sometimes that's beautiful, and other times it's not. And so I started wondering if God wanted me to help churches in a larger way than just teaching at the school I was at. And another thing that we started hearing over and over was people coming up to us and saying, I've been inviting my family member, my co-worker, my neighbor to church for a long time and they came tonight. because it was a concert and heard the gospel. And it gives an opportunity for people in the church to start building gospel-centered relationships with this new person. And so I started seeing the tool that music can be also as introducing the gospel to people. And I'm going to go into that a lot more here in a minute, but we're going to watch a short video and then I'll talk about France and then go more into music. Okay, that's fine. I don't talk for a few seconds. Growing up, I had this idea of what missions was or who missionaries were, these great pillars of Christianity who went to foreign countries and planted churches. And then when I was 13 and 14, my family had the opportunity to move to Belgium and work with the church there for a couple of years. And I got to see what missions was in real life. I saw that missionaries are just people like you and me, saved by grace, who have chosen to follow God's leading them into a different country or a different type of ministry. I got to see that daily life on a mission field is the same as daily life anywhere. There are many aspects to working in a local church. and missions is part of being involved in many of those aspects. As I've had the opportunity to visit churches in many different countries, one of the primary things that I've observed is a lack of understanding the role music should play in the local church. As opposed to having a well-known philosophy and basis for why they sing what they sing. They use it as just an element of tradition or something that they enjoy doing. And my desire is to come alongside the national teachers as they teach their students how music can be used to teach a deep doctrine to these church members, how it can help them have have good things to be thinking about and singing about as they go about their daily tasks. And how a pastor can choose specific songs to bring home points that he's trying to teach his people. And as the students do this and they see the change that it brings into their churches, they can understand that music is something that is not just a nice thing to use in our church. It's not just something Christ has said we should use. But they can see why, they can see how it develops these deep relationships, how their relationship with Christ can grow stronger. And now what this looks like in a jungle church in Africa or the suburb of Paris is going to be completely different. But nonetheless, they are all based on those same basic principles and philosophy of worship that Christ outlines. I am very excited to be a part of taking the Gospel message and the principles God's Word teaches to France with Baptist mid-missions. Often people think of Europe as a Christian continent, but sadly in recent decades it has turned far from God's Word. In France, evangelicals only make up a tiny 1% of the population, with atheists coming in at over 50% and Islam growing rapidly. My desire is to partner with a local church ministry in spreading the gospel by building relationships with the people I meet around me. I'm excited for the opportunity to use my counseling background to help people work through the challenges of life and make decisions based on scripture. I'm also looking forward to using all of my previous experience as a missionary teaching church music principles in Romania to help local churches and Bible institutes in France and the surrounding countries. I will work to build relationships with these different organizations and churches in order to offer training and resources to them in the area of church music. One of the primary reasons that I work with indigenous teachers, as opposed to becoming a primary teacher in a Bible college myself, is the fact that these teachers understand the culture that the students are coming from. And while churches all over the world celebrate the same doctrines and we worship the same God, the cultures differ widely. When I'm talking about culture, I'm talking about the shared traditions and experiences of a group of people living in the same area. These indigenous teachers are often doing the best that they can with the resources that they currently have. But many of them don't have the time or the finances to go away and get extra training in the areas that they would like to learn more about. So my goal is to come alongside these teachers, to mentor them, to offer them the resources that I can offer them and enable them to better teach these foundational truths of church music to their students. I want you to take a minute and think back to the person who inspired you to live like Christ. Or think about a person who came alongside you as you were going through a trial or a rough period in your life. The indigenous teachers in these Bible colleges around the world are being just that person for their students. My goals are to equip these national teachers and pastors to teach the next generation of Christian leaders and local church laymen in the area of church music, and to shine the light of God's redeeming love into the darkness and fear that overwhelms many precious people in France. This is what God has called me to. the path that God has led me to, and I'm excited to serve him in this way. Well, there's a lot that I'm going to say about France that you might already know, so I'm sorry about that repetition. One of the things that is very different for me working in Western Europe as opposed to Eastern Europe is the boundary that people put up, the wall they put up when you start talking about anything religious. And this has its roots in the 1960s, in France especially, when we were having our hippie movement here in the States. They were having a rebellion of their own, but it was against organized religion. They had seen too much hypocrisy in the Catholic Church, and they came to the agreement that if you want to believe something, great, if I want to believe something, great, but we don't talk about it. And so fast forward 60 years and you can imagine how that mentality has impacted the culture today. There's been a lot of laws laid out in the past 5 to 10 years that are specifically restricting religious activities in public places. For example, there was a law, I think it was about 5 years ago, could be more now, that was put in place that bans anything religious from the school system. So you can't wear a shirt that says, I love Jesus. You can't bring your Bible. This was put in place and advertised as being a restriction to the Islamic groups coming in. And so like their women couldn't wear hijab. They can't bring their Quran to school. But the wording is so general in all of these that it can be applied to any religious group. I think three years ago now, they made the law that any child living in France, starting at three years of age, must be in the French school system. And again, they said, we don't want the extremist Islamic groups educating their children at home. But this now applies to every single child. They must be in that French system. And the French school system is known to be one of the most secular in the world. And so it's inundating the children with the secular mentality. A friend who is a missionary in Nice, France, told me a story that helps illustrate this mentality that the French have against speaking the gospel with them. She said when she travels by train, she likes to bring a physical copy of the Bible, because sometimes that will start conversations with people. And so she was sitting in the train, there was one other lady who was probably in her early 30s, and Christy was reading her Bible, and the other lady wasn't taking any hints. She wasn't taking the bait. And so Christie said, well, I guess I need to start this conversation. So she asked the lady, have you ever read the Bible? And the lady got very offended and said, you don't talk about that. That is rude. And that is the general ideology of people. We don't talk about religion. That's rude. And so we have to find unique tools and unique ways to introduce them to the gospel. And music is such a neat tool for that. We'll talk about that a lot more later. But there is an encouraging trend among your college-age young people on down where they're willing to talk about why they believe what they believe. Most of them are going to claim either atheism or agnosticism, whether or not they actually understand what that means wholly, but they'll claim that. But they're willing to say, hey, this is why I believe this, or listen to me explain why I believe what I believe. And so as I finish up my language study, I'm Lord willing going to be doing that in the university in Bordeaux. And this is going to give me a good chance to rub shoulders with this age group. and hopefully start building relationships that will allow us to talk about the gospel among this age group that is open to having these conversations. So that is an encouraging trend. I visited the Christie's in 2022, June of that year. And there was another family who was also visiting with them. And they set up a time for us to go to the church that they started in Bordeaux proper. which they turned over to the national pastor. I think it's been at least 10 years now. And they set up a time for us to go and talk to this pastor, Florent, and one of his deacons, and just ask questions about ministry in France. And one of the questions we asked was, in your experience, how long does it take from meeting someone to seeing them come to know Christ as your savior? And the deacon that was there was probably in his late 60s. And he said, well, in my experience, 20 to 30 years. We said, oh my, tell us about this. So he said, well, first you have to build a relationship with them. They're not going to listen to anything you say unless they have a relationship with you. And if I were to go to lunch with you all tonight or this afternoon, I would say, oh, I made new friends. That's not how it works in France. It takes a lot longer time before they're going to say, oh, Charity's my friend. So first you build that relationship, and then you share the gospel with them. And they say, no, I want nothing to do with that. We're not friends anymore. He said, you go through this process until they realize that you are going to be their friend, whether they like what you say or whether they don't. And he said, it's at that point that you can really start evangelizing them. You can live your life alongside of them, show how the gospel influences your life, and then, Lord willing, see them come to know Christ. So France is not an easy country to minister in, but as the statistics showed, less than 2% know Christ as their Savior. And this is a country that has a lot of unrest. It has very open secularism. And so they need Christ, and they need the hope and the joy that He can bring. And so I'm very excited that God is leading me to go there and use the tool of music that he has given me. You all know these people. So Ed and Sylvia Christie are going to be my ministry mentors for my first term there in France. I loved getting to know them. As you all probably know, they're an extremely sweet couple. They're far more French than they are American now. And it was really exciting for me, I was talking with Maureen earlier, it was exciting for me to see their ministry pattern. That they're going, they're starting this new ministry out in Samidakh, and it is seven, eight years old? Something like that? Yeah. And so that was two years ago when I went to visit them. So it was still very much in its early stages. And it was so refreshing and exciting for me to watch them leading the church, but leading it in such a way that nobody knew they were leading it. They would see all the nationals leading it. And that's such a beautiful pattern. It enables them to be able to turn it over to national leadership. That was encouraging because that is our goal as missionaries. It's not to come in and save France, but it's to help people find Christ and lead their own people to Christ. And so seeing their ministry ethic was really exciting. I'm excited to learn from them. They've invited me to stay with them while I look for an apartment. So that's nice. I don't have to get an Airbnb somewhere. So I'm looking forward to that and visiting in their churches and learning from their many years of experience. And this is the longest walking street in Bordeaux. And right here you can see the little McDonald's sign. If you want a funny story about McDonald's in France, ask me later. But if you were to look at this, Let's say there's a hundred people on the street. One, maybe two know Christ as their Savior. So this helps you to get a picture. These are real people who are walking through life without a hope of eternity. And the work that the Christies are doing is shining that light, and I'm excited to be having them as my ministry mentors. I will be living in Bordeaux, which is about 30 minutes from Saint-Médard, where they minister. And so we're going to get together regularly, weekly, for meetings, for discipleship, encouragement, and things like that. So I'm looking forward to that. Oh, another thing that I forgot to mention. In France, are you guys familiar with the term the 1040 window? I think it's 10 degrees. What lines go horizontal around the globe? Is that longitude? Did I write it down? Latitude. Haha, yes. So it's the space 10 degrees latitude and 40 degrees latitude that goes around the world. And that swath of the world contains 90% of the unreached people groups. So that goes through a lot of North Africa, the Middle East, most all of Asia. If you think that geography. That's 90% of the world's unreached people groups. France has a lot of those people groups who come to France as refugees or for education because a lot of the former French colonies in Africa still have a connection with France where they can come to the universities and have the same benefits as a French citizen where they can do them for free. And so we get a lot of the North African people coming up. Bordeaux is a big university city. They call it the little Paris of the South, and that's one reason. We get a lot of refugees from the Middle East coming. And so Yes, we're there to reach the French people, but we have this really unique opportunity to meet a lot of these people groups that it would be really hard for someone who looks like me to go to the country that they're in and tell them about Christ. So most French churches look very, very diverse ethnically, and it's really cool. I think it's a beautiful picture of what heaven will be. But it's neat. We can reach them while they're here, while they're in school, and then they're going to go back home. And so we want them to find Christ before they go home, and then they can bring him to their own countries. So that's another neat opportunity in France. But if you've been following along, you might be like, all right, Charity, what about music now? So Kevin Bowder is a modern day theologian, and he I lost my part here. Okay. He says, music is a key element that is capable of expressing worship and instructing the saints. It must be taken as seriously in its own right as praying or preaching. And in Sunday school, I shared the three ways that we use music in our corporate worship. And we're now going to have a quiz. Who remembers them? I'm joking. I will tell you. So the first one is what we all first think of. We worship God through our music. You think of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and then the song of Miriam. She turns around and praises God. You think of Moses' song where he shares all these wondrous works that God has done to the Israelites throughout their time. You see the song of Mary in the New Testament. There's lots of them where you see people who see a miraculous event or God reveals himself to them in a certain way and they often turn around and worship him through song. And that's something we get to do when we gather together we are singing the same words at the same time as a group worshiping God in this way. Then we can grow stronger relationships with God as a believer through our music because it sticks in our head. Repetition aids learning, right? So as you have little phrases from songs you've sung during the week or listened to on your own time, and those are going through your head, that repetition is going to be teaching you. And it's very important that we think about what we are being taught. Is this actually doctrinally sound? Is it telling us truths about who God is? And in France, where people are going around often not seeing another Christian all week, having music that they can think of in their workplace, in school, at home, that reminds them that God is strong, that God does love them, that He is all-powerful, is so important to keep them encouraged and reflecting on God throughout the week. And then we can evangelize through music. And I already shared how God showed me this during the travels that my choir in Romania would go on, and how people are willing to come to a musical event, and how this can be used as a chance to introduce them to the gospel. It's not an end to a means. Did I say that right? I'm always saying little phrases wrong. But that idea, it's the beginning of something. Hopefully when so-and-so's neighbor comes to church, all the rest of you go over and introduce yourselves and start building a relationship where they can see other Christians than just the neighbor who invited them. And that's what our goal in France is. Most people will still go to church on Easter and Christmas. You'll ask them why and they're like, I don't know, it's just what we always do. The Catholic tradition there is still holding strong. So a lot of Bible preaching churches will try and think of ways that they can make these services extra special so that neighbors and friends and family will want to come to their service as opposed to the mass down in the middle of town. I'm getting very much ahead of myself. We'll revisit that thought here in just one second. But music used as a tool in evangelism is very important. So I'm going to be working with a group called Eccle Musica. Ekklesia is the Greek for church and musica. So our goal is to serve local churches. And we are a group that serves all of French-speaking Europe, which includes not just France, but also Luxembourg, Belgium, and Switzerland. They all have French-speaking churches and Bible institutes in all of those countries. And so our goal is to serve them. in the area of church music, helping them to use it in an intentional way to do those three things that I mentioned just a minute ago. This is Christie Colas. So my parents told me I have too many Christies in my life. I'm working with the Christies and then Christie, so. I get him confused. It's okay. She started this association about 10 years ago, and it's a group of, including myself, I think there's three missionaries, and then seven to eight nationals from these four countries who serve on it. Christy currently is the only full-time member, and the other members do an excellent job of serving in the time that they have, giving us really invaluable advice of, yeah, this is going to work here. No, no, that's not going to work in France. Or this is things that our churches need. So they're really a vital part of our group. But they need more help. There are so many projects that we have on the board. getting started, but we're not able, they're not able to put the time in to completing those or reaching out to getting to all the churches that have asked for help in certain areas. They're just not the personnel to do that. And so I was, I'm going to back up in my story. I was in Romania I told them I'd come for a couple of years. A couple of years turned into almost seven. By the end of that time, I was sure that God wanted me to do missions long term and that he wanted me to use music as a tool. I had no idea where though. And there was the school in Romania was getting to the point where some of my students needed to be taking over my responsibilities there. And so it was time to move on. And so I joined Baptist Midmissions and said, this is the area God wants me to serve in. I don't know what field. So they put me in touch with lots of people and then finally one person asked if I'd heard about the school in France and I said no I hadn't but that sounds very interesting because I've lived 14 years of my life in Europe. I thought that would be an easier transition than I think I was looking at the Dominican Republic at the time. And so they put me in contact with the Christie's. This was my first introduction to them and another couple who teach up at the camp in Alcranche. And they didn't need a music teacher at the camp, but they said, you need to talk to Christie. And then I talked with another missionary and they said, you need to talk to Christie. I was like, who's this Christie? So finally we got to, we had our schedules mixed. And so we had a zoom call. It was neat to hear her burden. It's the exact same burden that God had given me. And I said, well, I don't really think France needs two people doing the exact same thing on two sides of France. Do you need help? She said, yes, I've been praying for help for years. because she had two helpers who had done a lot, but one of them had two little boys, so she was very busy at home, and then another was taking on a pastoral position somewhere, and so she needed extra help. So I'm really thrilled to be able to join this neat team, to join them in helping to facilitate a lot of their vision, a lot of the projects we already have going on the ground. So some of those, we have PianoDoc. Doc stands for a very long word in French that I struggle saying, d'accompagnement, means accompaniment. So this is an online program that teaches people to accompany for church. In France, you kind of have this great divide. You have people who've gone to music school and do music well, and then you have everybody else. There's not really the opportunities that we have here in America where someone can go get an hour lesson every week at the music store or the neighbor down the street. That's not a thing. They love music in France, but they look and say, oh, the professionals need to do that. And so this leads to a lot of churches having nobody who can do any musical accompanying. Or maybe they are self-taught and struggle reading notes or something like that. And this program is to help fill in the gaps, taking people who have willing hearts to serve their church, but not necessarily the skill set. And we'll equip them with the skill set. So each of the students who goes through this online program has a coach. And as a piano teacher, this is something I'll be very involved with. And we listen to the videos that they submit and give them feedback. And right now we're working on equipping some of the pianists in these local churches to be the head coach for people in their church. And working to organize some master classes with with these coaches, coaching the coaches basically. And so I'm excited to be involved in some of that. We have something that I talked about. Yes, I have pictures. These are pictures from a conference I went to back in October. I talked a lot about this in Sunday school. This is a family conference that we do every other year, so the next one will be in 2025. We had over 100 people attend, which is really exciting. They were from all four of these countries, representing over 30 different churches. And for me, I just loved getting to know these people. I was thankful I had the chance to go and to see the different church cultures, to hear the needs that they have in their church, to hear their burdens for their communities, for their families. This young man, This is his mom. His parents came up to us at the end of the week and they said, thank you for hosting this. Their son who's 17, he was getting tired of practicing his instruments. And this week he came up and he said, I'm so glad that I still play violin because I got to play Christian songs with friends. And this is so important, all of you people who have musical skills, that you get involved. It gives you a reason to practice, for sure. And so one of our burdens is to get young people like this involved in the music of their churches, to have their churches catch a vision for this, to use them. I shared a couple stories in Sunday School, so I won't rehash all of those here, but It was really exciting to see how God used this week in the lives of these people. There's already been a conference up in north of France that was a result of one of these churches inviting some of the team members from Ecole Musica to come up and teach their church on the importance of worship and intentional worship and looking at songs throughout Scripture and saying, hey, do the songs we sing match what we see in Scripture? And then there's been some requests for other churches. There's some choral workshops that people would like us to come and do. So Christy went and did one a couple months ago. And Lord willing, I'm planning to do one next year. So we shall see how my French is going at the moment. But going back to that Christmas and Easter thing, you have maybe, like in Bordeaux, there's three solid churches. One was started by the Christies, and the other two were started by other BMM missionaries about 30 to 40 years ago. And they're all under national leadership. now but sometimes they will compile all of their resources for a Christmas production because one church has five sopranos and the other church has the bass and the tenor and so they all come together and compile their resources and they can reach out to Ecle Musica and say hey we're doing a Christmas program what can we sing what music is out there In America, if you want to sing Silent Night, you Google Silent Night and you have like 200 options that are going to pop up. You don't have that so much in France. And so Ecole Musica is compiling a music library that we are putting online and making available to churches to borrow from there, and they can call and say, hey, we have five sopranos and a bass, what can we sing? And so we'll help them look through the music and say, hey, we can adapt this to work for your church and help in tools in that sense. Because most all of the pastors, all the leadership in these churches works a full-time job. And so they don't have a lot of extra time to be poring over what resources might be in the deep recesses of the internet. And so we're saving them time and helping to enhance their churches in these ways. Some of my personal responsibilities, like I told you, I'll be coaching that piano workshop, doing some choral workshops, helping with this online database. Christy Kolos has lots and lots of music that has been given to her from people all over. Some of it is handwritten. Some of it you can barely read. Some of it is not good musically, or some of it is not good theologically. And so she is working to look through all of that, to sift through it. and to find what is going to be good resources and make those available and so I'll be helping her with that. Sometimes that means we have to put it into this program called Finale so people can read it and that takes a lot of time but I'm excited to be able to help her with that. And long-term, I would love to teach in Bible institutes, teaching some modulars on the importance of music in our churches, maybe just actual music theory or techniques. And that's going to be a process of getting to know people, then getting to know me. But I love college-age young people. That's one of my favorite groups to work with. And so I am really excited. Let's see. Yes, I'm really excited to be at 98% support. I am thrilled that God has provided and that I am looking actively at going and Lord willing in October. So like pastor said, Monday I'm going down to Chicago to have my visa interview. So I would appreciate your prayers for that. that I would have all the right paperwork, because it's a stack, and that I would find favor in the French government's eyes and they'd grant me that visa. They said, what is your, on the application, I had to write when my departure date was. So I wrote October 31st. So we shall see. Praying that God brings in that last 2% and a visa so that I can leave on October 31st. And I'm really thrilled. This QR code is for Pray 938, which is something that Baptism Admissions has started. If you scan this, it's an app, or I have a booklet on my table that also takes you through 30 days of specific prayer requests for missions. We have one lady who has it. Hold it up high. This is it. Okay, this is it. Pray 938, it's from Matthew 938. Pray the Lord of the harvest that he would send labors. And so it takes you through like praying for families and different churches and it takes you to different parts of the world, praying through Asia or Europe. And sometimes I know I'm a missionary and I get stuck saying, bless that missionary and help them today. And I don't know what else to pray. And so this is to help us pray more specifically. You can use it in your family. You can use it in your personal time in your church. And so feel free. I have more than what I have out there. So if I run out, just let me know and I can go get more. But please pray for us. Pray for me. Pray for missions. I'm also finishing language study here in the States and getting ready to start that back up once I land in France. I'm conversational. I would say I have about 70%. So I have a little bit more before I'm fluent. So just pray that that would stay in my head and that I can use it and understand what people are saying to me. Before I close, does anyone have any questions you'd like to ask? Yes, sir. Now in regards to the dialects in France, I imagine there's a number of them. Does that pose any of a problem for you? view of France, I would say we could equate it to being more like a southern accent or a northern accent. It's not going to be so different that I will not know what they're saying. They might use some different words. And also having all the African French languages being spoken, they use a different accent too. So the accent is going to give me an issue for sure. But most of the time the vocabulary is the same. So you're familiar with what the Christie's used? Yes. Yeah. So Bordeaux is called the Little Paris of the South, which means it's very close to Parisian French. It's not, they don't talk quite so fast. Praise the Lord. But yes. And there's a, do you all know what a chocolatine is? It's like a croissant with chocolate in it. There's a big, argument in France. Some places call it a chocolatine, other places call it a pain au chocolat. And if I were to go into a... I forgot the English word, patisserie. Thank you. A pastry shop and order a chocolatine, but in this area of France, you call it a pain au chocolat. They will say, we don't have any of those. So I better hurry up and learn real fast what Bordeaux uses, because those are good. What other questions do you have? Yes, ma'am? The other French-speaking countries that you work with, do they have the same propensity towards atheism and monsticism? Is there any way that they perhaps might be a positive influence? Yeah, so Switzerland would be the most Christianized. Which one? Switzerland. Yeah. Belgium, Luxembourg follows very much France. Belgium has a bit more German influence. So it's not, I don't feel like they have things banned in schools as much. But it's still very secular. So yeah, Switzerland is the one that has the most churches. It has the strongest influence for Christ. So yeah. Like our, at the, I'm sorry, Pastor. At the camp, our choir director was from Switzerland, and he did some of the workshops too, and very, very excellent. Those are mostly Islamic. So they're, yes, yes. So they were French colonies, but they're, yeah, there's, they are bringing Islam to France. Pastor? $120. Yes, a month. Yes, monthly. And I'm on the way. I'm trusting that God does that by October 31st. I have two other questions. How long have you been on deputation? And with all your culinary exposure, what is your most favorite? Would you say as far as Oh, he's asking me a hard question. Yes, they do. So I've been on deputation for a little over two and a half years. I was doing I was finishing up grad school at the conservatory down in Kansas City, my first year on deputation. So it took a little while to get going. Eastern Europe, my favorite would be. Oh, that's a hard question. Probably pierogies, Polish pierogies. Love them. In France, it's the bread. Bread and cheese and butter. Yes, sir? Have you been to Italy at all? I've been to visit, yes. That's still very Catholic. Yes, so Italy, Poland, Romania, they're all still very religious. Catholic, or Romania was Russian Orthodox, which is similar to Catholicism. Well, it makes it easier and harder to have conversations. They're willing to talk about Jesus. You just have to make sure you define all your terms because when they think of Jesus or the crucifixion or Easter or anything like that, they're going to have a different backstory to that. So it's important to define your terms, but it's easier to start a conversation. Yes. Yeah. What else? Well, feel free to stop by my table and pick up any of that stuff. And then just in closing, God gave me the tool of music. God has given all of you a tool of some sort. You younger ones, maybe you're not quite sure what that might be yet. Talk to those who know you well and say, hey, what do you think? the tool God is giving me might be. But then ask yourself, how am I using this for the gospel? Maybe some of you are prayer warriors. We need prayers. Maybe some of you are successful businessmen and you can be the senders that help get us to the field. Maybe some of you are musicians and God wants you to use your music in missions or nursing or teaching or electronics. There's so many different ways, but God has given us all a tool and he's given us all the great commission to go. So ask yourself, what are you doing to send or to go yourself? Thank you so much, Pastor. you say 125 120 Wow okay how about we we sing a closing song 297 297 I love to tell the story. You could do it in English or French. You could understand. You just need to do it, right? 297. First and last. of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love, I love to do so. ♪ I love to tell the story ♪ ♪ To be with Him, glory ♪ ♪ To tell the old long story ♪ ♪ Of Jesus and His Father ♪ ♪ I love to tell the story ♪ ♪ Of those who go and rest ♪ ♪ Seem hungry and thirsty ♪ ♪ To hear and like the rest ♪ ♪ And when it seems so boring ♪ ♪ I sing a new song ♪ ♪ Tell me the old story ♪ ♪ That I have also known ♪ ♪ I love to tell a story ♪ ♪ And even in the morning ♪ Amen. Let's close with a prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing Cherokee to come to be with us today to give us a glimpse of the ministry of music and the importance of it there in France. And Lord, we pray that we continue to meet our needs, safety in her travels, not just to Chicago, but down there and meeting with a French consulate, getting her visa and paperwork ready to go, the additional support that's needed. and other contacts that she has between now and the end of October. I pray that that might be a realistic date for her to go. I pray to continue to help her as she's wanting to get better at her language, use of the language, and the contacts that she'll make when she gets there. Sounds like there's a lot of work ready for her when she gets there. And we continue to give her the strength and adjustment that are required through that. That will lead her to find a place to live when she gets there. We just, it's been a special day. We thank you for, again, helping us to enjoy her music and give us our thoughts centered on you, and how you can use the music to reach out to others. We may not all be musicians, but Lord, we can still speak. Help us to be busy about sharing the gospel with those who still need to hear. Pray that you'd guide us in our business meeting here to follow, so that your will might be accomplished in what is said with them there. We thank you, Jesus. Amen. OK, can we give you five minutes? We do need some of you to come back, because we're both running $49,000. Oh, my goodness. All right. So, so Yes. Oh, yeah.