Moment of authenticity

There are few things in this life that will bring you to your knees like asking for financial support from others. Part of this trip is fundraising, doing yard work for donations, writing support letters, going before the congregation--

This year we have also helped sell snacks at upward basketball practices, hosted a spaghetti dinner fundraiser, and we intend to do more before June comes to a close.

And yet, even knowing that we are doing what we can, even knowing that God is in control, there is something core-rattling to look at a bank account and recognize the deficit.

So we turn to prayer.

And here's where I want to confess--it's often like that for me. I do what I can, I remind myself that God is in control, I look at the numbers...and then I pray. Not to say that we haven't been praying all along, beseeching God for His grace to pour down on us in the form of monetary donations. But as the due date looms closer, the prayers seem more urgent. More often. More desperate.

And we are desperate. Not for finances necessarily, but for the Spirit of the living God to work in us and through us in the weeks to come. We cannot do this alone. We cannot just look to a faraway God who runs the world. We cannot just keep staring at the challenge ahead. We need to I need to come before the Lord, in humility and desperation, to ask Him to work as we seek to serve Him.

And more than financial support, would our team find prayer supporters who will go before God on our behalf, asking the same.

--Monica

Spiritual Conditions in France

The spiritual conditions in France are different than those in the United States. France government is more secular than the United States due to various laws expressing the separation of church and state which does not explicitly exist in United States legislature. Also, the population of these countries who go to church is vastly different. In France, 12% of the population regularly attends church. In the United States, 39% of the population goes to church. 

Church attendance is much greater in the United States. 10% of the French population attends church nearly every week, but 40% of the American population attends church regularly. Secularism is much more prevalent in the France, which means that although sharing the gospel is important in the United States, there is also an equal, if not greater need for sharing the gospel in France. 

The religious demographics are rather varied as well. About 40% of people in France are Catholic, but less than 5% of people are Protestant. However in the US, 25% of people are Catholic and over 50% percent profess to be Protestant. There is also a greater population of atheists in France, with 13% of the population compared to less than 2% of the American population.