July 2013
Preaching Christ in
Southwest France
Mark preached in
Toulouse, Bordeaux and St. Antonin as well as
at Montauban in the
last two months. He also serves on the
Southwest regional
committee with a small group of pastors and
elders to deal with
administrative matters. The Montauban church
council, too, sees
its work as mainly administrative. Mark is
working to influence
these groups so that they love the gospel and
actively care for
people. We all need to be cared for,
strengthened in
truth and faith and not simply administered.
Ask God to
provide godly leaders for our churches.
Pray with us that
these churches would love the Gospel
and Jesus Christ and
for Mark to provide wise and godly
counsel and a godly
example to the leaders of these churches.
Health and healing
in the church
This past year, two
church members and two others regularly involved have
died; a young man
with 4 children under the age of 10 was diagnosed with ALS –
Lou Gehrig’s
disease. His body is quickly wasting away and it appears that the
short time he has
left will be quite difficult; two members of two different Bible
study groups are
being treated for brain tumors and another participant will
probably die from
cancer in the next year: all of this in a church of less than one
hundred members.
As the church prays
and struggles to trust God in the midst of this suffering and
pain, questions
naturally arise about what God wants for us in this life and why
these awful
realities are taking place. We need biblical teaching. Many believe
that God wants every
Christian to always have good health. Some are convinced
that if we pray and
believe enough, God will heal any disease. This unbiblical
belief makes life
confusing because more than making our lives better, God is at
work to sanctify us.
He is preparing us to meet him when we die. He is glorifying
himself as he shows
his grace in the midst of our pain. These different approaches
to suffering have
the potential to cause misunderstanding and division, given the
sensitive and
painful nature of the context.
Pray with us
that God would transform this painful period into a time of
growth in truth,
faith and hope for many in the Montauban church. Pray that
God would enable us
to handle the questions and teach wisely. May God grant
his Spirit to the
church to hear and receive the truth in spite of the blatant
suffering.
We thank God for you
in Christ Jesus,
Marti Mylin
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