Below is a Story of Transformation from Maryanne Berge. Maryanne serves as Mission’s Pastor at Forest Grove Community Church.
In Nov 2015, Darla Boese went with a FGCC vision team, to visit our long term workers in France, to pray and serve alongside the French believers and help discern how we could partner more in France. While on the trip, Russ and Marjorie invited Darla and her family to return to France to join them on a Short term team that was being planned. They would join in a 2-week evangelistic tour using music as a platform to deliver the gospel to the unreached in this region. This opportunity, was a natural step for our church to provide support to Russ and Marjorie and continue to explore how God may be calling us to serve in this unreached area of France.
Calvin and Darla were encouraged by all the support they had received for their planned trip to Southern France. Unfortunately, in April, they found out there were some logistical challenges to the Concert Tour in France and the plans have been postponed until June 2017.
Although Darla and Calvin were initially disappointed about this, it became evident that God’s timing was best and He is preparing them to join the team next June. A year seems like a long time to wait for both the Boese family and the churches in France, but this delay will give the churches in France 12 months to secure venues for the concerts, time to gather a larger team and it also gives time for the Boese’s to pray, prepare and even learn some French! In fact, just recently, Denaya, Calvin and Darla’s 11 year old daughter decided to start Late French Immersion, with her biggest motivation being the desire to communicate with the people of France.
Will you join with this family and Russ and Marjorie in prayer and support as they continue to prepare for this exciting opportunity to serve alongside the small churches in Southern France next year? Maybe God is calling you to step out and join the team next June as well! We would love to send you.