How did we end up in Aix?
Tasha’s French studies took her to Aix-en-Provence, France during the fall of 2004. While there she was able to find an English-speaking Christian community called the International Christian Community of Provence or ICCP. What a blessing! Tasha was unsure if she would be able to find other believers while studying abroad, let alone a thriving spiritual community like ICCP. She was able to delve into community and experience God’s amazing presence half a world away. Adam came to visit Tasha during her stay in France, where he was able to witness first hand this loving community. While in France Tasha was struck by the spiritual need as well as the amazing hope there is for France! When Tasha returned home, we began speaking of how we could support this ministry. We weren’t sure if it would be financially, through prayer, or maybe even with our presence there.
Originally the idea of leaving our friends, family and church community seemed scary and impossible. At the time, the possibility of moving to France seemed even less appealing to Adam who wanted to remain comfortable which moving to a foreign speaking nation would not provide! But through prayer and the Holy Spirit, God started to slowly soften his heart to the idea of European missions. Adam was growing excited at the possibility of being freed up to share with people the love and grace God had so graciously lavished on him. But still questions remained for him of weather we were needed in Aix. Could God use us there? Was there a need?
Our tipping point was when Andi, a member of the ICCP staff, came to visit us in Philadelphia. She came to visit with us and to share that she and ICCP wanted us to be there. They needed help! After some prayer we knew that this was God’s call on our lives. We began the process of joining Christian Associates International, the missions organization that all those in Aix when through.
Christian Associates accepted us in the summer of 2006. As missionaries we knew that we had to raise our own support, which seemed like a daunting task. God was faithful, however, and rose up a support team in less than three months! We are so grateful for this team that God has put in place.
We left for France making a one-year commitment. However, shortly after arriving it was clear God was calling us to stay longer. We had entered into relationships and were just getting settled and realized that we couldn’t leave after only one year. We have accepted God’s call to stay in Aix-en-Provence for however long He calls us here.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
How Tasha came to faith in Christ
What is the story of your coming to faith in Jesus Christ?
The process of becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ has been a long one. I believe God has been pursuing me for a long time. I grew up with my mom and my sister (three years younger). We did not talk about God in our household. We went to a couple churches occasionally, one Quaker and the other Methodist, but nothing that affected my life drastically. My dad left our family when I was in third grade and I had a lot of hurt from that. When I was in eighth grade I met a good friend named Kate Holler. Her father was the pastor of a local church. I began spending time with her family, learning more about her beliefs. I was completely intrigued. Kate's older sister attended a group called Young Life, a Christian outreach to high school students. As we were coming into our freshman year, she recruited us to come out to Young Life. I began attending regularly and forming relationships with amazing leaders that I still am very close with today. I decided to go to a "Winter Weekend" retreat. This was the first time I had heard the story of what Jesus did for us. I saw a video of Him walking to His crucifixion and felt touched to the very depths of my soul. I began crying- the kind of crying in which snot pours out of your nose and you are making weird noises. My leaders were on either side of me praying and comforting. I consider this point to be my "ah ha" moment. I got it. This was not the end of the story, however. Since then I have been slllloooooowwwwllllyyy giving over things to God- letting Him take more and more control of my life. In high school I was still battling with how much I was going to let God take over. I continued to go to Young Life, however pulled away when it came to making any big changes for Jesus. I drank with my friends, concerned myself with boys, etc. My senior year was a low point. I realized that we were leaving high school soon and wanted to be part of the parties, etc. I met my husband that year as well. I fell head over heels. He was not in a committed relationship with Jesus at this time, however truly seeking. Adam and I were talking about our spiritual questions. I was able to guide him to a tape series from our church that talked a lot about his fundamental questions. We began attending Valley View together regularly. We continued to give things up to God in our relationship. That summer I was baptized. I was able to get up in front of my community and let them know that I loved Jesus and I wanted Him to have my life. I left for college that year and continued to grow in my relationship with God. I spent time with Him, learning more about Him and trusting Him more. The next summer I was feeling an uneasiness in my soul concerning my relationship with Adam. I was concerned that Adam was relying on me too much for his relationship with Jesus. After talking to Adam about this we decided to take a break. I was devastated. I wondered why God was doing this but decided to put all of my trust in Him. During that time amazing things happened. Adam had a profound experience with God at Creation, a Christian type woodstock, which I am sure he will share in his application. I continued to pray through this painful time. God called us to get back together. I believe Adam needed to have this experience and couldn't have it with me by his side because his focus would have been on me. My relationship with Adam took on a new level at that point. We understood that God was the most important thing. The experience taught me that I could trust God- His ways are higher than my own. I was also given the opportunity to give up the most important thing or person (Adam) to me for God, in which I did and He blessed me for it. Since that summer, I consider myself fully devoted to Christ. He is my all. I love Him; I want to serve Him with my life. He has access to all parts of my life. He has healed me from deep emotional scars particularly my father's desertion. He has taken away sadness and bitterness and replaced it with joy and thanksgiving. He is a God to be trusted and my reason for living.
The process of becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ has been a long one. I believe God has been pursuing me for a long time. I grew up with my mom and my sister (three years younger). We did not talk about God in our household. We went to a couple churches occasionally, one Quaker and the other Methodist, but nothing that affected my life drastically. My dad left our family when I was in third grade and I had a lot of hurt from that. When I was in eighth grade I met a good friend named Kate Holler. Her father was the pastor of a local church. I began spending time with her family, learning more about her beliefs. I was completely intrigued. Kate's older sister attended a group called Young Life, a Christian outreach to high school students. As we were coming into our freshman year, she recruited us to come out to Young Life. I began attending regularly and forming relationships with amazing leaders that I still am very close with today. I decided to go to a "Winter Weekend" retreat. This was the first time I had heard the story of what Jesus did for us. I saw a video of Him walking to His crucifixion and felt touched to the very depths of my soul. I began crying- the kind of crying in which snot pours out of your nose and you are making weird noises. My leaders were on either side of me praying and comforting. I consider this point to be my "ah ha" moment. I got it. This was not the end of the story, however. Since then I have been slllloooooowwwwllllyyy giving over things to God- letting Him take more and more control of my life. In high school I was still battling with how much I was going to let God take over. I continued to go to Young Life, however pulled away when it came to making any big changes for Jesus. I drank with my friends, concerned myself with boys, etc. My senior year was a low point. I realized that we were leaving high school soon and wanted to be part of the parties, etc. I met my husband that year as well. I fell head over heels. He was not in a committed relationship with Jesus at this time, however truly seeking. Adam and I were talking about our spiritual questions. I was able to guide him to a tape series from our church that talked a lot about his fundamental questions. We began attending Valley View together regularly. We continued to give things up to God in our relationship. That summer I was baptized. I was able to get up in front of my community and let them know that I loved Jesus and I wanted Him to have my life. I left for college that year and continued to grow in my relationship with God. I spent time with Him, learning more about Him and trusting Him more. The next summer I was feeling an uneasiness in my soul concerning my relationship with Adam. I was concerned that Adam was relying on me too much for his relationship with Jesus. After talking to Adam about this we decided to take a break. I was devastated. I wondered why God was doing this but decided to put all of my trust in Him. During that time amazing things happened. Adam had a profound experience with God at Creation, a Christian type woodstock, which I am sure he will share in his application. I continued to pray through this painful time. God called us to get back together. I believe Adam needed to have this experience and couldn't have it with me by his side because his focus would have been on me. My relationship with Adam took on a new level at that point. We understood that God was the most important thing. The experience taught me that I could trust God- His ways are higher than my own. I was also given the opportunity to give up the most important thing or person (Adam) to me for God, in which I did and He blessed me for it. Since that summer, I consider myself fully devoted to Christ. He is my all. I love Him; I want to serve Him with my life. He has access to all parts of my life. He has healed me from deep emotional scars particularly my father's desertion. He has taken away sadness and bitterness and replaced it with joy and thanksgiving. He is a God to be trusted and my reason for living.
How Adam came faith in Christ
What is the story of your coming to faith in Jesus Christ?
I grew up in a Catholic tradition where I learned the stories of the Bible and got a basic sence of who Jesus is, however I never truly discovered the depths of Jesus. I remember always longing to be close to Jesus and I experessed this by trying to be good. My best was not good enough. I was trying to make it on my own strength but my weakness would always emerge. This was made even more compIicated because I wasn't even sure what being good consisted of. I didn't trust the Bible as God's word and authority.
During my highschool years I was afraid to take any chances. I was scared I would do something wrong, something that would push away God's favor. Then, little by little, the desire to earn His favor faded into the background. I decided to take chances on some things that didn't feel right. I wanted to figure things out on my own. I tried to fill the emptiness in my life with things like cigarettes, girls,and partying but nothing fulfilled. On the surface I was happy, but I was really dying inside.
I met Tasha during this period of my life. I loved to talk to her because she was one of the few people in my life who I could have a conversation with about God. I brought up all my doubts to her. Tasha didn't have all the answers but she was able to point me in the right direction. She gave me a tape series that Valley View had done called "A Case for Faith." That series answered so many of the qeustions that I had and it even told me it was ok to have some doubts. After this I started to attend Valley View Community Church. I started meeting some amazing people who had a great love and faith in Jesus. I had people to talk to who cared about God and who made decisions for Him. I learned to trust that the Bible as the truth of God. That made a huge difference in my faith and decision-making. I had a brand new experience in worshiping the Lord thorugh songs. Worship was foreign to me at first but it quickly became and awesome vessel for God to work through.
But this wasn't enough. I needed to realize one more vital piece of information and it happened at a Christian concert series called Creation about 3 years ago. I saw 80,000 people praising God in song and it felt like heaven. I got into an arguement with someone I care about and I was in the wrong. I felt so alone and very distant from God. It was then that I realized I only felt connected with God’s love when I was being good but not at the times when I was wrong and needed Him the most. Later I shared how the pressures of constantly trying to gain God's love through works was crushing me. I learned that it was only through God's grace (givng me something I don't deserve) in Christ that I am able to be connected with God’s love. I felt dead to my sins that night. The next day when thay asked if anyone would like trust Christ for the first time or recommit themselves I decided to recommit myself to Christ. I shared my story a few minutes later with some people in the prayer tent, which allowed me to pass on the joy that I was feeling to everyone. It felt like all the earthly things that used to have ties to me were like strings holding me back from loving the Lord and giving Him a great big hug and feeling His embrace. All my sins were stripped away.
I got back to Tasha in the stands and she had wondered what took me so long to use the bathroom (I hadn’t told her I was going to the prayer tent) Just as this new chapter to my life had been started Matt, the area director of Young Life, asked me if I would like to go to Young Life camp as a leader. God knew right where I was supposed to be even before I made the decision. Camp was just the thing for me. I got the opportunity to be a part of Christ's community. We were away from troubles of the world and I got the chance to really concentrate on my relationship with the Lord. It is amazing what God does when I trust Him with my decisions.
I grew up in a Catholic tradition where I learned the stories of the Bible and got a basic sence of who Jesus is, however I never truly discovered the depths of Jesus. I remember always longing to be close to Jesus and I experessed this by trying to be good. My best was not good enough. I was trying to make it on my own strength but my weakness would always emerge. This was made even more compIicated because I wasn't even sure what being good consisted of. I didn't trust the Bible as God's word and authority.
During my highschool years I was afraid to take any chances. I was scared I would do something wrong, something that would push away God's favor. Then, little by little, the desire to earn His favor faded into the background. I decided to take chances on some things that didn't feel right. I wanted to figure things out on my own. I tried to fill the emptiness in my life with things like cigarettes, girls,and partying but nothing fulfilled. On the surface I was happy, but I was really dying inside.
I met Tasha during this period of my life. I loved to talk to her because she was one of the few people in my life who I could have a conversation with about God. I brought up all my doubts to her. Tasha didn't have all the answers but she was able to point me in the right direction. She gave me a tape series that Valley View had done called "A Case for Faith." That series answered so many of the qeustions that I had and it even told me it was ok to have some doubts. After this I started to attend Valley View Community Church. I started meeting some amazing people who had a great love and faith in Jesus. I had people to talk to who cared about God and who made decisions for Him. I learned to trust that the Bible as the truth of God. That made a huge difference in my faith and decision-making. I had a brand new experience in worshiping the Lord thorugh songs. Worship was foreign to me at first but it quickly became and awesome vessel for God to work through.
But this wasn't enough. I needed to realize one more vital piece of information and it happened at a Christian concert series called Creation about 3 years ago. I saw 80,000 people praising God in song and it felt like heaven. I got into an arguement with someone I care about and I was in the wrong. I felt so alone and very distant from God. It was then that I realized I only felt connected with God’s love when I was being good but not at the times when I was wrong and needed Him the most. Later I shared how the pressures of constantly trying to gain God's love through works was crushing me. I learned that it was only through God's grace (givng me something I don't deserve) in Christ that I am able to be connected with God’s love. I felt dead to my sins that night. The next day when thay asked if anyone would like trust Christ for the first time or recommit themselves I decided to recommit myself to Christ. I shared my story a few minutes later with some people in the prayer tent, which allowed me to pass on the joy that I was feeling to everyone. It felt like all the earthly things that used to have ties to me were like strings holding me back from loving the Lord and giving Him a great big hug and feeling His embrace. All my sins were stripped away.
I got back to Tasha in the stands and she had wondered what took me so long to use the bathroom (I hadn’t told her I was going to the prayer tent) Just as this new chapter to my life had been started Matt, the area director of Young Life, asked me if I would like to go to Young Life camp as a leader. God knew right where I was supposed to be even before I made the decision. Camp was just the thing for me. I got the opportunity to be a part of Christ's community. We were away from troubles of the world and I got the chance to really concentrate on my relationship with the Lord. It is amazing what God does when I trust Him with my decisions.
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