Rich Heritage

Here are some thoughts on France, more from my experience there. I heartily believe that life is what you make it, whatever your past, your ancestry, your parents, your environment. But that is certainly not to say that the past has no affect on the present! So I was blessed, encouraged, and inspired as I delve in my heritage buried deep in the halls of French history. (Yes though I am Swiss, my mother was just born in the hospital there and grew up in France, so I don’t really have heritage there.) The neat story was to learn about my great Aunt and Uncle, Lucette and Jean. At one time my uncle was the director for youth ministries in France, at that time all the kids met together for meetings. But my aunt Lucette thought this was a not a good situation, the little ones with the big ones, hard to keep all under control, so she proposed “Tisons” or our adventurers, and that’s how Adventurers came to be in France. Later on they served as missionaries in the Reunion and Tahiti. My other great Uncle and Aunt, Maxime and Nicole pastored in France for 35 years. My uncle and several colleagues at the beginning of their pastoral careers were asked to teach Daniel and Revelation to their church members. As they taught, they discussed among themselves the teachings they were sharing, and they all agreed that they just weren’t satisfied. So they decided to dig deeper and started meeting 3 or 4 times a year to study. On their own they would study and they bring their material together. What they discovered was a much fuller and different picture than the churches current model. They shared their teachings and were brought before the conference leaders and eventually the division leaders. I won’t go into all the details, but it was a trying time. I am excited to study the lessons soon, which my uncle hopes to make a available to the public, so to speak, soon. Another great uncle, Jeano, helped found a nursing home in the south and a place for the Federation of Southern France to place its headquarters, after the creation of a Northern and Southern France Federations. I look at all this history and am just awed to see the legacy. Sure I could plenty of faults of my ancestors, but that’s too easy and really not as helpful as seeing the wonderful heritage I have. Some have fallen but thank goodness for the God’s mercy in leading many to victory. These are footsteps I wish to follow in.