Alumni Prayerletters and Testimonies

FRANCE
Two Atheists, Two Paths
Danny – CB ’97 and Janice Flowers

Everyone believes something…even atheists. Sadly, what they believe is a lie. In France, countless individuals fall into this category.

March 13, 2007, Robert Vandrechie, an atheist and Communist, died of a heart attack. For eight years, he lived next door to our church. He rejected numerous invitations to hear the Gospel. On Sundays, he watched French believers enter our church to worship God. Yet he refused to come and hear what the preacher had to say. He chose to reject God. How sad to know that Monsieur Vandrechie died so close to the truth.

At 63, Danielle Desmet was a lifelong atheist. For eight years, she passed by Bible Baptist Church. She wondered what a Baptist church was. One September Saturday, she decided to stop at the church, but ONLY IF the traffic light near the church immediately turned green. It did, and she came. From the beginning, God’s Word worked in her unbelieving heart. After more than a month of regular church attendance, she trusted Christ as her Savior, and was discipled and baptized.

Months later, Danielle’s husband, Jean Paul, began attending Sunday morning services. Skeptical of any church and raised by Jesuit priests, he had turned his back on Catholicism. For seven months he listened and asked many questions. One day he told his wife that it was time for him to have a nice Bible. Shocked, she purchased a Bible for him, and that very day, Danielle led her own husband to Christ!

We began praying in earnest for the salvation of Danielle’s 90-year-old mother. She made a habit of reading Scripture to her mom and telling her about the Lord. In September 2006, I received a call from Danielle asking if we could talk with her mother. As we explained the Gospel, Madame Colas listened closely, then bowed her head and got saved. What a miracle to see how God not only transformed a confirmed atheist, but then how He also used her to win her family to Christ!

CANARY ISLANDS
CULTURE SHOCK and AMIGOS
Shannon and Lorie WHITAKER — CB ‘01b CB II ‘03

We’ve always heard of culture shock. Now, we are experiencing it. A missionary must learn a new way of life and adjust to different ways of doing things. The pace of everyday life is a lot slower in Mexico. For example, it took us a month to get our internet installed. However, the hardest aspect of adaptation is the inability to communicate with others. Simply sitting in church listening to the sermon becomes very stressful. Usually your attention span is good for about 15 minutes as you earnestly try to pick out the few words that you understand. When you realize you do not comprehend, your mind gives up. You begin to dream of the time you will understand.

Our diets have changed. There is only a hint of American food. The few American restaurants located in the city are not that good. Trying to cook American is frustrating because you can’t find needed ingredients. So what do you eat? Anything you can stuff into a tortilla!

Fruits and vegetables are readily available but must be soaked with an anti-microbial agent to kill micro-organisms that are on the outside. To give you a fuller understanding of culture shock, here are some questions and statements that we’ve made since being in Mexico. Enjoy!
- You can’t eat there, or you can’t eat that. You will get sick.
- Do we buy the meat being butchered in the back of the Chevy or the Ford?
- I really want to eat this apple. “Have you washed the amoebas off it yet?”
- Honey, are we cleaner before or after we get out of the shower?
- Kids, do you want to eat at the taco place, or the taco place, or…the taco place?
- Excuse me. Did you say it was made with cow tongue?
- Those were delicious green beans! What do you mean it was cactus?
- Could you pass the diarrhea pills?
- Why are police wearing flack jackets and carrying AK-47s? Should we be worried?

GOD GIVES AMIGOS…

One bond that remains the same wherever you are is that of the brotherly love we have in Christ. We have been blessed to become amigos with the Padilla family and attend their church faithfully. (editor’s note: Can you tell they didn’t take a SMART trip first?)

BRAZIL
Language Blooper
Jon — CB ‘03b CB II ‘04 and Mandy — CB ‘05a CREWS

Recently, we were practicing our conversation in Portugese. “Say three things about a person.” Of course I chose my wife. I said, “She has beautiful green eyes,” and something else but I don’t remember. Anyway, the last thing I wanted to say was, “She is pregnant” but I said, “She is a tie.” The teacher squinted her eyes and said, “What?” Again I said, “She is a tie.” Everyone said, “We don’t understand. You are calling her a man’s tie!” I was so embarrassed. The teacher said, “Say it in English.” I said, “She is pregnant.” They were all shocked! They congratulated us and we laughed. Tie and pregnant are so close. Gravata is tie. Gravida is pregnant. We got a nice laugh and went on with class. The next session, I just said, “I am a Daddy.”